Defense Secretary Ash Carter talking with Capital Factory Founder Joshua Baer. Photo courtesy the Department of Defense.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter talking with Capital Factory Founder Joshua Baer. Photo courtesy the Department of Defense.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter visited the University of Texas at Austin on Thursday followed by a trip to Capital Factory to talk tech with entrepreneurs.

During his visit to UT, Carter met with the Chancellor of the University of Texas System, Bill McRaven.

“At the University he met with the Institute on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, spoke to students and ROTC cadets on the Force of the Future, learned about the latest tech and innovation coming out of Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) and received up close demonstrations at ReNeu Robotics Lab,” according to the Department of Defense.

At Capital Factory, Carter hinted at opening a Department of Defense Innovation Office in Austin, according to those in attendance. (Silicon Hills News was not there. Maybe our security clearance isn’t high enough?)

At the event, Carter also announced registration is open for the Department of Defense’s Hack the Pentagon pilot program which encourages registered participants to find “bugs” or vulnerabilities in the government’s cyber security system.