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Caitlin Fairchild

Web Producer Caitlin Fairchild joined Government Executive in summer 2011 as an editorial fellow, after graduating from the College of William & Mary, where she spent four years writing for the student newspaper, The Flat Hat. In March 2012, she was hired full time as a web producer. She has completed internships at Washingtonian Magazine and at the public affairs office of Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas.
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Video: Get Your Hands on Virtual Reality with Oculus Touch

December 5, 2016 FROM NEXTGOV arrow For years, Oculus has been garnering buzz for its virtual reality system, and the company promised full-bodied VR when it debuted the Oculus Rift earlier in 2016. The hand-held controls, known as Oculus Touch, are finally here. They track motion, but also contain analog buttons. The system can even track...

Video: NASA Celebrates 'Hidden Figures'

December 2, 2016 FROM NEXTGOV arrow The new film "Hidden Figures" tells the story of several black female NASA employees who were integral to the Apollo space program. Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughn and Mary Jackson were mathematicians, often dubbed "human computers" whose calculations allowed the space agency to blast John Glenn into orbit. Their little-known story...

Video: How AI Tech Is Used to Take Down Poachers

December 1, 2016 FROM NEXTGOV arrow Poaching is a massive problem for the elephant and rhinoceros populations in countries like South Africa and Kenya. The World Wildlife Fund has recently implemented some new technologies in wildlife preserves to combat poachers. Thermal imaging from tech company Flir lets rangers keep their eye on endangered animals at all...

Video: Meet the Energy Department's Salmon Cannon

November 30, 2016 FROM NEXTGOV arrow The Energy Department is doing its part to help salmon fly high. The agency has recently helped develop the Whooshh Fish Transport System, also known as the salmon cannon. The system is a series of flexible pressurized tubes that suck up fish and give them a boost over dams so...

Video: Inside the Technology of an Amazon Warehouse

November 29, 2016 FROM NEXTGOV arrow Ever wonder what happens in the time between when you order that Amazon package and it arrives on your doorstep two days later? Amazon's fulfillment center in Tracy, California, gets the job done with a mix of automated technology and human efforts. On one of the busiest shopping days of...

Video: NASA Explores the Great Barrier Reef

November 28, 2016 FROM NEXTGOV arrow NASA doesn't just have its sights set on Mars: The space agency has recently turned its attention to our own planet, particularly its coral reefs. NASA recently started its Coral Reef Airborne Laboratory, or CORAL, mission. The goal of CORAL is to conduct an in-depth study of reef ecosystems across...

Video: How to Celebrate Thanksgiving in Space

November 23, 2016 FROM NEXTGOV arrow This Thanksgiving, some might want to be as far away from their families people as possible, but the astronauts aboard the International Space Station have no choice. While they won't get a day off to just float around, the team will enjoy a special Thanksgiving meal featuring such delights as...

Video: Tech to Improve Your Thanksgiving

November 22, 2016 FROM NEXTGOV arrow Whether you're hosting and in charge of making the big meal, or you're traveling far and wide, Thanksgiving can be fraught with difficulty, from grease fires to traffic jams. Thankfully in 2016, we have some technology that can help. Hands-free voice assistants Siri and Google Assistant (decide here which voice...

Video: Inside the International Space Station’s Inflatable Addition

November 21, 2016 FROM NEXTGOV arrow This April, NASA launched into a space a payload to the International Space Station containing an experimental facility that attached to the space station and since then has been slowly inflating. It's now ready for ISS astronauts to test the viability of the structure as a permanent habitat. The Bigelow...

Video: This Tech Could Charge Your Phone Fully in 5 Minutes

November 18, 2016 FROM NEXTGOV arrow As smartphones become more powerful and increasingly integrated into our lives, battery life remains a primary concern for most users, as seen in the number of portable chargers that exist on the market and the number of people fighting over the corner wall outlet in your local cafe. Qualcomm has...