Regina Dugan (Source: DARPA)
Google snaps up DARPA head
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a U.S. defense agency that has a knack for turning fictional sounding projects into real objects that can be used to defend the country and protect soldiers. One of the more sensational sounding projects at DARPA announced recently was the use of robotic surrogates with the project dubbed Avatar.
Now, DARPA director Regina Dugan has announced that she will be stepping down. Dugan was with DARPA for less than three years and has announced that she was offered a job with Google and has accepted the spot. Apparently, Dugan will be a senior executive for the search giant.
Dugan’s tenure, however, wasn't without its problems. The Pentagon Office of Inspector Gen. is actively investigating hundreds of thousands of dollars in contracts given to RedXDefense by DARPA. RedXDefense is a company that Dugan cofounded and focuses on bomb detection equipment. She still partially owns the company.
A spokesman for Dugan issued a statement saying that her taking a position with Google had nothing to do with the ongoing investigations. Dugan claims that the only reason for leaving DARPA for Google was the allure of working for the company.
Dugan is expected to leave for Google in the coming weeks and will be replaced by Kaigham Gabriel. Gabriel could end up as a permanent replacement for Dugan, but other names are apparently in the hat as well.
“Regina Dugan’s leadership at Darpa has been extraordinary and she will be missed throughout the Department,” Frank Kendall, Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, says in a statement. “We are all very grateful for the many contributions she has made in advancing the technologies that our war fighters depend on. She leaves for an exciting new opportunity and we wish her every success.”
Source: Wired
"If you look at the last five years, if you look at what major innovations have occurred in computing technology, every single one of them came from AMD. Not a single innovation came from Intel." -- AMD CEO Hector Ruiz in 2007
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