Attend the Inland Empire Innovation Summit!

Learn about the people, programs, and technologies shaping the future of defense and innovation across the US Navy and Inland Empire ecosystem. Hear and meet the startups and entrepreneurs in our Crucible Primer, Startup Studio, and Accelerator programs.

Inspired by the 54-hour challenge U.S. Marines must face at the end of boot camp, Inland Empire NavalX Tech Bridge's Crucible program applies the principles of grit, critical thinking, and perseverance towards entrepreneurial development in the Inland Empire and greater Southern California regions. Crucible is the point of innovation to further the mission of NavalX and Tech Bridge by bringing together technology and Inland Empire's diverse entrepreneurs, technologists, and innovators through technology commercialization.

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Call To Scientists

Crucible Primer - Internal Innovation is a program for inventors and innovators who want to bring their inventions out of the labs and into the hands of skilled entrepreneurs.

Call To Entrepreneurs

Crucible Startup Studio is a program for aspiring and experienced entrepreneurs who are excited about spinning out federally-created technologies.

Call To Startups

Crucible Accelerator is a program for existing startups who are ready to bring their ventures to new heights through invaluable business mentorship, education, and networking opportunities.

Crucible Challenge Statements

Click through the tabs below to learn about the challenges Crucible is looking to solve in the Inland Empire.

Our warfighters and first responders serve on the front lines daily. They provide services to protect, defend and care for the communities and people they serve. They are the first to respond, react and arrive on the scene and perform in high-stress environments that require the utmost mental and physical health. Given the nature of their work, warfighters and first responders are often plagued with medical and physical injuries as a result of heavy or poorly designed equipment, techniques to provide services, on the job dangers such as airborne biological hazards, lack of information around current health or fitness, and other considerations.

Crucible seeks to develop concepts, technologies, products, or platforms that will safeguard our warfighters and first responders before, during, or after they have responded to a mission or an incident. First responders typically include police officers, deputy sheriffs, firefighters, paramedics, and rescuers.

Potential areas include but are not limited to wearables, detection devices, disposal systems, biosensors, ergonomic equipment through design or materials, fitness platforms/devices, or medtech.

Local city and regional governments are responsible for developing their communications infrastructure networks as it relates to the needs of the specific communities they serve. These networks do not always allow for an easy, reliable exchange of information and data across jurisdictions either in the short or long term. For example, city and county agencies within the same 50-mile radius do not always share the same telecommunications networks to readily transmit information in urgent situations such as a natural disaster or state of emergency.

Crucible seeks concepts, technologies, or systems that will increase information and data sharing capabilities across cities and counties to enable cooperation and collaboration.

Potential areas include but are not limited to: network technologies, satellite communications, hardware, firmware, network security, fiber technologies, next-generation wireless networks such as 5G/6G, and radio-frequency (RF) and mixed-signal circuits, antennas, filters, and components

The Inland Empire continues to attract new residents and grow at an unprecedented pace. The implications this has for the use and disposal of water across the Inland Empire are wide ranging and in some cases, costly.

Crucible seeks solutions focused on water use, disposal, processing, and conservation for the greater Inland Empire region and beyond. For example, brine waste and/or domestic sewage disposal through nearby pipelines in coastal communities continues to be costly and opportunities to reuse water or water products are needed now more than ever.

Potential areas include (but are not limited to): solar or electrochemical desalination, water treatment technologies and disinfection, water reuse or purification, recycling of wastewater, groundwater storage, desalination, sensor or software technologies to monitor usage and leaks, and water process byproduct utilization or commercialization (for example: using salt byproducts from brine waste process to incorporate in cleaning, medical, food/culinary purposes).

The Inland Empire has a rich history of agriculture and animal keeping throughout its cities and towns. From citrus to wine-making, the Inland Empire has provided highly productive soil for prime farmland, growing crops, and keeping domesticated animals. For example, the city of Norco is well known for its animal-keeping, equestrian community - earning it the name “Horsetown USA”. Along with the high crop yields and suitable husbandry, comes the challenge of managing byproducts or waste in agricultural processing or animal-keeping. In fact, the City of Norco has a “clean manure only” recycling program that aims to repurpose equestrian and other animal manure.

Crucible seeks to further explore agricultural and husbandry byproducts or alternative uses and is seeking concepts, technologies, or products that would help reuse or repurpose these byproducts into commodities such as biofuels, food/pharmaceutical/cosmetic ingredients, compost/fertilizer, clothing or plastic, or other forms of products.

As external threats persist we must remain constant in our efforts to compete and advance against adversaries for our warfighters. In many instances consideration for base communication is critical. For example an evaluation of data intake from analysts of the Naval Destroyer during a performance assessment highlighted the laborious human data collection process which often caused missed communication, and a lag in transcription.

Crucible seeks to further explore speech to data and/or text technologies, developing concepts, or platforms to improve communication during missions and operational transcription such as AI/Machine Learning.

Potential areas include (but are not limited to): Natural language processing: chatbots, virtual assistants, speech recognition; computer visualization: object detection, image classification; deep learning: neural networks, advanced algorithms, fraud detection

For many advanced and emerging systems (both military and public), measurement requirements exceed the current capability of the nation and the world. New and novel test equipment and sensors are needed to provide confidence in measurements made in support of critical systems and applications within the space, medical, defense, aerospace, automotive, communications, and other technology-focused communities, and across the entire acquisition lifecycle, including research and development, test and evaluation, operation, and maintenance. In some cases, measurement capability and technology for a given performance parameter may not exist. In other cases, basic capability may exist, but lacks the range, accuracy, or long-term stability needed to meet the trustworthy operational requirements of these systems.

Crucible seeks to develop concepts or technologies for new sensors, sensing techniques, and detection for dual-use (military and public) commercialization.

Potential areas include: All types of measurement sensors, sensor-payloads, and measurement instruments, Sensor processing and data fusion, Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled improvements in the performance of sensors or network of sensors, Adaptive optics, Remote sensing of the Earth, Signature management security-sector sensing, health-sector sensing, transportation-sector sensing.

Riverside and San Bernardino (Inland Empire) Counties are among the fastest growing counties in California, now serving as the fourth largest county in California. With such significant growth, a sustainably constructed and well maintained infrastructure network is vital, from providing a safe and reliable power supply to design engineering and green construction.

Crucible seeks to develop concepts, technologies or systems to expand and scale current and new infrastructure plans that are energy efficient, utilize green construction, and offset the carbon emissions footprint.

Potential areas include: additive manufacturing or 3D printing, renewable energy generation and storage, materials engineering, grid technologies, energy efficiency, and green construction practices.

Ideal Applicants: Scientists, engineers, researchers or graduate students located within the Inland Empire and greater Southern California.
Program Period: November 14th, 2023 - February 6th, 2024
Time Commitment: Approx. 1-2 hours per week

Crucible Primer - Internal Innovation is a cohort-based experiential learning program with full support and coaching. The main objective is to support researchers and graduate students and enable them to gain an innovative and entrepreneurial mindset to build local capacity and grow the local solver community.

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Primer

Ideal Applicants: Previous and first-time founders; technologists, businesspeople, spokespeople, operations specialists, and creative thinkers

Application Deadline: Friday, February 2, 2024
Kickoff/Bootcamp: Saturday, February 24, 2024
Program Duration: Every Tuesday starting February 27, 2024 - June 2024

The Crucible Startup Studio is designed for solvers in the Inland Empire and greater Southern California regions who are innovative thinkers dedicated to launching a venture to address a Crucible Challenge Statement. We are seeking diverse skill sets and backgrounds such as technologists, businesspeople, spokespeople, operations specialists, and creative thinkers. Previous founders and first-time founders are encouraged to apply.

There is no cost to participate. The program is designed to allow for individuals who are working full-time to participate.

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Ideal Applicants: Existing technology startups in the Inland Empire/Southern California or who are committed to expanding into the Inland Empire

Application Deadline: Friday, January 5, 2024
Program Duration: Every Thursday starting February 8, 2024 - April 19, 2024

The Crucible Accelerator is for early-stage ventures in the Inland Empire/Southern California or ventures committed to expanding into the Inland Empire and seeking to solve a Crucible Challenge Statement. The goal of the program is to take ESVs interested in growing in the Inland Empire to the next level with mentorship, educational programming, and strategic exposure. There is no cost to participate.

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