CTA Leader: Dr. Cary Butler
Covers the entire computational ecosystem (hardware, software, storage, and networks) required to conduct large-scale data analytics. This ecosystem includes how large data is managed, analyzed, and visualized. Capabilities include methods for conducting exploration (What does the data look like?), descriptive (What happened?), diagnostics (Why did it happen?), predictive (What will happen?), and prescriptive (How can we make it happen?) analyses. This CTA will focus on how traditional methods in data analytics can be adapted to take advantage of the latest advancements in supercomputing architectures. The goal of the ecosystem is to streamline the process of analyzing data and using the results to make decisions. The notion of leveraging supercomputing will help in two ways. First, traditional methods for conducting data analytics are severely limited in the overall volume of data that can be processed. In most cases, data is simply ignored as a way to fit it into the analysis. Second, complexity of the analysis results in extremely large computational spaces that go way beyond what a typical Department of Defense user can process. Hyper-dimensional analysis introduces complexity that traditional methods are unable to handle. This CTA will advise how data analytics can take advantage of powerful supercomputers as a way to shorten the time between asking a question and seeing the answer. Recommendations for Algorithms in machine learning, deep learning, and graph analytics for supercomputing platforms will be part of this CTA’s role. Capabilities resulting from this CTA are far-reaching and beneficial to existing as well as new classes of high-performance computing users. Furthermore, efforts in DDA are inherently cross cutting, thus complementary to other CTAs.
CTA Leader: Vacant
Space & Astrophysical Sciences (SAS) research and development advances understanding, specification and prediction of the Earth's atmospheric, and space domains to exploit the extended operational environment for military advantage, and to minimize environmental impacts on military operations. The SAS Computational Technology Area (CTA) embodies the use of mathematics, computational science, and engineering in the analysis, design, identification, modeling and simulation of the space and near-space environment, and of all objects therein, whether artificial or natural. The SAS CTA encompasses foundational discovery research to study the atmospheres of the Sun and the Earth, including solar activity and its effects on the Earth's atmosphere, ionosphere and near-Earth space, and the unique physics and properties of celestial sources; and, employs an extensive array of physical and empirical models and analyses tools to integrate observations and theoretical understanding, for ever-improving Department of Defense (DoD) enterprises within, and exploitation of, the extended operational environment. The CTA melds the strengths of a broad range of physical sciences - atomic and molecular physics, materials science, plasma physics, applied optics, radiation survivability, electronic warfare, directed-energy technology, astronautics and space propulsion, orbital mechanics, space situational awareness, and remote sensing - into a structure that helps the DoD multiply force combat effectiveness.
CTA Leader: vacant
The Integrated Modeling and Test Environments (IMT) CTA addresses the application of integrated modeling and simulation tools and techniques with live tests and hardware-in-the-loop simulations for the testing and evaluation of DoD weapon components, subsystems, and systems in virtual and composite virtual-real environments. DoD application areas focus on multidisciplinary computational methods and real-time techniques. These areas include digital scene generation, six degrees-of-freedom trajectory simulations, real-time test data analysis and display systems for test control and evaluation, and other modeling and simulation integration tools requisite to high-fidelity engineering and closed-loop engagement models (one-on-one and few-on-few) for the simulation of weapon component subsystems and systems in a virtual operational context.
CTA Leader: Vacant
The Environmental Quality Modeling and Simulation (EQM) CTA supports the investigation of DoD impacts on the environment, and the impacts of this environment upon DoD activities. EQM technical activities involve the high-resolution modeling of hydrodynamics, geophysics, and multi-constituent fate/transport through the coupled atmospheric/land surface/subsurface environment, and their interconnections with numerous biological species and anthropogenic activities. Within DoD, this technology is used for concerns ranging from stewardship and restoration of natural and cultural resources on military installations to evaluation of the impacts of environmental conditions on the DoD mobility operations in the battlespace.
CTA Leader: vacant
The Electronics, Networking, and Systems/C4I (ENS) CTA focuses on the use of computational science in support of analysis, design, modeling, and simulation of electronics from the most basic fundamental, first-principles physical level to its use for communications, sensing, and information systems engineering. Accordingly, ENS activity ranges from the analysis and design of nano-devices to C4ISR systems-of-systems. This focus ties together nano-electronics, acousto-electronics, microelectro-mechanics, optoelectronics, photonics, circuits, and networks through the exploration of passive/active devices, detectors, emitters, and their physical integration and system deployment in a network-centric warfare environment. ENS methodologies have been developed to explore the nano-scale and below (e.g., electronic structure, charge transport, optical, and photonic interactions), as well as at the analog/digital circuit and communications, sensor and system level (e.g., data links and transport including signal propagation) for performance analysis of information warfare systems-of-systems and large tactical networks.
