• Turning Technology against Human Traffickers

    Last October, the White House released the National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking. The plan was motivated, in part, by a greater understanding of the pervasiveness of the crime. This increasing awareness has also motivated MIT Lincoln Laboratory to harness its technological expertise toward combating human trafficking.

  • Sarcasm Detector for Online Communications

    Sentiment analysis – the process of identifying positive, negative, or neutral emotion – across online communications has become a growing focus for both commercial and defense communities. Sentiment can be an important signal for online information operations to identify topics of concern or the possible actions of bad actors. The presence of sarcasm – a linguistic expression often used to communicate the opposite of what is said with an intention to insult or ridicule – in online text is a significant hindrance to the performance of sentiment analysis.

  • Improving Grid Reliability in the Face of Extreme Events

    The nation’s power grid remains vulnerable to disruption from extreme events including wildfires, severe storms, and cyberattacks. Variable generation resources and load volatility also present operational challenges to grid stability. To mitigate disruptions before they snowball, grid planners and operators must be able to see these events coming and understand their potential impacts on grid reliability.

  • An Uncrackable Combination of Invisible Ink and Artificial Intelligence

    Coded messages in invisible ink sound like something only found in espionage books, but in real life, they can have important security purposes. Yet, they can be cracked if their encryption is predictable. Now, researchers have printed complexly encoded data with normal ink and a carbon nanoparticle-based invisible ink, requiring both UV light and a computer that has been taught the code to reveal the correct messages.

  • Addressing the Thin Data Problem in National Security

    When a data set is too small to be used to make a decision, the solution is usually obvious: Get more data! That’s the cry of analysts everywhere, whether the need is to confirm the safety of a vaccine or to pinpoint an annoying knock in a car’s engine. But, says one expert, “In national security, oftentimes there is not better data. There is not more data. We need new techniques to understand the data we do have, to extract more meaning from the information already in hand.”

  • The New U.S. Climate Normals Are Here

    Every 10 years, NOAA releases an analysis of U.S. weather of the past three decades that calculates average values for temperature, rainfall and other conditions. That time has come again. Known as the U.S. Climate Normals, these 30-year averages — now spanning 1991-2020 — represent the new “normals” of our changing climate.

  • Nuclear Micro-Reactors

    The idea of a nuclear power plant today evokes images of large cooling towers and expansive, warehouse-size buildings. Such facilities generate about a fifth of electricity in the United States without emitting greenhouse gases. A different picture of nuclear energy is emerging, however, in the form of micro-reactors that could fit on the back of a truck or inside a rocket to space. The promise of these micro-reactors is to provide the same reliable, zero-carbon power in remote settings or to support electrical power grid recovery.

  • Entire U.S. West Coast Now Has Access to ShakeAlert Earthquake Early Warning

    After fifteen years of planning and development, the ShakeAlert earthquake early warning system is now available to more than fifty million people in California, Oregon and Washington, the most earthquake-prone region in the conterminous U.S.

  • Increasing U.S. Production of Rare Earth Elements

    The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) the other day awarded $19 million for 13 projects in traditionally fossil fuel-producing communities across the country to support production of rare earth elements and critical minerals vital to the manufacturing of batteries, magnets, and other components important to the clean energy economy.

  • Antarctic Ice-Sheet Melting to Lift Sea Level Higher Than Thought: Study

    Global sea-level rise associated with the possible collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet has been significantly underestimated in previous studies, meaning the sea level in a warming world will be greater than anticipated, according to a new study. New calculations show the rise due to warming would be 30 percent above forecasts.

  • Keeping Automated Electric Vehicles Safe

    Having your social media account hacked is a pain. Having your credit card account hacked can be devastating. Having your new electric vehicle hacked could be disastrous. As the move toward automated electric cars accelerates, protecting the cybersecurity of these vehicles has become urgent.

  • Breakthrough Technology a Game Changer for Deepfake Detection

    Army researchers developed a deepfake detection method that will allow for the creation of state-of-the-art soldier technology to support mission-essential tasks such as adversarial threat detection and recognition. This work specifically focuses on a lightweight, low training complexity and high-performance face biometrics technique that meets the size, weight and power requirements of devices soldiers will need in combat.

  • From Bioweapons to Super Soldiers: How the U.K. Is Joining the Genomic Technology Arms Race

    Universal Soldier and Captain America are just a few Hollywood movies that have explored the concept of the super soldier. Despite its sci-fi nature, several countries are looking to explore the potential of such prospects. In the U.S., DARPA is exploring genetically editing soldiers to turn them into “antibody factories,” making them resistant to chemical or biological attacks. The U.K., too, is joining the genome technology warfare race.

  • Defending Against Chemical, Biological Threats from Inside and Out

    Chemical and biological (CB) threats have become increasingly ubiquitous and diverse, presenting significant risks to soldiers in theater and stability operators during pandemic outbreaks. PPE can be bulky, heavy, and cumbersome, often severely limiting user mobility and performance. A DARPA program aims to develop technology that reduces the need for burdensome protective equipment while increasing individual protection against CB threats.

  • Cybersecurity Becomes Increasingly Important: USC Students Train to Secure Networks, Data

    With over half a million cybersecurity job openings in the industry and with increased reliance on insecure networks and infrastructures, experts say that now more than ever, students pursuing cybersecurity degrees are essential to keeping data secure. USC’s Intelligence and Cyber Operation Program trains students to identify cybersecurity issues.