Social media giant Facebook is launching a new division to focus on developing hardware products, and the company has just hired the former head of DARPA away from Google to run it. Regina Dugan will be in charge of Building 8, which will be focused on the company’s core mission of “connecting the world,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said yesterday in a blog post.
“We’ll be investing hundreds of people and hundreds of millions of dollars into this effort over the next few years,” Zuckerberg said about the new division. “I’m excited to see breakthroughs on our 10-year roadmap in augmented and virtual reality, artificial intelligence, connectivity and other important areas.”
From DARPA to Facebook
Dugan (pictured above) certainly brings an impressive resume to her new company. At Google, she ran the Advanced Technologies and Projects (ATAP) lab, a department similar in many ways to the Building 8 group she’ll be running for Facebook. ATAP was the group behind such Google efforts as its attempt to build modular mobile phones and Project Tango, its plan to build tools for creating 3D environments based on data captured from users’ surroundings by mobile devices.
Before working for Google, Dugan was the director of DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), the U.S. government’s premier collection of scientists responsible for inventions like the Internet. Dugan became the first female head of the research group in 2009 before leaving to join Google in 2012.
Zuckerberg said it was Dugan’s experience at DARPA that made her the perfect choice to lead Building 8. “I’m excited to have Regina apply DARPA-style breakthrough development at the intersection of science and products to our mission,” he said. “This method is characterized by aggressive, fixed timelines, extensive use of partnerships with universities, small and large businesses, and clear objectives for shipping products at scale.”
‘Tech Infused with Humanity’
For her part, Dugan said the opportunity to lead the Building 8 team for Google would give her the chance to do what she loved most, “tech infused with a sense of our humanity. Audacious science delivered at scale in products that feel almost magic. A little badass. And beautiful.”
Facebook’s announcement about Building 8 fits with several of other announcements the tech giant has made as part of the F8 developer conference happening this week. The company has already unveiled several projects that would likely fit perfectly with the new group’s development mandate, such the new video camera capable of producing 360-degree images.
But while Facebook said it doesn’t plan to sell that particular piece of technology, the company did say that Dugan and Building 8 will be focused on developing products it intends produce, not just cutting-edge research. The company has also detailed its 10 year plan, which will focus on three main areas of development: artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and connectivity. Building 8 will likely have plenty to contribute to all three.
Image Credit: Facebook. Photo: Weinberg-Clark Photography.
