DARPA is also testing how human pilots interact with AI to examine how well they trust machines to automatically conduct dogfights. Air Force pilots have flown L-29 jet trainers also running AI algorithms at the University of Iowa Technology Institute's Operator Performance Laboratory.
Operator Performance Laboratory (OPL) director and University of Iowa industrial engineering professor Tom “Mach” Schnell briefed national security leaders on a project seeking to improve artificial intelligence in aerial combat.
In less than three years, artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms developed under DARPA’s Air Combat Evolution (ACE) program have progressed from controlling simulated F-16s flying aerial dogfights on computer screens to controlling an actual F-16 in flight. University of Iowa's Operator Performance Lab has contributed to the progress.
The University of Iowa may not have the visibility of some aviation schools, but the institution is well known for important research for the civil and military sectors. Robert W. Moorman spoke with their principals. Often research of new technology serves as a prologue to a corresponding need for new or better training. Such could be the case with various research programs at the Iowa Technology Institute, part of the College of Engineering.
It’s fly-in pancake breakfast day at the Iowa City Municipal Airport and, as usual, Tom “Mach” Schnell is hustling around a hangar that is the high-tech headquarters for the University of Iowa Operator Performance Laboratory.
The Iowa Technology Institute participated in the University of Iowa's new pilot program, Discover Your University, which allows faculty and staff to explore campus that they don’t get to visit during a normal workday.
The University of Iowa Operator Performance Lab (OPL), a flight test laboratory that conducts research on human-in-the-loop and intelligent autonomous systems, aided DARPA’s Pheme project for a capstone demonstration event.
Leaders of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) HQ Office of Academic Engagement (OAE) visited the University of Iowa campus to gain an Iowa perspective on national security-related topics, a post on the college’s website states.
NASA has selected University of Iowa professor Xuan Song’s research proposal as one of four Iowa projects to receive EPSCoR funding to facilitate deep space research.
Jun Wang, assistant director of the Iowa Technology Institute, was named the principal investigator for two NASA grants worth $1.56 million. NASA’s TEMPO mission, set to launch this year, is intended to revolutionize air quality forecasting. TEMPO, which stands for Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring Pollution, is a space-based ultraviolet and visible spectrometer scheduled to be launched into space aboard a commercial satellite — after nearly ten years of planning — before the year is over.
