Research and Development - Micro Analysis and Design, Inc

Cognitive and Computer Science Research and Development

MA&D is leading the Collaborative Technology Alliance to study Advanced Decision Architectures for the Army Research Laboratory. The partners of this Alliance include:

ArtisTech, Inc.
Carnegie-Mellon University
Institute for Human and Machine Cognition/U. of W. Florida
Klein Associates
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Micro Analysis & Design, Inc.
New Mexico State University
Ohio State University
SA Technologies, Inc.
SAIC
The University of Central Florida
The University of Maryland

The overall goal of the Advanced Decision Architectures program is to place advanced information technologies into Army field use to provide decision makers with the right information in the right form at the right time to maximize situation awareness and, ultimately, to make the best decisions possible. The four technical areas where research will be performed include:

1.) Cognitive Process Modeling and Measurement
2.) Analytical Tools for Collaborative Planning and Execution
3.) User Adaptable Interfaces
4.) Auto-Adaptive Information Presentation

A detailed description of the overall Army Research Laboratory Collaborative Alliances Program, which includes other research programs in advanced sensors; communications and networks; robotics; and power and networks, can be found at http://www.arl.army.mil/main/researchopportunities/alliances/index.cfm The Advanced Decision Architectures basic research program is scheduled to run until 2009 with a total budget, including options, of approximately $56M. Along with the Basic Research cooperative agreement comes a Technology Transition contract with a separate $60M ceiling.

The Micro Analysis and Design team views this program as a great opportunity to bring the worlds of cognitive engineering, computer science, human factors, and artificial intelligence together. By combining the research and technology from these disciplines, the team hopes to revolutionize the environments where soldiers make decisions that determine success or failure on the battlefield. For more information on this program, please visit www.arlada.info.