IARPA launches MOSAIC program to better assess the IC workforce

The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity, in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, announced on September 7 a multi-year research effort to develop and validate unobtrusive, passive, and continuously sensing methods to assess stable and dynamic psychological, cognitive, and physiological aspects of an individual. If successful, the technology developed under the Multimodal Objective Sensing to Assess Individuals with Context—“MOSAIC” —program will augment capabilities to evaluate the workforce and identify changes in an individual that may impact job performance.

“Psychologists have developed a variety of tools for measuring an individual’s way of thinking, how they interpret and respond to their world, and how these attributes and responses may impact their job performance,” said Alexis Jeannotte, IARPA program manager. “However, these tools are often used in controlled settings and infrequently administered, making it difficult to notice when someone might be changing in ways that could impact their work. By taking advantage of the growing number of mobile, wearable, and environmental sensors, the MOSAIC program aims to fill gaps left by traditional approaches to develop a more wholistic view of a person and how they evolve throughout their career.”

Leveraging data from physiological, social and environmental sensors, MOSAIC researchers aim to create sophisticated models that relate the signals emitted by an individual with their cognitive, psychological and physiological well-being. Models developed under the MOSAIC program will be validated against known measures that contribute to job performance, including health, personality and cognitive ability.

Through a competitive Broad Agency Announcement, IARPA has awarded MOSAIC’s research contracts to teams led by Lockheed Martin, The University of Memphis, The University of Southern California, and The University of Notre Dame. MITRE and MIT Lincoln Laboratory will work together to validate sensor suites and models developed by each team.

Source: IARPA