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Today’s military regularly uses technology to enhance performance. But what about managing mental wellness? A new MITRE application employs AI to help avert health crises and improve readiness. In 2023, mental health conditions were the primary reason for service member hospitalizations. With suicide prevention a top Defense Department priority, mental wellness in the military is in the spotlight. What’s at stake: The well-being of those who serve, as well as our nation’s warfighting capacity. "Being mission ready is being not only physically ready, but mentally ready as well," says Linda Desens, Ph.D., principal health communication scientist, MITRE. That belief inspired Desens and a team of researchers to develop the Technology Assisted Stress Control (TASC™) application prototype. TASC operates with off-the-shelf smartwatches to monitor physiological stress in real time—and get ahead of mental health challenges. The app uses a unique machine-learning, data-driven approach to get service members the help they need. To pilot the application, MITRE partnered with the Computer Science Department at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Data collection drew from a pool of veteran volunteers from the UCLA student body and staff, who brought real-world experience from the military environment. "MITRE's role in supporting the development of this technology is a critical enabler of our research," says Dr. Alex Young, professor at UCLA’s Department of Psychiatry.
Space-weather events can be a challenge to predict—with potentially dire consequences here on Earth when solar storm activity disrupts space-based technology. As the world becomes more space-reliant, MITRE is helping to identify best practices in collecting and analyzing space-weather for better preparation and improved outcomes. In May, when a series of strikingly strong solar flares produced an Earth-directed solar storm, people as far south as Florida could view the Aurora Borealis: the Northern Lights. But sky-gazers enjoying the rare phenomenon may not have considered the flip side of that light show. Geomagnetic storms have the potential to deal a huge blow to communications, utilities, and other services whose equipment lives in the sky. Possible damage ranges from the inconvenience of a power interruption to breaches of national security. The forecast is clear: Space weather matters. That’s why MITRE is joining partners like the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to address the growing need for improved technology and understanding of space-weather ramifications. "As more technology takes to the skies, MITRE will continue to be a trusted partner and objective third-party adviser in keeping our assets and our planet safe," says Kerry Buckley, vice president and director for the Center for Integrated Transportation.
MITRE’s Brian Dorow, chief homeland security enterprise advisor, explores the evolving role of drones in law enforcement in his latest article for Police Chief Magazine. With over 1,500 U.S. police departments now using drones for search and rescue, crime scene documentation, and more, these technologies significantly enhance safety and situational awareness. However, FAA regulations requiring line-of-sight operation still pose challenges to pilots. Dorow highlights that while some cities have invested in drone technology and training, many local first responder departments lack comprehensive, standardized training programs. There is an urgent need for nationally available, specialized training to ensure that law enforcement agencies can maximize the benefits of drones while ensuring safe and effective operations.
Kenny Calhoun's journey from a Chinese orphanage to William & Mary helped him adapt to blindness and albinism, find a place at MITRE, and create a vision of his future. Kenny Calhoun is spending his summer helping program a superconducting quantum interference device to sense magnetic fields at the quantum level. He’s also legally blind. But that doesn’t mean this MITRE Intern lacks vision for how far he’s come or where he wants to go. Born in the Jiangsu province of Northeastern China, Calhoun never knew his biological parents. Most of his early life was spent behind the black-fenced walls of an underfunded orphanage. He was called YiBai, Yi after his home city of Yixing and Bai meaning "white." He was seven when he was adopted and brought to the United States. From birth, Calhoun was marked as visually different from his peers. He has white hair, pale skin, and his colorless eyes are sensitive to light. All are markers of a condition known as albinism, where the body doesn’t generate the pigment usually found in eyes, hair, and skin. The lack of pigment in Calhoun's eyes impacts his ability to see. "I can’t sit back at a normal distance and look at a computer and read the text," he explains. "And my distance vision is very, very limited. I can’t read a sign or poster more than 10 feet away. It looks like jiggly black lines." To compensate, Calhoun relies on technology, eBooks with large print, text enlargers for computer screens and digital notepads for drawings.
Meet Tobi Ayodeji, a MITRE veteran employee at age 17. It makes sense when you learn his trajectory was high-school graduate at 15, MITRE Cyber Futures intern at 16, and—entering his third year at Bowie State University—is now so adept at the high-tech game that he’s tackling cancer research for the National Security Engineering Center (NSEC) FFRDC. Here, Tobi talks about his rapid rise, his favorite MITRE “perks,” and where he thinks a computer-science degree can take him in the future. There are a few not-so-great things about being underage in college. Some universities I applied to won’t even let a 15-year-old live on campus. And a major problem for me was that a lot of tech companies don’t want to hire an underage intern. MITRE was different. They were willing to look past the numbers and focus on my experience, interests, and potential. So I’m happy to be back for my second internship—this time in a health-data capacity.
Testing autonomy can be a challenge in any environment, but transitioning from computer models to physical robots is particularly tricky. Inside MITRE’s Small Robotics Lab, systems can be developed, tested, and even fail, without catastrophic risk to people, programs, or budgets. In MITRE’s Small Robotics Lab (SRL) big innovations come in small packages. Virtual reality headsets and remote-control vehicles cover desktops. A yellow boat, covered in sensors, sits in the corner. A robotic dog named Spot "sleeps" plugged into the wall, battery-charging light blinking. Quadcopter drones the size of hubcaps loom over microdrones that can fit in your pocket. While the scale of the experiments here is compact, they are key to a big idea. "When we started the Small Robotics Lab, we wanted to create a space where researchers could access physical platforms that allow them to transition their work out of simulation and into the real world, without the financial or physical risks that come from full-size systems," says Shereef Sayed, the lab manager and lead autonomous systems engineer. It's also a space to cultivate the skilled staff, ideas, and guidance MITRE's sponsors need.
MITRE announced that Mark Peters, Ph.D., will become its 10th president and chief executive officer, effective Sept. 3, 2024. He will succeed Jason Providakes, Ph.D., who previously announced his intention to retire after 37 years with the not-for-profit research and development (R&D) company and seven years as president and CEO. Peters is a recognized expert in nuclear fuel cycle technologies, nuclear waste management, and national security, with more than 25 years of leadership and scientific discovery for federally funded R&D centers (FFRDCs). He currently serves as executive vice president, laboratory management and operations, at Battelle Memorial Institute, who with other strategic partners operates eight FFRDCs for the government, with responsibility for governance and oversight of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and U.S. Department of Homeland Security national laboratories. Prior to joining Battelle, Peters was the director of Idaho National Laboratory and president of Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC, a large, multipurpose laboratory whose mission focuses on nuclear energy, national and homeland security, and energy and environmental science and technology.
As vice president for the Center for Government Effectiveness and Modernization (CGEM), Kevin Toner leads teams applying emerging technologies to transform how federal agencies serve the public. Personally, Toner has experienced firsthand what he calls a “growth curve” for LGBTQIA+ awareness and acceptance in society and at MITRE. He shares his story here. Like many MITRE employees, Kevin Toner keeps a collection of photographs and objects in his office that tells an autobiographical story. There are trophies and awards, photos of rockets whose launch Toner helped oversee while in the Air Force, and photos of his large, smiling family. One is a small, framed photograph he used to hide—of his now-husband, Anthony Pirrotti. “Since my early 20’s, I have identified as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community,” Toner says. “But for a significant portion of my career, I was obligated to keep it to myself.”
As someone in the Gen Z cohort, Sabrina Movitz reads her share of articles about what her age demographic wants in a career. With “doing good in the world” at the top of the list, she counts herself fortunate to be doing work she feels truly makes an impact. “When I have dinner with my friends and we talk about our jobs, I'm the only person who has so much agency over what they do,” Movitz says. “And I get to work with people who are all mission-driven as well.” Since joining the company in 2021, she’s directed much of her energy on one of our nation’s most-critical health challenges: the ongoing maternal health crisis—a problem that disproportionally impacts historically marginalized communities. “Black and American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) women, regardless of income or education, experience a greater share of these grave outcomes, as do rural women.” Movitz, who’s “always had a soft spot for maternal health” and an “interest in the intersection between science and society,” wants to change this.
MITRE is building a new capability intended to give its artificial intelligence (AI) researchers and developers access to a massive increase in computing power. The new capability, MITRE Federal AI Sandbox, will provide better experimentation of next generation AI-enabled applications for the federal government. The Federal AI Sandbox is expected to be operational by year’s end and will be powered by an NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD™ that enables accelerated infrastructure scale and performance for AI enterprise work and machine learning. As U.S. government agencies seek to apply AI across their operations, few have adequate access to supercomputers and the deep expertise required to operate the technology and test potential applications on secure infrastructure. "The recent executive order on AI encourages federal agencies to reduce barriers for AI adoptions, but agencies often lack the computing environment necessary for experimentation and prototyping," says Charles Clancy, MITRE, senior vice president and chief technology officer. "Our new Federal AI Sandbox will help level the playing field, making the high-quality compute power needed to train and test custom AI solutions available to any agency." MITRE will apply the Federal AI Sandbox to its work for federal agencies in areas including national security, healthcare, transportation, and climate. Agencies can gain access to the benefits of the Federal AI Sandbox through existing contracts with any of the six federally funded
