DARPA

DARPA High Speed Wireless Program Aims For The Sky

By

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is beginning work to develop a wireless communications system capable of transmitting data at speeds of 100 gigabits per second, rivaling high-speed fiber optic systems.

The technology is also intended to get around one of the biggest hurdles facing tactical military communications: the effects of weather degrading high-bandwidth transmissions between aircraft and ground stations and vehicles. Cloud cover is one of the big challenges facing high-bandwidth air-to-ground data communications, DARPA officials said. Keep reading →

 /  Published December 19, 2012 at 2:00 PM

Can Innovation Save The Federal Government?

By

It is one of the most challenging times in American history to be part of a government bureaucracy. A dysfunctional congress offers little or no support; agency budgets face gutting as the nation stares down a fiscal cliff; hiring freezes and the looming shadow of furloughs threaten to turn the government’s talent pool stagnant.

But if you’re an innovator, this is – in a strange and unfortunate way – good news. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 12, 2012 at 3:03 PM

A Discussion About Big Data

By


In this video, Tiffany Shlain, founder of The Webby Awards, Jeff Jonas, of IBM, and Mari Maeda, of DARPA, discuss ways data can change the world.


It was taken at The Economist’s Ideas Economy: Information 2012 event in San Francisco, California. The session was moderated by Kenneth Cukier, data editor for The Economist. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 5, 2012 at 1:00 PM

Dissolving Electronics Offer New Ways To Fight Infection, Treat Diseases

By

Sometime in the near future, the military may begin using tiny, dissolvable electronic devices to help wounded soldiers to fight off infection. The technology opens potentials beyond the battlefield, allowing wider use of sensors and a variety of short-term medical applications as well as providing new ways to fight infection in existing surgical implants.

Developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Defense Department’s research and development shop, these “transient” electronic devices are designed to dissolve when exposed to water and can last for weeks, days or even minutes. The electronic components are made of superthin sheets of silicon and magnesium sheathed in silk. Silk is biocompatible, which means that it can be inserted safely into the body. How long a device lasts is determined by the thickness and crystalinity of the silk. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 1, 2012 at 7:00 AM

Leveraging Data In The Military

By


In this video, Mari Maeda of DARPA describes scenarios in which using data has helped soldiers do their job.


The video is from The Economist magazine’s Ideas Economy: Information 2012 event in San Francisco, California. Keep reading →

 /  Published September 21, 2012 at 2:30 PM

NSA Wants to Hire Hackers

By


LAS VEGAS (CNNMoney) — Wearing a t-shirt and jeans, America’s top spymaster — National Security Agency Director Gen. Keith Alexander, also the head of the U.S. Cyber Command — took the stage Friday at the nation’s largest hacker convention to deliver a recruiting pitch.

“In this room, this room right here, is the talent our nation needs to secure cyberspace,” Alexander told the standing-room-only audience at DefCon, a grassroots gathering in Las Vegas expected to draw a record 16,000 attendees this year. “We need great talent. We don’t pay as high as everybody else, but we’re fun to be around.” Keep reading →

 /  Published July 30, 2012 at 12:00 PM

DARPA Program Uses Plants To Make Large Volumes Of Flu Vaccine

By

If a major global flu pandemic happens, U.S. government and international health care agencies will be hard pressed to manufacture enough vaccine fast enough to keep ahead of the disease. But a research program by the Defense Department’s research and development organization has recently demonstrated the ability to produce ten million of doses of vaccine in just one month.

The goal of the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency’s Blue Angel program is to produce large quantities of high-quality vaccine-grade protein in under three months to respond to a pandemic influenza outbreak. Keep reading →

 /  Published July 27, 2012 at 2:15 PM

DARPA To Offer $2 Million Prize For Next Generation Robot

By

Robots are coming closer and closer to performing life saving duties. But the Defense Department’s Advance Research Project Agency is now putting up a $2 million prize to whomever can help push the state-of-the-art in robotics.

As part of DARPA‘s upcoming Robotics Challenge, which will launch in October 2012, DARPA is seeking teams that will be able to compete with robots that will have to successfully navigate a series of physical tasks that replicate real-world disaster-response requirements. Keep reading →

 /  Published April 24, 2012 at 1:06 PM

Defense Department Bets Big On Big Data

By

First Todd Park, former Department of Health and Human Services chief technology officer, bet on health data in a big way; got his upcoming Health Data Palloza, and then became our new Federal CTO.

Then Gus Hunt, CIA CTO, bet on big data for the Intelligence Community and got its budget increased by Congress, reflecting a governmental shift in IT priorities, from a Defense Department style network-centric focus toward the IC’s big data-centric focus.

Now the Defense Department is in the big data game with their big bet to the tune of $250 million announced Thursday at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy’s Big Data Research and Development Initiative.

The assistant secretary of Defense, in a letter released yesterday, said “We intend to change the game and plan to be the fist to leverage big data across the full scope of military operations in new and unconventional ways.”

There are five other agencies who were present at the AAAS Auditorium event which are contributing much smaller (or non-disclosed amounts) as follows:

  • National Science Foundation: $10 million, plus several smaller grants
  • DARPA: $25 million annually for four years
  • National Institutes of Health: No money, but the world’s largest set of data on human genetic variation freely available
  • Department of Energy: $25 million
  • USGS: New grants for unspecified amounts
But where does this new initiative leave us?

I think it leaves us with a disconnected federal big data program between the science and intelligence communities with the former considerably behind the latter.

The report, “Designing a Digital Future: Federally Funded Research and Development in Networking and Information Technology,” prepared by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), said: “Every federal agency needs to have a “big data” strategy.

I did not hear that today either from every agency or across all the agencies. The recent 2012 Big Data Government Forum provided a much more comprehensive view of best practices around Big Data technology, trends, and issues from senior government executives, data scientists, and vendors.

As Professor Jim Hendler, RPI Computer Scientist, commented during the meeting: “Computer scientists like us have to move to the social science side of things to really do big data.”

This new White House Initiative needs Todd Park’s entrepreneurial spirit, Gus Hunt’s experience, and DoD’s new money, spent in a coordinated way with the IC and civilian agencies to make big data across the federal government a reality.

 /  Published March 30, 2012 at 3:58 PM

Defense Department Wants Cyber Arsenal, Report Says

By

The U.S. Defense Department has accelerated its efforts to develop offensive cyber weapons that could be used to dismantle hostile military networks in countries where U.S. forces are operating, The Washington Post reported today.

The report cites the Pentagon’s growing frustration with the military’s inability to disable enemy air defense systems and other military communications networks in places like Libya, where U.S. pilots flew combat missions to protect civilian populations from attacks by the Libyan army. That frustration has reportedly led to a five-year, $500 million budget infusion for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Pentagon’s main research and development organization, to fast track research into offensive cyber tools. Keep reading →

 /  Published March 19, 2012 at 3:46 PM
Page 1 of 212