As technical systems and social problems in modern society become ever more complex, many organizations are turning to what is commonly termed complexity science to find solutions. The problem many organizations face is that they frequently have no clear idea what they are trying to accomplish, no in-depth understanding of the nature, size and dimension of their problem, and only a limited understanding of what theoretical approaches and off-the-shelf analysis tools exist or are applicable to their particular problem. This paper examines the larger topic of complexity science, providing insight, and helping to place its promises in perspective.
In August 2017, Sandia convened five workshops to explore the future of advanced technologies and global peace and security through the lenses of deterrence, information, innovation, nonproliferation, and population and Earth systems.
“Technology empowerment” means that innovation is increasingly accessible to ordinary people of limited means. As powerful technologies become more affordable and accessible, and as people are increasingly connected around the world, ordinary people are empowered to participate in the process of innovation and share the fruits of collaborative innovation. This annotated briefing describes technology empowerment and focuses on how empowerment may create challenges to U.S. national security. U.S. defense research as a share of global innovation has dwindled in recent years. With technology empowerment, the role of U.S. defense research is likely to shrink even further while technology empowerment will continue to increase the speed of innovation. To avoid falling too far behind potential technology threats to U.S. national security, U.S. national security institutions will need to adopt many of the tools of technology empowerment.
On August 15, 2016, Sandia hosted a visit by Professor Venkatesh Narayanamurti. Prof Narayanamurti (Benjamin Peirce Research Professor of Technology and Public Policy at Harvard, Board Member of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, former Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Harvard, former Dean of Engineering at UC Santa Barbara, and former Vice President of Division 1000 at Sandia). During the visit, a small, informal, all-day idea exploration session on "Towards an Engineering and Applied Science of Research" was conducted. This document is a brief synopsis or "footprint" of the presentations and discussions at this Idea Exploration Session. The intent of this document is to stimulate further discussion about pathways Sandia can take to improve its Research practices.
This report summarizes the results of a five-month LDRD late start project which explored the potential of enabling technology to improve the performance of small groups. The purpose was to investigate and develop new methods to assist groups working in high consequence, high stress, ambiguous and time critical situations, especially those for which it is impractical to adequately train or prepare. A testbed was constructed for exploratory analysis of a small group engaged in tasks with high cognitive and communication performance requirements. The system consisted of five computer stations, four with special devices equipped to collect physiologic, somatic, audio and video data. Test subjects were recruited and engaged in a cooperative video game. Each team member was provided with a sensor array for physiologic and somatic data collection while playing the video game. We explored the potential for real-time signal analysis to provide information that enables emergent and desirable group behavior and improved task performance. The data collected in this study included audio, video, game scores, physiological, somatic, keystroke, and mouse movement data. The use of self-organizing maps (SOMs) was explored to search for emergent trends in the physiological data as it correlated with the video, audio and game scores. This exploration resulted in the development of two approaches for analysis, to be used concurrently, an individual SOM and a group SOM. The individual SOM was trained using the unique data of each person, and was used to monitor the effectiveness and stress level of each member of the group. The group SOM was trained using the data of the entire group, and was used to monitor the group effectiveness and dynamics. Results suggested that both types of SOMs were required to adequately track evolutions and shifts in group effectiveness. Four subjects were used in the data collection and development of these tools. This report documents a proof of concept study, and its observations are preliminary. Its main purpose is to demonstrate the potential for the tools developed here to improve the effectiveness of groups, and to suggest possible hypotheses for future exploration.