SOLICITATION NOTICE
A -- Information Institute Research Program (Set Aside)
- Notice Date
- 5/30/2007
- Notice Type
- Solicitation Notice
- NAICS
- 541710
— Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences
- Contracting Office
- Department of the Air Force, Air Force Materiel Command, AFRL - Rome Research Site, AFRL/Information Directorate 26 Electronic Parkway, Rome, NY, 13441-4514, UNITED STATES
- ZIP Code
- 00000
- Solicitation Number
- Reference-Number-BAA-06-01-IFKA-SETASIDE-PART1
- Description
- Modification 02 to BAA-06-01-IFKA THIS IS PART 1 OF 2 Reference Basic Solicitation BAA-06-01-IFKA published Oct 11, 2005. http://www.fbo.gov/spg/USAF/AFMC/AFRLRRS/Reference%2DNumber%2DBAA%2D06%2D01%2DIFKA/listing.html The purpose of this modification is to set aside research areas solely for consideration from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) and Minority Institutions (MI) under this BAA. No other changes have been made. AFRL/IF and the Information Institute (II) are interested in receiving research proposals for various Information Science and Technology research areas. Areas of interest include innovative approaches and basic and exploratory research projects in the area of information science and technology. Efforts that will be performed are a part of a Set Aside program for Historically Black Colleges and Universities/Minority Institutions (HBCU/MI). They are intended to be collaborative university efforts designed to provide AFRL/IF with leading edge research that can be applied to a variety of AFRL/IF and Air Force needs and to provide research opportunities for HBCU/MI universities in the primary technology areas listed below. Awards for research efforts will not exceed nine (9) months and will range from $50K - $100K. Additionally, a portion of the research must be performed at the Rome Research Site. Universities conducting research as part of the II are encouraged to leverage on-going AFRL/IF research programs and activities. The offeror may propose research on one or more topics from the following Core Technology Competency (CTC) areas, but a separate proposal shall be submitted for each different topic. In addition to the following CTC areas other topics may be suggested: (a) Information Exploitation; (b) Information Fusion & Understanding; (c) Information Management; (d) Advanced Computing Architectures; (e) Cyber Operations; (f) Command and Control (C2) applications; and (g) Connectivity. CTC Area 1: Information Exploitation Topic 1.1 Motion Imagery (or Video) Processing and Exploitation: New and innovative technology is required to manage motion imagery data from single and multiple active sensors and extract the relevant information content. The frame rate associated with motion imagery can provide the needed information to discern objects of interest, but it also incurs a processing burden. Techniques are needed to exploit and process this information in real-time or near real-time in order to take maximum advantage of the temporal relevance. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to object detection, object segmentation, object tracking, object modeling, real-time reporting, motion estimation, geo-registration, multi-sensor registration, vision-based multi-sensor coordination/control and processing techniques executed in the compressed domain. Topic 1.2 Signal Processing Techniques: Approaches will be studied and developed to detect and analyze radiated signals in all parts of the electromagnetic spectrum with the goal of determining information regarding the transmission source including the type of signal transmitted and the location. Specific areas of interest include spectral characterization methods, automatic signal recognition, co-channel interference mitigation, geolocation, and multipath mitigation. Topic 1.3 Improved Detection of Digital Data Embedding: Digital watermarking, steganography, and information hiding have rapidly matured in recent years. This technology allows information to be embedded in digital images, audio, video, or other data streams. The wide availability of commercial and free steganographic tools has presented unique challenges in the field of steganalysis, as the number of different programs and algorithms that are available grows ever larger. For this reason, research in steganalytic techniques is increasingly important. Research topics must propose innovative application of mathematical techniques to the problem of steganalysis. Topic 1.4 Communications Processing Techniques: Approaches will be studied and developed to detect, track and process communication signals in all parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. Specific areas of interest include techniques to detect, track, locate and process signals in dense frequency reuse, changing doppler and various multipath conditions in HF/UHF/VHF/SHF spectrums. Beamforming, null steering, and multi-user detection for co-channel interference are of interest. Wireless RF communications analysis is special interest. CTC Area 2: Information Fusion & Understanding Topic 2.1 Information Fusion: Researchers will perform research in the areas relating to the ability to develop tools that support situation awareness. Such tools of interest includes the ability to combine lower level entities/events into groups and situations, the ability to assess these situations in current time (and current impact/threat) and the ability to project the current situation(s) to forecast potential impacts/threats. In order to accomplish this, various disciplines from computer, cognitive sciences, AI and operations research must be brought together. We seek new and interesting approaches in the following areas: (a) Scalable/Robust Model Analysis and Pattern Matching Techniques for providing Situation/Group Recognition and Interpretation (to include such meta data as uncertainty, severity and perishability); (b) Stochastic Modeling Techniques and Design of Experiments (DOE) Techniques; (c) Metrics for Measuring the Performance of Situation, Impact/Threat Assessment Techniques; (d) Visualization of Complex Relationships; (e) Definition/Development of Situation Assessments; (f) Definition/Development of Threat/Impact Assessment; (g) Identification/Recognition of Adversary Intentions; and (h) Architecture/Frameworks that support Interactive Gaming Environments using the knowledge developed by SA to aid Command & Control (C2) operators in Course of Action (COA) development. Topic 2.2 Knowledge Bases Integrated with Learning and Reasoning Technology: Researchers will conduct research in Learning and Reasoning Technology to improve decision-making and realize productivity gains. This requires that we rethink our information processes and make them more intelligent. Research in cognitive science and human-computer interaction is required in order to design, develop and implement context-sensitive and user-centric systems. Effective, "real-world" machine reasoning is needed in certain and dynamic environments where a knowledge base is characterized by uncertain and temporally changing information. Techniques are needed to help and define and develop Next-Generation Learning Systems. Topics of interest include but are not limited to: (a) Cognitive Information Science including Reasoning and Learning; (b) Information Understanding; (c) Knowledge Capture and Acquisition; (d) Knowledge Use and Discovery; (e) Knowledge Representation; (f) Knowledge Fusion; (g) Knowledge Tracking; (h) Information Privacy; (i) Knowledge Scalability; (j) Knowledge-Intensive Problem Solving; and (k) Knowledge Architecture Organization and Knowledge Creation. Topic 2.3 Sense Making: Researchers will conduct research in reasoning and learning and their support of sense making for the intelligent analysis. Much of the applied psychological research is grounded within the context of systems engineering and human factors, there exists a strong desire for concepts and performance to be measurable and for theories to be testable. Accordingly, sense making and situation awareness are viewed as working concepts that enable us to investigate and improve the interaction between man and information technology. Within this perspective, it is recognized that humans play a significant role in adapting and responding to unexpected or unknown situations, as well as recognized situations. Accordingly, as we move from concepts, metrics, and analysis to testable theories, we need to attribute the relative contributions of both humans and information technology in our models of system performance. It is further recognized that clear metrics do not currently exist for understanding how humans "make sense" and identifying what conditions facilitate "good" performance. Given the state-of-art in studying this aspect of human-computer interaction, it is noted that research must build from qualitative description toward quantitative prediction of performance, using a range of investigation methods: (a) Observation (non-intrusive); (b) Subjective investigation (ethnography, knowledge elicitation); (c) Storytelling and anecdotes (knowledge building); (d) Metaphor (pattern matching); (e) Scientific method (controlled, empirical hypothesis testing); and (f) Mathematical analysis (baseline modeling, sensitivity analysis). CTC Area 3: Information Management Topic 3.1 Joint Battlespace Infosphere (JBI) Technology: Information management in a set of intentional activities that maximize the utility of information to the enterprise. The foundational construct for information management is the information space into which producers place information to be managed and out of which consumers extract it. Information managers have the responsibility to determining access to the information space and for managing the information held within the space. Also interacting with the information space are other, federated, information spaces. The "activities" of information management are organized into six layers of services that surround the information space: information space maintenance, brokering, transformation, quality of service/information, workflow and security. The Joint Battlespace Infosphere program has historically focused upon the technologies to construct an information space in a reliable, high-bandwidth environment. Increasingly, however, the focus is shifting towards the tactical environment where resource constraints exacerbate performance issues. Accordingly, research areas of interest within this topic include: (a) Dynamic policy enforcement among intermittently connected participants; (b) Information dissemination over low bandwidth unreliable links; (c) Information prioritization based upon support for prioritized workflows/processes; and (d) Techniques for federating information spaces. Topic 3.2 Context Sensitive Information Visualization to Enhance Situational Awareness: Situational awareness is the "fabric" for collaboration and team synchronization in military operations. To be most enabling, its content and the presentation of that content must adapt to the information needs of individual team members, their tasks, and their current situation (context). It must seamlessly bridge the strategic, operational and tactical levels of military operations supporting decisions and actions at all levels. We are looking for researchers to explore the science of adaptive, context sensitive visualization of complex data rich environments, to support team self synchronization / situation awareness and develop the underlying science needed to engineer future military systems. Research areas of interest within this topic include: (a) National airspace management and visualization; (b) Network status information compiled into useful metrics; (c) Visualization of complex information systems; (d) Interaction techniques and collaboration tools for multi-user displays; and (e) Various techniques for decluttering data and the visualization of that decluttered data. Topic 3.3 Advanced Information Visualization and Human Computer Interaction: In order to provide airman with an information environment that is dynamic and tailorable based on information needs, we are developing advanced visualizations techniques and interactive displays. Our technical challenges include fast access to voluminous dynamic data; high fidelity representations; evaluation metrics for visualization success. Researchers will investigate effective use of visualization hardware and software. Specific domains include: man-machine models; multi-modal interaction; multi-media technology; continuous speech; natural language dialogue; eye tracking and gesture interpretation; intelligent interfaces and adaptive mediators; speech synthesis; 3D audio; untethered pointing devices; 3D graphics and visualization; synthetic environments and virtual world applications (immersive, non-immersive, augmented); display tiling and high resolution media; collaborative interaction and decision making; battlefield situational awareness; battle damage assessment; mission planning and rehearsal; data fusion. CTC Area 4: Advanced Computing Architectures Topic 4.1 Advanced Architectures: Research opportunities within the Advanced Computing Architectures Focus Area span a variety of emerging architectures and applications. The group is uniquely positioned to explore new architectures with FPGA-based emulation capabilities complementing traditional M&S tools. A complete hardware and software emulation baseline is available for researchers to augment, rather than starting from scratch. In support, the HPC center features unique heterogeneous architecture comprising a 48 node Beowulf cluster where each node contain dual Xeon processors and two 6 million gate FPGAs. We are presently interested in exploring architectures supporting cognitive systems and architectures supporting improved software producibility and architectures strengthening cyber defense. Regarding HPC applications research and development, the areas listed below are current areas of interest but others may be proposed: (a) Electronics modeling and simulation?particularly the acceleration of discrete event simulations; (b) Network simulations and related system of systems simulations; (c) "Cognitive" applications featuring a variety of innovative technical approaches motivated from different disciplines such as artificial intelligence, cognitive psychology, and neurobiology; and (d) Large scale forces modeling simulations to support evaluation of possible courses of action. Topic 4.2 Military Applications of Evolutionary Algorithms for Embedded Heterogeneous High Performance and Polymorphic Computer Architectures:
- Record
- SN01305382-W 20070601/070530220649 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
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