GTRI | The Contracting Education Academy

May 23, 2018 By cs

Helping the Air Force search for actionable intelligence worldwide

Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, analysts huddle around computer screens in U.S. Air Force facilities around the world scanning for information that might require immediate action.

These analysts are part of the Air Force Distributed Common Ground System (AF DCGS), which is designed to sift through vast amounts of information for “needles in the haystack” that are critical to national security.

Researchers at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) are supporting the mission of AF DCGS in a broad range of ways. GTRI is providing expertise from subject matter experts in an array of sensing areas in which GTRI researchers have extensive experience supporting the development and prototyping of new services needed by the Air Force, conducting training and technology transfer activities for DCGS personnel, and providing advice on the information technology that underlies the DCGS to the programmers who maintain and enhance the system.

By modeling the flow of information through the DCGS, GTRI is helping the Air Force continuously improve the system, boosting efficiency and enhancing its ability to bring together the massive data sets that quickly provide critical information.

“For the Air Force analysts sitting at these workstations around the clock, we want to make sure they get the information they need as quickly, accurately, and efficiently as possible,” said Molly Gary, a GTRI principal research scientist who has led the project for nearly five years. “We want to help the Air Force improve the fusion of data so the analysts can more quickly get an understanding of what it all means and provide actionable intelligence to the commanders.”

The DCGS is the primary intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) platform for the U.S. Air Force. As part of its operation, more than a thousand analysts sift through a broad range of information, including real-time video, geospatial intelligence, intelligence collected by humans in the field, electronic signals, and other sources to create regular reports on what is happening in global trouble spots.

The Air Force system provides globally-integrated ISR capabilities and feeds into subsystems operated by the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and other agencies that provide information at the unit level.

The system is complex, dating back to the 1960s and involving more than two dozen facilities around the world. DCGS has been built by a number of different vendors, contributing to a “stovepipe” system in which analysts on one part of the system do not necessarily have visibility into what analysts in other parts of the system are doing. Other challenges include disparate hardware and software systems, duplicated applications, differing operating systems, redundant software solutions, network security requirements, and a variety of information technology (IT) procedures.

To address these challenges, the Air Force is adopting an open architecture strategy in which systems are more standardized and the connections between specialized areas are more transparent – with a goal of making the system modular, more efficient and less expensive to operate. As an independent not-for-profit university-based organization, GTRI is helping map out the full system and how it is connected to the flow of data from one part to another – and ultimately provides information useful to warfighters.

“By going to an open architecture system, the goal is to break down the barriers between different stovepipes to realize more efficiencies,” said Louis Tirino, a GTRI senior research engineer who’s also supporting the project. “We can help leverage a lot of existing and new technologies that are available to break down those barriers to bringing data together. Ultimately, this will help reduce costs for the Air Force and ease the management burden.”

Regents Researcher Bill Melvin and Principal Research Engineer Alan Nussbaum teamed together and initiated the partnership with AF DCGS. The program is also supported by GEOINT Specialist and Senior Research Engineer Kyle L. Davis, and SIGINT Specialist and Senior Research Associate Clayton Besse. Several of GTRI’s eight laboratories are involved in different portions of the program.

Over the past six years, GTRI has been engaged in multiple DCGS tasks. Among them was Project Liberty, which developed and deployed a Forward Processing, Exploitation, and Dissemination (FPED) system to analyze real-time, full-motion video, signals intelligence, and other information to provide critical information to field commanders. The system was delivered just eight months after it was proposed.

GTRI’s support to DCGS builds on earlier work done to improve the capabilities of the Nation’s Multi-Disciplinary Intelligence (Multi-INT) system, which monitors incoming data. GTRI’s work in that effort, known as the Multi-INT (MINT) Data Fusion System, helped automate and rapidly transform functions within the intelligence process to maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of analysts working on this task.

MINT also addressed issues of improving network bandwidth and information processing power to help human analysts stay on top of incoming data by focusing on the most significant information. It used the STINGER Graph tool, developed by GTRI, to assist in identifying relations between data.

For the GTRI researchers, the DCGS work is rewarding because it supports the people who risk their lives in the field.

“Ultimately, the entire weapons system is to help the analyst and warfighter do their jobs,” said Tirino. “By breaking down these barriers across the different lanes of incoming information, we can help make the information more readily accessible to the analyst. All of this is here to support the warfighters.”

Source: http://www.news.gatech.edu/2018/05/08/helping-air-force-search-actionable-intelligence-worldwide

March 9, 2018 By cs

GTRI revamps information tools used to support Army families

With their loved ones sometimes deployed far away from home, potentially in harm’s way, the families of soldiers face challenging circumstances that can place a strain on everyday life.

That’s what led the Army, more than five decades ago, to establish the Army Community Service (ACS), a program designed to provide a vast array of social services to soldiers’ families such as support for new parents, financial counseling, and help with finding a job.

Now, the ACS is looking ahead at novel ways to improve how services are delivered and is working with the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) on a sweeping project to revamp its collection of information systems – key tools used by staff members providing services to Army families.

The goal is to make the software smarter, faster, easier to use, and in the long run enable Army leaders to leverage data from the systems to gain new insights that could help shape future services.

“The primary driver for this project was to transform a proprietary and antiquated Army system into a more efficient cloud-friendly environment to enable better service delivery by providing robust access to applications that are vital to accomplishing our customer support missions,” said David B. Severson, a program specialist at the Army’s Installation Management Command.

A big part of the effort, which began in 2015, is building systems that can track and process data being gathered by ACS staff members across the Army.

“These systems support the Army’s mission to help make soldiers and their families more ready to respond to life’s challenges,” said Sheila Isbell, a senior research scientist who is leading GTRI’s support for the project. “The Army’s needs outgrew its current information systems, and as a result we’re helping to build platforms using cloud-based open architectures that will make the software much more capable and easier to maintain and upgrade over time.”

The project involves the transformation of eight separate information systems and unifying them through a new web interface – called the Army Family Web Portal (AFWP). ACS staff members will be able to gain access to all of the systems through a single sign-on.

A key design approach throughout the rebuilding process is presenting data-entry forms that make it easier to capture the right information and reduce the likelihood of missing or incomplete data.

“They needed a system that supported the uploading of that data in a more comprehensive way,” said Margarita Gonzalez, a senior research associate at GTRI, who is helping lead the project. “Sometimes something as simple as using a drop-down menu rather than an open field makes all the difference in whether a form is completed properly. That then allows for the information in the system to be more complete, more precise, and searchable.”

For example, one of the early systems the project team got up and running helped Army leaders keep track of data that required regular review and assessment. That process, which previously had involved collecting information from several different divisions within ACS across the country, typically lasted for weeks. The new system enabled Army leads to cull that data in a matter of days.

“We’re designing software that allows them to respond quickly to trends they’re noticing among their families,” Isbell said. “Rather than looking at data retrospectively, this new portal will allow them to look at live data so that in some cases they can take action immediately.”

GTRI Senior Research Scientist Sheila Isbell and Senior Research Associate Margarita Gonzalez are helping the Army Community Service program revamp information systems used to provide an array of social services to the families of soldiers. (Photo credit: Branden Camp, Georgia Tech Research Institute)

Another key aspect of the project includes building a secure system that allows all of the different information databases that support each service program to share information or send reports to other databases.

That feature will come into play for the modernized Volunteer Management Information System (VMIS), which is one of the information systems that is used directly by Army families. VMIS helps track volunteer hours, among other information, for the Army Volunteer Corps, a program that places civilian volunteers into needed roles at an Army installation – providing a valuable service for the Army while potentially helping volunteers gain work experience that could be useful for career advancement. The transformed cloud-based VMIS will make keeping track of those hours and sharing that information much easier.

“Through the enhanced reporting feature, data will become more readily available to program managers who analyze the program trends,” Severson said. “This will ultimately assist in making data-driven decisions in ACS program improvements.”

For Army social workers, a big part of their job is generating reports that can be used by Army leaders to gain insight into the trends happening at individual installations or throughout the Army. GTRI’s task is to create a software suite that makes reporting easier as well.

“If you have a system that better handles the data and generates reports and feedback, as well as one that on the front end that makes it easier for staff members to input, it frees up a lot of time both at the leadership level and at the service-delivery level,” Isbell said. “It allows leaders to analyze the data faster and really dig into what that information is telling them, and staff members to be better able to provide services to Army families.”

In building the new cloud-based software suite, the GTRI team is also laying the foundation for software that will stand the test of time with an open-source platform as opposed to a closed, proprietary system.

“The idea was to build something that is sustainable for years and years, and make it so that the Army does not have a hard time finding contractors who can make changes and updates,” Isbell said. “An open source platform is essential to that longevity.”

The open platform can also help the Army keep down costs over time.

“Through the years, the legacy system was limited to only a few support vendors because of its proprietary state,” Severson said. “The new system focuses on an open source foundation to allow greater flexibility in vendor contract support.”

Source: https://gtri.gatech.edu/newsroom/modernizing-information-systems-support-new-generation-army-families

January 30, 2018 By cs

Army renews $2.35 billion Georgia Tech research contract

The Army has renewed a contract with Georgia Tech for 10 more years with a ceiling of $2.35 billion.

Under the agreement, Georgia Tech will continue working with the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Research, Development, and Engineering Center on Department of Defense research. The work will be done by Georgia Tech Research Institute, a DoD University Affiliated Research Center.

The Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity contract is for five years, with a renewal option for an additional five years. The contract renewal has a total ceiling of $2.35 billion over the ten-year period. An IDIQ contract means provision for an indefinite quantity of supplies or services during a fixed period of time.

“This new, up to 10 year UARC-based contract will continue a long partnership between the two organizations,” Systems Simulation, Software and Integration Director Jeff Langhout said. “This will be another important instrument to enable the Army and academia to collaborate and solve the Army’s most challenging priorities including readiness and modernization.”

Keep reading this article at: https://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2018/01/29/georgia-tech-wins-910m-army-contract-extension-for.html

January 22, 2018 By cs

Piezoelectric tiles light the way for Kennedy Space Center visitors

New technology that could be used in self-powered smart cities of the future will soon be demonstrated at the NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Visitor Complex at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Ilan Stern, a senior research scientist with the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), and colleagues, are collaborating on a $2 million project supported by NASA contractor Delaware North Corporation to build a 40,000-square-foot lighted outdoor footpath demonstrating applications of piezoelectricity for renewable energy.

A small electrical charge is generated when a piezoelectric material is compressed, flexed, or vibrated. Harnessing this technology at the visitor complex, the researchers are using a thin, ceramic disk of lead zirconate titanate, which has the strongest piezoelectric response of any known material.

“Just as a sponge squeezes out water,” said Stern, “the piezo element under pressure squeezes out electricity that can be harvested and stored.”

For this unique project, the researchers designed floor cavities of very thin, ultra-high- performance concrete. To fit into each cavity, the Georgia Tech engineers designed a novel system of custom electronics: circuit boards, six mini solar panels, a battery, LEDs, a Bluetooth transmitter, a Wi-Fi transmitter, micro controllers, and the piezoelectric element — all of which are covered by a loadbearing glass tile top.

The tiles operate on three power sources: piezoelectricity, solar panels, and a small rechargeable lithium battery for energy storage and use at night. The self-powered system, when triggered by a human footstep, produces a wireless signal that informs visitors about NASA space missions, piezoelectric technology as well as the STEM cooperation between NASA and Georgia Tech.

“No one has made anything like this — an outdoor tile system using a piezoelectric element to trigger customized and off-the-shelf electronics and coupling them for human interactions,” said Stern. “When you step on the load-bearing glass tile, it compresses the piezoelectric element, creating an electrical charge that lights up the cavity’s 125 LEDs.” In the entire footpath, about one thousand glass tiles light up in various colors. Each glass tile is a pixel in the pathway’s mosaic imagery of Earth, Mars, the moon, and the International Space Station.

“The piezoelectric element also powers a Wi-Fi or Bluetooth signal to visitors’ smartphones, which can play audio, providing information about their geolocation and for potential wayfinding,” said Stern. “The audio provides information such as how much energy is being generated throughout the park during the day.”

Although a small amount of energy is produced per piezo element, per step, the aggregation of such systems in heavily trafficked areas can produce a significant amount of electricity to be stored for local onsite powering of street signs, lights, and other facilities. “The piezo element has a very long lifetime, but these are modular systems that could be easily updated over time,” he said. The glass lid can be removed so the piezo element and electronics system can be updated with newer technologies.”

Many of the site’s engineering applications are based on fundamental research by the lab of Alper Erturk, an associate professor in Georgia Tech’s George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. Erturk, Stern, and their graduate students, for instance, have utilized a method of vibrating a piezo element’s edge, called plucking, allowing for the coupling of the piezoelectric material’s inherently high resonant frequency, to the low frequency of human scale motion. This has various applications intended for biomechanical energy harvesting.

In future smart cities applications, lattices of pressure-sensitive sensors underneath roadways could produce wireless, real-time signals distributing information about roadway conditions, temperature, or traffic. Roadway sensors and autonomous vehicles could share information, and vehicles could communicate with each other through the roadway’s wireless system. Indoor flooring systems powered by piezoelectricity could provide safety monitoring and sensing capabilities without being plugged into to the grid.

“We need a more flexible use of the electric grid,” Stern said. “Our goal is to develop more self-powered, self-generating systems with added storage that will give us more choices in energy usage and minimize waste. As much as possible, we should convert wasted mechanical energy — human and vehicle movement — into usable energy generation and storage.”

Source: https://gtri.gatech.edu/newsroom/piezoelectric-tiles-light-way-kennedy-space-center-visitors

January 18, 2018 By cs

IMPAX program accelerates technology transition into the Navy

What if you had to wait eight years to get the great new cellphone technology your friends and neighbors were using today? That’s essentially the situation facing today’s warfighters, who must wait for long procurement cycles to bring them the latest technology.

The U.S. Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), Naval Air Warfare Center – Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) and the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) are working to address that challenge through a new effort – dubbed IMPAX (Innovation and Modernization Patuxent River) – that aims to accelerate the transfer of new technology to meet U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps needs. IMPAX staff members are empowered to work outside the standard acquisition process to find, develop, and prototype new technology more quickly.

IMPAX was launched in 2017 as an initiative of Rear Admiral Mark Darrah, program executive officer for Unmanned Aviation and Strike Weapons at NAVAIR, by working closely with the Technology Transfer Office at NAWCAD. The first initiative with the Navy is to identify technology that will help integrate unmanned aerial vehicles into air control systems by providing miniaturized identification friend or foe (IFF) systems. IFF systems are already used in piloted aircraft, but the much smaller unmanned aircraft lack the space or power for conventional systems.

“Traditionally the Department of Defense (DoD) has been limited in the means and speed at which it could bring new technologies to the warfighter,” said Rob “Radar” Winston, a GTRI principal research engineer who directs the IMPAX program near Pax River Naval Air Station in Maryland. “Our adversaries aren’t constrained by cumbersome procurement rules and regulations. Through this effort, we want to ensure that our nation’s warfighters get the best technology in the shortest time.”

IMPAX is empowered to seek out technology from sources the government doesn’t usually work with. These can include small- and medium-sized businesses, companies that don’t traditionally work with the military or bid on billion-dollar DoD procurements. Winston and his team work on the Navy’s behalf, matching warfighter needs with technology that may already exist – or that can be developed to meet the needs.

The relationship between GTRI and NAVAIR’s Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) is known as a partnership intermediary agreement (PIA). Such agreements allow non-federal government intermediaries to coordinate and solicit non-traditional science and technology sources and to bring forth ideas from parties not usually able to contribute directly to military solutions.

“This is the first PIA specifically designed for the Navy to spin technology into naval aviation,” Winston explained. “We are looking for technology in industry, academia, and other government agencies that can be brought into the DoD very rapidly. If somebody is already working on something that the Navy needs, we can bring them together quickly. We are not just working for the government, but as a team member on the government’s behalf as a trusted partner.”

In one aspect, IMPAX team members will serve as technology scouts, scouring many sources of information to locate technologies of interest. They’ll be readily approachable, and won’t require extensive paperwork from companies and others wanting to pitch their technology for potential military applications. The overall activities will be directed by a joint GTRI/NAWCAD/NAVAIR team.

“If an individual or company has a great idea but they have never worked with the government before, that barrier to entry is very tall now,” he said. “They don’t know who to talk with, how to get involved in a program, or even how to get through the front gate of a military facility. We are going to be able to talk with these people to assess what they can contribute to the warfighter and do it all outside the gate and without the customary barriers.”

DoD agencies have their own research laboratories to help develop new technology, of course, but Winston’s group will tap other sources of innovation. For technology that’s promising but not quite ready for DoD use, IMPAX will fund brief research and development (R&D) initiatives – as short as three or four months – to determine whether a technology is worth pursuing. Pathways from there could include the traditional agency R&D laboratories.

**Rob “Radar” Winston, the GTRI principal research engineer who directs the IMPAX program, discusses how the initiative will serve the Naval Air Warfare Center – Aircraft Division.** (Photo Credit: Branden Camp, Georgia Tech)

“The purpose is to run these programs very quickly, and also to fail things fast with a minimum of investment in resources or time if they aren’t working out,” he said. “We can start a technology development program at any time, and it can be any technology of interest to the fleet.”

Each technology development program will be monitored by a subject matter expert and a director from GTRI. They will keep a close eye on program progress, help faltering ones, shut down ones that aren’t making progress or add team members and expertise to promising ones.

The IMPAX team will also be able to assemble packages of different technologies to meet specific needs, efforts known as mash-ups.

“Traditional programs do little to encourage the collision of ideas between different organizations, people, and technologies,” Winston said. “We’re here to help companies and organization work together to address the need with minimal barriers to innovation.”

The IMPAX initiative won’t change how major weapons systems are acquired, but could affect how those systems are updated over time to retain their effectiveness as new technologies rapidly enter the marketplace.

“IMPAX is going to enable technology that will keep these big platforms operationally relevant over a longer period of time,” Winston explained.

The IFF capability for unmanned systems is just one example of an ongoing IMPAX project. Another initiative is looking at the use of augmented reality to support maintenance and training programs. By combining 3-D computer-aided design files with mixed reality glasses, the technology could help maintainers identify a problem, locate components hidden within an aircraft, and train new personnel more quickly.

“Technology already exists for these projects, but it would take a long time to actually get them to the fleet using traditional acquisition timelines,” said Winston. “We can help develop the capability, get it to the Navy who can then get it out to the warfighter quickly. We’ll run as fast as we can with a project and give our warfighters the edge by getting the latest technology to them – today.”

Source: https://gtri.gatech.edu/newsroom/impax-program-accelerates-technology-transition-navy

Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, analysts huddle around computer screens in U.S. Air Force facilities around the world scanning for information that might require immediate action.

The Army has renewed a contract with Georgia Tech for 10 more years with a ceiling of $2.35 billion.

New technology that could be used in self-powered smart cities of the future will soon be demonstrated at the NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Visitor Complex at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

What if you had to wait eight years to get the great new cellphone technology your friends and neighbors were using today? That’s essentially the situation facing today’s warfighters, who must wait for long procurement cycles to bring them the latest technology.

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