Information Processing

The vision for the Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics (SyNAPSE) program is to develop low-power electronic neuromorphic computers that scale to biological levels.

The capabilities and technical specifications required for Department of Defense (DoD) platforms are constantly changing due to unanticipated circumstances, needs and emerging threats. However, complex development and design cycles and the associated high costs of structural design changes for current technologies significantly limit our ability to rapidly and affordably evolve such systems.

The DoD has become increasingly reliant on intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) applications. With the advent of expanded ISR capabilities, there is a pressing need to dramatically expand the real-time processing of wide-area, high-resolution video imagery, especially for target recognition and tracking a large number of objects. Not only is the volume of sensor data increasing exponentially, there is also a dramatic increase in the complexity of analysis, reflected in the number of operations per pixel per second. These expanding processing requirements for ISR missions, as well as other DoD sensor applications, are quickly outpacing the capabilities of existing and projected computing platforms.

Dr. John Gorman joined DARPA in May 2013 as a Program Manager for the Strategic Technology Office. His interests include statistical estimation and learning, advanced radar systems, and distributed sensing.

Mr. Trung Tran joined DARPA as a program manager in the Microsystems Technology Office in October 2015. Tran earned a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from the US Air Force Academy and a Master of Business Administration degree from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. While in the Air Force, he was stationed at Fort Meade and Hanscom Air Force Base working at the Air Intelligence Agency. In those roles, he developed cryptographic chips and command and control networks, which focused on reducing the amount of time between the acquisition of sensor data and the use of that data by shooters or, more generally, weapons systems. He received four medals in recognition of his work in these areas.