Voices from DARPA

RACER enables off-road vehicles to travel autonomously and reliably at high speeds over cross-country terrain, enabling new capabilities for our warfighters. Since the DARPA Grand Challenge kicked off more than 20 years ago, the Department of Defense has been very publicly invested in creating the capabilities necessary for ground vehicles to travel autonomously in areas without roads, signs, maps, or even GPS signals. In this episode, we speak with Dr. Stuart Young, who leads the Robotic Autonomy in Complex Environments with Resiliency (RACER) program, which is creating platform agnostic autonomy capable of operating in complex, mission-relevant, off-road environments that are significantly more unpredictable than on-road conditions. We also speak with Dr. Trent Mills, a Colonel in the U.S. Army and special assistant to the DARPA director. Mills shares a warfighter perspective on what the Army has learned from RACER, and how autonomy is being integrated into the way the Army prepares and thinks about future engagements.  Check out videos from earlier experiments to better envision what testing looks like in the field: RACER Experiment 4 – Heavy Platform Highlight Video RACER Experiment 4 – Cockpit view of an autonomous off-road run in TX RACER Experiment 3 – Highlight video In the interview, Young shares: The importance of real-world experimentation and testing How the RACER program has evolved over its time  How performers on RACER have spun out innovative companies to accelerate bringing new capabilities to the warfighter The confluence of technologies that have made off-road autonomy viable What edge case scenarios RACER is still exploring and trying to solve, and what success means for the program 

What do smart bandages, ocean-powered sensors, and quantum biology have in common? They're all part of Dr. Leonard Tender's work at DARPA. On the latest episode of Voices from DARPA, he discusses his fascinating research in the Biological Technologies Office and how these innovations are shaping the future of national security.Bioelectronics for Tissue Regeneration (BETR)BioElectronics to Sense and Treat (BEST)ReSourceBioLogical Undersea Energy (BLUE)

Microelectronics are the foundation of technology today, but what about tomorrow? Ten years from now? Twenty?Real breakthroughs don't come from simply refining what already exists—they come from reimagining what's possible. In this episode, Dr. Whitney Mason, Director of DARPA's Microsystems Technology Office (MTO), takes us inside the research that is pushing microelectronics beyond conventional thinking. She explores the potential of organic circuits to revolutionize computing, not by replacing existing technology, but by opening entirely new frontiers in electronics design. From assessing the potential of quantum computing to novel material innovations that could redefine performance and efficiency, MTO is driving advancements that go far beyond conventional chipmaking.Dr. Mason also shares her perspective on how DARPA's risk-taking culture enables groundbreaking discoveries, and why the speed of innovation is critical to maintaining U.S. technological advantage. She discusses MTO's focus on next-generation manufacturing approaches that integrate best-of-breed materials to achieve disruptive performance leaps. By moving beyond traditional microelectronics and embracing unconventional ideas, MTO is working to create the future of technology—one where microelectronics aren't just smaller and faster, but smarter, more resilient, and capable of things we have yet to fully envision.Show notes and links:Dr. Whitney MasonMicrosystems Technology OfficeVoices from DARPA Episode 42: The Infrared VisionaryVoices from DARPA Episode 72: The Quantum MechanicQBI: Quantum Benchmarking Initiative AMME: Additive Manufacturing of MicrosystEmsNGMM: Next-Generation Microelectronics Manufacturing  Episode 85 posting date: January 31, 2025

U.S. national security depends on an aging IT infrastructure that supports a vast network of systems spanning the globe. Over the past three decades, traditional security practices—like virus scanning, patching software, and intrusion detection systems—have led to a landscape of vulnerable systems. The Department of Defense is no exception, where legacy IT systems and even the most advanced fighter jets and weapons platforms are susceptible to exploitable weaknesses.But this doesn't have to continue being our reality.In this episode of Voices from DARPA, we explore the agency's groundbreaking work on revolutionizing software development. At the forefront of this transformation is the use of formal methods—a powerful, mathematical approach that ensures robust security and guarantees the absence of vulnerabilities in software systems. Join experts from DARPA and its strategic partners as they explore how these cutting-edge tools are reshaping the security landscape and paving the way for a future where vulnerabilities are not just minimized but provably absent—across the U.S. military and beyond.Show Notes·      Current DARPA programs leveraging formal methods: o  AI Quantified (AIQ)o  Assured Autonomyo  Assured Micropatching (AMP)o  Automated Rapid Certification of Software (ARCOS)o  Intrinsic Cognitive Security (ICS)o  Pipelined Reasoning of Verifiers Enabling Robust Systems (PROVERS)o  Provably Weird Network Deployment and Detection (PWND2) o  Safe Documents (SafeDocs)o  Verified Security and Performance Enhancement of Large Legacy Software (V-SPELLS)·      High-Assurance Cyber Military Systems (HACMS) overview, research paper, and Little Bird demo video·      National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Workshop on Secure Building Blocks for Trustworthy Systems (segment at 7:23:49)·      Voices from DARPA Episode 51: The Cybersecurity Sleuth, featuring former DARPA program manager, Dr. Sergey Bratus·      DARPA Forward: Engineering Secure Information Systems video presentation

What characteristics make a person trustworthy? Under what circumstances would a person delegate life or death decisions to artificial intelligence (AI)? Does it matter that AI systems reflect trustworthy humans' decision-making preferences, morals, and ethics? If so, what characteristics are most important?These are some of the fundamental questions DARPA researchers are exploring for the In the Moment (ITM) program, which aims to support the development of algorithms that are trusted to independently make decisions in difficult domains, particularly in significant trauma events such as battlefield triage.DARPA's research has identified the need for fundamentally different approaches to advance AI technology to a place where we're willing to trust it and not be foolish to do so. Continuing themes from our mini-series on ELSI – ethical, legal, and societal implications of new technologies and capabilities – we meet with DARPA's ITM program manager, Dr. Patrick Shafto, and the ITM performers and ELSI advisors, who break down how they're tackling the fundamental question of alignment in the context of human decision-makers and autonomous decision-making tools.In case you missed them, check out our previous ELSI series episodes at the following links:Episode 79: Integrating ELSIEpisode 78: Introducing ELSIOur special thanks to the following ITM performers and advisors for their contributions to this episode (in order of their appearance):·        Alice Leung, RTX BBN·        Joseph Cohn, SoarTech·        Matthew Molineaux, Parallax Advanced Research·        Arslan Basharat, Kitware Inc.·        Jennifer McVay, CACI·        Dave Cotting, Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA)·        Sarah Daly, IDA·        Lauren Diaz, University of Maryland Applied Research Laboratory for Intelligence and Security (ARLIS)·        Ellie Tyler, ARLIS

Accomplishing DARPA's mission of creating and preventing strategic surprise is as much a business challenge as it is a technology challenge.In this episode, team members from DARPA's Contracts Management Office – Office Director Effie Fragogiannis and Deputy Director Catherine Stevens, along with Special Assistant to the DARPA Director, Scott Ulrey – explore what it takes to innovate contracting processes and mechanisms to enable the development of breakthrough technologies at the speed of relevance.From DARPA's pioneering work with Other Transactions, to fast-pitch proposals, to the exploration of previously unrealized authorities, hear how the agency is breaking down the barriers of government contracting, providing companies a clearer path to the national security mission.Links:Acquisition Innovation Collaborative Disruption at DoD – Kathleen Hicks – American Dynamism SummitAcquisition Innovation: From Other Transactions to Fast-Pitch ProposalsOffice of the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Other Transactions GuideDARPAConnect

In this episode, Dr. Jean-Paul Chretien and Elissa Rupley from our Biological Technologies Office provide an exciting update from the recent DARPA Triage Challenge (DTC) workshop at the Guardian Centers in Perry, GA.  The DARPA Triage Challenge, or DTC, aims to drive breakthrough innovations in identification of “signatures” of injury that will help medical responders perform scalable, timely, and accurate triage. Of particular interest are mass casualty incidents, in both civilian and military settings, when medical resources are limited relative to the need. We also hear from Alix Donnelly, from the U.S. Army's Telemedicine & Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC) and some of the participating DTC Team Members on their experience thus far in the competition. There are still opportunities to get involved – listen to learn more!Links:DARPA Triage ChallengeDr. Jean-Paul Chretien bioDTC Workshop 1 highlight video DTC YouTube Playlist

In this episode, Dr. Vishnu Sundaresan from our Defense Sciences Office highlights several technology programs designed to precisely control chemical processes to enable distributed, small-batch manufacturing of chemical products while retaining efficiencies of large-scale industrial production. Colloquially calling this portfolio “decentralized chemistry for everything,” the concept aims to shift the paradigm from a few centralized production facilities producing medicines in large batches and requiring a costly purification process, to direct manufacturing of pure pharmaceuticals via desktop printer-sized machines that would create — at the push of a button — doses of a variety of medicines whenever and wherever needed. Such a revolutionary capability — if successful — would circumvent brittle international chemical supply chains and would serve military members deployed in remote locations as well as benefit rural civilian communities.Sundaresan describes programs aiming to achieve elements of this vision: Spin-COntrolled chemical Process Engineering (SCOPE), Recycling at the Point of Disposal (RPOD), and Establishing Qualification Processes for Agile Pharmaceutical Manufacturing (EQUIP-A-Pharma).Listen to Sundaresan describe his journey to becoming a DARPA program manager, the fascinating world of controlling electron spins, and the ethical, legal, and societal challenges of preparing the market for such revolutionary tech.

In this episode, we'll be taking a deeper dive into ELSI – ethical, legal, and societal implications of new technologies and capabilities – and specific examples of how DARPA programs have incorporated those considerations into their structure. We're highlighting three examples of how DARPA integrated ELSI throughout the program lifecycle via the counsel of experts from the medical, scientific, legal, and ethics communities to assist program managers and performers in identifying and mitigating any potential issues. The first program, out of our Biological Technologies Office, is Safe Genes, which supported force protection and military health and readiness by developing tools and methodologies to control, counter, and even reverse the effects of genome editing—including gene drives—in biological systems across scales. The second program, Urban Reconnaissance through Supervised Autonomy (URSA) from our Tactical Technology Office (TTO) aimed to enable improved techniques for rapidly discriminating hostile intent and filtering out threats in complex urban environments. And, finally, the current In the Moment program in our Information Innovation Office (I2O) seeks to identify key attributes underlying trusted human decision-making in dynamic settings and computationally representing those attributes, to generate a quantitative alignment framework for a trusted human decision-maker and an algorithm. YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYSbEnamSDA  iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/voices-from-darpa/id1163190520 Show notes and links: DARPA currently is seeking applicants for the 2025 ELSI Visiting Scholar. The deadline to apply is June 3, 2024.Voices from DARPA Episode 78: Introducing ELSI : https://blubrry.com/voices_from_darpa/132452728/episode-78-introducing-elsi/  ELSI History: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK231976/  [quoted in Roberts, 1989]. Highlighted Programs: In the Moment (ITM): https://www.darpa.mil/program/in-the-moment  Urban Reconnaissance through Supervised Autonomy (URSA): https://www.darpa.mil/program/urban-reconnaissance-through-supervised-autonomy   Safe Genes: https://www.darpa.mil/program/safe-genes   Safe Genes Publications:   Interdisciplinary development of a standardized introduction to gene drives for lay audiences  https://bmcmedresmethodol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12874-020-01146-0  A typology of community and stakeholder engagement based on documented examples in the field of novel vector control https://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article?id=10.1371/journal.pntd.0007863#:~:text=The%20typology%20names%20three%20types,and%203)%20engagement%20to%20involve.  Codes https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/crispr.2020.0096 https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abd1908 

As a global leader in innovation, DARPA starts an average of 50 new programs each year. These programs span a variety of technical disciplines to develop breakthrough technologies for national security, all of which have the potential to raise ethical, legal, and societal implication – or, ELSI – considerations.Taking time to consider ELSI's role in a program can contribute to the responsible development of emerging technologies by guiding innovation, maximizing the potential application space, and facilitating dialogue with future end-users, and the public, to ensure diverse perspectives and implications are considered. It can improve research by fostering conversations that identify unknowns, anticipate consequences, and make design decisions to maximize benefits and opportunities and minimize risks and harms.In this episode of Voices from DARPA, we'll hear from DARPA Director, Dr. Stefanie Tompkins, to explain the agency's perspective on those implications, as well as Dr. Bart Russell, deputy director of the Defense Sciences Office, on what it would mean to incorporate ELSI across the agency more formally. Finally, Dr. Rebecca Crootof, DARPA's inaugural ELSI Visiting Scholar, will discuss her journey to the agency and her approach to developing a process to ensure that ELSI can inform — and even improve —DARPA programs.That sounds like a lot of responsibility, influence, and potential impact – for some, maybe, too good to be true?Ethical, Legal, and Societal Implications of Emerging Technologies at DARPA DARPA currently is seeking applicants for the 2025 ELSI Visiting Scholar. The deadline to apply is June 3, 2024.Origin of the term ELSI: Three decades of ethical, legal, and social implications research: Looking back to chart a path forwardThe piece references a class from Dr. Oona A. Hathaway

Good ideas can come from anywhere, but what is the best way to find them, or help them find you?  In 2022, DARPA hit the road in pursuit of the answer. Comprising six regional events, DARPA Forward took the agency across the country to engage untapped talent and strengthen the nationwide innovation ecosystem. The event series offered a powerful lesson in breaking down barriers of entry in pursuit of national security breakthroughs.  To sustain this momentum, DARPA launched DARPAConnect, an initiative that aims to further broaden the agency's reach and foster greater collaboration with underrepresented, diverse, and nontraditional institutions new to the national security space.  In this episode of Voices from DARPA, we're taking a deep dive on DARPAConnect, talking with several of those involved in the initiative to get a sense of how it all works. We'll explore its goals, its offerings, and what success looks like at DARPA, home to some of the biggest – and riskiest – bets on U.S. technological innovation.  DARPAConnect website: https://www.darpaconnect.us/home  

In this episode we hear from quantum physicist Dr. Mukund Vengalattore, a program manager in DARPA's Defense Sciences Office, who oversees a portfolio of fundamental research programs aimed at unlocking new quantum insights and overcoming challenges to enable revolutionary capabilities for defense. These include harnessing atoms and superconducting structures for novel sensing applications (imagine tiny, super-sensitive antennas, infrared detectors or gyroscopes that vastly outperform much larger antennas, IR cameras, and gyroscopes of today); developing better quantum bits (qubits) for quantum computing (including using photons to encode information in novel ways); enabling field-deployable, tactical-grade mobile atomic clocks for our troops; and discovering new quantum materials for applications ranging from quantum computing to biomedical imaging. We're also joined by Dr. Mikhail Lukin, professor of physics at Harvard University, who led a team on Vengalattore's Optimization with Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum devices (ONISQ) program that made a major quantum breakthrough published in Nature recently. Lukin's team exploited characteristics of Rydberg neutral atoms tocreate logical qubits and used them to demonstrate the first-ever quantum circuit, a key step to advancing novel quantum computing architectures (Vengalattore provides a primer on the Rydberg atomic state). You'll also hear about “optical tweezers” – which use laser beams that can be controlled to precisely grab and move around individual qubits without destroying their quantumness — and how they helped enable the breakthrough. To read more about the ONISQ logical qubit breakthrough visit: https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2023-12-06 Normally, we'd recommend you jump right into the episode, but this time, a primer may be helpful. We suggest starting with our recent Quantum Mechanic episode before you take a deep technical dive to the subatomic level for a fascinating window on the vast frontiers of quantum exploration… and potential applications in the real world. 

We usually think of materials based on our experience in the natural world. For example, something that's light is usually fragile (like a feather) or something heavy is usually strong (like a brick). But what if we could engineer a material that had completely new characteristics that defied properties found in nature? Engineered materials, also known as metamaterials, allow us to do just that. DARPA Program Manager Dr. Rohith Chandrasekar in DARPA's Defense Sciences Office has led programs designing metamaterials that revolutionize how light interacts with matter. His programs are enabling new concepts for improving Warfighter effectiveness and health on the battlefield with new optics and materials. In this episode, Dr. Chandrasekar discusses several of these programs including Enhanced Night Vision in Eyeglass Form (ENVision), which has developed metamaterials to replace heavy and bulky binocular-like night-vision goggles lenses with lightweight lenses providing more infrared information and near eyesight field of view, in a form factor like a pair of glasses. He also discusses his Coded Visibility program, which focused on developing novel obscurants (aka smoke) used on the battlefield to provide friendly forces with visibility of the environment, while simultaneously hiding them from detection by an adversary. The catch, however, is that the smoke particles needed to be safe to breathe and potentially even tunable using active sources. Finally, he talks about the Accelerating discovery of Tunable Optical Materials (ATOM) program. This effort seeks to identify new materials whose properties could be rapidly changed to enable different functions. Imagine a massive telephoto camera on the sideline of a sporting event replaced with a planar imaging system that could zoom, or a thin filter that can rapidly collect critical data across infrared bands for spectroscopy, all with no moving parts. Sounds like magic, but it's not! Enjoy listening to DARPA's Metamaterial Visionary.

Established in 2006, the Young Faculty Award (YFA) program aims to identify and engage rising academics in early-career research positions - particularly those without prior DARPA funding - and expose them to Department of Defense (DOD) needs and DARPA's mission to create and prevent technological surprise. The YFA program provides high-impact funding toresearchers at U.S. institutions early in their careers to advance innovative research enabling transformative DOD capabilities. The long-term goal of the YFA program is to build a pipeline for the next generation of academic scientists, engineers, and mathematicians who will focus a significant portion of their career on DOD and national security issues.In this episode you'll hear from Dr. Rohith Chandrasekar, who oversees DARPA's YFA program, as well as from DARPA Program Managers Dr. Chris Bettinger and Dr. Sunil Bhave, who reflect on their experience as YFA awardees early in their academic careers and the opportunities it has afforded them.DARPA recently published the 2024 YFA Research Announcement that features almost two dozen new technical topics and an additional open topic covering six thrust areas specific to DARPA's Defense Sciences Office (DSO). To view the full 2024 YFA Research Announcement visit SAM.gov: https://sam.gov/opp/f2bf469a50e7433fa758f0125831754b/view or Grants.gov: https://www.grants.gov/search-results-detail/350899. Executive summaries, which are encouraged, are due by Dec. 13, 2023, 4:00 p.m. ET. Full proposals are due Feb. 22, 2024, 4 p.m. ET.

Ahead of the AI Cyber Challenge (AIxCC) Open Track registration period, which begins later this year, this episode of Voices from DARPA features Perri Adams, DARPA's program manager for the competition. Over the next two years, AIxCC will challenge teams to develop AI-driven systems to automatically find and correctly fix the critical code that underpins daily life. Adams shares the backstory for the AIxCC, discusses who she wants to compete (and why), and what's at stake for cybersecurity.  Adams is joined by AIxCC collaborators from the Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF), a project of the Linux Foundation, and OpenAI. OpenSSF's general manager Omkhar Arasratnam and OpenAI's head of security Matt Knight discuss their roles in the challenge and impart advice to potential competitors. For information on how to register to compete in the AI Cyber Challenge, visit AICyberChallenge.com.

Supply chain disruptions stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, among other issues, shined a bright light on the global reliance on microchips. The nationwide recognition underscored the need to strengthen the domestic microelectronics industry, including on-shore fabrication and next-generation research, development, and capabilities.Back in 2017, already recognizing that the microelectronics demand trajectory was straining both commercial and defense developments, DARPA launched the Electronics Resurgence Initiative (ERI) to address an increasing reliance on advanced electronics, exploding complexity of microsystems, offshore movement of advanced capabilities, and the emergence of hardware security threats. In 2022, the agency kicked off ERI 2.0, expanding the original effort to include reinvention of domestic microelectronics manufacturing.DARPA's 2023 ERI Summit, held Aug. 22-24, in Seattle, brought together more than 1,300 participants converged to discuss the challenges on the horizon. The conference spanned three jam-packed days of presentations, workshops, panel discussions, and networking.In this episode of Voices from DARPA, we've pulled from the more than 10 hours of presentations from leading voices across government, industry, and academia for a primer on the Summit's prevailing theme: what it means to redefine the future of microelectronics manufacturing.For a deeper dive on ERI 2.0 and the ERI Summit, visit:ERI Summit playlist – DARPAtv on YouTubeDARPA's Microsystems Technology OfficeElectronics Resurgence Initiative 2.0ERI Summit

In popular culture, quantum is a descriptive term often added to various technical topics and projects to make them sound cool. But what is quantum mechanics, really, and how do we know whether quantum technologies will transform computing, communications, sensing, and a host of other fields? To find answers, join us for a new episode of the Voices from DARPA podcast series, where we hear from Dr. Joe Altepeter, a quantum physicist in DARPA's Defense Sciences Office. Altepeter helps clarify what for most of us is a complicated subject, providing a basic understanding of quantum and describing his two DARPA programs focused on quantum computing. The first program, called Quantum Benchmarking, aims to estimate the long-term utility of quantum computers by creating new benchmarks, or yardsticks, that quantitatively measure how useful a quantum computer would be at solving problems we care about. The second related program, Underexplored Systems for Utility-Scale Quantum Computing (US2QC), seeks to determine if an underexplored approach to quantum computing is capable of achieving utility-scale operation (i.e., its computational value exceeds its cost) much faster than conventional predictions.Buckle up and tune in for a fast-paced tutorial from DARPA's quantum mechanic!·  Dr. Joe Altepeter·  Quantum Benchmarking·  Underexplored Systems for Utility-Scale Quantum Computing (US2QC)

There are many ideas in the world, but truly good ones are few and far between – especially when it comes to breakthrough technologies that can change the course of history. Surfacing these types of ideas calls for a constant infusion of fresh perspectives and imagination.That's why DARPA created the DARPA Innovation Fellowship, a two-year position for early career scientists and engineers. Fellows push the limits of existing technology by exploring new ideas for answering high-risk, high-reward “what if?” questions in the realm of national security.In this episode of the Voices from DARPA podcast series, we hear from Dr. Jinendra Ranka, director of DARPA's Defense Sciences Office (DSO) – which oversees the Innovation Fellowship Program – about how the program offers unique opportunities for Fellows to make connections, demonstrate what's possible and take risks. We also speak with four Fellows from the program's first cohort – Dr. Rebecca Chmiel, Lieutenant Krishnan (Krish) Rajagopalan, Dr. Allegra A. Beal Cohen and Dr. Alex Place – for their perspectives on what it takes to develop high-impact, exploratory technology efforts for the Department of Defense.Current DARPA Innovation FellowsAdvanced Research Concepts

Generative artificial intelligence has captured the world's attention after recent advances in the commercial sector. Its ability to create deepfakes, or highly realistic multimedia, has turned a once highly specialized skill into something as easy as clicking a button. As a result, the threat of manipulated media –audio, images, video, and text – has increased while social media provides a ripe environment for viral content sharing. Though, not all media manipulations have the same real-world impact. In this episode of Voices from DARPA, Dr. Wil Corvey, program manager for DARPA's Semantic Forensics (SemaFor), discusses how the program goes beyond detection to delve deeper into understanding the intent behind manipulated media and how their team is creating tools available for today's analysts. They are joined by SemaFor researchers Arslan Basharat, assistant director of Computer Vision at Kitware Inc. and Luisa Verdoliva, professor at the University of Naples in Italy.

Imagine you are going to space. There is a long list of items and supplies you definitely will need, but there is an even longer list of things you might need, depending on how your mission progresses. This includes known unknowns like fuel for unplanned maneuvering, replacement parts or tools, and a wide range of other products that could be useful, but may not be utilized. The current paradigm is to pack everything you might possibly need, but this approach is complex and logistically burdensome.  Imagine instead that you pack only fermentation equipment, feedstocks, and a freezer full of microbes that each convert the feedstock into a different useful molecule, material, or product so you have everything you might need and can produce it on demand.  Or what if you could enable a new paradigm where future space structures – that are much too large to launch on a rocket – are built off-Earth using materials and designs optimized for the space environment?This Voices from DARPA episode features discussions with Dr. Andy Detor, program manager in DARPA's Defense Sciences Office, as well as Dr. Anne Cheever, program manager in the Biological Technologies Office. Detor runs the Novel Orbital Moon Manufacturing, Materials, and Mass Efficient Design, or NOM4D program. Cheever heads up the Biomanufacturing: Survival, Utility, and Reliability beyond Earth, or B-SURE, program. While neither program is conducting manufacturing in space, both are supporting proof of concept studies to determine whether it might be feasible in the future.

This episode of the Voices from DARPA podcast series explores the possibility of an “energy web” that, much like the World Wide Web easily and quickly spreads information, could instantly distribute energy from remote, currently untapped sources. DARPA Program Manager Col Paul Calhoun describes his bold POWER program, aimed at leveraging power beaming for near-instantaneous energy transport through a multi-path network. The project team plans to demonstrate long-distance wireless power transmission that can power an aircraft. Such a system might also one day readily distribute abundant, far-flung wave or solar generated power to places in need. “If we can get to a world where we are no longer tying energy production to carbon…it allows us to unlock production without some of the negative impacts,” says Calhoun.

At a time when the race to create the best artificial intelligence-enabled technology is at its fiercest, experts at DARPA say we need to recalibrate the direction of research in the field.Within DARPA's Information Innovation Office, one of the research thrusts focuses on proficient artificial intelligence (AI), which the office defines as how to build AI-enabled systems that we could trust with our lives and not be foolish to do so.This episode of Voices from DARPA features an excerpt from a recent presentation by Dr. Kathleen Fisher, the director of the Information Innovation Office, which is leading DARPA's initiative to explore future directions of AI for national security, called AI Forward.Dr. Fisher delves into the topic of trustworthy AI for adversarial environments and what it will take to create technology that is more than a tool, but rather function as a true partner.To access the full presentation, visit our YouTube page. DARPA will also accept applications for its AI Forward Workshops through March 20, 2023. To learn how you can apply, visit: https://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/ai-forward

If it seems like microchips have been a consistent conversation topic lately, it's for good reason. Supply chain disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and other factors created a new level of awareness about microelectronics. However, the research and development that advance these increasingly powerful technologies goes back decades, with DARPA teaming up to play a key part.This episode of Voices from DARPA examines the journey and impact of one collaborative effort that DARPA's been part of since the late 1990s. The latest program iteration, the Joint University Microelectronics Program 2.0 (JUMP 2.0), recently kicked off with an expanded mission.This episode features Dr. Dev Palmer, a longtime program participant now overseeing DARPA's JUMP 2.0 efforts as the deputy director of DARPA's Microsystems Technology Office; Dr. Adam Knapp, the JUMP 2.0 program manager at longtime partner institution the Semiconductor Research Corporation; and Dr. Tajana Simunic Rosing, a program performer who has been involved in every iteration of what is now JUMP 2.0.All three of these experts bring rich, diverse perspectives to an effort that is critical to the future – and that serves as a bedrock for broader initiatives to strengthen U.S. leadership in microelectronics. as they share in this episode, all three are focused on success via ambitious collaboration.Find out even more about JUMP 2.0 and DARPA's broader Electronics Resurgence Initiative (ERI) – and be part of the dialogue – this summer at the ERI Summit.

For this episode of the Voices from DARPA podcast, we will be hearing from CDR Jean-Paul Chretien about the newly-launched DARPA Triage Challenge. Previous DARPA challenges have contributed to the self-driving car evolution, responsive space launch, and robotics for disaster response and recovery, and we expect equally transformational results from this one.The DARPA Triage Challenge will use a series of challenge events to spur development of novel physiological features for medical triage. The effort aims to drive breakthrough innovations in identification of “signatures” of injury that will help medical responders perform scalable, timely, and accurate triage. Of particular interest are mass casualty incidents, in both civilian and military settings, when medical resources are limited relative to the need.YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrezJNTj90A iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/voices-from-darpa/id1163190520

In this episode of the Voices from DARPA podcast, we talk with DARPA program manager Dr. Joshua Elliott, and Dr. Graham Lederer, research geologist at the U.S. Geological Survey about a recent DARPA competition geared at automating elements of the U.S. Geological Survey's critical mineral assessment workflow.  The experts discuss the motivations behind the competition, plans for next steps on implementing the resulting solutions, and the potential artificial intelligence tools can have on the U.S. supply chain. Members from the first place teams from each of the sub-challenges also discuss their winning solutions.

For this episode of the Voices from DARPA podcast, we talk with new DARPA program manager, Dr. Alvaro Velasquez, a self-described “researcher at heart.” His current research interests are at the intersection of formal language theory and machine learning for sequential decision-making.Velasquez discusses his path to DARPA and how it serendipitously led him to inheriting management of a new AI program called Assured Neuro Symbolic Learning and Reasoning (ANSR). He also describes his idea for his next project, which will look at neuro symbolic knowledge transfer to accelerate the adoption of machine learning outcomes within modeling and simulation for military systems.YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-vK1WAJ0x8iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/voices-from-darpa/id1163190520     

DARPA's Manta Ray program seeks to demonstrate innovative technologies allowing payload-capable autonomous unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) to operate on long-duration, long-range missions in ocean environments without the need for on-site human logistics support or maintenance. Such UUVs would offer the potential for persistent operations in forward environments, allowing host vessels increased freedom of operational flexibility while providing traditional servicing ports with relief of workload. They could also enhance our understanding of the oceans. In this podcast, we talk with Manta Ray Program Manager Kyle Woerner and Sandia National Laboratory engineer Kelley Ruehl who is advising on energy harvesting aspects of the program.

For this episode of the Voices from DARPA podcast, we spoke with Dr. Joeanna Arthur who joined DARPA in August 2022 as a program manager, or PM, in the Biological Technologies Office. Her research interests include operational neuroscience, human performance optimization and predictive analytics, leveraging advances in cognitive and behavioral science.We asked Dr. Arthur to provide her perspective as a new PM, what sparked her interest in the field of neuroscience, and what she hopes to accomplish in her limited tenure.

For this episode of the Voices from DARPA podcast, we sat down with DARPA Director, Dr. Stefanie Tompkins, to discuss the agency's upcoming DARPA Forward regional event series. Held on leading research and development campuses throughout the United States and open to all, these conferences will connect DARPA leaders with new communities of talent and partnerships.We also speak with Dr. Max Shulaker from MIT, who had an early-career opportunity to join the DARPA innovation ecosystem, and Lucia White, graduate student at the University of Wisconsin and member of the US Space Force, who will participate in DARPA Forward as a 2022 DARPA Riser.For more information, visit forward.darpa.mil

In this episode of the Voices from DARPA podcast, we explore the portfolio of cryptography expert, privacy advocate, and DARPA program manager, Dr. Joshua Baron. Baron details the possibilities – and potential pitfalls – of technologies such as zero knowledge proofs and blockchains. He also provides a sneak peek into new research that will preserve one's privacy by rapidly making complex computations on a mobile device.“I'm most interested in the national security community's relationship with the world,” said Baron. “When I talk about privacy issues, what we address [at DARPA] certainly impacts the Department of Defense community but also the larger American and even global communities.”

In this episode of the Voices from DARPA podcast, we will discuss DARPA's Influence Campaign Awareness and Sensemaking (INCAS) program. Adversaries exploit misinformation and true information through compelling narratives propagated on social media and online content. INCAS seeks new tools to help analysts quickly identify geopolitical influence campaigns amidst today's noisy information environment and find better ways to determine the impacts of such propaganda.You'll hear from leaders of teams working on aspects of the INCAS program – from identifying narratives using lessons from the entertainment industry to exploring how different people react to the same messages – in addition to INCAS Program Manager Brian Kettler. As Kettler says: “Propaganda is not new, but the speed and scale of it is new. The information ecosystem is rapidly evolving. Our adversaries are getting better all the time.”

Did you know that there's more energy in the packaging of an MRE than what's in the food? In this episode of the Voices from DARPA podcast, we're discussing “The Future of Food: Meals from Microbes.”First, we will hear from Dr. Molly Jahn, program manager for the Cornucopia program, which seeks to enable food production on-demand and on-site.Next, we'll speak with Dr. Blake Bextine, who manages the ReSource program, and Dr. Stephen Techtmann from Michigan Technological University, who serves as a program performer on their unique approaches to this daunting problem. That program aims to turn military waste – including plastics - into oils, lubricants, and food.iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/voices-from-darpa/id1163190520Resources:FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO. 2021. The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2021. Transforming food systems for food security, improved nutrition and affordable healthy diets for all. Rome, https://cdn.who.int/media/docs/default-source/nutritionlibrary/publications/state-food-security-nutrition-2021-en.pdf?sfvrsn=84e0ae0c_12&download=true

In this episode, we'll hear from some of the key stakeholders - including Drs. Al Emondi and Dustin J. Tyler - related to the DARPA Hand Proprioception and Touch program, or HAPTIX for short. The goal of HAPTIX, which is part of DARPA's extensive neurotechnology portfolio, is to create and transition clinically relevant technology in support of wounded warriors suffering from single or multiple limb loss. We discuss the program's impact, not only on from a scientific perspective, but more importantly, from a human one. We'll also learn about various regulatory aspects of the work; ethical, legal and societal implications; and what's next in the field of prosthetics.

In this episode of the Voices from DARPA podcast, we'll explore a new program with the goal of better identifying and predicting sudden and catastrophic climate change tipping points. Such events could cause major and abrupt disruption to both weather and life on our planet. DARPA's AI-assisted Climate Tipping-point Modeling (ACTM) program aims to advance artificial intelligence and machine learning to model complex processes that affect Earth's climate, looking for signs of it going disastrously awry. You'll hear from the program manager and people working on aspects of the problem, as well as learn about one especially troubling possibility – the slowing, or even entire collapse, of the Atlantic Ocean's circulating current. “DARPA's job is to help the United States avoid strategic surprise,” says ACTM program manager Joshua Elliott, “and in my mind there's no bigger risk or strategic surprise than a sudden and massive and irreversible change in some of the key Earth systems that we rely on for survival.”

In this episode of the Voices from DARPA podcast, listeners will hear a “best hits” medley from program managers (PMs), who since 2016 have chronicled in the podcast their joy, sense of accomplishment, scientific stimulation, privilege to influence entire fields of research and development, sense of mission as they further the cause of national defense and security, fun, and, in short, the overall awesomeness of their jobs. Every program manager arrives at DARPA with an expiration date on their badges. It's a short-term deal that constantly brings in new blood and is routinely cited as part of DARPA's “special sauce.” Those who become PMs know their jobs likely will end three to five years after they start. Yet so many of them say there is no better job and that they wouldn't have it any other way. Their collective message is that being a DARPA PM can be a dream job for just about any scientist or engineer, whether they are only beginning to rev up their careers; already making a name for their themselves in an academic, start-up, industry, or government setting; or in search of a second-career to apply the experience and wisdom they have accrued over previous decades of work. At the end of the podcast, DARPA director and former program manager Stefanie Tompkins encapsulates the collective message of the many DARPA voices in this episode: “The program manager is the center of DARPA. The PMs, each and every one of them, has a chance to change the world.”

In this episode of the Voices from DARPA podcast, listeners will learn about an emerging component of DARPA's institutional culture for delivering technologies that strengthen the nation and redefine what is possible. Called the Embedded Entrepreneurship Initiative (EEI), this effort is designed to help creative scientists and engineers usher their new high-technology visions all of the way to real in-field, hold-in-your-hand, useful-in-the-world technologies. The mission of EEI, now entering its second year following a pilot phase, is to provide early-stage technology-development teams with veteran innovators who bring with them the proven business savvy it takes to make it through the proverbial Valley of Death. That's when anything from insufficient funding, missed deadlines, unexpected supply-chain issues, intellectual property disputes, market fluctuations, a federal policy change, or any number of other hazards can kill off even the best of technology ideas. Listeners will hear from Kacy Gerst, DARPA's Chief of Commercial Strategy; Scott Cunningham, a Senior Commercialization Advisor with In-Q-Tel-Emerge, a technology-acceleration organization that is partnering with DARPA to make EEI work; and Jeff Conroy, CEO of Embody, an emerging biotechnology company that credits EEI with accelerating its success in launching what is now its first FDA-approved biomedical technology for improving ligament and tendon repair, a common need for athletes and military personnel. Gerst is happy to note that EEI already is working with more than 50 entrepreneurial teams and she expects the initiative to ramp up over the next few years to a portfolio of 150 such teams. 

In this episode of the Voices from DARPA podcast, Sergey Bratus, a program manager since 2018 in the agency's Information Innovation Office, shares his educational and professional journey, beginning in the late 1970s as a computer-smitten middle-schooler in the former Soviet Union and leading to his current and prominent role among those who aim to render the increasingly prevalent and perilous software, hardware, and networks in our lives much safer to use. His fascination with computer security emerged in the 1990s as a mathematics graduate student when a computer he was programming and responsible for at Northeastern University in Boston was taken over by a hacker. “I probably owe whoever did that a beer,” Bratus tells listeners. Why? Because it set him on his life's mission to learn as much as he can about the vulnerabilities of software and hardware with the goal of learning how to best minimize or eliminate those vulnerabilities. Noting his embrace of the hacker community for its deep and innovative expertise in this context, Bratus tells podcast listeners about how the programs he oversees at DARPA could help reduce or entirely remove even some of the most stealthy and unexpected vulnerabilities that reside in software and its logical, computational, and mathematical foundations. 

In this episode of the Voices from DARPA podcast, Gordon Keeler, a program manager since 2017 in the agency's Microsystems Technology Office, takes listeners on a scenic tour of his efforts to integrate electrons and photons in ways that do more computing, more sensing, more decision-making, and more artificial intelligence in cheaper, smaller, lighter, and more energy-efficient packages than has been possible previously. His work is a showcase of what technology insiders refer to as SWaP-C, which stands for Size, Weight and Power, and Cost. Innovations that shrink one or all of those aspects of a technology can be far more important to realizing practical, affordable technologies and capabilities than the invention itself. As Keeler explains how these and other technology drivers unfold in the half-dozen electronic, photonic, and optoelectronic programs he oversees, he also reveals what inspired him to give up the stable and secure job he held for 14 years before arriving at DARPA. “I had no doubt really in my mind, DARPA clearly was the pinnacle of doing really innovative scientific research and development and leading the community to go do new things,” Keeler tells listeners. “I wanted to make an impact and DARPA was clearly a way to do that."

This episode of the Voices from DARPA podcast takes listeners on a tour of an audacious, decade-long project to merge biology and engineering into one of the most powerful engines of molecular invention the world has known. Although plenty of work remains to be done, the program, Living Foundries, is winding down to a close. But not before its community of research performers and collaborators already has delivered a new and versatile biotechnology platform whose consequences have begun to ripple out. New companies. Follow-on investments. Chemical- and materials-based technologies for the Department of Defense … and perhaps one day for the public at large. Featured in the podcast are reflections form three of the program managers who have been stewards of the program, two research performers who helped make real the vision of Living Foundries, and even the sound of one potential Living Foundries product doing what it does best.

  In this episode of the Voices from DARPA podcast, John-Francis Mergen, a program manager since 2020 in the agency's Information Innovation Office, recounts how his interest in science took off as a child when he received a gift of a low-power magnifier from a family friend who was a geologist. From that gift, Mergen says, he learned about the power of observation and of the mindset one brings into that elemental component of the scientific enterprise. For his part, Mergen has spent a lot of time observing the complex ebbs and flows of data packets, which are mobile portions of information that race every which way through the internet and then get reassembled on your computer into a web page, a picture, or an email message. One of the first DARPA programs Mergen started to run last year aims to optimize the efficiency of packet traffic and management based on dynamic prioritization of information categories, such as text, voice or images, while preserving privacy and confidentiality for the sender and recipient of those packets. Another program Mergen runs is anticipating emerging threats associated with the exploding population of internet-connected-devices—the Internet-of-Things (IoT)—with an eye on security-enhancing communications protocols. Mergen has skin in the game: he says he has several hundred devices (including an internet-connected beehive!) at home that are connected to the Internet. One of his newest programs, if successful, will deliver technology that applies artificial intelligence to manage IoT devices so that they automatically and securely configure themselves, in his words, “in a way that is useful but not in a way that can be used” by adversaries, criminals, and others seeking to do harm. In a program just getting underway, Mergen envisions vehicles, manufacturing tools, and other technologies with a kind of self-awareness, which would be based on the many sensors, actuation devices, and computers in their designs, along with the ability to leverage this gadget-based self-awareness into automatic adjustments of operations. The payoff? Mergen says it could lead to more capable and longer-lasting technologies that could bring out their own best in changing circumstances. One possibility is that already-deployed technologies would “discover” capabilities they have in specific situations that not even their designers had in mind.  

  In this episode of the Voices from DARPA podcast, Tristan McClure-Begley, a program manager since 2017 in the agency's Biological Technologies Office, recounts how he knew he wanted to be a biologist at the age of 7. That, thanks to an engineer dad, a psychologist mom, and a catalytic high-school teacher, all of whom ignited Tristan's curiosity. Now Tristan is a program manager overseeing an ambitious portfolio of programs that is expanding the boundaries of battlefield medicine as well as neurocognitive science and practice. One of his programs is laying ground work for molecular tissue-stabilization interventions to help severely injured warfighters survive long enough to receive the medical treatment that can save them. In another program he is overseeing, researchers are investigating how peripheral nerve stimulation can improve cognitive tasks such as learning a new language. Two other programs could redefine what is possible in pharmaceutical science and practice. One of these is opening pathways to so-called polypharmaceutical treatments in which a single therapeutic agent intervenes in multiple cellular or physiological targets associated with a disease. The current paradigm centers on developing drugs that interact with a single disease-relevant target. Another of Tristan's ambitious programs is devoted to warfighters who are suffering from post-traumatic stress and other psychiatric challenges. Researchers working on this project are diving into the clinical successes of hallucinogenic substances, such as LSD and psilocybin, with an eye on identifying new agents that can deliver therapeutic value but without the hallucinogenic effects, which are not suitable for many patients. Says Tristan, “I pretty much want to learn everything about everything.” That's how you get a DARPA program portfolio like his.  

  Voices from DARPA podcast, Alexander (Xander) Walan, a program manager since 2017 in the agency's Tactical Technology Office, pegs the source of his lifelong fascination with aircraft and flight to the Chicago Air and Water Shows his dad took him and his four siblings to when they were children. At DARPA, he has applied that interest, his training in aeronautical engineering, a 22-year career in the Air Force overseeing some 70 technology-development programs, and an MBA to his oversight of programs featuring DARPA's signature audacity. One program that Xander inherited from a previous program manager proved it was possible to fly and navigate massive aircraft in the stratosphere as potential supplements to satellites by exploiting differing wind conditions at differing altitudes.Test flights of the huge balloons at the center of the program triggered reports of UFOs. Another one of his programs took steps toward aircraft capable of vertical take-off and landing (VTOL), like a helicopter or drone, but at unprecedented speeds of hundreds of miles per hour. No X-plane prototype came out of that effort, but pathways forward and dead-ends to avoid did. Xander's current primary project, known as the Control of Revolutionary Aircraft with Novel Effectors (CRANE) program, is investigating ways of controlling how air flows over aircraft surfaces to open engineering pathways toward planes that can be steered without the need for moveable surfaces. One more thing: Xander recently got the green light for a small initiative to pursue, in his words, “battlefield personal mobility,” which could lead to small, quiet paragliders or helicopters as well as a type of aeronautic equipment long emblematic of the future: jet packs. Says Xander, “there's some technology that's now emerging that might make that more practical.” https://www.darpa.mil/about-us/podcast  

In this episode of the Voices form DARPA podcast, listeners get a status report on DARPA's ambitious and expansive Electronics Resurgence Initiative (ERI) and learn about the many touchpoints that DARPA and the microelectronics sector have shared over the past half-century. Also in the podcast is a preview of a follow-on effort, ERI 2.0, which is designed to accelerate the transition of foundational research and development into prototyping, manufacturing, and delivery of next-generation microelectronics technologies.

Go into a science or engineering laboratory. Close your eyes. And listen. Welcome to our third Sounds of Innovation episode, an intermittent feature of our Voices from DARPA podcast. Rather than hearing the voices of program managers, which is normally what you get in a Voices from DARPA podcast, in each Sounds of Innovation episode, you hear some of the soundscapes of research and development, and you learn just a little bit about the world-changing capabilities those sounds could lead to. See if you can guess how the sounds were produced before our podcast host reveals their origin. One hint for the first set of soundscapes is that they have nothing to do with big drops of rain hitting a tin roof. Here’s a lead regarding the second soundscape: you might want to be sitting when the host reveals the extreme-tech that produced the sound. For the third set of sounds, let’s just say that if you were a mosquito – and we are not saying you are – the sounds definitely would not be music to your ears.

  Voices from DARPA podcast, Scott Wierzbanowski, a program manager since 2016 in the agency’s Tactical Technology Office, recounts how he came of age in a family of test pilots and then embraced the mission of fostering technologies for amplifying the capabilities of airmen, their aircraft, and other defense assets in the sky. Recorded in March 2021, a month before the end of his tour of duty at DARPA, Wierzbanowski, a retired Air Force test pilot, opens windows in the podcast on a lofty and ambitious portfolio of programs that reach even to space. One program delivered hard-won lessons on what it will take to engineer and build an unmanned reusable vehicle that can ferry payloads to low earth orbit with the ease and agility of an aircraft. Another program furthered the ability of human pilots to seamlessly team with automated and robotic systems to achieve complex mission needs with more dexterity than could either team member alone. Two of Wierzbanowski’s programs have been taking steps toward aerial capabilities in which a host aircraft and its crew work, in one case, with multiple sensor-bearing, unmanned, aerial scouts that depart from and return to the mother ship, and in another case, with unmanned weapons-bearing aerial vehicles that can project force in forward positions while enabling expensive and exquisite defense aircraft and their crews to remain out of harm’s way. When he sums up his vision, Wierzbanowski says it’s all about “distributed air operations” in which “UAVs are the ones going into high threat areas and manned aircraft are the ones that are overseeing the complicated air battle.”  

  In this episode of the Voices from DARPA podcast, Whitney Mason, a program manager since 2017 in the agency’s Microsystems Technology Office, explains how she became smitten with the science and technology of imaging. Even as a child, Mason was curious about the world, wondering about everything, she says, from why the sky is blue to what makes concrete hard. But what ended up inspiring her most and cementing in her professional trajectory was the fantastic ways that animals see, including the ability to see in the night using infrared light. “A soldier needs to see at night,” Mason says. “Or see through dust. Or find homemade explosives. Or find things really far away. Or track things.” That list of warfighters’ sensory needs explains a lot about the bold portfolio of projects Mason oversees at DARPA. She is out to provide warfighters with some of the smartest, most discerning, most versatile imaging sensors ever devised. As she explains in the podcast, this will require designing into the sensors brain-like functions of identifying what really requires attention in a complex scene of mostly benign features, preprocessing huge amounts of data the ways eyes do before sending information brainward via the optic nerves, and purging raw sensor data of extraneous portions that can be confusing to both people and computers. One of her programs, which aims to shrink otherwise unwieldly infrared imaging systems into much smaller and lighter packages, challenges materials researchers with a task equivalent to reforming a brittle ceramic dinner plate into the shape of cup. That’s just a taste of the tough problems her projects' research teams are working on. Challenging as her job might be, Mason seems to be just where she wants to be. “I have had very fun jobs,” Mason says, “but this is the funnest.”  

  In this episode of the Voices from DARPA podcast, Bruce Draper, a program manager since 2019 in the agency’s Information Innovation Office, explains how his fascination with the ways people reason, think, and believe what they believe steered him into a lifelong embrace of computer science and artificial intelligence (AI) research. At DARPA, Draper—who says he welcomes working at a place where an academic scientist like himself can influence the direction of entire fields of research—oversees a portfolio of programs that collectively are about making artificial intelligence learn faster, less prone to mistakes and flawed inferences, and less vulnerable to misuse and deception. One of his programs aims to imbue computers with nonverbal communication abilities so that AIs collaborating with people can integrate a human being’s facial and gestural cues with written and oral ones. Another program seeks to make machine-learning algorithms into quicker studies that require simpler data sets to learn how to identify objects, actions, and other categories of phenomena. Two of Draper’s programs fall into the category of “adversarial AI,” in which, for example, those with ill intent might try to deceive an AI with “poisoned data” that could lead to inappropriate inferences and actions. Yet another program, a new one, aims to develop AIs that can serve as competent guides for people in the midst of tasks, say, fixing the brakes on a military aircraft or preparing tiramisu for a dinner party. “It’s sort of the do-it-yourself revolution on steroids,” says Draper. AI holds exciting possibilities, he adds, but it will take close attention to privacy concerns, built-in biases, and other hidden perils for AI to become the technology we want it to be for us all.  

Welcome to Sounds of Innovation, an intermittent feature of our Voices from DARPA podcast. Rather than hearing the voices of program managers, which is normally what you get in a Voices from DARPA podcast, in each Sounds of Innovation episode, you will hear some of the soundscapes of research and development … and learn just a little bit about the world-changing capabilities those sounds could lead to. See if you can guess how the sounds were produced before our podcast host reveals their origin.            

  In this episode of the Voices from DARPA podcast, Seth Cohen, a program manager since 2019 in the agency’s Biological Technologies Office, takes listeners on a scientific journey that began with childhood fossil-hunting forays with his biology-teacher dad and is unfolding now in his oversight of three ambitious programs that center on some of humanity’s most pressing needs. Two of these take on the relentlessly evolving public-health threats that viral and bacterial pathogens pose. Another program is immersed in the challenge of the increasing scarcity of potable water. If Seth has it his way, these programs will deliver 1) a new strategy for fighting viral infections; 2) a powerful anti-bacterial framework that will recruit our bodies’ home-made, protective molecular means to stave off the emerging public-health catastrophe of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections; and 3) technologies for extracting water from the atmosphere in regions where water is scarce. Seth also shares his government-service experiences by which he has come to know the value of science policy in moving society toward badly-needed solutions. He finishes his story with a pitch to graduate students and others in the innovation ecosystems to embrace exciting and consequential roles in the government R&D landscape that they might not know about, including ones at DARPA. Says Seth in support of that advice, “DARPA has been…one of the best places I could ever imagine working.” When he is not uncovering new marvels of cellular chemistry or opening pathways to new technologies, Seth, a fan and amateur historian of muscle cars, just might be seen tooling around in his 1963 Corvette Stingray convertible.  

In this episode of the Voices from DARPA podcast, John Waterston, a program manager since 2017 in the agency’s Strategic Technology Office, lets listeners in on his oceanic immersions both as a naval officer and a technology developer. Now a commander in the U.S. Naval Reserve, John offers snapshots of living, working, and serving on our nation’s nuclear submarines before describing his current work at DARPA to develop technologies to better understand, monitor, and navigate the planet’s most prevalent environment—the oceans. In one of his ambitious programs, John seeks to deliver what has been a coveted but elusive capability—the equivalent of GPS that operates even in the deep ocean. In a related program, John explains how very low-frequency (VLF) electromagnetic signals from lightning that occurs relentlessly around the world can become a key to a back-up positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) system in case our must-have GPS goes down. And in perhaps his most audacious program, the Ocean of Things, he is assembling what amounts to an ocean-scale nervous systems comprising tens of thousands of floating sensors, opening pathways to an unprecedentedly fine-grained understanding of what is happening in vast ocean environments. Says John about the ocean, “it’s so immense, covering 70% of the Earth’s surface, yet even with all of the ships, all of the aircraft, all of the satellites, and all of the existing sensors, we are severely undersampling this environment.” He has made it his mission to fill in that data shortfall, which he says could significantly improve weather forecasting for the benefit of both military and civilian sectors.

  Welcome to Sounds of Innovation, a new intermittent feature of our Voices from DARPA podcast. Rather than hearing the voices of program managers, which is normally what you get in a Voices from DARPA podcast, in each Sounds of Innovation episode, you will hear some of the soundscapes of research and development…and learn just a little bit about what new world-changing capabilities those sounds could lead to.