Archive | September 30, 2010 | Armed with Science

The DC3 Digital Forensics Challenge

Filed under Cyber Security, Technology, Videos by Armed with Science on September 30, 2010 at 5:01 pm {4 comments}

Did you know that you can win 11 possible prizes for helping digital forensics examiners solve real-world challenges and develop new investigative tools, techniques, and methodologies? Today marks the last 35 days available to submit your solutions for the 2010 Department of Defense Cyber Crime Center (DC3) Digital Forensics Challenge.

The DC3 Digital Forensics Challenge encourages innovation from a broad range of individuals, teams, and institutions to provide technical solutions for computer forensic examiners in the lab as well as in the field. Approximately 25 different challenges ranging from basic forensics to advanced tool development are being provided to all participants.

The challenges are single based challenges and are designed to be unique and separate from one another. Each challenge level establishes the total number of points available per challenge assigned based on its difficulty toward a solution (known to unknown). This is based on the complexity of what a digital forensics examiner normally runs into and has to adjust for/extract/scrutinize in an analysis of those file types for examination problems.

I recently had the opportunity to ask Jim Christy, DC3′s director of Future Exploration and creator of the Digital Forensics Challenge, a few key questions that will help you get to work on solving this year’s challenges.

Department of Defense Cyber Crime Center

Jim, why was this public cyber challenge created?

Due to the ever changing technology, we had real-world issues with some aspects of some of our forensic exams at our Defense Computer Forensics Lab (DCFL) and we didn’t have the research and development resources to address them. So we created a contest. And we received solutions that we didn’t previously have which helped solve real cases.

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VIDEO: Brain-Computer Interface Demo

Filed under Technology, Videos by John Ohab on September 29, 2010 at 1:26 pm {4 comments}

In this demonstration, Tami Griffith of the U.S. Army Research Laboratory‘s Simulation & Training Technology Center, maneuvers through virtual space using a brain-computer interface and a head-mounted display. Tami is controlling the virtual world entirely through her own two headsets. What she is seeing in the head-mounted display is also projected on the screen to the left.

The brain-computer interface provides movement (forward, back, stop) while the head-mounted display injects directional information. As the user turns, direction is injected into the virtual environment. The brain-computer interface is wireless, while the head-mounted display is wired. The head-mounted display also provides 3D sound and a microphone. The total cost is $2,100.

The project is part of Tami’s exploration of ways to improve a user’s sense of presence using low-cost, off-the-shelf technology, with current emphasis on neural-navigation.
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Wednesday Tech Talk: How Do Fish Hear?

Filed under Life Sciences by John Ohab on September 28, 2010 at 4:00 pm {one comment}

Dr. Mike Traweek of ONR's Ocean Battlespace Sensing Department will take questions on Facebook Wed Sept 28 at 11am eastern. (Photo: ONR)

Dr. Mike Traweek will take questions on Facebook Wed Sept 28 at 11am eastern. (Photo: ONR)

If tuna could talk, what secrets would they share?

In this week’s “Tech Talk,” Dr. Mike Traweek of the Office of Naval Research‘s (ONR) Ocean Battlespace Sensing Department will answer questions about how fish detect and interpret sound in the aquatic environment.

If you’ve got questions, Dr. Traweek has the answers! Joining the discussion is as easy as this:
1.) Visit ONR’s official Facebook page
2.) Look for the prompt to submit your questions.
3.) Submit a question. Questions will be answered on a first-come, first-served basis.
4.) Return at 11 a.m., Sept. 29, to watch as he answers questions in real time.

Think about it in human terms: Driving at 30 mph with windows down and air rushing in, would you be able to detect the distance and incoming direction of an ambulance from half-mile away? ONR would like to understand whether fish, like the Atlantic bluefin tuna, can swim at high speeds and still pinpoint sound and its direction over the flow of water along their bodies. If so, imagine the biological science that might be applied to underwater detection and sensing.

Next-generation sensors must be smaller, more affordable and energy efficient. With fewer ships in the ocean today, it’s imperative that naval forces advance their ability to detect acoustic signals from greater distances, whether towed from manned vessels or secured in unmanned undersea vehicles.

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DARPA Challenging Students to Design Cyber-Electro-Mechanical Systems

Filed under Cyber Security, Education & Culture, Technology by John Ohab on September 28, 2010 at 1:14 pm {2 comments}

DARPA looks to inspire next generation of defense manufacturers with four-year, $10M manufacturing outreach effort

Recently, United States President Barack Obama said, “Our success as a nation depends on strengthening America’s role as the world’s engine of discovery and innovation.”

That engine of innovation is especially important within the national defense arena and the science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields. Such skills are critical for careers in systems design and manufacturing, and a strong manufacturing base is essential to maintaining a well-built defense.

To reignite a passion for exploration among our nation’s youth, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is launching its Manufacturing Experimentation and Outreach (MENTOR) initiative.

For MENTOR, DARPA will contract multiple organizations to deploy a variety of programmable manufacturing equipment, such as 3D printers, to high schools throughout the country and orchestrate a series of prize-based challenges to encourage competition and collaboration within high school teams as they design and build cyber-electro-mechanical systems. “The systems will be of moderate complexity,” said Paul Eremenko, DARPA program manager. “Challenges will involve the design and building of things like go-carts, mobile robots and small unmanned aircraft. And we’ll encourage collaboration during the challenges through the use of social media and social networking applications.”

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VIDEO: Servicemembers and Suicide

Filed under Education & Culture, Life Sciences, Videos by John Ohab on September 27, 2010 at 6:08 pm {2 comments}

As part of the Pentagon Channel‘s continuing coverage of servicemembers and suicide, This Week in the Pentagon takes a look at the latest and greatest in cutting-edge technologies used to treat post traumatic stress. In addition, the episode explores battlefield training for when suicide happens downrange and features thoughts from top military leaders.

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From Battlefield to Bedside: Navy Biomedical Research

Filed under Life Sciences, Podcast by John Ohab on September 26, 2010 at 2:40 pm {6 comments}

Dr. Wayman Wendell Cheatham. (Photo: U.S. Navy)

By Christen N. McCluney
Emerging Media, Defense Media Activity

Navy researchers are supporting today’s warfighter with new advances in biomedical research and development.

“Medical research and development activity provides the inspiration for discovery and further development of new ideas, new concepts, new drugs or surgical interventions,” Dr. Wayman Cheatham, special assistant for medical research to the Navy surgeon general and director of the Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery’s Navy Medicine Research and Development Center, said during a DoD Live Bloggers Roundtable yesterday.

Cheatham said Navy Surgeon General Vice Adm. (Dr.) Adam M. Robinson Jr. has established five areas of priority in terms of strategic research to support the Defense Department as a whole as well as those under the care of Navy Health. Those priorities are traumatic brain injury and psychological health, medical system support for maritime and expeditionary operations, wound and injury management throughout the continuum of care, hearing restoration and protection and undersea medicine.

You can listen to the interview, or read the transcript. Both options are easy, fun, and informative!

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How Air Force is Designing Classroom Instruction for the Future

Filed under Education & Culture, Technology by John Ohab on September 24, 2010 at 10:42 am {no comments}

Carol Wall is a project manager in AETC's Future Learning Division. (Photo: US Air Force)

Carol Wall is a project manager in the Future Learning Division at the Air Education and Training Command (AETC). She has worked for AETC for 14 years.

It will come as no surprise that the Air Force has a systematic approach for just about everything, including how our instruction is developed!

Our formal process is called Instructional System Development, or ISD, and it applies to all personnel who plan, design, develop, implement, approve, administer, conduct, evaluate, or manage Air Force instruction. The goal of Air Force ISD is to ensure our personnel are trained to do their job in the most cost efficient and effective way possible.

In many ways, our education and training have remained unchanged for quite some time. The ISD process has served us well and will continue to be a solid basis for our course development efforts. The one area in which we will need to make some updates or to at least think differently is in our design, and that design will rely heavily on good analysis.

We are experimenting with presenting instruction in virtual worlds and using mobile applications for ancillary course delivery and also for mobile referencing. In this departure from traditional classroom instruction, we will need to carefully consider the context of our instruction. Since a virtual or mobile learning environment can be just about anything, the task of designing instruction will be more extensive and complex which will make designing instruction more time consuming than traditional classroom instruction.

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Tech Talk: Enhanced Perception for Autonomous Vehicles [Transcript]

Filed under Physical Sciences, Technology by John Ohab on September 23, 2010 at 11:01 am {no comments}

Keith Hammack, deputy manager, ONR's Maneuver Thrust

Keith Hammack answered questions Facebook and Twitter on Sept. 22. (Photo: US Navy)

The following is a transcript from the Office of Naval Research’s (ONR) online Tech Talk series.

Keith Hammack, deputy manager for ONR’s Maneuver Thrust research area, answered questions from audiences on Facebook and Twitter on Sept. 22.

Previously deployed as a combat company commander with the U.S. Army, Hammack (right) today manages research programs in ground vehicle autonomy, fuel efficiency, mobile power, mobility, and survivability for the Marine Corps, Naval Expeditionary Combat Command and Naval Special Warfare Command.

Editors’ Note: The following transcript includes questions submitted earlier on Facebook and Twitter, and e-mailed directly to ONR.

Event Transcript

ONR: Welcome to our online dialogue with Keith Hammack, deputy director for ONR’s Maneuver Thrust. We will take audience questions on a first-come, first-served basis until 11:45 a.m. Responses will be posted in this conversational field. Comments should appear quickly, but for up-to-the-minute postings, you may need to refresh your browser window periodically during the event.

ONR: Our first question comes from Bob Finkelstein of Robotic Technology Inc. via e-mail.

ONR: Bob asks if ONR would be interested in a project where the focus is on the development and application of an autonomous, intelligent control system architecture to achieve the desired perception, independent of specific sensors.

Keith: Bob, we have met a couple times, including at the Intelligent Vehicle Technology Transfer (IVTT) meeting that you organized at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in 2009. We would absolutely be interested in learning more about the architecture you are referencing. I wonder if it is similar or the same as the 4D/RCS that you had mentioned to me in the past?

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