SAN FRANCISCO, California – Part of driving innovation requires walking hand in hand with its counterpart and longtime companion - risk taking. Solving the Nation’s toughest challenges requires a willingness to embrace both and is evident with U.S. Army Corps of Engineers releasing its first-ever research and development strategy with 10 priorities focused across the globe supporting U.S. warfighters, citizens, and the environment.
This innovation can take on many permutations, including working to change the process culture and hiring positions that empower that change to take place. Anu Acharya, the science and technology program manager at U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ South Pacific Division, is excited to help usher in that innovation at her division. Acharya’s position is just one of many Science and Technology Program Managers recently created by USACE to bridge the gap between technologies born from the Engineer Research and Development Center and implementation at the division and district levels throughout the Corps.
The tip of the innovation spear for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, resides at the Engineer Research and Development Center, which acts as the premier research and development center for USACE. While they develop many of the new technologies that will be used throughout the USACE enterprise, it takes motivated workers like Anu to see how those technologies might fit uniquely within their respective districts’ missions.
“My role is to identify and understand at what ERDC, other (Spell out) MSCs and external partners are doing, what research they are prioritizing - and when it comes to us (SPD) - how we can leverage their research work into our projects,” says Acharya.
“Right now, we are working with our SPD internal partners, the districts, headquarters, and other MSC's to collaborate with them to bring some of the innovative ideas that are already available in the enterprise level,” adds Anu. “Likewise, we are working at SPD to showcase new technologies for application at the enterprise level.”
Acharya, who has a PhD in Hydraulics and Computational Fluid Dynamics, is confident that she can now wear both her engineering and programmatic hats in her new position.
“Early in my career, I was always pretty good with the engineering side of the and after working as the PM at Sacramento District, I got the knowledge on how funding impacted the projects I worked on,” said Anu. “Now that I’m well-versed in both, this position allows me to integrate everything that I've learned and try have an opportunity to make some difference.”
Acharya, who has been working in USACE for nine years, started as a dam safety engineer in Portland District and a project manager with the Sacramento District, prior to her new role with SPD, has found that incorporating these new technologies also involves a change in the planning-process culture.
“So, we have been collaborating with the planning team, engineering team, and programs team and coming together to explore opportunities where the innovation can be integrated up front,” said Acharya. “Because those collaborations are happening up front - we can also identify and mitigate a lot of risk in the beginning - because we’ve already talked about it.”
Acharya explains that previously, implementing new technologies often took place at the end of the planning process, when it’s too late to incorporate them in a meaningful way due to budget and policy restrictions.
“We can now bring the innovative ideas into the projects where we can assess the risk early on, so that we can predict the risk and manage our schedule and budget accordingly,” explains Acharya.
Partnering with ERDC and internal/external stakeholders, has resulted in new pilot projects, where SPD is leading the way for other divisions and districts using new technologies such as autonomous dredging for assessing reservoir sedimentation.
‘When it comes to reservoir sedimentation, some of the reservoirs that we have, they are either half full or 1/3 full already by the sediments,” says Anu. “But there has not been technology where we can assess how much sedimentation already exists within the reservoir.”
Acharya says this is important to know the exact capacity because when a reservoir is half full of sediments, the water availability or capacity goes down. Measuring exact capacity is critical when flood events happen because impacts will be higher if the reservoirs aren’t holding the exact amount of water that was predicted or forecasted.
We are working with ERDC to determine a potential pilot project in SPD Area of Responsibility (AOR) The new pilot project that kicked off in June 2024, will employ a robot that will perform the autonomous dredging, which can move sludge, sand, oil, and silt.
“This technology is a very innovative and cost-effective solution that helps keep the reservoirs at their optimum capacity,” said Anu.
This is just one of multiple projects that SPD is examining to see how some of these emerging technologies can be implemented into their area of responsibility. SPD is uniquely positioned to support the use of these technologies in part because their footprint includes California – a state that is ripe to explore new technologies due to its unique culture and landscape.
“California is a place where people really think outside the box,” said Acharya. “It also has diverse types of nature and people – and the policies to support them. I believe one of the reasons SPD was chosen as a proving ground, is because there are enough circumstances, projects, and places where we can apply these techniques with our state and local partners.”
Acharya remains excited for the future and feels the prioritization of innovation through partnerships at the headquarters, division, and district level will have lasting effects. This collaboration is what keeps her excited about both her position and the future of innovation at USACE.
“I really appreciate in my position that I can effect change in the processes within our system,” she explains. “This position gives me the platform to talk with senior leaders, colleagues from different MSCs, and ERDC. I'm working with people who are very smart and who are doing so many things for the enterprise and for this country - and that makes me really happy.”