Analytics for Data at Massive Scales

DARPA published its Young Faculty Award (YFA) 2018 Research Announcement today, seeking proposals in 26 different topic areas—the largest number of YFA research areas ever solicited.

The Synergistic Discovery and Design (SD2) program aims to develop data-driven methods to accelerate scientific discovery and robust design in domains that lack complete models. Engineers regularly use high-fidelity simulations to create robust designs in complex domains such as aeronautics, automobiles, and integrated circuits. In contrast, robust design remains elusive in domains such as synthetic biology, neuro-computation, and polymer chemistry due to the lack of high-fidelity models. SD2 seeks to develop tools to enable robust design despite the lack of complete scientific models.

Dr. Jennifer Roberts joined DARPA as a program manager in 2015, and in 2019 assumed the additional position of Acting Deputy Director of the Information Innovation Office (I2O). In her Acting Deputy Director role, Roberts works with I2O program managers in the development of programs, technologies, and capabilities to ensure information advantage for the U.S. and its allies, and coordinates this work across the Department of Defense and U.S. government. With respect to her program manager role, Roberts' principal research interests include scalable analytics and machine learning algorithms that yield insights to human users across multiple military missions and applications.