The Taiwan-born ‘tech brain’ leading US military’s innovation race against PLA
Heidi Shyu, the Pentagon CTO ‘laser focused’ on technologies to counter China, steps into spotlight to defend ‘critical’ initiative
The world got a glimpse of the brain behind one of the American military’s most secretive and important initiatives when she gave a rare interview just over a month ago.
Shyu is the Pentagon’s chief technology officer, in charge of research and engineering, and RDER – which is meant to help the United States hold its hi-tech edge over China – has been described as her “brainchild”.
In an interview with US-based news site Breaking Defence, Shyu said “the whole idea [of RDER] was started three years ago when I first walked into the Pentagon”.
An engineer and mathematician by training, Shyu has reached these heights while maintaining a low public profile. So when she went public to defend the RDER programme, it drew attention to a woman whose family story began on the other side of the Pacific.
