Military decision making takes place in a variety of complex domains (defense, security, cyber, etc.). Artificial Intelligence not only allows for data reduction and synthesis, but also for the development of predictions about future events, and about outcomes to considered interventions. However, due to the often uncertain circumstances and ill-defined problems, AI cannot yet do this autonomously. In this proposed effort, IFT and its academic partner, University of Nevada, Reno, seek to develop technical underpinnings and methodologies for enhancing and modernizing autonomous/automated decision making in multi-domain.

December 7 – 9, 2021, IFT presented a paper “Cyber Resilience Integrated Security Inspection System (CRISIS) against False Data Injection Attacks” at the Emerging Techniques Forum (ETF)

The Emerging Techniques Forum (ETF) is driven to improve analysis and understanding throughout the defense community by seeking out novel and leading-edge approaches, methods, and techniques – wherever they are conceived. By sharing and incorporating the latest (and in-progress) developments across government, academia, private industry, and enthusiasts, the ETF aims to support and maintain relevant, timely, and early comprehension of lessons learned that may grow to have an outsized impact on the community at large.

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November 15, 2021 –  IFT received an Air Force STTR Phase III contract “MultiModal Sensing, Domain Adaption, and Transfer Learning”

There is a need for advances in multimodal sensing and processing that require novel techniques over big data concepts of variety, volume, velocity, veracity, and value. The project thus is to extend basic research in contemporary areas that supports the AF vision of multimodal Artificial intelligence/machine Leaming (AI/ML) and sensing autonomy for real time operational support.

November 8-9, IFT attended the Fall 2021 BWAC Semi-annual Meeting at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina

The Broadband Wireless Access and Applications Center (BWAC) aims to advance wireless technologies and provide cost-effective and practical solutions for next-generation communications system (5G and beyond) through novel broadband technologies. BWAC’s mission is to collaborate with industry research partners to create flexible, efficient, and secure wireless systems that satisfy broadband communication needs by pursuing large-scale research programs and creating new visions for the wireless industry.

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October 28, 2021 –  IFT presented “Methods for NDN based data transfer in multi-path networking environments” at The Named Data Networking Community Meeting 2021 hosted by NIST

NDNComm is an annual event that brings together a large community of researchers from academia, industry, and government, as well as users and other parties interested in the development of the Named Data Networking (NDN) technology. NDN is an architectural realization of the broad Information Centric Networking (ICN) vision that enables communications by named, secured data at the network layer. By aligning the network service with application needs, NDN offers many advantages, including stronger security and trustworthiness, enhanced network usability, as well as scalability and resiliency in network communication. In particular, NDN is especially suitable for emerging applications environments that include mobile edge computing, Internet of Things (IoT), and Low Latency Applications such as interactive AR/VR.

October 26-27, 2021 – IFT attended and sponsored the Ohio State University 2021 Post-Doc & Ph.D Industry Recruitment Event

September 27-30,2021 – IFT presented two papers at the 26th Ka and Broadband Communications Conference and the 38th International Communications Satellite Systems Conference (ICSSC)

The 26th Ka and Broadband Communications Conference and the 38th International Communications Satellite Systems Conference (ICSSC), the two most influential technical conferences on satellite systems. The papers were “Communication Waveform Performance Predication in Partial Band Partial Time RF Environment” and “Intelligent Dynamic Network Traffic Management for Global Network Access Terminal”.

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September 1, 2021 – IFT became a member of National Advanced Mobility Consortium (NAMC)

The National Advanced Mobility Consortium (NAMC) is a nation-wide alliance of traditional and nontraditional small businesses, large defense contractors, academic institutions, and other research organizations involved with the translational research and development of the complete range of prototype, ground vehicle and robotics systems and technologies. NAMC’s mission is to provide the Government with ready, quality access to the broadest population of U.S. ground vehicle system (GVS), sub-system, and component technology developers and providers in a competitive environment; to work in partnership with the Government to implement and refine business processes and tools to streamline individual project contract administration; and to expedite the innovation, development, and production of new GVS capabilities for U.S. warfighters.

August 23, 2021 – IFT is the co-author of published a paper “Effective Range Assessment of Lidar Imaging Systems for Autonomous Vehicles Under Adverse Weather Conditions with Stationary Vehicles” online in ASME J. Risk Uncertainty Part B

Light detection and ranging (lidar) imaging systems are being increasingly used in autonomous vehicles. However, the final technology implementation is still undetermined as major automotive manufacturers are only starting to select providers for data collection units that can be introduced in commercial vehicles. Currently, testing for autonomous vehicles is mostly performed in sunny environments. Experiments conducted in good weather cannot provide information regarding performance quality under extreme conditions such as fog, rain, and snow. Under extreme conditions, many instances of false detection may arise because of the backscattered intensity, thereby reducing the reliability of the sensor. In this work, lidar sensors were tested in adverse weather to understand how extreme weather affects data collection.

August 2-13, 2021 – IFT attended The Robotic Combat Vehicle (RCV) Sustainment Cohort in Detroit Arsenal, Warren, MI and Fort Hood, Killeen, Texas

The Robotic Combat Vehicle (RCV) Sustainment Cohort just finished week 1 at the Detroit Arsenal in Warren, Mich. going deep on what the Army needs to keep these machines functional under the toughest conditions. AAL’s SPARTN program brought these problem solvers together with problem owners less than 30 days after they were selected. Talk about the speed of business! SPARTN makes Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) more business friendly with easier applications, faster contracting, and quicker payments.

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July 28, 2021, IFT received an Army SBIR Phase I Contract “DEPAD: Deep Evaluation Prognostic and Diagnostic with Probabilistic Knowledge Graphic (KG) Analytics for Robotic Combat Vehicles (RCV)”

Modern Robotic Combat Vehicles (RCV) are designed with an ever-increasing level of automation and advanced machinery, including state-of-the-art sensors that monitor vital engines and auxiliary system functions. According to a recent study, 80% of crash accidents and 42% of malfunctions are caused primarily by human errors, including maintenance and inspection. It is therefore critical to develop better maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) processes in order to improve quality, cost, and efficiency. Today’s MRO and in-service support (ISS) functions are facing challenges on several fronts, from slow turnaround time and poor data integrity to aging systems and outdated manual processes. Meanwhile, the growing MRO market is expected to exert a major impact on the cost of future RCV maintenance. To address these challenges, new technologies with potent capabilities are needed to help make faster and more informed decisions for proactive maintenance and to avoid potentially catastrophic failure.

July 19, 2021 – IFT published “Targeted adversarial discriminative domain adaptation” in the SPIE Digital Library

Domain adaptation is a technology enabling aided target recognition and other algorithms for environments and targets with data or labeled data that is scarce. Recent advances in unsupervised domain adaptation have demonstrated excellent performance but only when the domain shift is relatively small. We proposed targeted adversarial discriminative domain adaptation (T-ADDA), a semi-supervised domain adaptation method that extends the ADDA framework. By providing at least one labeled target image per class, used as a cue to guide the adaption, T-ADDA significantly boosts the performance of ADDA and is applicable to the challenging scenario in which the sets of targets in the source and target domains are not the same.

July 8, 2021 – IFT as a co-author a paper “Gaussian-Binary classification for resident space object maneuver detection” is now available online and will be published in Acta Astronautica

The capability accurately and timely detect a resident space object (RSO) maneuver is a critical task for monitoring space activities. This paper presents a data-driven Gaussian Binary RSO Maneuver Detection (GaBRSOMD) method to detect whether or not there is a maneuver between two tracks of the same RSO on different orbital paths. Using an in-house simulated space catalog environment, the Gaussian Binary Classification (GBC) method is used to detect three types of maneuvers: the maneuver is due to a small impulsive velocity change; a low thrust, and the maneuver is due to either an impulsive or a low thrust which is unknown a priori.

June 24-25, 2021, IFT attended Broadband Wireless Access and Applications Center (BWAC) meeting

The Broadband Wireless Access and Applications Center (BWAC) aims to advance wireless technologies and provide cost-effective and practical solutions for next-generation communications system (5G and beyond) through novel broadband technologies. BWAC’s mission is to collaborate with industry research partners to create flexible, efficient, and secure wireless systems that satisfy broadband communication needs by pursuing large-scale research programs and creating new visions for the wireless industry.

June 22, 2021 – IFT presented DDABI: a Social Media Analytics Tool With Data Driven Activity Based Intelligence” at the 2021 Human Systems, Biomedical, and Biotechnology IR&D Technology Interchange Meetings.

The objective of this event is to leverage Defense Innovation Marketplace “to increase awareness, stimulate collaboration, and seek alignment between Industry’s game-changing, revolutionary innovations in research and development (R&D) projects and DoD’s high priority technology needs and activity areas.

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May 21, 2021 – IFT received a Navy STTR Phase I contract “KG-KISS: Knowledge and Information Sharing System with Knowledge Graph”

IFT is developing a peer-to-peer approach to systematically curate and distribute new knowledge within an approved IT infrastructure. Knowledge Graph Based Knowledge and Information Sharing System (KG-KISS) is based on state-of-the-art heterogeneous knowledge graph representation and machine learning techniques to link knowledge products derived from natural language understanding and content analytics.

May 7-14, 2021 – IFT as a co-author presented a paper “Enhanced Micro-Doppler Feature Analysis for Drone Detection” at 2021 IEEE Radar Conference (RadarConf21)

As low-cost drones become more accessible, they pose various safety, security, and privacy threats. As such, it becomes increasingly important to detect their presence, locate and track their positions, and classify their types in real time. In this paper, we perform time-frequency analyses of drone Doppler and micro-Doppler signatures to provide enhanced drone detection and feature extraction capabilities. The analyses are based on the combined use of spectrogram and inverse Radon transform (IRT). The paired property of propeller blades associated with a rotor is further utilized to compute the IRT product for enhanced performance. It is demonstrated that the IRT and IRT product images, when expressed in terms of the rotation frequency and blade position phase, provide flexibility and effectiveness for the presentation and estimation of these parameters.

April 30, 2021 – IFT received an AF STTR Phase I contract “Robust Multi-View Target Attitude Determination Using Models, Multi-Cue Fusion and Machine Learning”

IFT will take advantage of state-of-the-art segmentation algorithms, known 3D models of the target, and multiple views of the target in motion to maximize the overlay of the projections of target model on the image planes of viewing cameras and the measured scene images to robustly determine the attitude of the target. We put emphasis on the development of a benchmark data set as well as several benchmark methods for comparison against other state of the art approaches and methods.

April 14, 2021 – IFT received an Air Force SBIR Phase II contract “Hybrid Low-Cost Predistortion Solutions for Next Generation Satellite Transponder Linearization”

IFT has conducted successful research on HPA linearization by using both physical and machine learning predistortion (PD) modeling techniques. Excellent performance was observed in the presence of various jamming signals by using the proposed hybrid PD solution. The proposed physical and machine learning PD models will be further assessed and completed by taking more practical SATCOM conditions into account.

April 14, 2021 – IFT received an Air Force SBIR Phase I contract “RACE: Radar and Communication Integrated Emitter System to Geolocate Space-Based EMI Sources”

IFT will develop methods and system concepts that provide enhanced reference emitters to satellite geolocation units that otherwise are unable to geolocate potential EMI sources at Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and/or Geostationary Orbit (GEO) distances in real time. Our  solution is called “RACE” to geolocate space-based EMI sources.

April 13- 14, 2021 – IFT showcased three profiles at the AFWERX SBIR/STTR Collider Event

AFWERX Collider is intended to promote meaningful conversation between the SBIR/STTR selected applicants and various members of the US Air Force and Department of Defense. Check out our Information-Centric Networking for Intelligent Cooperative Perception of AAV, SmartUAV: A Novel Smart UAV with Emerging Artificial Intelligence on Chip, and MANFID: Multi-Attribution Network Based Fake Imagery Detection.​​​

April 13, 2021 – IFT received an AF STTR Phase I contract “MANFID: Multi-Attribution Network Based Fake Imagery Detection”

Malicious visual media detection service is emerging, and many approaches have been proposed. However it is only in the early stages toward a robust, practical solution. The proposed solution, MANFID, if successful, will provide this emerging need with an effective tool to distinguish GAN generated image from real images.

April 12 – 16, 2021 – IFT attends the SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing digital forum

IFT and collaborators presented 8 papers at the SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing digital forum. IFT served as a co-chair, Program committee member, and session chairs. IFT also spoke about “Real-time KG-based Trend and Sentiment Analysis System (KG-TSA)” during the Invited panel discussion: joint data learning.

April 6, 2021 – IFT received an Air Force SBIR Phase II contract “Named Data Networking (NDN) for Performance Enhancement in Secured Satellite Communication Systems”

IFT will investigate the use of Named Data Networking (NDN) in SATCOM network and Delay (Disruption) Tolerant Networking (DTN) scenarios. A network environment emulation testbed will be developed for realistic emulation of various SATCOM network environments. The use of NDN in several SATCOM networking scenarios of interest will be investigated, which involves the optimization and customization of NDN according to network environments and application needs.

March 26, 2021 – IFT received an Air Force SBIR Phase II contract “A Smart Satellite AGC Loop for Frequency Hopping System with Anti-Jamming Capability”

In satellite communication systems (SATCOM), the received signal may have an unpredictable signal power and variations over a wide dynamic range caused by multi-carrier frequencies and unwanted jamming signals. The proposed smart AGC loop is designed to track the input signals’ quick fluctuating amplitudes generated by frequency hopping spread spectrum, the gain of the AGC could be dynamically adjusted based on the incoming signal to reduce the required dynamic range of the ADC (Analog-to-Digital Converter). Different AGC schemes have been developed and evaluated in the Phase I work, the designed AGC has the fast enough response time to maintain the output signal amplitude ranging even with fast frequency hopping rates.

March 23, 2021 – IFT received an Air Force SBIR Phase I contract “TRIG: Two-stage Rapid Integral Geolocation from Single Satellite for Space-based EMI” 

Interference of satellite communications is a frequent and ongoing concern for both DoD and civilian enterprises. Geolocation of the interfering source is an essential step in mitigating or eliminating the interference and restoring operation of the communications service. This SBIR topic seeks to develop a rapid differencing method of positioning interference signals transmitted over satellites during periods of unavailable adjacent satellites due to frequency, positioning, or lack of reference emitters. We propose a solution called “TRIG” for a single satellite to geolocate adjacent space-based EMI sources.  The TRIG unifies lower resolution and higher resolution geolocation methods.

March 16, 2021 – IFT patent “Satellite communication framework and control method thereof” has been granted

IFT patent “Satellite communication framework and control method thereof” has been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).  This is the 22th IFT granted patent, and 23rd granted patent by an IFT related project.  A satellite communication framework includes a satellite system controller; at least one satellite transponder; and a plurality of remote terminals, each including a modem, a router, and a terminal agent. The terminal agent is configured to, based on a current allowable data rate and measurements of a current router queue size and a current router packet arrival rate, use a delayed uplink resource assignment for each modem and an MCV-based flow-control policy to forecast a future router queue size and a future router packet arrival rate and further update the delayed uplink resource request for a time after an uplink allocation delay. The modem is configured to communicate with the router and also with the satellite system controller through the satellite transponder, perform modulation and demodulation, and manage packet loss and delay according to the future router queue size and the future router packet arrival rate.​

March 6-12, 2021 – IFT and its collaborators attended the 2021 IEEE Aerospace Conference

IFT and its collaborators attended and presented 4 papers at 2021 IEEE Aerospace Conference. IFT served as the co-Session chair of Software Defined Radio and Cognitive Radio Systems and Technology. The international IEEE Aerospace Conference, with AIAA and PHM Society as technical cosponsors, is organized to promote interdisciplinary understanding of aerospace systems, their underlying science and technology, and their applications to government and commercial endeavors.

February 5^th, 2021 – IFT received an Air Force STTR Phase I contract “SmartUAV: A Novel Smart Unmanned Aerial Vehicle with Emerging Artificial Intelligence on Chip”

In this project, we aim to develop and verify a new type of ‘smartUAV’ with emerging artificial intelligence on chip that possesses four prominent properties, i.e. scalability, adaptability, resiliency and autonomous, and can be used for various tactical off-road environments. Due to the complexity of tactical mission as well as uncertainty of practical environment, the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have been seeking innovative and reliable sensing, navigation, path planning and real-time control technique that can be used even in harsh environment such as the GPS-denied environment. With the rapid development of machine learning, an emerging artificial intelligent (AI) on the chip can be a promising technique to fully enable the autonomous UAVs swarming capability in different practical conditions.

January 28, 2021 – IFT received an AF STTR Phase III contract “Joint Sparsity Support Recovery and Joint Manifold Learning Based Distributed Heterogeneous Data Fusion for Object Classification”

In this proposal, we propose to implement and evaluate a distributed heterogenous data fusion approach for improved object detection, classification, and identification (DCI) based on our newly developed joint sparsity support recovery and joint manifold learning approaches. This implementation and evaluation will be conducted on a group of drones as well as a ground station (a laptop PC) to verify the on-device decentralized object classification solution.

January 22, 2021 – IFT received an Army SBIR Phase I contract “Distributed Coded Computing Based Tactical Information Service Platform”

This proposal aims to develop an information service platform, which enables edge devices to efficiently perform distributed computation, information processing, storage, and dissemination in a tactical edge network. The proposed platform exploits a mix of advanced technologies. The proposed platform can be implemented as a middleware package on COTS edge devices.

January 21, 2021 – IFT co-authored paper entitled “Privacy-Preserving Surveillance as an Edge Service based on Lightweight Video Protection Schemes using Face De-Identification and Window Masking”

IFT co-authored paper entitled “Privacy-Preserving Surveillance as an Edge Service based on Lightweight Video Protection Schemes using Face De-Identification and Window Masking” has been published in Electronics as part of the Special Issue 10th Anniversary of Electronics: Recent Advances in Computer Science & Engineering and is available online. With a myriad of edge cameras deployed in urban and suburban areas, many people are seriously concerned about the constant invasion of their privacy. There is a mounting pressure from the public to make the cameras privacy-conscious. This paper proposes a Privacy-preserving Surveillance as an Edge service (PriSE) method with a hybrid architecture comprising a lightweight foreground object scanner and a video protection scheme that operates on edge cameras and fog/cloud-based models to detect privacy attributes like windows, faces, and perpetrators. The Reversible Chaotic Masking (ReCAM) scheme is designed to ensure an end-to-end privacy while the simplified foreground-object detector helps reduce resource consumption by discarding frames containing only background-objects.

January 11, 2021 – IFT presented two papers at the WAAMI 2020 at 25^th International Conference

IFT presented two papers at the WAAMI 2020 at 25^th International Conference on Pattern Recognition, Milan, Italy, 10-15 Jan 2021. IFT contributed two of nine papers for this workshop. Of particular interest to this workshop is analysis of aerial wide area motion imagery (WAMI) that is characterized by very large (few square miles) ground coverage. WAMI enables large scale surveillance and monitoring for extended periods of time, but suffers from unique challenges such as hundreds to thousands of moving objects per frame, small object sizes, parallax, and lower frame rates.

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December 29, 2020 – IFT Patent “MIMO Bolt-On Device, MIMO Channel Emulator, and MIMO Channel Emulator Method” has been granted

IFT patent “MIMO Bolt-On Device, MIMO Channel Emulator, and MIMO Channel Emulator Method” has been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).  This is the 21th IFT granted patent, and 22th granted patent by an IFT related project.  A multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) bolt-on device for a single-input and single-output (SISO) radio, a MIMO channel emulator for testing the MIMO bolt-on device, and a MIMO channel emulation method are provided. The MIMO bolt-on device includes: a plurality of antennas, a multi-channel receiver, a plurality of couplers, a micro-controller, and a switch device. The multi-channel receiver includes a plurality of channels for signal transmission. Each coupler is configured to couple the multi-channel receiver with one of the plurality of antennas. The micro-controller is coupled to the multi-channel receiver to compare signals from the plurality of channels, thereby identifying a channel with a highest signal-to-noise (SNR) among the plurality of channels. The switch device is coupled to the micro-controller and configured to select an antenna corresponding to the channel with the highest SNR among the plurality of antennas for a connection between a selected antenna and the SISO radio.

December 29, 2020 – IFT received an Air Force SBIR Phase II add-on work regarding RF Environment Charting System with Global Network Access Terminal (GNAT) from Space Force

Knowledge of an RF environment is important to many missions for communication and networking performance. The added task is to develop an RF environment charting system supported by GNAT for measuring signal levels in an RF environment over mission areas. As an application and testing of the RF environment charting system, IFT will use the developed system to conduct comprehensive measurements to acquire a knowledge of radio propagation characteristics in the microcellular environments.

December 23, 2020 – IFT received an Army STTR Phase I contract “HyDNN-PDR: A Novel Hybrid Deep Neural Network Based Pedestrian Dead Reckoning Navigation System in Challenging Terrains”

In this contract the modernization of live training requires accurate dismounted soldier trainee position/tracking to enable the convergence of Live, Virtual, and Constructive (LVC) training environments. The position jitter or the random position changes make the training unreliable under the condition of GPS satellite signal attenuation or blockage. In this project, a novel artificial neural network based pedestrian dead reckoning navigation system is proposed to upgrade the real-time navigation information accurately even in a variety of challenging terrains

December 16, 2020 – IFT Attended the IEEE Joint Washington/North Virginia Aerospace and Electronics Chapter Technical Meeting

This seminar was co-sponsored by the IEEE Washington Signal Processing Chapter. Dr. Lin-Nan Lee from Hughes gave a very informative talk regarding Satellite Communication for 5^th Generation Wireless Services. Dr. Lee is a Life Fellow of IEEE, and was recognized with Distinguished Service Award by the Communications Society Satellite and Space Communications Technical Committee (COMSOC SSC-TC) for his contribution in satellite communications.

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December 7- 11, 2020 – IFT attended the AFWERX Accelerate Event and had a virtual booth

The Agility Prime page is a living breathing home for everyone involved or interested in Advanced Air Mobility. Within you will find booths hosted by ORB Builders, Flyers, and Enablers. It is a key enabler to connect and collaborate with firms from each step of the supply chain from raw materials suppliers through aircraft manufacturers to the end users and everyone in between.

December 4, 2020 – IFT received an Army SBIR Phase I contract Intelligent Cloud-Based Hybrid Cellular and Mobile Ad Hoc Networks for Future Live Training”

In this contract. Future live force-on-force training systems will require high-bandwidth, low-latency transfer of information to facilitate advanced simulation capabilities such as real-time direct & indirect fires, interaction with virtual entities (controlled by both live participants and constructive simulations), and streaming of virtual terrain data. To limit the burden on participants and increase realism, live training systems are made as small as possible, limiting the on-board processing capabilities of these systems.

December 3, 2020 – IFT attended the Air Force Simulators Pitch Day during vIITSEC

IFT attended the Air Force Simulators Pitch Day during vIITSEC. National Training and Simulation Association (NTSA) is happy to held a new virtual event called vIITSEC.  IFT’s video briefing regarding mobile hybrid ad-hoc network was presented. IFT was one of 25 small businesses.

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November 20, 2020 – IFT received an Air Force STTR Phase I contract “Information-Centric Networking for Intelligent Cooperative Perception of Air Vehicles”

In this contract  IFT will develop a distributed deep reinforcement learning-based intelligent cooperative perception system (iCOOPER) with information-centric networking, which enables autonomous air vehicles (AAVs) to share sensory information with other AAVs and infrastructure for extending view coverage, removing blind spots, and enhancing object detection accuracy.

November 10, 2020 – As a xTechSBIR Part 1 Winner, IFT was mentioned in the xTechSearch social media

The xTechSearch competition was launched to revolutionize the way the Army attracts and encourages innovation. The xTechSearch competition engages the non-defense business sector and start-up technology companies, with the Army Science and Technology ecosystem to leverage cutting edge technologies.

November 9-10, 2020 – IFT attended the virtual BWAC meeting as an industry partner

The Broadband Wireless Access & Applications Center (BWAC) is a multi-university IUCRC that focuses on addressing fundamental yet industry-relevant research challenges in next-generation wireless systems. The intertwined and multi-faceted nature of such complex systems calls for a diverse range of complementary expertise in antenna design, radio engineering, signal processing, wireless communications, networking, cloud computing, and security, as well as research tools (modeling and simulation, hardware/software prototyping, platform integration and maintenance, and measurements and data curation).  The breath of such a research program necessitates collaboration among multiple research teams and partnering with pioneering private companies and federal agencies in this field. Due to COVID-19, the semiannual BWAC IAB meeting was virtual via Zoom.

November 4-5, 2020 – IFT  sponsored the Postdoc & PhD Industry Recruitment Event at Ohio State University

The Postdoc & PhD Industry Recruitment Event event brings together diverse industries and organizations who are specifically recruiting Postdocs, PhD students and Masters students in STEM fields. A special thanks to Ohio State University for giving IFT the introduction to such a great pool of candidates.  

November 3, 2020 – US Air Force patent “Image compression selection based on interpretability loss estimation” has been granted

US Air Force patent “Image compression selection based on interpretability loss estimation” has been granted by the United State Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). IFT is very happy to work with Air Force Research Lab on this effort. This patent is for the framework for estimating image interpretability degradation associated with image compression is provided. An image compression broker system can determine an image compression setting to achieve an interpretability task in accordance with available communication bandwidth or transmission time objectives. Estimating image interpretability degradation includes detecting edge points of an uncompressed image and determining gradients corresponding to the detected edge points; compressing in accordance with a compression parameter setting the uncompressed image to generate a compressed image and determining gradients corresponding to the edge points in the compressed image; determining from the gradients associated with the edge points gradient ratios; and estimating from the gradient ratios an image interpretability loss of the compressed image.

October 6, 2020 – IFT patent “Method and system for energy efficient wireless communications” has been granted

IFT patent “Method and system for energy efficient wireless communications” has been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).  This is the 20th IFT granted patent, and 21th granted patent by an IFT related project. Energy and spectrum efficiencies are critical factors in wireless communications, especially for the wireless communication between handheld and wearable communication devices that are battery powered. A drained battery can cause sudden shutdown of such devices, thus impacting the connectivity of the entire communication network. Thus, a wireless communication network that achieves efficient energy utilization of single nodes and efficient cooperation between different nodes needs to be realized. The disclosed method and system for energy efficient wireless communications are directed to solving one or more problems set forth above and other problems in the art.

October 6, 2020 -Shouhuai Xu of University of Texas presented at the 2020 virtual IFT Colloquium regarding Cyber Defense

Prof. Shouhuai Xu of University of Texas at San Antonio presented “Towards A Systematic Framework for Agile Cyber Defense Decision-Making with Trustworthiness/Uncertainty Quantification” at the virtual IFT Colloquium. He is a Full Professor in the Department of Computer Science and the founding Director of the Laboratory for Cybersecurity Dynamics (LCD), which is centered at the exciting Cybersecurity Dynamics framework.

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September 24, 2020 – IFT received a Navy SBIR Phase I contract “CARES: Cloud-based Aircraft Readiness Enhancement and Sustainment with Digital Twins”

For aviation systems, digital twin (DT) technology has a potential to improve supply chain integrity, flight safety, in-flight service, foreign object detection, and condition-based maintenance. It helps to create a living model of physical asset for predictive maintenance. IFT proposes to develop an augmented DT model for a Navy aircraft engine that incorporates both data-driven and physics-based modeling approaches. The proposed Cloud-based Aircraft Readiness Enhancement and Sustainment System (CARES) is based on a combination of the data-driven analytics and physics-based modeling.

September 15, 2020 – IFT patent “MIMO bolt-on device, MIMO channel emulator, and MIMO channel emulation method” has been granted

IFT patent “MIMO bolt-on device, MIMO channel emulator, and MIMO channel emulation method” has been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).  This is the 18th IFT granted patent, and 19th granted patent by IFT related project. In this patent a multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) bolt-on device for a single-input and single-output (SISO) radio, a MIMO channel emulator for testing the MIMO bolt-on device, and a MIMO channel emulation method are provided.

September 15-18, 2020 – IFT attended the 21st (and 1st virtual) Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance Technologies (AMOS) Conference

At the AMOS Conference IFT presented a paper “Game Theoretic Synthetic Data Generation for Machine Learning Based Satellite Behavior Detection.” The Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance Technologies (AMOS) Conference is the premier technical conference in the nation devoted to space situational awareness/space domain awareness. The cross section of private sector, government, and academic participation helps foster important dialogue and international collaboration.

September 10, 2020 – IFT received a Navy SBIR Phase I contract “Distributed Cooperative Beamforming Oriented High-Precision Time and Phase Synchronization of RF Sources across Multiple UAS Platforms a Dynamic and GPS Denied Environment”

Small UASs have found many applications within both the defense and commercial sectors. With the increasing use of small UASs, it is desired to equip them with RF sensors/payloads to permit them to work together to form a coherent beam on a target. In order to do this, precise time synchronization among the UASs is essential. Current techniques rely on either the use of GPS or an embedded signal from the target in order to time synchronize multiple UASs. Our overall approach and System-of-Systems (SOS) architecture solution for high-precision and accurate Frequency/Time/Phase (FTP) synchronizations.

August 25, 2020 – IFT became a member of The Naval Aviation Systems Consortium (NASC)

NASC has been formed to support the technology needs of the Naval Air Warfare Centers (NAWCs) and the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) through the use of Other Transaction (OT) Authority. NASC is being built as an agile, collaborative and enduring enterprise with world-class capabilities that will provide the Navy with broad reach, robust competition and a comprehensive range of technology solutions. Through its unique structure, consortium members will be able to work with the Government to identify opportunities, target their technology offerings, expand into new markets and grow their businesses.

August 12, 2020 – IFT and Air Force Research Lab, Space Vehicles Directorate, Geospace Technologies Division (AFRL/RV) signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) to develop the cognitive radio networking and Communication Technology for Space Application

A CRADA is a unique collaboration that enables the transfer and exchange of technology and professional expertise and provides access to extensive government-funded research and development resources. IFT is very excited to begin this new type of collaboration.

August 11, 2020 – IFT patent “Methods and systems for testing satellite signal receiver antenna” has been granted

IFT patent “Methods and systems for testing satellite signal receiver antenna” has been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).  This is the 18th IFT granted patent, and 19th granted patent by IFT related project. The patent generally relates to the field of antenna testing technology, and more particularly, relates to methods and systems for testing satellite signal receiver antenna.

July 17, 2020 – IFT received a Navy STTR Phase I contract “CRISIS: Knowledge Graph Based Cyber Resilience Integrated Security Inspection System”

IFT received a Navy STTR Phase I contract “CRISIS: Knowledge Graph Based Cyber Resilience Integrated Security Inspection System”  The core of the proposal is a cost-effective Cyber Resilience Integrated Security Inspection System (CRISIS) based on the Knowledge Graph (KG) and Deep Learning (DL) framework, which consists of three layers: input layer, knowledge layer, and reasoning layer.

July 6, 2020 – IFT application to the ARCNet Consortium was approved

IFT application to the ARCNet Consortium has been approved. The Autonomy Research Collaboration Network (ARCNet) is a collaborative environment bringing academia, industry, and the Government together to develop autonomous technologies for the warfighter. We are excited to join this consortium and provide the best products for today’s warfighter.

June 9, 2020 – IFT patent “Cone-based multi-layer wide band antenna” has been granted

IFT patent “Cone-based multi-layer wide band antenna” has been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).  This is the 17th IFT granted patent, and 18th granted patent by IFT related project.  The patent is for a cone-based multi-layer wide band antenna is provided, including a cone-based member having a multi-layer structure.

June 9, 2020 –  IFT patent “Method and system for pattern discovery and real-time anomaly detection based on knowledge graph” has been granted

IFT patent “Method and system for pattern discovery and real-time anomaly detection based on knowledge graph” has been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).This is the 16th IFT granted patent, and 17th granted patent by IFT related project. The patent is for a method for pattern discovery and real-time anomaly detection based on knowledge graph.

May 31, 2020 – IFT book chapter “Game Theoretic Training Enabled Deep Learning Solutions for Rapid Discovery of Satellite Behaviors” has been published

IFT book chapter “Game Theoretic Training Enabled Deep Learning Solutions for Rapid Discovery of Satellite Behaviors” has been published in the Open Access book, “Satellite Systems – Design, Modeling, Simulation and Analysis” edited by Dr. Tien Nguyen. The chapter presents a game theoretic training model enabling a deep learning solution for rapid discovery of satellite behaviors from collected sensor data.

May 5-6, 2020 – IFT attended the BWAC Spring 2020 meeting

The Broadband Wireless Access & Applications Center (BWAC) is a multi-university IUCRC that focuses on addressing fundamental yet industry-relevant research challenges in next-generation wireless systems. The intertwined and multi-faceted nature of such complex systems calls for a diverse range of complementary expertise in antenna design, radio engineering, signal processing, wireless communications, networking, cloud computing, and security, as well as research tools (modeling and simulation, hardware/software prototyping, platform integration and maintenance, and measurements and data curation).  The breath of such a research program necessitates collaboration among multiple research teams and partnering with pioneering private companies and federal agencies in this field. Due to COVID-19, the semiannual BWAC IAB meeting was virtual via Zoom.

April 27-30, 2020 – IFT and collaborators attended a virtual meeting and presented 5 papers at SPIE DCS

IFT and collaborators attended a virtual meeting and presented 5 papers at SPIE Defense and Commercial Sensing (DCS). IFT serviced as conference Chair, and session chairs for Sensors and Systems for Space Applications XIII in the SPIE DCS. This conference offers presentations and proceedings papers about research and advancements in sensors, infrared technology, laser systems, spectral imaging, radar, LIDAR, AI/machine learning, and more. It includes experts working on materials, components, systems, and analytics for defense, security, and commercial applications.

April 23, 2020, IFT received a Navy SBIR Phase II contract “Condition-Based Predictive Maintenance for Mission Critical Systems with Probabilistic Knowledge Graph and Deep Learning”

Predictive maintenance applications, such as condition-based maintenance, have huge potential for supporting fleet forces and driving efficiencies. In Phase I IFT developed novel approaches that predict and mitigate the failure of critical parts, target aircraft mission degraders such as foreign object debris and corrosion, automate diagnostics, and plan maintenance based on data and equipment conditions. This work features I-SEER, IFT’s – SErvice Enhanced Recommender, is a data analysis web application for condition-based predictive maintenance (CBPM).

April 17, 2020 – IFT co-authored paper “BlendCAC: A Smart Contract Enabled Decentralized Capability-Based Access Control Mechanism for the IoT” won the 2019 Computers Best Paper Award

“BlendCAC: A Smart Contract Enabled Decentralized Capability-Based Access Control Mechanism for the IoT”  is inspired by the smart contract on top of a blockchain protocol, this paper proposes BlendCAC, which is a decentralized, federated capability-based AC mechanism to enable effective protection for devices, services and information in large-scale IoT systems. A federated capability-based delegation model (FCDM) is introduced to support hierarchical and multi-hop delegation. The mechanism for delegate authorization and revocation is explored.

April 7, 2020 – IFT patent “System and method for space situational awareness demonstration” has been granted

IFT patent “System and method for space situational awareness demonstration” has been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). This is the 15th IFT granted patent, and 16th granted patent by IFT related project. The system includes a space data collector component, for collecting space initialization data of space objects from initialized space sources and pre-processing the space initialization data.

March 25, 2020 – IFT co-author paper with Prof. Wei Li, entitled “Decision-Making Selector (DMS) for Integrating CCA-based Methods to Improve Performance of SSVEP-Based BCIs”

IFT co-author paper with Prof. Wei Li from California State University, entitled “Decision-Making Selector (DMS) for Integrating CCA-based Methods to Improve Performance of SSVEP-Based BCIs”, published in IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering. This paper proposes a novel decision-making selector (DMS) to integrate classification decisions of different frequency recognition methods based on canonical correlation analysis (CCA) which were used in decoding steady state visual evoked potentials (SSVEPs).

March 25, 2020 – IFT was awarded a Navy SBIR Phase II contract entitled  “A Metadata Management and Visualization System for Radio Frequency Activity Modeling and Pattern Recognition”

IFT was awarded a Navy SBIR Phase II contract entitled  “A Metadata Management and Visualization System for Radio Frequency Activity Modeling and Pattern Recognition.” In current Naval Communications Intelligence operations, significant volumes of potentially valuable, “non-analyzable”, intercepted data are discarded. By using an Automated Radio Frequency Activity Modeling and Pattern Recognition (RF-AMPR) system, operators may be able to gain critical insights into RF activities from this discarded data. The main objective of this effort is to develop a workable prototype, for RF activity modeling and pattern recognition to address the challenging problems in the dynamic and dense RF environments.

March 8-14, 2020 – IFT  was an exhibitor at IEEE Aerospace Conference in Big Sky, Montana

IFT and its collaborators presented three papers with an exhibitor at IEEE Aerospace Conference in Big Sky, Montana. Papers presented include Joint Sparsity Aided Joint Manifold Learning for Sensor Fusion, A Smart Hybrid AGC Scheme for Satellite System, and Joint-Sparse Heterogeneous Data Fusion for Target State Estimation with Weak Signals.

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March 5, 2020 – IFT received an AF STTR phase I contract entitled “Skyshield: Detecting and Tracking Multi-sUAS in Real Time”

A multi-layer sUAS radar detecting and tracking system has been developed with hybrid deep learning capability utilizing online signal processing.  Far-field and near-field radar covers both long range and short range UAV targets, and provides the coarse and refining scan of  UAV information. The hybrid deep learning based online signal processing provides accurate and detailed UAV information.

February 1, 2020 – IFT and Frostburg State University (FSU) receive a Maryland Industrial Partnerships award for a project entitled “LIDAR Performance Assessment in Autonomous Vehicles”

Intelligent Fusion Technology, Inc. (IFT) and Jamil Abdo, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Frostburg State University (FSU) received a $90,000 Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS) funding award for a project titled “LIDAR Performance Assessment in Autonomous Vehicles.” Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) sensors are one of the most promising options for automated driving. However, they have their weaknesses, especially in adverse weather conditions. LIDAR is affected by weather conditions such as rain, snow, and fog, due to the diffraction of light in these environments. The performance of LIDARs and their limits need to be investigated, and, possibly, solutions found for these restrictions. This work develops a validation method to perform outdoor tests to examine how rain, fog, and snow affect performances of different LiDARs. The new LIDAR test system will be designed to measure performance enhancements based on measurement objectives, measurement requirements (accuracy, precision, and resolution) and operational requirements (reliability, stability, operation difficulty).

January 22, 2020 – IFT co-authored a paper entitled  “Improve the Classification Efficiency of High-Frequency Phase-Tagged SSVEP by a Recursive Bayesian-based Approach”

IFT co-authored a paper with Prof. Wei Li from California State University, entitled  “Improve the Classification Efficiency of High-Frequency Phase-Tagged SSVEP by a Recursive Bayesian-based Approach” in IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering. Among the Steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP)-based brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), the phase-tagged SSVEP (p-SSVEP) has been proved a reliable paradigm to extend the number of available targets, especially for high-frequency SSVEP-based BCIs. This paper compared three classification approaches and the recursive Bayesian-based approach could obtain the highest classification accuracy and practical bit rate under the same data length.

January 21, 2020 – IFT had a lunch party to celebrate the Chinese New Year

To welcome in the year of the Rat IFT had a karaoke lunch party. We showed off our range of talents and pop culture knowledge with an accompaniment of great food.

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December 24, 2019 – IFT had a Christmas Party

IFT had a luncheon Christmas Party to celebrate a successful year and introduce family and colleagues.  With good food and fun games IFT had a fun and laughter filled afternoon.

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December 18, 2019 – IFT attended the IEEE  Technical meeting regarding” Next-Generation Mobile Networks, 5G & Beyond”

IFT attended IEEE Washington/Northern Virginia Joint Section Chapter, AES 10 Technical meeting regarding” Next-Generation Mobile Networks, 5G & Beyond.” Prof. Hang Liu from CUA was the speaker.

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December 17, 2019 – IFT attended International Leadership Foundation (ILF) Holiday Reception

IFT attended International Leadership Foundation (ILF) Holiday Reception in Rockville, MD. The International Leadership Foundation (ILF) is a non-profit organization that promotes the civic awareness, public service, and economic effectiveness of the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community. IFT is a National adviser, Washington DC advisory board of ILF.

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December 12, 2019 – IFT received an Air Force STTR Phase I award entitled “Machine Learning based Domain Adaptation (MLB-DA) for Multiple Source Classification and Fusion”

IFT received an Air Force STTR Phase I award entitled “Machine Learning based Domain Adaptation (MLB-DA) for Multiple Source Classification and Fusion.”  IFT will develop a deep learning-based multi-source self-correcting approach to fuse data with different modalities at the data-level to maximize their capabilities to detect unanticipated events/targets. The proposed deep neural network approach holds great capability of adapting to changes of the input distribution allowing self-correcting multiple source classification and fusion. It is focused on learning features that combine (i) discriminativeness and (ii) domain-invariance. The classifiers can adapt to the target domain with different distribution without retraining new input data.

December 12, 2019 – IFT received an AF STTR Phase I award entitled “Deep Transfer Learning Across Domains, Modalities and Classes”

The capability of “transferring” learned classifiers from one domain, or set of targets, to classify different targets or the same targets but in different domains is of great interest to the United States Air Force. It is an enabling technology for the USAF to build Aided Target Recognition and other algorithms for environments and targets where the data or labeled data is scarce. In this project, Intelligent Fusion Technologies, Inc. and Rochester Institute of Technology propose a deep transfer learning approach to meet the USAF’s need. The proposed work is built upon the recent discriminative adversarial domain adaptation framework with the addition of one labeled image per target class.

December 11, 2019 – IFT attended the IEEE Washington/Northern Virginia Joint Section Chapter, regarding “Game Theory for Cyber Deception in the Internet of Battlefield Things”

IFT attended the IEEE Washington/Northern Virginia Joint Section Chapter, AES 10 technical meeting regarding “Game Theory for Cyber Deception in the Internet of Battlefield Things.” The Speaker was Dr. Charles A. Kamhoua, who is a researcher at the Network Security Branch of the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) in Adelphi, MD.

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November 21-22, 2019, IFT attended the Fall 2019 BWAC IAB Meeting on the campus of North Carolina State University

October 15-18, 2018 –  IFT attended the 24th Ka and Broadband Communications Conference and the 36th International Communications Satellite Systems Conference (ICSSC), in Niagara Falls, Canada

IFT attended the 24th Ka and Broadband Communications Conference and the 36th International Communications Satellite Systems Conference (ICSSC), in Niagara Falls, Canada. IFT presented a paper “Satellite Broadband Bonding Technology.” Beyond addressing new applications and integration with the future terrestrial networks, the conference technical program and panel discussions covered challenges the industry faces in terms of contention for spectrum, interference and orbital debris management.

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October 10, 2018 – IFT attended the 47th Annual IEEE AIPR 2018, Washington, D.C.

IFT attended the 47th Annual IEEE AIPR 2018, Washington, D.C. IFT presented a poster on “Predicting Interpretability Loss in Thermal IR Imagery due to Compression”at the workshop. The purpose of the Applied Imagery Pattern Recognition (AIPR) annual workshops is to bring together researchers from government, industry, and academia in an elegant setting conducive to technical interchange across a broad range of disciplines.

October 4, 2018 – IFT attended the 2018 ISI Annual Security Awareness Conference at Hyatt Regency Tysons Corner Center, Tysons Corner, VA

IFT attended the 2018 ISI Annual Security Awareness Conference at Hyatt Regency Tysons Corner Center, Tysons Corner, VA. The goal at this Security Conference, is to increase effectiveness in reporting, provide more in-depth focus on Personnel Security (PERSEC), Industrial Security, DSS in Transition (DiT) & Continuing Evaluation, the ins and outs of the new Defense Information System for Security/Joint Verification System (DISS/JVS), and offering recommended Government Briefs.

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October 2, 2018 – IFT patent “Advanced uplink multiple access schemes for satellite control network” has been granted

IFT patent “Advanced uplink multiple access schemes for satellite control network” has been granted. The patent regards a method for uplink multiple accessing based on code division multiple access (CDMA) technology and a related system. This is the ninth approved IFT patent, and Tenth granted patent by IFT projects.

September 24, 2018 –  IFT received an Air Force SBIR Phase II contract for Data Driven Activity based Intelligence with Probabilistic Knowledge Graph

September 14, 2018 – IFT received a subcontract regarding Game Theoretic Engine DRA Controllerfor PTS from L-3 Technology to support their work on Protected Tactical SATCOM (PTS)

IFT received a subcontract regarding Game Theoretic Engine DRA Controller for PTS from L-3 Technology to support their work on Protected Tactical SATCOM (PTS). IFT is one of the members of Space Enterprise Consortium.

September  9-15, 2018 – IFT presented a Poster “A Numerical Solution to Orbital Pursuit-Evasion Games” at AMOS conference in Maui, Hawaii

IFT presented a Poster “A Numerical Solution to Orbital Pursuit-Evasion Games” at AMOS conference in Maui, Hawaii. The Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance Technologies (AMOS) Conference is the premier technical conference in the nation devoted to space surveillance. The cross section of military, contractor, and academic participation in the field of space situational awareness is unmatched by any other conference in the world, as evidenced by the continued growth in attendance, and the corresponding increase in technical excellence and collaboration.

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September 5, 2018 – IFT was featured in the DARPA 60-year edition, Page 130, machine learning

IFT was featured in the DARPA 60-year edition, Page 130, machine learning. For sixty years, DARPA has held to a singular and enduring mission: to make pivotal investments in breakthrough technologies for national security.

August 2, 2018 – IFT paper “A joint manifold leaning-based framework for heterogeneous upstream data fusion” has been published in Journal of Algorithms & Computational Technology

IFT paper “A joint manifold leaning-based framework for heterogeneous upstream data fusion” has been published in Journal of Algorithms & Computational Technology. In this work a joint manifold learning fusion (JMLF) approach is proposed for nonlinear or mixed sensor modalities with large streams of data. The multimodal sensor data are stacked to form joint manifolds, from which the embedded low intrinsic dimensionalities are discovered for moving targets.

July 26, 2018 – IFT received a Navy STTR Phase I contract “Situational Awareness for Mission Critical Ship Systems using Probabilistic Knowledge Graph”

IFT received a Navy STTR Phase I contract “Situational Awareness for Mission Critical Ship Systems using Probabilistic Knowledge Graph.”

July 10-13, 2018 – IFT attended the Information Fusion Conference, Cambridge, UK

IFT attended the Information Fusion Conference, Fusion 2018, at Cambridge, UK. IFT presented a paper “Pattern Discovery and Anomaly Detection via Knowledge Graph.”  This was the 21st international conference on information fusion.

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July 9, 2018 – IFT received an Air Force SBIR Phase I contract “Hybrid Low-Cost Predistortion Solutions for Next Generation Satellite Transponder Linearization”

IFT received an Air Force SBIR Phase I contract “Hybrid Low-Cost Predistortion Solutions for Next Generation Satellite Transponder Linearization.”

July 2, 2018 – IFT received an Army SBIR Phase I contract “Emulated Long Term Evolution (LTE) Analysis Environment”

IFT received an Army SBIR Phase I contract “Emulated Long Term Evolution (LTE) Analysis Environment.”  In this project IFT will develop an emulation system capable of deploying a full Long Term Evolution (LTE) Fifth Generation (5G) architecture, including all subcomponents, utilizing open source software, into self-contained commodity personal computer hardware. IFT will utilize open source shared code components to construct LTE software and standardized interfaces with an emulated physical layer in Extendable Mobile Ad-hoc Network Emulator (EMANE) to provide a low cost capability to rapidly conduct research and experimentation on utilizing LTE for tactical comms and the performance of tactical sensors and other mission command systems under varying scenario configurations and conditions.

June 21, 2018 – IFT received a Phase I option for RF & EO/IR Mixed Sensor System for Human Target Detection and Geolocation

IFT received a Phase I option for RF & EO/IR Mixed Sensor System for Human Target Detection and Geolocation. This is for the continuation of our platform design for detection and geolocation of human targets in the GPS-denied environment. Due to the application of a novel ranging technique, a high ranging accuracy is obtained with a low complexity transceiver and transponder system. The system can be applied in indoor and outdoor environment as long as three or more platforms have their location determined. Its applications include terrorist searching, small scale street combat, and civil applications, such as disaster rescue, search and recovery, and agricultural augmentation of automatic target/vehicle surveillance.

June 22, 2018 – Prof. Hyuck Kwon from Wichita State University presented a talk titled “Adaptive Space-time Algorithm Using Frost’s and Maximin”at IFT’s 2018 colloquium

Prof. Hyuck Kwon of Wichita State University presented a talk titled “Adaptive Space-time Algorithm Using Frost’s and Maximin”at IFT’s 2018 colloquium.  Hyuck M. Kwon s a professor in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Wichita State University, Wichita, Kansas. His research focuses on wireless communications, CDMA, and MIMO. He received B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from Seoul National University in 1978 and 1980, respectively. He received a Ph.D. degree in computer, information, and control engineering from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, in 1984 under the supervision of Theodore Birdsall.

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June 12, 2018 – IFT attended the Small Business Technology Council (SBTC) membership meeting

IFT attended the Small Business Technology Council (SBTC) membership meeting. The Small Business Technology Council is a non-partisan, non-profit industry association of companies dedicated to promoting the creation and growth of research-intensive, technology-based U.S. small business. Dr. Khanh Pham won the 2018 “Champion of Small Business Technology Commercialization” Award.

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June 11-12, 2018 – IFT attended at the National Small Business Association (NSBA) Washington Presentation in Washington, D.C.

As part of the NSBA delegation, IFT participated in several activities aimed at providing small-business owners the latest updates on federal legislation, as well as increasing policymakers’ awareness of critical small-business issues. During a briefing at the White House, the delegation heard from a host of administration officials including Administrator Linda McMahon from the U.S. Small Business Administration, Amelia Breining from the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office, Tony Sayegh from Treasury, and Andrew Olmem from the National Economic Council. The following day, IFT participated in a Congressional Breakfast featuring Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), and Reps. Scott Tipton (R-Co.) and Rod Blum (R-Iowa). IFT then met with the offices of Sens. Benjamin Cardin and Rep. John K. Delaney where IFT talked about tax reform 2.0, the need for a White House Conference on Small Business, reining-in health care costs, federal contracting and much more.

June 5, 2018 – IFT patent “Method and System for Predicting Collision Probability of Space Objects via Graphics Processing Unit” has been granted

IFT patent “Method and System for Predicting Collision Probability of Space Objects via Graphics Processing Unit” has been granted. This patent is for a method and system for predicting collision probability of space objects are provided. A key aspect of this patent is a real-time visualization and rendering of the predicted space objects are performed in a form of point cloud. This is the eighth approved IFT patent, and ninth granted patent by IFT Projects.

May 22 -23, 2018 – IFT attended AFCEA-GMU C4I and Cyber Center Symposium Critical Issues in C4I at George Mason University

IFT collaborator, Professor Yu Chen’s paper “BlendCAC: A BLockchain-ENabled Decentralized Capability-based Access Control for IoTs” has been accepted as a regular paper for presentation at the Blockchain 2018 conference. IFT is a co-author of this paper. This year, the acceptance rate of regular papers is only 15.3%.

May 22, 2018 – IFT collaborator, Professor Yu Chen’s paper Co-authored with IFT was accepted for at the Blockchain 2018 conference

IFT collaborator, Professor Yu Chen’s paper “BlendCAC: A BLockchain-ENabled Decentralized Capability-based Access Control for IoTs” has been accepted as a regular paper for presentation at the Blockchain 2018 conference. IFT is a co-author of this paper. This year, the acceptance rate of regular papers is only 15.3%.

May 16, 2018 – IFT received a new US SOCOM, SBIR Phase I contract regarding “A Gated LFMCW TDMA MIMO SAR based Hidden Chamber Detector”

IFT received a US SOCOM, contract regarding “A Gated LFMCW TDMA MIMO SAR based Hidden Chamber Detector.” The objective is to quickly detect, locate, and discriminate hidden chambers within an average-sized room which may contain suspicious contents with a handheld, easy to operate sensor.  This proposal presents a gated LFMCW TDMA MIMO SAR based hidden chamber detector. It is the first IFT contract awarded from US SOCOM. The basic idea of the sensor system is to scan the wall of the target room, and form an image of the wall with high resolution depth information and proper angular resolution (cross range resolution).

April 24, 2018 – IFT received an Air Force STTR Phase I award regarding Adaptive Markov Inference Game Optimization (AMIGO) for Rapid Discovery of Evasive Satellite Behaviors

IFT received an Air Force STTR Phase I award regarding Adaptive Markov Inference Game Optimization (AMIGO) for Rapid Discovery of Evasive Satellite Behaviors. The objective of this award is to develop robust, near real-time algorithms that rapidly discover the behavioral patterns and operational intent of potentially evasive and/or ambiguous active resident space objects (RSOs) for the purposes of space situational awareness (SSA) across the entire SSA space catalog.  This award fall under IFT’s SATCOM R&D division.

April 24, 2018 – IFT patent “Methods and systems providing cyber security” has been granted

IFT patent “Methods and systems providing cyber security” has been granted. This patent involves methods and systems for providing cyber security, wherein a computer with network access incorporates game theory and utilizes a honeypot to enhance game-theoretic developments over active and passive sensors.  This is the seventh approved IFT patent, and eighth granted patent by IFT Projects.

April 20, 2018 – IFT attended Maryland Technology Transfer Summit at NIST