On October 23, 2019, ten teams of finalists gathered to compete one last time in the Championship Event of DARPA's Spectrum Collaboration Challenge (SC2), a three-year competition designed to unlock the true potential of the radio frequency (RF) spectrum with artificial intelligence. DARPA held the Championship Event at Mobile World Congress 2019 Los Angeles in front of a live audience.
Team GatorWings from University of Florida took home the $2 million first prize, followed by MarmotE from Vanderbilt University in second with $1 million, and Zylinium, a start-up, in third with $750,000.
Throughout the competition, SC2 demonstrated how AI can help to meet spiking demand for spectrum. As program manager Paul Tilghman noted in his closing remarks from the SC2 stage: "Our competitors packed 3.5 times more wireless signals into the spectrum than we're capable of today. Our teams outperformed static allocations and demonstrated greater performance than current wireless standards like LTE. The paradigm of collaborative AI and wireless is here to stay and will propel us from spectrum scarcity to spectrum abundance."
To jump-start innovation and foster forward-looking collaborations across the U.S. electronics community, DARPA’s Microsystems Technology Office hosted a three-day event that brought together those most impacted by the coming inflection in Moore’s Law. The 2019 ERI Summit highlighted the technical achievements of ERI programs, supported continued research collaborations, and offered opportunities to solicit community input on new efforts. The Summit also emphasized the impact of advanced electronics for both semiconductor designers and manufacturers as well as the electronics user base, where sectors like automotive, telecommunications, and defense will increasingly rely on new technologies to maintain a competitive edge. For more information, visit www.eri-summit.com.
DARPA has long been a leader in the field of artificial intelligence, establishing the foundations of the field and leading creation of expert systems, and then supporting the expansion of machine learning. The agency’s most recent investments — undertaken as part of DARPA’s $2 billion AI Next campaign — are supporting a shift in AI systems from tools alone to trusted, collaborative partners in problem solving. To increase awareness of DARPA’s expansive AI R&D efforts, the agency hosted an Artificial Intelligence Colloquium (AIC) in March 2019. The event brought together the Department of Defense research community and stakeholders to learn more about DARPA’s current and emerging AI programs, and discover how the technologies in development could apply to diverse missions.
D60 was a three-day symposium hosted by DARPA to commemorate its 60th anniversary. The event, held September 5-7, 2018, highlighted DARPA’s innovative approach to creating breakthrough technologies and capabilities that represent the Agency’s past, present, and future.
DARPA’s mission requires a constant stream of novel ideas and contributions from innovators looking beyond what is possible now. D60 provided attendees the opportunity to engage with up-and-coming innovators, along with some of today’s most creative and accomplished scientists and technologists, as they continue to provide these contributions. By sharing our record of achievements over the past 60 years, DARPA sought to inspire attendees to explore future technologies, their potential application to tomorrow’s technical and societal challenges, and the dilemmas those applications may engender. D60 participants had the opportunity to enter into new relationships, partnerships, and communities of interest that the event set out to foster, and to advance dialogue on the pursuit of science in the national interest.
D60 featured six plenary sessions focused on topics of broad importance and interest, as well as 30 themed breakout sessions that dove more deeply into particular topics relevant to national security. An exhibit hall featured engaging displays from DARPA’s six technical offices, each of which showcased a selection of programs that reflected the breadth of DARPA’s research portfolio and the range of its performer base. Visitors to the exhibit hall also had the opportunity to review an extensive showcase of historical displays and artifacts featuring highlights from DARPA’s storied past.
DARPA's Ground X-Vehicle Technologies (GXV-T) program aims to improve mobility, survivability, safety, and effectiveness of future combat vehicles without piling on armor. The demonstrations featur...
This video shows a demonstration of the "Cheetah" robot galloping at speeds of up to 18 miles per hour (mph), setting a new land speed record for legged robots. The previous record was 13.1 mph, s...
DARPA’s Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordnance (EXACTO) program, which developed a self-steering bullet to increase hit rates for difficult, long-distance shots, completed in February its most successful...
DARPA's Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordnance (EXACTO) program recently conducted the first successful live-fire tests demonstrating in-flight guidance of .50-caliber bullets. This video shows EXACTO ro...
This video depicts field testing of the DARPA Legged Squad Support System (LS3). The goal of the LS3 program is to demonstrate that a legged robot can unburden dismounted squad members by carrying ...
In this video, the Pet-Proto, a predecessor to DARPA's Atlas robot, is confronted with obstacles similar to those robots might face in the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC). To maneuver over and aroun...
Working with the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory (MCWL), researchers from DARPA's LS3 program demonstrated new advances in the robot's control, stability and maneuverability, including "Leader ...
DARPA's Cheetah robot—already the fastest legged robot in history—just broke its own land speed record of 18 miles per hour (mph). In the process, Cheetah also surpassed another very fast mover: Us...
Today's dismounted warfighter can be saddled with more than 100 pounds of gear, resulting in physical strain, fatigue, and degraded performance. To help alleviate the impact of excess weight on tro...