LSU Shreveport Cyber Collaboratory Develops High-Tech Tools and Talent in Northwest Louisiana, Finds New Partners
Through the new LSU Shreveport Cyber Collaboratory and partnerships between the university, Louisiana Economic Development (LED), the City of Shreveport, local K-12 schools, military, and industry—including small business—students are starting to see what it actually means to boost high-tech innovation in northwestern Louisiana.

LSUS senior Joshua Ricard and LSUS Cyber Collaboratory Director Scott Isaacs brought their new 3D scanner into the cockpit of a B-52 bomber on Barksdale Air Force Base this month to help the Air Force develop new virtual reality training programs for pilots.
Senior Master Sgt. Ted Daigle, U.S. Air Force
LSU Shreveport (LSUS) senior Joshua Ricard is working toward a Bachelor of Fine Arts
and a Bachelor of Science in digital, interactive design. He did not expect to be
sitting in the pilot’s seat of a B-52 bomber last week, operating a $25,000 handheld
digital 3D scanner trying to capture every detail of the plane’s yoke, which is what
the pilot holds to steer the plane:
“I asked, ‘You want me to do what?”
Ever since the Collaboratory opened last year, each new tool the team has received
and added to their lineup has revealed a new need in the larger Shreveport community.
“We got the scanner, had literally just unboxed it, and the next day got the question,
’Hey, can you help us with this?’ and, ‘Well, we’ve got this scanner…,’” Ricard remembers
getting the call from Barksdale Air Force Base southeast of Bossier City. “It was
maybe our third time using the scanner and working on the base was definitely a unique
experience, walking up to this giant machine, getting to see where they store the
bombs and then crawling up inside.”
To get a full 360-degree scan of the back of the yoke, Ricard had to pull it back,
hard.
“We needed a clean scan without my hands in it, and B-52s are basically all manual
and mechanical; there is very little electronic stuff, so when you pull on something,
it has a direct correlation on something else,” Ricard said. “There’s no ‘press a
button and it does all of the stuff for you.’ Everything takes effort.”
“It used to be that the military was on the cutting edge of R&D, which then trickled down to civilian sectors. But with technology advancing so quickly, this has now flipflopped, and it’s our job to transfer civilian technology to help solve military challenges by partnering with the innovators with the best solutions.”—STRIKEWERX Director Russ Mathers on his growing collaboration with LSUS (STRIKEWERX is the innovation hub of the Air Force Global Strike Command
This was not Ricard’s first time working with the Air Force, however. Through STRIKEWERX, the innovation hub of the Air Force Global Strike Command, recently housed in the
Cyber Innovation Center in Bossier City, he’d been pulled into two other projects
already: modeling and 3D-printing custom covers for transporter erector jack slots
for intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs, which had been filling up with
dirt and snow, taking airmen hours to clean out. The other project was creating a
custom jig for the Barksdale hydraulics shop so they could be precise in how they
drill out pressure plates for brake shoes on B-52s, instead of eyeballing where the
holes should go, risk missing the mark, and wasting expensive materials.

Since opening its doors last August, the LSUS Cyber Collaboratory team has found that each new high-tech tool it has brought in and added to its lineup has revealed a new need in the surrounding community. Director Scott Isaacs fields ideas for collaborative projects on a weekly, near-daily, basis.
“It used to be that the military was on the cutting edge of R&D, which then trickled
down to civilian sectors,” said STRIKEWERX Director Russ Mathers. “But with technology
advancing so quickly, this has now flipflopped, and it’s our job to transfer civilian
technology to help solve military challenges by partnering with the innovators with
the best solutions.”
STRIKEWERX and LSUS formalized their relationship last year. The Cyber Collaboratory
is now about to engage in yet another Air Force project, which is to prototype, test,
and produce 100 clear acrylic bins to help store and organize vaccine vials, including
COVID-19 doses, in refrigerators in military (and possibly civilian; the design will
be open-source) hospitals.
“Instead of building our own maker space and buying our own equipment, LSUS is doing
a great job in finding white space in what’s out there already, and filling in that
space,” Mathers said. “It’s cheaper and faster for us to partner with LSUS, and whether
it’s their hologram table or 3D-printing or the new laser cutter they’re getting,
the Cyber Collaboratory is providing the Air Force with capabilities and skills we
need; things nobody else is doing. The idea for the vaccine bin came from one of our
Airmen, a technical sergeant, and now LSUS is going to help us figure out how to actually
produce it.”
Before the Cyber Collaboratory opened its doors last year, students and staff had
already been putting its brand-new 3D printers to use in making personal protective
equipment, or PPE, for the surrounding community, including custom head straps for
face shields. The Collaboratory received support for the face shield project from the American Electric Power (AEP) Foundation, which also provided significant funds toward professional development and equipment. (Some of the PPE funds will now be repurposed for the COVID-19 vaccine bin project.)
“We had all of these new tools and the pandemic had basically shut everything else
down, so the obvious question was, ‘What can we do for the community?’” recalls graduate
assistant in the Cyber Collaboratory and master’s student in counseling Matthew Dixon.
“Creative problem solving starts with a need, and a lot of what we do is coming up
with right-now solutions. We must have printed close to 2,000 head straps and that
was my first hands-on experience with 3D printing.”
Since joining the Collaboratory, Dixon has been exploring the idea of using virtual
reality headsets as part of counseling and therapy.

When Eric Rippetoe, founder of the physical therapy company Bishop in Shreveport, connected with a high-impact sports client whose leg was larger than the print bed of his own 3D printer (Bishop creates custom knee braces through 3D printing and design), he reached out to the LSUS Cyber Collaboratory for help. Through their collaboration, Rippetoe now hopes to expand his business to also print flexible ankle braces. (Rippetoe holds a Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology from LSU and a Doctor of Physical Therapy from LSU Health Shreveport.)
Photo courtesy of Bishop
Another project in the healthcare realm recently connected Shreveport small business
entrepreneur and physical therapist Eric Rippetoe of Bishop with the Collaboratory team. Together, Ricard and Rippetoe created a custom knee
brace for a Bishop client who plays college football.
“His leg was larger than my print bed,” said Rippetoe, who owns and operates his own
3D-printing equipment, but found himself in need of greater capabilities.
Ricard introduced him to the industrial 3D printer in the Cyber Collaboratory, which
can create up to a one-meter cube.
“[LSUS Cyber Collaboratory] printers can also do custom circuit boards, which gave me the idea of integrating sensors into knee braces, for example. The sensor can then alert a player or coach or parent whenever the person wearing the brace has suffered a force that exceeds the limit for ACL tears. Each new tool is a new medium to create.”—Eric Rippetoe, founder of the Shreveport physical therapy company Bishop
“We had a few hiccups and ran out of filament mid-print, but Eric got his braces,”
Ricard said. “I love the amount of experience I’m getting interacting with people
like him and everyone else we meet through the projects we’re doing.”
“I initially didn’t think I was going to be able to do something like this in Shreveport,
honestly,” he continued. “I expected to have to move away so I could actually do something
with my 3D-modeling and printing skills, but now I feel like there’s a chance; staying
in Shreveport is an option.”
This is because the Cyber Collaboratory acts like an incubator for technology-driven
ideas, Rippetoe argued.
“Their printers can also do custom circuit boards, which gave me the idea of integrating
sensors into knee braces, for example,” he said. “The sensor can then alert a player
or coach or parent whenever the person wearing the brace has suffered a force that
exceeds the limit for ACL tears. Each new tool is a new medium to create.”
Rippetoe plans on tapping other capabilities in the Cyber Collaboratory also. Their
machines can 3D-print two different materials at the same time, which would allow
Rippetoe to create fully flexible braces by printing a harder material around a soft
material, like a scaffolding that then can be removed.
“Ankle braces must allow a great deal of movement, but custom-printing them without
the help of the Cyber Collaboratory would be near impossible for me since flexible
materials tend to sway, and if they do, the print is ruined,” Rippetoe said. “I think
a lot of people are just starting to understand the value of 3D printing, because
you can make almost anything super-quick, and the tools at LSUS are spurring innovation.”

LSUS student Matthew Dixon has been involved in projects integrating small Raspberry Pi computers into custom devices for computer vision and machine learning projects, including with the City of Shreveport.
Encouraging innovation in northwestern Louisiana and advancing student careers in
technology was part of the reason Louisiana Economic Development (LED) contributed
$1.2 million to a $3 million agreement with LSUS last November (led by LED FastStart,
the nation’s premier state workforce training program) after the university had already
invested $750,000 in the creation of the 10,000-square-foot Cyber Collaboratory as
well as a design-thinking lab.
“Our administration is committed to ensuring that all our young people have ample
access to the tools, programs, and training needed to compete in today’s marketplace,”
said Governor John Bel Edwards at the announcement of the agreement.
He was greeted at LSUS by the director of the Cyber Collaboratory, Scott Isaacs, who
fields new ideas from the surrounding Shreveport community for collaborative projects
on a weekly, near-daily, basis.
“Other than helping the Air Force with mission-critical needs they’re having a hard
time filling right now, we’re also collaborating with other industry partners and
the City of Shreveport, with whom we’re working on a number of Smart City projects
to help improve city services through technology, including machine learning and computer
vision,” Isaacs said.
Last week, he was also sitting in the cockpit of the B-52 (best described by its full
name, the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress) together with Ricard, making sure each of the
scanned areas turned green on the screen by “painting in the data” the Air Force will
use to develop the next stage of their virtual reality training program for B-52 pilots.
The Cyber Collaboratory team will also create a physical model of the yoke, to be
used as a custom controller.
“What I think has been working really well is that getting us to come out isn’t a
long and arduous process with requisition and approvals up and down the chain,” Isaacs
said. “They call, and we come out.”

Airmen from Barksdale Air Force Base use the LSUS Cyber Collaboratory for training and professional development.
Major Brandon Wolf, assistant director of operations for the 307th Operation Support Squadron at Barksdale and director of LR Werx, a “spark cell” and local counterpart of AFWERX, which is the main innovation arm of the U.S. Air Force, agreed.
“LSUS has allowed us to experiment and explore what we might be able to do with new and rapidly advancing technology ... in a period of eight to nine months, we’ve gone from ‘No one was even thinking of this’ to ‘Here’s my list of ideas.’”—Major Brandon Wolf, assistant director of operations for the 307th Operation Support Squadron at Barksdale and director of LR Werx
“There is a big push for innovation and increased operational capabilities in the
Air Force right now and LSUS has allowed us to experiment and explore what we might
be able to do with new and rapidly advancing technology,” Major Wolf said. “Our goal
is to fail fast, and what that means is not that we’re trying to fail, but try new
things quickly to see if they work and not sink a bunch of money into projects or
prototypes that might be outdated by the time we get them into our hands.”
“That culture is changing, and in a period of eight to nine months, we’ve gone from
‘No one was even thinking of this’ to ‘Here’s my list of ideas,’” Major Wolf continued.
“Once you start to improve, it highlights things you get used to in the day-to-day
and don’t think of as problems. Then you realize, ‘if we only had this…,’ it would
make our lives easier and we’d be more efficient. And with each thing you fix, there’s,
‘What else can we do?’ So, we’re going to be busy.”

STRIKEWERX partnered with LSUS and the Cyber Collaboratory to help prototype this transporter erector jack stand cover for intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs.
He’s happy to provide LSUS students with opportunities to solve real-world problems
while the university in turn helps open doors to educational opportunities for Reserve
Citizen Airmen and Air Force Reserve Command.
The 3D scanner Ricard and Isaacs brought out to Barksdale Air Force Base was initially
going to be a joint purchase by the LSUS departments of biology, kinesiology, history,
and digital arts. But realizing how useful the tool could be to faculty, staff, and
students in different disciplines across campus, the LSUS Foundation stepped in to
cover the cost.
“This is an if-you-build-it situation where new tools spark new ideas,” Isaacs said.
“We meet people by meeting people—they hear about how we’re helping the Air Force
and come to us to see if we can help them with things, too.”
While Isaacs, Ricard, and Dixon dive deeper into projects, LSUS is also working on
integrating the tools and experiences available through the Cyber Collaboratory into
the curriculum for all students. And not just students at LSUS. Through a partnership
with the Caddo Parish School Board and the Cyber Innovation Center, the Cyber Collaboratory
team will teach a month-long course to 20 Caddo students this June. Called Cyber Lit
1, it will incorporate 186 hours of classroom time and count as high school class
credit.
“We’re excited to host this summer camp as a way to continue the development of young
talent in this area,” said Julie Lessiter, vice chancellor of strategic initiatives
at LSUS. “Having these students on our campus in the Cyber Collaboratory increases
their exposure to new and innovative technology that will become common-place in industry
within a few years. Our goal is to provide as many learning opportunities as possible
so students can be successful in their lives and careers in our increasingly digital
economy.”
LSUS, 307th Bomb Wing team up to advance mission
Elsa Hahne
LSU Office of Research & Economic Development
ehahne@lsu.edu