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From the Desk of the Intelligence Committee, July 2025

Committee Corner

A panel of current and former intelligence community leaders—including representatives from the private sector and academia—selected recipients of the Award for Excellence in Defense Scientific & Technical Intelligence (S&TI). Sponsored by AFCEA International’s Intelligence Committee, the award was created in 2024, specifically to address the need for—and recognize the value of—innovation in intelligence.

The individual award is open to active-duty and Reserve members and federal government employees, and this year’s individual winner is Lisa Costa for S&TI contributions in space intelligence analysis, foundational military intelligence and intelligence innovation. Costa has spent much of her career “operationalizing innovation on a global scale” in the intelligence community (IC) and shaping and executing large-scale initiatives in emerging technologies and cybersecurity.

“Costa’s professional accomplishments exemplified S&TI analysis and innovation at its best, always in pursuit of more robust space and cyber intelligence capabilities to advance the nation’s security,” said Capt. Ray Cross, USN (Ret.), vice president, intelligence, AFCEA International. 

The team award winner is Project LOWGROUND development team. Project LOWGROUND is a collaborative U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) and IC team that developed next-generation signals intelligence sensor technology for the U.S. Army.

“This unique award recognizes Project LOWGROUND’s significant enhancements to the U.S. Army’s ability to detect, characterize and track targets of interest,” said Lewis Shepherd, the AFCEA Intelligence Committee chair. “The team’s extraordinary effort has resulted in a disruptive technology that is on a glidepath for integration into multiple Army modernization programs of record, as well as further proliferation of the technology across the DOD and IC.”

Each month, SIGNAL Magazine publishes a feature in the Committee Corner to highlight news you can us from AFCEA’s committees. Committee leaders should submit entries to Sandra Jontz.