Imagine a world where a machine creates a "virtual you" by modeling how you think and your expertise on a subject. Or one where your car's computer appreciates your driving skills and compensates for your limitations.
That's the world Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) has entered full throttle through its Cognitive Science and Technology Program (CS&T).
A revolution is at hand, says Chris Forsythe, member of the SNL's cognition research team. It's not one of just better guns and weapons for national security. Instead, "it's a revolution of the mind — of how people think and how machines can help people work better."
A large portion of SNL's program today focuses on the uniqueness of the individual interacting with others and with machines. It involves using machines to help humans perform more efficiently and embedding cognitive models in machines so they interact with users more like people interact with one another. The result is the ability for researchers to take advantage of the basic strengths of humans and machines while mitigating the weaknesses of each.
Cognitive projects and research at SNL span a whole gamut of areas, ranging from student training to assisting with Yucca Mountain licensing, from designing "smart" cars to using videolike games to train military personnel, and from determining how neurons give rise to memory to global terrorist threat detection.
Funding for the research has come from the Office of Naval Research, SNL's internal Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program, Department of Energy, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and other government agencies. The CS&T program also benefits from collaborations with the University of New Mexico, the MIND Imaging Center in Albuquerque and, most recently, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
The initial decision for SNL to develop cognitive technologies was based on the belief that "there are numerous positive impacts cognitive systems technologies can have on our national security," said Russ Skocypec, senior manager of SNL's Human, Systems, and Simulation Technologies Department.
Today's conflicts, he said, are unlike others over the past century. Although all wars are driven by humans, major influences on the outcomes have differed. World War I was a chemists' war, World War II a physicists' war, and the Cold War an economic war. Today, he believes, "we are engaged in a human war that is influenced primarily by individual human beings rather than technology or bureaucracy."
That is why he considers it appropriatefor SNL, a laboratory with national security as its mission, to use its resources to better understand the minds of this country's adversaries, as well as to use machines to enhance SNL's abilities to recognize patterns, deal with massive amounts of data, solve perplexing problems, and perform complex activities.
While SNL dipped its toes in cognitive research in the late 1990s, its real effort in the area started in 2002 when the program won an internally funded LDRD grand challenge.
Based in part on the success and path set by the grand challenge in 2005, the former Mission Council — a group that consisted of senior SNL vice presidents — selected cognitive science and technology (CS&T) as a research focus area for the labs.
During the spring and summer of 2006, the cognition team conducted two investigations. The first looked at what cognitive capabilities exist at SNL.
The second examined opportunities involving the convergence of SNL's initiatives in the areas of cognition, biotechnologies, and nanotechnologies.
"The plan is at the level of ‘send a man to the moon' — beyond the scope of what any one institution can possibly do," Forsythe said. "It's a synthesis of ideas. Now, our intent is to home in on a few areas in which the labs can make a unique and profound contribution."
John Wagner, manager of SNL's Cognitive and Exploratory Systems and Simulations Department, said the new area of research means "profound opportunities exist for the Labs."
Wagner says that cognitive research at SNL — like most worldwide — is in its infancy. He anticipates that within the next decade research that seems like science fiction today will be a daily part of everyone's lives.
SNL researcher Rob Abbott uses a joystick and plays the role of a student in a training exercise driving an amphibious assault vehicle simulator used by the Navy and Marines. The second monitor is an instructor/operator application called CDMTS. In the background is a thermal image of a student's face used for investigating biometrics to monitor the student in various ways, including the level of engagement and focus of attention. Photo by Randy Montoya. (Click image to enlarge)
