Wait, What?
DARPA at its best.
07/28/2015
Join DARPA to Envision the World of 2030
But most of all, the intellectual chemistry of 1,000 scientists, engineers and other innovators all under one roof, hearing from leaders in fields ranging from artificial intelligence and quantum physics to microbial communication and satellite flocks … learning about work at the edges of discovery and the implications of advances that are bubbling at the intersections of technology’s fastest-changing disciplines.Wait what?
https://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/about-wait-what
Wait, What?
Wait, What?
was a forum on future technologies … on their potential to radically change how we live and work, and on the opportunities and challenges these technologies will raise within the broadly defined domain of national security. Hosted by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and rooted in what's already happening in today's fastest evolving research fields, Wait, What? was designed to be a crucible for generating ideas that can stretch current conceptual horizons and accelerate the development of novel capabilities in the years and decades ahead.
Who Was It For?
Wait, What? was geared towards forward-thinking scientists, engineers and other innovators interested in thinking interactively about the nature and scope of future technologies, their potential application to tomorrow's technical and societal challenges and the quandaries those applications may themselves engender.
What Was the Benefit?
The boundaries between scientific and technological disciplines such as biology, engineering and data science are fast disappearing, and remarkable insights and capabilities are emerging at those turbulent, transitioning intersections. Many innovators today are taking advantage of this rich intellectual and technical environment to pursue extraordinary new opportunities. Wait, What? considered current and future advances in the physical and information sciences, engineering and mathematics through the lens of current and future national and global security dynamics, to reveal potentially attractive avenues of technological pursuit and to catalyze non-obvious synergies among participants.
Why DARPA?
As the federal R&D agency tasked with preventing and fomenting strategic technological surprise, DARPA is committed to envisioning and ultimately shaping new technological trajectories. It does so in part by fostering discussions among leaders on the forward edge of change—to learn from them about emerging technologies worthy of attention or support, and to inspire them to consider applying their expertise to the important and rewarding worlds of public service and national security.
How Did It Work?
Wait, What? was a fast-paced gathering at which world-renowned thinkers and innovators from inside and outside DARPA offered perspectives on where today's advances are heading. Through a variety of channels, everyone was encouraged to help extend those ideas further into the future. In addition to plenary sessions focused on topics of broad import and interest, Wait, What? offered multiple themed breakout sessions, allowing participants to dive more deeply into particular topics. An exhibit area featured displays describing a selection of DARPA programsthat reflect the breadth of the agency's work and range of its performers.
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Technology Demonstrations
Technology Demonstrations
Wait, What? included demonstrations of approximately 50 technologies developed or in development as part of DARPA research programs. The demonstrations were grouped by theme areas linked to national security challenges and opportunities.
What’s In My Network?
Two challenges shape our ability to benefit from the continuing information explosion: trusting our information systems and understanding data. DARPA is developing technologies to ensure the integrity of the data uponwhich critical decisions are made and novel approaches to deriving insights from diverse datasets.
Vanishing Programmable Resources (VAPR)
Across the Spectrum
The electromagnetic spectrum functions as the eyes, ears, and voice of modern society. As the spectrum grows more crowded and as technologies from software-defined radios to advanced cameras become commonplace, DARPA is pursuing new opportunities for innovation.
Advanced Wide FOV Architectures for Image Reconstruction and Exploitation (AWARE)
Cognitive Radio Low-Energy Signal Analysis Sensor ICs (CLASIC)
Dynamically Adapting RF Technologies (DART)
Fiber Laser Array System High energy laser (FLASH)
Power Efficiency Revolution for Embedded Computing Technologies (PERFECT)
Spectrum Challenge
Where, When?
DARPA is reaching beyond GPS to establish new and better navigational and timing technologies, driving new microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), harnessing the physics of cold atoms and establishing new fix systems.
MEMS Revolution
Restoring Injured Bodies and Brains
Recent advances in neuroscience, microelectronics and information science are sparking new approaches to restoring lost abilities following brain injury or disease and eventually increasing human performance.
Neuro Function, Activity, Structure, and Technology (Neuro-FAST)
System-Based Neurotechnology for Emerging Therapies (SUBNETS)
Programming the Living World
DARPA is applying tools from data science, computing, automation and miniaturization to accelerate the ability to harness biology's synthetic and functional capabilities.
Outpacing Infectious Disease
New genetic and immunological technologies are making it possible to detect, diagnose and treat infectious diseases with unprecedented precision and rapidity.
Autonomous Diagnostics to Enable Prevention and Therapeutics (ADEPT): Diagnostics on Demand (DxOD); Prophylactic Options to Environmental and Contagious Threats (PROTECT)
Robotics Fact vs. Fiction
For decades, we have dreamed of robots that can help people perform tasks beyond the factory floor.
DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC)
Legged Squad Support System (LS3)
Enhancing Maritime Agility
DARPA is developing unmanned platforms, distributed sensing systems, and position awareness technology to facilitate access to the vast maritime expanse in all its manifestations.
Anti-Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV)
Upward Falling Payloads (UFP)
Space under Construction
To maximize capabilities in space, DARPA is developing new approaches to launching satellites on a day's notice and new satellite architectures that change what's possible on orbit.
StarCell
The Future of Ground Warfare
DARPA is bringing the digital revolution to close air support and developing a range of squad overmatch capabilities for greater reach, situational awareness and maneuverability.
Mathematics of Sensing, Exploitation and Execution (MSEE)
Persistent Close Air Support (PCAS)
E Pluribus Unum
DARPA is developing participatory sensing, swarm robotics and micro self-assembly that could support collective approaches to overcoming challenges in realms as diverse as surveillance, manufacturing and transportation.
Self-Organizing Resilient Technology (SORT)
Semiconductor Technology Advanced Research Network (STARnet)
Darpa going to SORT us out!