Published 7.14.23 New York Yacht Club American Magic’s move to Pensacola has resulted in a collaboration with the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC).  Since 2018, the professional sailing team has used the Port of Pensacola for seasonal training. In 2023, they decided to make Pensacola their permanent home. This strategic move is expected to generate 170 jobs in advanced manufacturing, engineering, design, and high-tech research and development.  The collaboration originated when Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves included IHMC on a city tour with the racing team.   “Soon after this introduction, members of the IHMC team toured the American Magic facilities, and the brainstorming began,” said Ryan Tilley, IHMC’s director of strategic program execution and innovation.  Leading the collaboration for IHMC has been Research Scientist Dr. Matt Johnson. Johnson said that on the tour, the team highlighted a number of technical challenges they were working on, including improving the interface used by the crew.   “They are constantly developing and testing new ideas,” Jonson said. “Considering IHMC’s experience designing interfaces for advanced technology, it was a natural fit for collaboration between the two organizations.”  Johnson’s research areas include human-machine teaming, human-machine system design, human-centered computing, human-machine interface design, and multi-robot… Read More

Published 6.28.23 You can thank Bob Newhart for Dr. Brain Cole’s career.  The classic 1970s sitcom gave Cole, then an impressionable middle schooler, a vision of the impact a physician could have on the lives of patients with good humor.  “If you ask any individual in health care, the reason I chose this is I love to help people,” Cole says on the latest episode of STEM-Talk. “On ‘The Bob Newhart Show’ he was able to help people, but he did so with a sense of humor.”   Something about the low-key way that psychology, sociology and humor fit together to make an impact on people appealed to young Cole. He says he has carried that with him throughout a career that led him to becoming a renown orthopedic surgeon.  Today on STEM-Talk, Cole shares his journey with Dr. Ken Ford, IHMC’s founder and chief executive officer, and Dr. Marcas Bamman, Senior Research Scientist at IHMC.   Cole specializes in cartilage restoration, orthobiologics, and advanced surgical techniques for the treatment of knee, elbow, and shoulder injuries. He is the team doctor for the NBA’s Chicago Bulls and the co-team doctor for the Chicago White Sox. He also is the host of… Read More

Published 6.15.23 At the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC), we stand on the shoulders of those who have come before us.  This month, IHMC honored seven people who helped build the Institute from a closet in the computer science department at the University of West Florida into a research center with an international reputation in artificial intelligence, computer science, robotics and exoskeletons, and healthspan, resilience, and performance research.   “Without the contributions of these individuals, IHMC quite simply would not be where it is today,” said Founder and CEO Dr. Ken Ford. “Their own sense of commitment to excellence inspired, and continues to influence, the culture of IHMC. We are grateful to each of them.”  The honorees named to Emeritus status were:  Senior Research Scientist Emeritus, Dr. James Allen  Dr. Allen is a pioneer in artificial intelligence with substantial contributions to natural language understanding research. He is a professor emeritus at the University of Rochester where he has been on the faculty since 1978.  Dr. Allen joined IHMC in 2006 and served as an Associate Director.  Computational linguistics is at the root of speech recognition systems, text-to-speech synthesizers, automated voice-response systems, internet search engines, text editors, language… Read More

Published 6.13.23 Longtime listeners know Dr. Dominic D’Agostino’s reputation and his research into the physiological benefits of nutritional ketosis. Since his last STEM-Talk in 2019, a tremendous body of research has been added to the literature about the therapeutic potential of ketosis. Listen to Episode 153 now or wherever you listen to podcasts. The high-fat, low-carb ketogenic diet has been linked to advances in the treatment of: • Alzheimer’s • Cancer • Migraines • Type-2 diabetes • Psoriasis • Sleep apnea • Psychiatric disorders • Traumatic brain injuries • And a host of other diseases and disorders, which we cover in today’s interview. D’Agostino is an IHMC colleague and a tenured associate professor of molecular pharmacology and physiology at the University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine. He specializes in neuroscience, molecular pharmacology, nutrition, and physiology.   In this episode, hear our conversation about:  — Evidence-based applications of the ketogenic diet on neurodegenerative disorders such as epilepsy, Alzheimer’s Parkinson’s disease.   — Possible applications for the ketogenic diet in the treatment of schizophrenia, bipolar and other psychiatric disorders.    — Research on whether therapeutic ketosis via ketone esters could help treat epilepsy and other seizure disorders.  — Studies that examined… Read More

Published 6.6.23 “Leaving your jet in the jungle is not heroic. I’m a survivor.” That sentiment is one that Retired Air Force Maj. Brian Shul expressed often in the years after being shot down during the Vietnam War. Sustaining devastating burn injuries in the crash, he recovered and continued to serve his country, piloting secret missions in the Cold War while flying the SR-71, the world’s fastest aircraft. He told his story often as part of his encore career in which he continued to inspire. Telling his story was among the last things he did. He died of a cardiac arrest in a hospital in Reno, Nev. On May 20, 2023. He had collapsed while speaking at the Nevada Military Support Alliance’s annual event, according to news outlets. He was 75. Back in 2015, the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition was honored to host Shul for an Evening Lecture. You can watch his talk here. He also was a guest on IHMC’s podcast SEM-Talk in episode 15. Listen to that conversation here.  

Published 5.19.23 How long can you sustain attention in a cognitively or physically demanding situation where a lapse in focus due to boredom or fatigue could have life-or-death consequences?  That’s the question at the heart of a cooperative research project between the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) and the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) now under way.  The project is the cover story of the latest issue of our newsletter, available here. Assessing and Augmenting Performance in Extreme Environments (A2PEX) aims for real-time assessment and augmentation of Airmen cognitive performance in long-duration missions in extreme environments.  The goal is to develop robust wearable devices and an integrated system that overcomes fatigue and stress by continually sensing, assessing, and augmenting human performance. The five-year project is sponsored by AFRL’s Materials and Manufacturing Directorate and supported by the 711th Human Performance Wing.   Principal Investigators are IHMC’s Dr. Morley Stone and Dr. Tim Broderick. It draws on team members from IHMC’s human performance, robotics, and human-centered computing teams, and on Stone’s earlier work within AFRL on the Sense, Assess, Augment paradigm.  Broderick says A2PEX “…is developing and manufacturing materials and technologies that will allow us to sense key biomarkers of… Read More

Published 5.18.23 Mark Shelhamer was set upon a path that would take him from “nerdy band kid” to the chief scientist for NASA’s Human Research Program by his Uncle Stanley.  “One of the smartest people I knew, even though he was not highly educated,” Shelhamer says. “He had been a surveyor in a coal mine. He was ‘the cool uncle,’ so he made it cool to be interested in science and math.”   Uncle Stanley also gifted 10-year-old Mark with a Radio Shack 150-in-1 Electronics Kit. The idea that he could wire up a radio in a few minutes and listen to broadcasts from hundreds of miles away on something he built with his own hands, “was magic to me.”  He’s been using that magic ever since in a career spent learning about spaceflight and its impact on human beings.  In this STEM-Talk, Shelhamer talks about his work with NASA and as an advisor to the commercial and consumer spaceflight industry. Shelhamer is an otolaryngology professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and is the director of the school’s Human Spaceflight Lab. He also the director and founder of the Bioastronautics at Hopkins initiative This fascinating discussion covers his… Read More

Published 5.8.23 The transition from military to civilian life comes with challenges, including how to translate that experience into the civilian workplace. The Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition is proud to be part of a U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) program to help close that gap. SkillBridge is a DoD program to give military personnel civilian work experience in the last 180 days of their service career — a bridge from one world to the next. This spring, IHMC renewed its commitment to the program becoming a SkillBridge worksite. The DoD covers salary and benefits while in the program, which allows IHMC to train and leverage highly skilled service members in preparation for permanent roles at no cost, said Ryan Tilley, IHMC’s director of strategic program execution and innovation. “SkillBridge gives IHMC early access to the experience, skills, and unmatched work ethic service members bring to the table,” Tilley said. “It’s a huge benefit to us.” The SkillBridge partner vetting process was updated in January 2023. As part of that process, IHMC had to craft a comprehensive training plan and model the job description for the role that the service member may fill. That included details such as… Read More

Published 5.4.23 An IHMC team has wrapped up a three-year project refining an underwater eye-tracking tool to detect the early signs of neurological hazards in divers. Neurologic decompression sickness, hypoxia, hypercarbia, and Central Nervous System (CNS) O2 toxicity, all are hazards of working in undersea environments. Small eye-movement cameras, known as video-oculographic (VOG) systems, have been used extensively for clinical assessment of eye movements, a quantifiable marker of neurologic function. In a project supported by the Office of Naval Research Undersea Medicine Program, the IHMC team modified the Pupil Labs ocular camera system into a waterproof form that fits in the U.S. Navy MK 20 full-face dive mask. The Pupil Labs system is a mobile, open-source, natural gaze-based system validated across clinical and operational settings. The IHMC team is led by Senior Research Scientist Jeff Phillips and Research Associate Connor Tate. “Navy divers are exposed to harsh conditions and high levels of stress during submerged critical missions such as search and rescue or explosive ordinance disposal,” Tate said. Standard laboratory eye-tracking systems provide reliable measures on neurological status, but, Tate noted, “there wasn’t yet a fully waterproofed device for monitoring and evaluation in the submerged environment until our team developed… Read More

Published 5.2.23 Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition research also includes small scale efforts in local efforts.   One such example is work by IHMC Research Scientist David Fries, who is using Bayou Texar as a test bed for a project to enlist residents in tracking the bayou’s health. It is a timely project that complements ongoing efforts to improve the waterway, which includes a nearly $6 million grant, announced by the City of Pensacola in November 2022.  With two grants totaling $100,000 from the Pensacola & Perdido Bays Estuary Program Community Grant Program, Fries launched a citizen science initiative with six monitoring stations linking augmented- and virtual-reality technologies with the real-world bayou. The effort aims to build a living map of the health of one of Pensacola’s signature waterways.  “The goal is to enable a water management information system, generated by the people, working with machines to better understand nature and to monitor and effect a change in the waterway,” Fries said.  Fries recruited homeowners to attach data collection devices to their docks and property lines. Those devices feed into software to analyze the data collected. It includes:  Photos and social sharing for citizens to share photos of… Read More

Published 4.19.23 In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. John Ioannidis wrote an article in March 2020 questioning government statistics about the fatality rate of COVID-19. The backlash was swift and brutal, and John’s reputation as one of the most influential scientists in the world took a beating.    Here, John makes his second appearance on STEM-Talk to discuss his extensive research into the pandemic. Episode 151 is available now on our podcast page, as well as in popular podcast apps and on YouTube. John talks about his most recent peer-reviewed paper that looked at the age-stratified infection fatality rate of COVID-19 in the non-elderly population.   The study found that the pre-vaccination fatality rate for those infected may have been as low as 0.03 percent for people under 60 years old, and 0.07 percent for people under 70, far below the World Health Organization’s prediction of a 3.4 percent fatality rate.  Over the past two decades, John’s research has earned him a global reputation as a consummate physician and researcher, which contributed to The Atlantic describing him in 2010 as one of the most influential scientists alive. He is a professor of medicine, epidemiology and population health… Read More

Published 4.17.23 IHMC is purchasing a new NovaSeq X Plus genetic sequencing device that will help elevate the Institute’s footprint as a regional hub of excellence in human performance research.  IHMC will be among the first labs in the country to have the newest version of this device, which allows for next-generation sequencing capacity to better understand genetics, genomics, epigenetics, and transcriptomics.   “The information contained in our genes and how they are activated and regulated is extremely important in understanding risks of disease, along with differences between individuals and the responses of each person to a treatment or exposure to stress,” says Dr. Marcas Bamman, Senior Research Scientist and Director of Healthspan, Resilience, and Performance Research at IHMC. “Scientific advances resulting from such a capability are truly game-changing because the information gained will help us optimize approaches to healthspan, resilience, and ultimately human performance.”  The ability to perform sequencing analysis of both RNA and DNA is foundational in biomedical sciences, however, the tools to perform this analysis typically are found at major biotechnology research hubs or in private industry locations.   “With IHMC being among the first institutions to acquire the device, we will not only be among the leaders in… Read More

Published 4.14.23 Everyone likes company — and IHMC is no exception.   More than 350 people came through our doors for 2023’s Robotics Open House. The family-friendly event allowed IHMC researchers to share some of what they do with students and families.  We had a great time showcasing our work in robotics, virtual reality experiences, human performance research projects, data visualization, and more. If you couldn’t be there, here’s a little of what you missed.  For students to get an IHMC experience, we have two upcoming opportunities: Science Saturday on April 22 for students in grades 3-6, and summer Robotics Camp June 5-8 in Pensacola. Sign up today. 

Published 4.10.23 IHMC received nearly $4 million in grant funding as a subaward to SRI International’s “PROTEUS: Prototype Testing environment for User Situation awareness.”   PROTEUS is a rapidly reconfigurable human-machine interface (HMI) testing environment for early and cost-effective testing of human machine prototypes, specifically those designed to improve operator situation awareness and support agile adaptation to off-nominal situations.  The PROTEUS Team is a project the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and is a collaboration between SRI International (prime, headquartered in Menlo Park, CA), IHMC, and SkillMil, Inc., (Menlo Park, CA). IHMC’s effort is led by Senior Research Scientist Dr. Anil Raj.  PROTEUS will develop and provide a set of plug-and-play, low-cost hardware configurations to support ecologically realistic environments across operational domains (e.g., air, maritime, space).  The PROTEUS team will create a testbed design for conducting human research participant experiments, and execute protocols designed to deliver statistically significant operator situation awareness and performance assessment results in less than one week per iteration (“Evaluation Events”). Raj is responsible for conducting the Evaluation Events at IHMC.   As it stands, creating a testbed for a new scenario that could sustain more than 30 in-person and 90 virtual participants typically takes weeks or months. With… Read More

Published 3.31.23 It’s time to get your peek behind the curtain.   On April 6, Florida IHMC is inviting the public to meet Nadia, Valkyrie, Eva, Mini Cheetah, Wasp and the humans behind them in celebration of National Robotics Week.  From 3 to 7 p.m. on April 6, 2023, researchers at the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition will welcome the public and students for tours, walk-throughs and inspiration on the Pensacola campus on South Alcaniz Street. The last tour begins at 7 p.m.  The family-friendly event encourages scientific discovery through hands-on activities, challenges, and demonstrations while providing the opportunity to learn about IHMC’s work from in-house researchers and educators.  Visitors will be able to see IHMC researchers and their work in drones, robotics, virtual reality experiences, human performance research projects, data visualization, and more.    The MESS Hall, Pensacola’s hands-on science, technology, engineering, and math museum, also will be on hand with traveling exhibits.   It will be IHMC’s first open house on campus since 2019.   “To show our support for the community who has supported us so much in the past, we want to highlight all the technology that has been developed and grown right here in Pensacola,” said Dr. Robert… Read More

Published 3.28.23 Recently, the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition hosted a gathering of international experts in spatial disorientation, the leading cause of deadly mishaps in military and commercial aviation.   Over three days in late March, 87 members of the Spatial Orientation Modeling Expert (SOME) Workgroup shared the latest techniques to model spatial disorientation mishaps and to showcase the latest developments designed to mitigate the risk. The hope is to craft recommendations for future research on the model and designs of next-generation aerospace vehicles to improve pilot situation awareness and counter spatial disorientation.   The Principal Investigator from IHMC for the workshop was Senior Research Scientist Dr. Jeff Phillips, an aviation human factors expert who has worked extensively in this area. The panels included astronauts Ken Cameron and Bill Shepard, who spoke at length about the spatial disorientation they experienced in space.    The group has met twice before, once in 1994 and again in 2019. The first meeting led to the publication of the book “Spatial Disorientation in Aviation,” one of the most comprehensive references on the topic. This year’s meeting will result in the publication of a second volume.   Senior Events Specialist Michelle Bowers said the… Read More

Published 3.21.23 STEM-Talk episode 150 featuring termite biologist Dr. Barbra Thorne is now available on IHMC’s website as well as popular podcast apps. In her interview, Barbara talks about the invasive conehead species, a Central and South American termite that has invaded South Florida. Barbara is a research professor and professor emerita in the Department of Entomology at the University of Maryland. Since 2012 she has served as the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services science advisor on the state’s Conehead Termite Program. She also chairs the National Scientific Advisory Committee for the Conehead Termite Program. Barbara’s research focuses on the biology of termites, which are highly social insects that form complex colony structures. She earned her Ph.D. in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology in 1983 from Harvard University where she studied with the late Dr. E. O. Wilson, a renowned biologist and naturalist. In this episode, Barbara discusses: — How she had no interest in bugs until college when she went to a summer Bug Camp where she read E.O. Wilson’s book, “The Insect Societies.” — The 15 years she spent in E.O. Wilson’s lab at Harvard. — How she began working in the field of applied termite biology…. Read More

Published 3.20.23 Summer Robotics Camp is one of IHMC’s signature community outreach efforts — and it’s almost here. Registration opens this week for the summer 2023 sessions. Visit https://www.ihmc.us/life/robotics-camp/ to register.  “Our students always enjoy getting to know likeminded students and spending four days learning to program Lego robots and seeing them respond to their commands,” said Dr. Ursula Schwuttke, director of educational outreach for IHMC’s Pensacola and Ocala campuses.  Robotics camp takes place in June 2023 and offers students the chance to learn the basics of robotics, coding, and problem-solving. Camp is in two sessions: June 5-8 for rising eighth graders; and June 12-15 for rising ninth and 10th graders in Pensacola.   Ocala camp dates are June 26-29 for rising eighth graders, and July 10-13 for rising ninth- and 10th-graders.  “Fun science gives kids the ability to discover their interest and ability in science, and to develop self-confidence,” says Schwuttke. “Opportunity is vitally important for kids. Without the opportunity to discover their interest, they can’t know that it’s something they should pursue.”  While assembling and programming the robots is of course the fun part, Schwuttke says a highlight of camp is the chance to meet and mingle with researchers… Read More

Published 3.3.23 A partnership between Space Florida and the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition has been quietly growing. Most recently, Space Florida contributed $2 million in support of that collaboration.   When construction of IHMC’s newest research building is completed in the summer of 2024, Space Florida will have office space in the new facility — additional evidence of how closely the two entities intend to work together.  “Among the topics our human performance team is exploring is how humans respond both physically and cognitively to stress and how we perform in extreme environments,” said IHMC Founder and CEO Dr. Ken Ford. “Space is among the most extreme environments in which humans perform. Seen through that lens, a collaborative partnership between IHMC and Space Florida clearly benefits both entities.”  Space Florida was created to support the growth and development of a sustainable and world-leading aerospace industry throughout the state. It promotes aerospace and space-related business development, business financing, spaceport operations, research and development, workforce development, and innovative education programs statewide.  The space and aerospace-related sector fuels some $19 billion of the state’s economy. More than 17,144 aerospace-related companies call Florida home, according to the  aerospace finance and development authority. … Read More

Published 2.24.23 Dr. Karen Wooley wants to find the next iteration of sustainable, biodegradable plastics. She’s looking to the insect world for part of the answer.   Wooley, who holds the W. T. Doherty-Welch Chair in Chemistry and is a University Distinguished Professor at Texas A&M University, spoke as part of the Smart Lecture series at IHMC. If you couldn’t be with us in person, watch her lecture here.  Her lecture shared the latest efforts to support the commercial translation of carbohydrate-derived degradable plastics to harvesting of building blocks from insect feedstocks.   As scaled-up production of biomass-based biodegradable polymers grows, focus has turned to harvesting the naturally-derived building blocks from black soldier flies, to avoid competition with resources that are important to food, fuel, and construction. The goal is not just improving sustainability, but digestibility should the product end up in an animal or human.   The inspiration for the work has links to the world of orthopedic medicine, where the mismatches in tensile strength, functionality and longevity between bone and materials like metal or polymer-based screws, rods or inserts, led to the focus on finding bioplastics that could substitute.   Watch our video recap here to learn more.