SparkCognition to provide AI pilot effort to the US Air Force

DIUx has awarded a contract to SparkCognition to develop Stage 1 of PROJECT QUANTUM to augment senior level decisions quantitatively, the Austin, TX-based company announced August 3. Via DIUx, the U.S. Air Force (USAF) will leverage machine learning and similar methodologies to analyze and reveal latent relationships within data resident across the USAF, and apply these toward its Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution (PPBE) process. The PPBE process is how the Department of Defense (DoD) allocates resources.

“The order of magnitude of greater increase in the speed and accuracy of budgetary decisions will revolutionize how the Air Force, and potentially the DoD as a whole, conducts business,” said General John Allen, USMC (Ret.), and executive board member of SparkCognition. “We are honored to be serving the U.S. Air Force in a way that will have a substantial and positive impact on planning and process.  The advantage here is that SparkCognition’s solutions are universally applicable, and can be applied to other DoD service components as well as every department and agency within the U.S. Government.”

DIUx and SparkCognition will utilize AI technology to derive higher-order patterns from existing operational conditions. Utilizing data from the USAF, SparkCognition’s technology will conduct macro- and micro-level analysis of operations and previously observed outcomes to best simulate the impact of any single decision, or multiple decisions, made by an incumbent party. Subsequent phases of this project will be dedicated to further refining SparkCognition’s model given additional data and testing scenarios; collaborating with the USAF on UI design; and integrating with Air Force enterprise relational databases.

“We’re proud to be working with the U.S. Air Force through DIUx,” said Tim Stefanick, director of federal operations at SparkCognition and a retired USMC infantry officer who served on multiple overseas deployments and has had assignments in the White House and the intelligence community. “SparkCognition will apply cutting-edge technology that will benefit our troops and our national security. We have endless applications for this technology and it is gratifying to be applying it in support of the U.S. government.”

SparkCognition’s cognitive enterprise solutions are deployed to some of the world’s largest utility, O&G, OEM, aerospace, defense, and finance organizations. The company’s Industrial IoT solutions have accurately detected asset failure with days, weeks, and months advance notice in electronic submersible pumps, artificial lifts, boiler feed pumps, combustion turbines, wind turbine gearboxes, and other critical industrial equipment. SparkCognition’s platform will enable the Air Force to reduce operating costs through improved enterprise-level decision-making, resource allocation intelligence, situational prediction, and operational optimization.

“We are customizing an AI engine for the Air Force to provide actionable insights and behavior predictions,” added Stefanick. “Together, SparkCognition and DIUx will transform operations for a new era of efficiency and confidence.”

Source: SparkCognition