Alpine is a group of high-performing creatives building a state-of-the-art product to automate the exploration and characterization of the RF Spectrum. We are relentlessly focused on delivering capabilities that solve complex problems in an intuitive and operationally effective manner. During this 12-week internship, the participant will work directly with company leadership and gain exposure to broad cross-functional skills, including human-centered design, product management, and operational support. As a Tool Champion, the participant will learn to advocate for the suitability of our technology by connecting technical ideas to relevant mission benefits. We call this process Achieving Product-Mission Fit. Program Goal: To develop a Spectral Pteron Tool Champion capable of bridging the gap between advanced RF signal processing and real-world operational utility. Training Focus & Impact: Through a blend of academic study and Alpine Labs hands-on application, the participant will master cross-functional areas of the Tool Champion role: 🌟 **Continuous Discovery:** Learning to codify the evolving mission space to help pivot engineering focus areas. 🌱 **Testing Assumptions:** Becoming the ultimate power user to stress the system under diverse mission scenarios and identify critical areas for improvement. 🎬 **Operational Support:** Planning and executing training and deployments to support users and gather the "ground truth" feedback required to derive future requirements. 🎓 **Collaborative Ideation:** Working at the intersection of Human-Centered Design (HCD), Signal Processing, and Data Science to ensure feature designs are intuitively aligned to mission workflows. 📈Background Information on Alpine and Spectral Pteron: In 2023, Alpine was awarded a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract by the Air Force Research Laboratory AFWERX Program Office to advance the state of the art in blind spectrum situational assessment technology. The research addressed challenges associated with the increasingly complex and dynamic electromagnetic operating environment while not relying on prior knowledge or demodulation. The approach of combining signal processing and machine learning techniques led to insights into how best to transform complex technology into forms that map to the Operator’s mental model, fostering trust and delivering operational performance impact. The successful prototype led to private equity interest, resulting in a Virginia state grant investment. Alpine’s patent-pending product, Spectral Pteron, guides operators as they monitor signals and anomalies in the spectrum to maintain situational awareness. The research overcame challenges associated with real-time processing of RF samples from wideband software-defined radios. This resulted in blind detection and characterization of diverse signals within a dense environment, as well as automatic identification of spectrum insights from observed patterns. Demand for the capability has expanded beyond the initial AFWERX sponsors to include program offices across the Air Force and Army, as well as the Naval Research Laboratory. The SBIR continuation effort will advance Spectral Pteron to its next phase of maturity to ensure integration readiness for operational deployment into current mission systems. Target applications span the strategic DoW needs of Rapid, Effective Decision-Making to specific SDA needs of space architecture RF spectrum link awareness.