DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) has announced a number of new initiatives aimed at advancing national security. These initiatives cover a wide range of topics, including artificial intelligence, rare earth elements, and mental health.
DARPA has announced a number of new initiatives
One of the most significant announcements is the launch of the Neural Evidence Aggregation Tool (NEAT) program. NEAT aims to develop a new mental health screening tool that can be used to identify warfighters who are at risk of suicide. The tool will use objective biomarkers of suicidality, such as brain and body responses, to provide clinicians with more reliable information than traditional self-report questionnaires.
Another major announcement is the launch of the Separation and Purification of Rare Earth Elements (SPREE) program. SPREE seeks to develop new methods for purifying rare earth elements (REEs) using environmentally sustainable and energy-efficient techniques. REEs are critical for a wide range of modern technologies, but the current methods for extracting and purifying them can be harmful to the environment. SPREE aims to develop new methods that will reduce the environmental impact of REE production.
DARPA is also sponsoring a live virtual webinar on July 27 to provide more information about the CKC ARC opportunity. CKC ARC is a research initiative that aims to develop advanced knowledge curation techniques for complicated socioeconomic systems. The webinar will cover the goals of the program, the technical challenges involved, and the types of research that are being sought.
Artificial Intelligence
One of DARPA’s new initiatives is the Environment-driven Conceptual Learning (ECOLE) program. This program is aimed at developing AI agents that can learn from linguistic and visual input. These agents could be used to help analysts produce analyses of images, video, and multimedia documents.
Another DARPA initiative in the area of AI is the Neural Evidence Aggregation Tool (NEAT) program. This program is aimed at developing objective biomarkers of suicidality. These biomarkers could be used to help clinicians identify warfighters who are at risk of suicide.
Rare Earth Elements
DARPA is also sponsoring a workshop on the Separation and Purification of Rare Earth Elements (SPREE). This workshop will focus on developing environmentally sustainable, energy-efficient, and commercially viable techniques for purifying rare earth elements.
Mental Health Screening
Finally, DARPA has selected two teams to develop a new mental health screening tool for early detection of suicidality. These teams will use objective biomarkers to develop a more reliable screening tool than is currently available.
These are just a few of the new initiatives that DARPA is announcing. These initiatives are aimed at advancing national security in a variety of ways.
