Funding Briefs

Advance Notice On Neural Networks

This month, the DOD’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is elected to announce a two-year “seed grant” program in neural network research. The program grows out of a report from MIT’s Lincoln Labs that DARPA commissioned a year ago, which suggests increased funding for neural network research over the next eight years. The long-term goals of this project will be to explore the advantages of neural nets over conventional computer technology, including artificial intelligence-based systems, and to determine the wisdom of a long-term DOD investment in neural net research. DARPA will initially focus on neural net applications for sonar signal identification and classification, and continuous speech and automatic target recognition. Funding during the seed-grant program will go primarily for analyses of neural net versus Bayesian classifiers for speed, accuracy, and cost; theoretical extensions of neural nets; and survivability-adaptability functions of neural network hardware. For further...