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Design Thinking Blitz with Warfighters

Fuse is investing in our nation’s sailors and the Maritime Domain by working directly with active-duty U.S. Navy experts in the development of advanced technologies. Warfighter workshops build a working relationship between users (warfighters), experts, and stakeholders and the Fuse engineering and design team. This close partnership and collaboration enables Fuse engineers to design and develop products and capabilities applicable to our Navy’s requirements for mission success. Throughout the past month Fuse engaged a host of end users of our Tactical Technologies Toolset (T3) product to improve functionality and add features and capabilities requested by the user.

The T3 team conducted workshops with system experts, product owners, and uniformed warfighters to immediately prototype the requested modifications to the Graphic User Interface and add enhanced capability to the system. Fuse overcame COVID induced hurdles and conduct these workshops over Microsoft Teams, using innovative digital whiteboard and workflow products to bridge the digital divide.  The only way to accelerate deployment of game-changing capabilities to the fleet is to work closely with the warfighter, and that is where our team is focused. 

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TEN Years of Fuse

Ten years ago this week I was sitting in the shared conference room of a San Diego apartment building drawing out ideas with the founding members of Fuse as we asked the question “what could Fuse be?”  We talked about grand theories of Navy networking, and software, and how to push forward the defense technology enterprise into more innovative and user-focused realms.  Three creative minds, working out how to combine our experience and expertise to take on the world!

That is a pretty common beginning of the story for entrepreneurs… and one that more often than not ends in defeat.  But ten years later, with a strong and growing company built on top of an exceptional team, the Fuse story is one of success!  The vision of bringing the best practices of Design Thinking to defense technology is one that has set us apart. And the TEAM of people here under our roof is what has made all the difference. Our team is a beautiful mixture of operational experience, and engineering expertise.  Our operator reps, and project managers have more experience in the field than I could ever imagine; and our engineering staff has more expertise than I could try to pack into my own lifetime of learning. The camaraderie, teamwork, and shared vision here at Fuse, with ten years of hard work under our belts, is what truly makes us great.

It is exciting to sit down and write about where we are, how we got here, and where we are going. It is awe-inspiring to consider the excellence of the TEAM that keeps us moving, and it makes me so proud as I stand in front of Admirals, Generals, and captains of industry telling the story of how our products and solutions make a significant difference to the warfighters who defend our nation.  Fuse is building software defined networking systems that are changing the way operators communicate, along with rugged servers for aircraft and unmanned systems. We are building software that gives operators unprecedented vision into complex systems running on remote vehicles deployed around the world. We are building technical solutions for Fighters and Command and Control aircraft that make it easy and intuitive to stay connected, to communicate, and to accomplish the mission.  We got here by being passionate about our work, believing there is always a solution within reach, and caring about each other as a team. 

Since 2010 we have worked through ups and downs. Like any good startup we went through periods of trying to figure out what we would do ‘when we grew up’ and adjusted our approach, our process, and our products. While at the 10 year mark I feel like we have learned a lot, I don’t think we are anywhere near the end of our evolution and learning. Our products are more refined, or processes have become more detailed and consistent;  and we still have so much more to do.  There are and will be more challenges, upsets, and victories to come.  

Fuse is transitioning from research and development to fieldling and supporting our products.  We continue to innovate and grow with a rapid-prototyping approach that is tightly connected to the user. And in the next ten years I am confident we will see deployment of our systems on a wide variety of platforms and deep into multiple markets.

It is exciting to think about what the future holds for Fuse, and it is exciting to come to work every day with a team so passionate and capable. I am proud of the first 10 years of Fuse and the incredible team that has made it possible, and I look forward to what lies ahead.

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Happy Birthday, Marines!

On behalf of all the patriots at Fuse, we wish you a very festive and memorable birthday celebration. For 245 years you have distinguished yourselves in peace and war, fighting our nation’s battles and ensuring the security of our great country. As a warfighter-focused engineering and software design company, Fuse is dedicated to advancing the operational readiness and capabilities of our nation’s warriors at the tactical edge. We are exceptionally proud of our support to the Marine Corps in meeting the demands of today’s operational environment. Thank you, Marines, for your tradition of excellence and uncompromising sense of honor, courage, and commitment which continue to inspire all of us at Fuse and our innovation efforts. Happy 245th Birthday!

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Fuse Overcoming Challenges from COVID-19

The Fuse team continues to diligently work through the pandemic with a mix of remote work and on-site support. From local, state, and federal guidelines to dealing with COVID change, Fuse has applied these measures and remained steadfast in its mission. We are, therefore, incredibly thankful for the support of our customers as we continue to design, build, test, and demonstrate advanced network and software solutions to enhance warfighter capabilities. COVID-19 presents challenges to us all, but our Fuse team has been and remains resilient. Our products are coming off the production line, lab testing continues, and ongoing operational flight evaluations are scheduled around the corner.

We are dedicated to supporting our nation’s warfighters, who stand ever vigilant despite this pandemic and other threats to our country. We are proud to continue delivering enhanced capabilities to them.

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Presidential Candidate Bloomberg Visits Fuse

Fuse was visited today by Presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg. We were honored to have him visit Fuse along with Congressman Scott Peters, two local City Councilmen, and other prominent veteran business leaders from San Diego. Mr. Bloomberg spent time at Fuse to discuss our challenges as a veteran-founded small businesses and then to present the primary concepts of his approach to veterans programs under his campaign.

It is a positive sign that Presidential candidates are coming to small businesses and talking about the positive impact veterans can have in the workplace and in our economy. Fuse is proud to continue a streak of growth as we move into 2020, and our warfighter-focused approach to engineering and design is setting our work apart from traditional defense firms.

“Who better to build systems for warfighters, than warfighters,” said Mr. Bloomberg in his remarks. At Fuse we are proud to have a staff that is over 40% military veterans, working closely with currently deployed sailors, soldiers, and airmen to deliver solutions that can make a significant difference when they are deployed downrange.

Fuse is a warfighter-focused engineering and design firm based out of San Diego. We provide advanced, secure network and software solutions to aircraft and other mobile platforms deployed to harsh environments. We pay close attention to the user to ensure the timely delivery of elegant, intuitive user experiences.

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Fuse Donates to Semper Fi Fund

(December 17, 2019) – This afternoon, Fuse CEO Sumner Lee and Ashley Kozak presented a donation of $1,750 to Semper Fi Fund, represented by Vanessa Keane. The first half of the funds raised were generously donated by individual Fuse team members, which were then matched by Fuse. Excitingly, the value of Fuse’s total donation will be doubled again—bringing the total value of the donation to $3,500—thanks to the Bob & Renee Parsons Foundation, which is matching all donations to Semper Fi Fund made until December 31st up to $10 million.

The Semper Fi Fund is a nonprofit organization that provides immediate financial assistance and lifetime support to combat-wounded, critically ill, and catastrophically injured members of all branches of the US Armed Forces and their families. Their programs focus on service member and family support, the transition from injury to successful recovery and reintegration into communities, and integrative wellness.

Fuse’s team fundraiser was organized by Ashley Kozak and took place over a two week long period starting the day after Fuse’s 9th anniversary and ending on the Friday before Veteran’s Day. This was Fuse’s second annual fundraiser to support our country’s warfighters and veterans. Fuse is proud of the team’s charitable contributions, which represent the true, cumulative extension of the Fuse mantra, “Warfighter Focused Engineering and Design.”

We thank Vanessa Keane for coming down for the presentation to visit our new office in Kearny Mesa, and we highly encourage readers to consider helping Semper Fi Fund reach its $10 million goal!

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Director of Engineering Presented at MILCOM 2019

(November 15, 2019) – On Tuesday, November 12th, Fuse’s Director of Engineering, Dell Kronewitter, PhD, presented at MILCOM for Track 5: Big Data and [Machine Learning] for Tactical Networks, an unclassified technical paper session. Dell presented the paper, “A Cognitive [Machine Learning] Agent for Airborne Networking,” written by himself and software engineer Kenneth Oliphant.

Their research presents a deep reinforcement learning architecture specifically designed to improve wireless network performance over a heterogeneous airborne wireless network consisting of multiple waveforms, antennas, platforms, link protocols, frequencies, spatial transmission, and codes. Training and validation of the agent is accomplished using the Fuse-developed Tactical Airborne Network Simulator (TANS) based on EMANE, a framework for real-time modeling of mobile network systems developed by the Naval Research Laboratory. The paper has been published in the IEEE MILCOM 2019 Conference Proceedings and is available on IEEE Xplore.

MILCOM, short for “military communications” conference, was held this year in Norfolk, Virginia, from November 12th to November 14th. The conference gathered military and industry communications professionals for a series of technical presentations, discussions, and tutorials about the latest in C4ISR (command, control, communications, computing, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance) challenges.

Congratulations to Dell for a successful presentation and to him and Kenneth for the recognition of their hard work in the fields of machine learning and airborne networking. Fuse is proud to call you part of our team!

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Fuse Assigned a Unique PEN

(September 12, 2019) – Fuse now has its own unique private enterprise number (PEN), as assigned by the Internet Assigned Number Authority (IANA). By having an SNMP-compliant PEN—54541—Fuse joins such luminary companies as IBM (2), Cisco (9), and Facebook (40981).

PENs are assigned by IANA on a first-come, first-served basis and are frequently embedded in OIDs (object identifiers), which are often used in Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). SNMP is an open standard protocol for collecting and organizing information about managed devices on IP networks and for modifying that information to change device behavior. Devices that typically support SNMP include any network devices, such as routers, network optimizers, firewalls, and radios.

As Fuse develops optimized network management systems, our engineers require and provide open interfaces leveraging the wide range of mature tools available that use SNMP. Now that Fuse has been assigned a PEN, our systems can be more easily integrated into larger systems-of-systems designs using standard open interfaces. Fuse’s Director of Engineering, Dell Kronewitter, emphasized, “Our open interfaces offer a huge advantage for Fuse systems to our customers and partners.”

Keep looking out for more Fuse news in the future. Our veteran-owned small business is growing fast, and our team is excited to be able to provide more and more advanced warfighter capabilities via user-focused communications, networks, and software systems.

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Fuse Paper Accepted for MILCOM 2019

(August 9, 2019) – Fuse is excited that a paper written by our Director of Engineering, Dell Kronewitter, and software engineer, Kenneth Oliphant, has been accepted for the proceedings of the MILCOM 2019 Track 5 – Big Data and Machine Learning. Dell will also present the paper, “A Cognitive [Machine Learning] Agent for Airborne Networking,” at MILCOM Track 5.

Their research presents a deep reinforcement learning architecture specifically designed to improve wireless network performance over a heterogeneous airborne wireless network consisting of multiple waveforms, antennas, platforms, link protocols, frequencies, spatial transmission, and codes. Training and validation of the agent is accomplished using the Fuse-developed Tactical Airborne Network Simulator (TANS) based on EMANE, a framework for real-time modeling of mobile network systems developed by the Naval Research Laboratory.

This year, MILCOM—short for a conference about “military communications”—will be held in Norfolk, Virginia, in mid-November. This conference brings together military and government leaders with industry professionals. MILCOM 2019 is sponsored by AFCEA International and IEEE Communications Society and is expected to focus on “Defining Multi-Domain Command and Control.”

Stay tuned for more information about Fuse at MILCOM 2019 as the conference draws nearer!

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Fuse a DIV Pitch Finalist

(May 28, 2019) – Last Thursday, May 23rd, Fuse participated in the inaugural San Diego Regional EDC DIV Pitch Fest event sponsored by Propel San Diego, a grant initiative awarded to San Diego by the Department of Defense, and presented by Booz Allen Hamilton. In this event, Fuse competed with EpiSys ScienceTrabus TechnologiesGET Engineering, and Planck Aerosystems, fellow cohorts of the original fifteen DIV Program companies, for the DIV Grand Prize of $25,000.


Image of participants of the DIV Program.

Fuse’s CEO, Sumner Lee, smiles with fellow DIV Pitch Fest competitors and DIV Program cohorts and partners.


Each company was asked to make a pitch where they presented their San Diego story, their defense and commercial successes, and potential long-term growth and strategy for utilizing the grand prize. Each company also had a booth where they could display technologies, provide takeaway information, and answer questions from voters who would decide the winner of the grand prize.


Representatives from Fuse at their DIV Pitch Fest booth.

Fuse representatives smile together at their DIV Pitch Fest booth.


Fuse congratulates Planck Aerosystems for winning this year’s grand prize. We also would like to thank all involved for selecting Fuse to share with the public what we do and our successes thus far. We are proud to be part of this great San Diego community of small businesses delivering innovative solutions to our Department of Defense and commercial customers. The San Diego defense community is incredibly supportive, and we will continue to be the best we can be in the hopes that our small business will continue to play a role in shaping San Diego’s economic success and the success of our country’s warfighters.

For more information about the DIV Program, check out the DIV Program page of the San Diego Military Advisory Council’s website.