George Mason University

Abstract:

One of the reasons for shortfalls in the DoD acquisition process is that there is no scientific or algorithmic infrastructure that can be used as a basis for collaboration, compromise and optimization for the acquisition enterprise. This seminar discusses our aim to help fill that gap by taking initial steps toward a framework for acquisition that is:

• applicable regardless of methodologies or organizational implementation used;
• modularizable and “holographic” in that it can apply to the whole life-cycle or any sub-part, and given that part of it has been performed, that part can be integrated into a greater valuation using the same valuation framework;
• quantified and computational providing an effective operations research basis for decision making;
• able to incorporate all relevant data;
• responsive to commanders’ priorities;
• explicit, adaptable and robust with respect to uncertainties in current and future operations and in current and future technology developments;
• designed to make optimizing trade-offs between competing alternatives; and
• driven by maximizing the value per time per cost delivered to the warfighter.

Speaker Information:

Dr. Levitt is an acknowledged leader in development of advanced capabilities for evidential reasoning in large-scale, high dimensional model analysis including operations applications in multisensor fusion, SAR, IR, and EO image understanding, ground robot vision, air to ground surveillance systems and C4ISR systems supporting multiple military intelligence, planning and command and control applications.

He has led the development of a diverse family of advanced information software systems built to handle real world data under complex operating conditions to include a fully automated middle-Eastern armor unit detector for the U.S. Army evaluated to perform at expert imagery analyst levels on wide-area, low resolution Desert Storm SAR as well as a system for automated diagnostic measurement from digital x-rays of the hand that was employed in clinical care at the San Francisco Veterans Administration Medical Center.

From 1978-1991 he worked for the Honeywell Signal and Image Processing Division, in the Image Understanding Division at Advanced Information Systems and as a Senior Research Associate in the Stanford University Robotic Laboratory. Starting his own company in 1991 — IET, Inc — Dr. Levitt led IET for sixteen years, producing numerous R&D breakthroughs and generating the Quiddity*Suite commercial software package for building complex, probabilistic reasoning applications. He joined Mason’s C4I & Cyber Center in Oct 2007 as a Research Professor where he has performed counter-insurgency and counter- improvised explosive device (C-IED) research, developed forward-looking, net-centric, evolutionary persistent ISR algorithms for plug-and-play surveillance assets, and made innovative contributions to the emergent field of multi-modeling with applications to nuclear deterrence.

Dr. Levitt is a co-founder and 18 year member of the Board of Directors of the Association for Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence. His Ph.D. in mathematics is from the University of Minnesota.

Date/Time
10/03/2016
1:00 pm - 2:00 pm

Location
C4I Center ENGR 4705