What’s in a name? At DARPA, reflecting enduring mission, future focus.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has renamed two of its technical offices. The Information Innovation Office (I2O) is once again the Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO), and the Microsystems Technology Office (MTO) is now the Multi X Office (MXO). The MXO moniker signals the expansion of the office’s remit from individual components to integrated capabilities; IPTO recalls a period when DARPA initiated studies of the core principles of computing and communication, as well as catalyzed the infrastructure of the modern digital world, and acknowledges the importance of sharpening that focus today. | Explore the shift in the latest Voices from DARPA podcast

Multi X Office: Seizing the high ground in the machine

The shift from MTO to MXO reflects an evolution that has been underway for years. As the office expanded beyond traditional microsystems to address increasingly complex national security challenges, it became clear that a broader, more integrated, and multidisciplinary approach was needed. Today, MXO’s mission is to disrupt across scale and function to dominate militarily and economically. The office drives innovation from materials discovery at the atomic and molecular scale to the development of novel components, tools, and processes that can reshape future battlefields and help catalyze the economies of the future. The name change signals a strategic shift from advancing individual technologies to shaping the architectures and capabilities that connect and operationalize them.

“Future advantage will depend on more than advancing individual technologies in isolation: a more integrated, multidisciplinary approach is necessary,” said Whitney Mason, director of MXO. “While our scope has expanded, at our core we remain the office of tiny things with huge impact. The ‘X’ in our name is a multiplier across scale, discipline, and operational effect. We are investing in foundational and often unconventional science and engineering to create disruptive new capabilities.”

To learn more about MXO’s priorities and how to contribute to its mission, please visit www.darpa.mil/mxo and/or the new MXO officewide broad agency announcement on SAM.gov. For the latest news and opportunities, be sure you sign up for the new MXO Forward Dispatch newsletter. 

Information Processing Techniques Office: Honoring a legacy, focusing the mission

IPTO returns to the office’s previous name, under which it catalyzed some of the most profound technological breakthroughs in DARPA’s nearly 70-year history. The office will remain true to its information innovation remit, while building the future of artificial intelligence as well as inherent cybersecurity and privacy with new capabilities in the understanding and resilience of complex systems and other information processing techniques. IPTO will advance analysis of complex megasystems – such as supply chains, power grids, and more – to anticipate and mitigate risks to these systems and help make them more resilient for mission-critical functions.

“The IPTO name reflects our focus on the first principles of computational power and resiliency that will be required to invent the next forward-looking breakthrough technologies for national security,” said Patrick Lincoln, director of the Information Processing Techniques Office. “In an era of rapid AI advancement and sophisticated information competition, the fundamental techniques of information processing are more critical than ever. We’re building on the legacy of the original IPTO to solve the defining challenges of the future.”

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