Whetstone, a software tool that sharpens the output of artificial neurons, has enabled neural computer networks to process information up to a hundred times more efficiently than the current industry standard. The software, created by Sandia neuroscientists, greatly reduces the amount of circuitry needed to perform autonomous tasks and is expected to increase the penetration of artificial intelligence into numerous markets.
Vice Admiral Johnny Wolfe, director of Strategic Systems Programs for the Navy, visited Sandia last week and formally recognized Sandia and its staff for their key role in the development and production of the W76-1/Mk4A Life Extension Program.
More than 60 colleges and universities competed to defend fictional energy systems from pretended hackers at DOE’s annual CyberForce Competition last month. Sandia served as a host for the first time, and organized in Albuquerque one of seven simultaneous, regional competitions across the country.
Quantum computing is a term that periodically flashes across the media sky like heat lightning in the desert: brilliant, attention-getting and then vanishing from the public’s mind with no apparent aftereffects. Yet a multimillion-dollar international effort to build quantum computers is hardly going away. Now, three new Sandia projects (and a fourth a year underway) aim to bring the wiggly subject into steady illumination.
An EMP emitted by a nuclear weapon exploded high above the U.S. could disable the electronic circuits of many devices vital to military defense and modern living. Fortunately, military equipment is designed to be immune to various levels of EMP, and the validity of those designs has been tested and improved by a “friendly” EMP generator at Sandia.
Sandia engineer Larry Luna has been elected a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers for significant achievements during more than 30 years of service and leadership. ASME fellows constitute about 3.5 percent of the organization’s more than 95,000 members. Larry was specifically recognized “for his contributions to the national security of the United States,” according to ASME.
Sandia's hypersonic wind tunnel and advanced laser diagnostic technology are helping U.S. defense agencies understand the physics associated with aircraft flying five times faster than the speed of sound. With potential adversaries reporting successes in their own programs to develop aircraft that can be flown at Mach 5 or greater, U.S. development of autonomous hypersonic systems is a top defense priority.
Sandia has developed a new rocket program, called the High Operational Tempo Sounding Rocket Program, or HOT SHOT, and integrated it for its first launch earlier this year under NNSA direction. The new program could help cut research and development time for new weapons systems from as many as 15 years to less than five.
Four intern teams competed for eight weeks this summer in Sandia’s fourth annual Nuclear Weapons Summer Product Realization Institute. During the NW SPRINT, nontraditional teams develop innovative concepts using new technologies, and identify and address gaps in those technologies. It also serves to create a recruiting pipeline.
Sandia researchers are using a blast tube configurable to 120 feet to demonstrate how well nuclear weapons could survive the shock wave of a blast from an enemy weapon, and to help validate the modeling.