Research 
Situational Awareness Lab: R&D Moving Into High Gear
ATIC is starting-up their R&D program and seeking research opportunities that take advantage of the unique capabilities of the Situation Awareness Laboratory (SAL). Hosting a full complement of tools for processing, exploitation, and dissemination; seven areas define the R&D target for SAL:
- Single sensor algorithm development (artifact removal, target localization, etc.)
- Data processing and information retrieval algorithms
- Data visualization
- Multi-sensor data fusion
- Knowledge formulation
- Knowledge transfer
- Situational awareness
Building upon the research lab’s architectural capabilities, the arena of cyber security, particularly cyber intelligence and cyber warfare, is an additional area of R&D that SAL is poised to pursue.
As a test-bed to insert new single-INT, multi-INT, and fusion tools; SAL offers an environment where it is possible to directly assess the impact of new capabilities on live data. It also provides a means of assessing the interoperability and harmonization among a broad set of Intelligence tools and systems. Director, Dr. John O’Hair reports, “Interoperability testing is a standing DoD requirement for any system procured by the U.S., and is, of itself a service ATIC intends to provide. Improving the overall situational awareness of commanders and decision makers, SAL provides a means of advancing the overall efficacy of Intelligence without necessarily requiring new collectors or new means of analyzing the data from existing or new collection systems.”
How do we shape people into better analysts? As a testing environment for hardware, software, and data links; SAL also provides a test-bed for people. By first learning what makes a better analyst, ATIC can then turn around and create that analyst through training and education from “the ground up.”