Biologically Inspired Cognitive Models for Advancing the Design of C2 Systems Brad Minnery, Principal Investigator Problems:
The process of designing effective visualization tools for command & control (C2) environments is currently as much art as science. Although human usability studies can provide empirical data for validating various candidate designs, such studies are often not conducted due to cost and time constraints.
Objectives:
We will develop a new set of tools based on computational cognitive neuroscience models for use in the design and evaluation of C2 visualization systems. Our primary goal is to demonstrate that these models can provide quantitative, testable predictions as to how human users will perceive and process information within a visual display.
Activities:
We will implement computational models of the brain's visual attention and memory systems and will demonstrate through a series of validation studies that these models can predict human performance across a range of tasks and visualization interfaces.
Impact:
We envision that brain-based cognitive models will provide the basis for a novel class of design and evaluation tools that will assist designers and software developers in creating more powerful C2 visualization systems. These next-generation C2 systems will better enable a commander to maintain situational awareness and make effective decisions within a complex, dynamic battlespace.
Approved for Public Release: 08-0347 Presentation [PDF]
Cross-Mission Business Process Management Alberto Andrade, Principal Investigator
Effectively Using Meteorologist-Oriented Web Services for Warfighter-Oriented Use-Cases (Using Weather Data for Command and Control) Jason Walonoski, Principal Investigator Problems:
The Joint METOC Broker Language (JMBL) web-service is a net-centric data-access layer to raw meteorological data, rather than providing answers to practical questions in an actionable form. Using JMBL requires clients to have meteorological domain knowledge, takes multiple queries to obtain all the necessary information for a typical use-case, and necessitates complex analysis at the end client.
Objectives:
The objectives of this research are: (1) understanding the nature of warfighter-oriented use-cases to guide the design of the next generation of DoD web-services, and (2) creating reference implementations of the appropriate services and products for practically using weather data in warfighter-oriented systems and use-cases.
Activities:
We will identify common weather use cases and abstract them into a generalized interface suitable for implementing as an XML-based machine-to-machine information service. We will document this interface, create a reference implementation, and implement a variety of client applications to demonstrate the utility of the services identified.
Impact:
The Mission Planning, Predator/Reaper, and other operational communities will directly benefit in the short-term from reference implementations and prototypes that demonstrate weather services being used in their scenarios. The Joint Meteorological community will benefit from lessons learned when designing the next generation of JMBL.
Approved for Public Release: 08-0297 Presentation [PDF]
Flexible Data Management Len Seligman, Principal Investigator Problems:
The military lacks mechanisms to balance flexibility and information sharing effectively. Operational "power users" often meet local needs by developing one-off data sources, but other potential users currently have no effective way of discovering or adapting this data. Finally, vendors offer a bewildering assortment of implementation mechanisms for more flexible data management, yet published design principles do not exist.
Objectives:
We will extend the state of the art in data management to improve the sharing of autonomously developed sources, by developing an enhanced discovery capability for structured data, a smart data extender that helps power users adapt existing data resources to their needs, and best practices for flexible data implementation. We will transition lessons learned to government programs, vendors, and researchers.
Activities:
We will develop an enhanced discovery tool by adapting linguistically aware processing from MITRE's patent-pending Harmony schema matcher. Next, we will develop a tool to help operational power users extend existing resources and advertise new ones to facilitate discovery. Finally, we will empirically evaluate trade-offs among the many options for implementing more flexible data management and will publish design guidelines.
Impact:
All our customers need substantial improvements in both agility (e.g., ability to respond to new threats) and information sharing. Our research will create tools and techniques that address this need by easing discovery and adaptation of autonomously developed data resources. In addition, we will fill a void in design principles for more flexible data management.
Approved for Public Release: 06-1513
IM-PLUS: Information Management with Privacy, Lineage, Uncertainty, and Security Barbara Blaustein, Principal Investigator Problems:
Net-centric environments bring together vast quantities of information from many sources, but users must understand data lineage (i.e., where the information came from and its derivation) and data uncertainty. Existing research into interactions between lineage and uncertainty cannot be directly used by our sponsors, because it does not address privacy and security concerns endemic to military, intelligence, and law enforcement.
Objectives:
By rigorously analyzing interactions among PLUS requirements and extending lineage to include arbitrary Web information and processing chains, we will develop a coherent, unified model and demonstrate its utility. We believe that systems that gracefully incorporate PLUS properties will be able to exploit shared efficiencies, highlight fundamental trade-offs, and give users a consistent view of essential aspects of the data.
Activities:
Extend prior research to produce a sound, formal model that gracefully handles the interactions among PLUS requirements. Rigorously analyze interactions and trade-offs. Assess applicability of model to differing sponsor requirements by developing a prototype implementation and applying it to sponsor information sharing scenarios
Transition: Influence sponsor information sharing strategies and research community agenda
Impact:
This work will improve user understanding of shared data while simultaneously improving security and privacy protection, increasing data survivability, and deepening MITRE's corporate understanding of fundamental trade-offs among sponsor requirements. Our research will influence academic and industrial research agendas, and our collaborations across MITRE will enable us to develop data strategies for engineering systems with PLUS from the beginning.
Approved for Public Release: 08-0021 Presentation [PDF]
Predictable End-to-End Timeliness in Network Centric Warfare (NCW) Systems Douglas Jensen, Principal Investigator Problems:
NCW systems are subject to combat-induced overloads, network variabilities, and failures, and thus are more dynamic than civilian systems. There are gaps in both theory and technology between the subsecond timeframe for on-line scheduling of traditional real-time computing and the many-hour timeframe for off-line scheduling and planning for traditional logistical and manufacturing applications.
Objectives:
We will create the first-ever solutions to provide formally assured, predictable, end-to-end application-level timeliness under failures and network variabilities, using time/utility function/utility accrual resource management with distributed threads. We will work with DoD sponsors (e.g., the Air Force Research Laboratory [AFRL]) and COTS vendors to demonstrate and transition technology (e.g., to Echelon 4's product for USAF/DARPA's Joint Air-Ground Unified Adaptive Re-planning project).
Activities:
We will team with Virginia Tech to create resource management algorithms that accommodate failures of nodes and network paths, and then prove, simulate, implement, and evaluate the algorithms. Working with MITRE colleagues, we will adapt operations research and other mathematical approaches to the NCW resource management timeframes and work with Echelon 4 to support the transition of our results into its product.
Impact:
We will help NCW systems begin to become more dependable and cost-effective. The Echelon 4 COTS product, incorporating our concepts and techniques, has been selected to be showcased in AFRL's Project Integration Center. We will publish papers in scholarly computer science journals and conference proceedings, and establish a lasting resource management research collaboration with various MITRE colleagues.
Approved for Public Release: 05-1471 Presentation [PDF]
Rapid Agile Integration to Reduce the DA ASAT Threat Suzette Stoutenburg, Principal Investigator Problems:
In previous work, MITRE showed that heterogeneous data sources can be integrated in hours using ontologies. However, the original ontology took nine staff months to build. The purpose of this research is to investigate if we can reduce the time to generate and integrate ontologies, thus bringing the power of semantic integration to our customers sooner.
Objectives:
We will apply university-developed techniques to achieve near real-time integration of heterogeneous data for our sponsors' integration and interoperability challenges. This work will support the 850th ELSG goal of an integrated portfolio by contributing to the enhanced speed and accuracy of response to the DA ASAT threat. We will transition the capability via the Gapfiller JCTD later in the year.
Activities:
MITRE will evaluate and select existing methods for semi-automated ontology generation and integration. We will wrap the best performing capabilities as web services to create a Rapid Agile Integration Demonstration (RAID) system. We will use RAID results with DA ASAT services and measure the improvement in warning and response time. We will transition RAID to support the Gapfiller JCTD.
Impact:
This work will significantly contribute to the ability to detect and assess DA ASAT launches with a SIPRNET-deployed capability that supports rapid systems integration, ensuring protection of key military assets. We will deliver a broadly applicable operational capability (RAID) for rapid, agile semantic integration of multiple heterogeneous data sources in support of USSTRATCOM JSpOC and GOC operations.
Approved for Public Release: 08-0346
Resources for Early and Agile Capability Testing (REACT) Michael Dinsmore, Principal Investigator Problems:
Today, system developers try to anticipate the problems of combining different C2ISR systems in support of new missions. In a net-centric environment, the interactions between systems are complex and difficult to predict from static requirements. This leads to expensive Operational Testing that finds operational failures too late.
Objectives:
REACT seeks to create an affordable first-look capability to test new system combinations in the context of customer Concepts of Operations (CONOPS). This research aims to expose this capability through a simple data model that can be standardized for this type of interaction.
Activities:
We will collaborate with the broader community through conferences and Communities of Interest (COIs) to form a REACT working group. Research will be conducted to find the intersection of key C2ISR systems' data needs, and choose the most critical common data elements by consensus. There will be spiral releases of this simple data model and capability, incorporating working group metrics regarding suitability of component fidelity, common data elements and desired functionality.
Impact:
This research will have impact in many areas, including:
- Innovation in CONOPS : Engage users to see if concept is playing out right ¿ empowered to affect change in the systems being built
- Innovation in Acquisition: Program offices have a readily available test environment to gage user value and technology issues early
- Innovation in Industry: Developers/IR&D researchers can show emerging new technology in context by extending the system
Approved for Public Release: 07-1304
Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) Performance Measures Expression in Performance-Based Service Acquisition (PBSA) Vehicles Diane Hanf, Principal Investigator
Spatio-Temporal Analysis for Rapid Tasking START (II) Craig Bonaceto, Principal Investigator Problems:
Tasking a limited number of UAV-based ISR assets to provide coverage of a number of locations is a critical problem. This problem is complicated by the fact that assets are often re-tasked to handle emerging collection requirements. Existing tools do not adequately support warfighters in responding to new requests, minimizing risk to assets, and maximizing the amount of coverage provided.
Objectives:
Our goal is to develop decision-support concepts and integrated and intuitive visual displays that enable warfighters to effectively plan, monitor, and dynamically replan multi-UAV ISR missions in response to dynamic battlespace needs. Our decision-support techniques leverage humans and intelligent automation in joint planning and problem-solving.
Activities:
We will interview and observe warfighters to capture and model the expertise, decision requirements, information requirements, bottlenecks, and workflows associated with managing multi-UAV ISR missions. Based on these models, we will develop and prototype decision-support concepts that use automation-human interaction techniques and spatio-temporal visualization techniques. We will then evaluate and refine the concepts through experimentation and testing.
Impact:
The next generation of ISR planning systems must make full use of human problem-solving abilities and intelligent automation. By providing spatio-temporal visual displays that integrate required information and interact with intelligent planning automation, our decision-support concepts will enable warfighters in both the CAOC and Predator Operations Center to maximize the effectiveness of UAV-based ISR assets.
Approved for Public Release: 08-0354
Web Mashup and Metadata Scripting Language (WMSL) Marwan Sabbouh, Principal Investigator Problems:
Current Mashup approaches do not effectively deal with structured data and lack the metadata necessary for Net-centricity. As such, the web user is left with the task of developing the mediation software necessary for enabling work flows, in addition to developing the Mashup's shared vocabulary and the metadata needed for Net-Centricity.
Objectives:
Enable the web user to write Mashups using a browser by combining metadata and scripting; demonstrate automated mediation of Web services; transition technology to DoD, academia, and industry
Activities:
Design and prototype JavaScript Libraries; define mappings between XML Schema primitives and that of RDF\OWL; prototype BFT (UCORE); CoT Translator; define Object Type System, Syntax, and Semantics of WMSL
Impact:
The combination of metadata and scripting is novel. Should the development of JavaScript prove successful, we will proceed to formalize specifications of the new paradigm by specifying its object type system, its (programming) semantics, and the grammar needed. We will also submit WMSL for the W3C to be standardized. Furthermore, we expect to impact OASD/NII, USAF 653rd, the UCORE, and DISA.
Approved for Public Release: 08-0088 Presentation [PDF]
Last Updated:05/05/2008 | ^TOP | 
