Alion picked up a three-year $4.5 million contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to shepherd a technology that would change the way soldiers in the field gather and record information while on patrol.
The firm will evaluate the Graph Understanding and Analysis for Rapid Detection – Deployed On the Ground (GUARD DOG) program.
According to the firm, “troops conduct interviews of the local population. The information gained from these interviews is usually jotted down and brought back to camp for manual processing and analysis. GUARD DOG leverages recent advances in graph-theoretic analysis techniques, database technology and hardware technology to improve how patrollers process and use information derived from these interviews and field observations.”
“GUARD DOG technology will produce an operationally effective enhancement to the interview process. It is designed to give troops the real-time assessments of their surroundings that they need–quickly, ” said Dick Brooks, Alion senior VP and manager of the Distributed Simulation Group. “To make sure this improved technology achieves that goal, Alion will construct research models and develop a variety of testing methods to rapidly detect issues in technology approaches and algorithms.”
