IHMC honors seven colleagues with emeritus status

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 instruction material and more.  

His research uniquely combines what often are treated as separate fields in artificial intelligence — knowledge representation and reasoning, language understanding, planning, intention recognition, and learning.  

  

Senior Research Scientist Emeritus, Dr. Jeffrey M. Bradshaw 

Dr. Bradshaw is a pioneer in automated knowledge acquisition and multiagent systems.  

His book, “Software Agents” is a classic in the field of multiagent systems and is one of several books he has authored. Since 2000, the research group Dr. Bradshaw led at IHMC developed a framework for distributed systems management and human-agent-robot teamwork.

This framework has been used in scores of government-sponsored and commercial projects for network management, secure policy-based governance of complex systems, and for the coordination of human-robot teams. 

Senior Research Scientist Emeritus, Dr. Alberto Cañas 

Dr. Canas is a co-founder of IHMC, an innovator in knowledge modeling and the creator of CmapTools, a software tool used by schools, businesses, and organizations across the globe.  

His IHMC research projects include knowledge modeling, performance support systems, collaborative tools for education and research, distance learning, and corporate memory. 

CmapTools is an outgrowth of Dr. Cañas’ interest in the use of technology in the K-12 education system. Before going to the University of West Florida, he was the director of IBM’s Latin American Education Research Center in Costa Rica.  

His research includes the use of computers in education, knowledge management, knowledge acquisition, information retrieval, and human-machine interface. 

  

Senior Research Scientist Emeritus, Dr. William J. Clancey 

Dr. Clancey is a computer scientist whose research relates cognitive and social science in the study of work practices and the design of agent systems.  

Before joining IHMC in 1997, Dr. Clancey was at the Institute for Research on Learning in Menlo Park, Calif., from its founding in 1988, where he co-developed the Brahms multi-agent work practice modeling and simulation system. At the NASA Ames Research Center, where he served as Chief Scientist of Human-Centered Computing in the Intelligent Systems Division. His team developed the Mobile Agents software that automates file processing between Mission Control and the International Space Station. 

At Stanford’s Knowledge Systems Lab, he developed some of the earliest AI programs for explanation, meta-level reasoning, the critiquing method of consultation, tutorial discourse, and student modeling. 

 

Senior Research Scientist Emeritus, Dr. Robert Hoffman 

Dr. Hoffman is a recognized leader in cognitive systems engineering and human-centered computing. His research has centered on knowledge modeling, work analysis, cybersecurity, expertise studies, and several others. 

Dr. Hoffman has been recognized internationally in cognitive systems engineering, applied psychology, artificial intelligence, and human factors engineering—for his research on the methodology of cognitive task analysis and human-centering issues for human-systems integration systems technology.  

He has co-authored and co-edited 18 scholarly books and is co-author on over 100 publications in peer-reviewed journals.  

Deputy Director for Defense Research and Development Emeritus, Tim Wright  

Vice Adm. Tim Wright joined IHMC in 1996 as deputy director after having served for 35 years in the U.S. Navy. As a Naval aviator, he served primarily in fighter squadrons during his active flying career. He commanded a fighter squadron, a carrier air wing, a fleet oiler, an aircraft carrier, a carrier battle group and the U.S. Seventh Fleet.  

He holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif., and a master’s degree in public administration from George Washington University. He also is a graduate of the Industrial College of the Armed Forces at the National Defense University. 

Board of Directors Emeritus, Carol Carlan 

Carol Carlan was the inaugural chair of IHMC’s Board of Directors and now serves as the Institute’s director of philanthropy. Her leadership helped guide the Institute from its early years to its status as a premier research institution. 

Her banking career spanned more than 35 years culminating in serving as the first female president of a large regional bank. As the President of the Ascension Sacred Heart Foundation, she led one of the largest capital campaigns in the region, resulting in a new children’s hospital and expansion of children’s services in the Destin market. 

As President of Carlan Consulting, she is a founding member of the John Maxwell Team, a global training organization for leaders with more than 50,000 members worldwide. 

Among the numerous accolades she has received: Pensacola Chamber PACE Awards recognized her as the Spirit of Pensacola and Business Leader of the Year, Leadership Pensacola gave her the Blue Angel Leadership Award, a participant of the Leadership Florida Class of 2011-2012, recognized for her many years of work as a Trustee of the Pace Center for Girls State Board of Trustees she was awarded the 25th anniversary Pioneer Award. 

IHMC is a not-for-profit research institute of the Florida University System where researchers pioneer science and technology aimed at leveraging and extending human capabilities. IHMC researchers and staff collaborate extensively with the government, industry and academia to help develop breakthrough technologies. IHMC research partners have included: DARPA, the National Science Foundation, NASA, Army, Navy, Air Force, National Institutes of Health, IBM, Microsoft, Honda, Boeing, Lockheed, and many others.

 

A2PEX project leads latest edition of IHMC newsletter

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 fatigue in extreme environments, and to augment performance by mitigating fatigue. Aviation mishaps often are related to unrecognized fatigue and stress.” 

“If we can recognize and mitigate stress and fatigue, we can potentially save lives,” he says. “It is very hard to accurately measure the physiology and performance of a person during everyday activities – and even more so when a person works in an extreme environment.” 

Academic partners in the project are The Ohio State University and Georgia Institute of Technology. Industry partners are Triple Ring Tech, Abbott Biowearables, electroCore, and Polar. 

“We are excited about the possibilities of this program,” says Regina Shia, program manager at AFRL. “HMC has built a strong team with expertise that ranges from physiological and cognitive monitoring to materials and manufacturing advances. With a closed-loop human sustainment for a long-duration mission’s objective, this team could immensely impact the combat readiness and lethality for the Air Force.”  

Research agreement is key 

Closing the loop for human performance has been a longtime interest for IHMC researchers. More than a decade ago Stone published on the concept of the Sense, Assess, Augment — a human-centric control loop to improve performance.  

“Without the cooperative research agreement, we would not have access to AFRL research infrastructure that allows us to move sense and augmentation concepts out of the lab and into relevant environments. It’s a key component for us as we move into verification and validation before field testing,” Stone says. 

“We have a long-standing and productive relationship with the Air Force,” Broderick says. “We’re working with them in a collaborative way that is not typical. The collaboration benefits both parties and accelerates results.” 

The first year of the project will focus on refining and testing partner devices at IHMC and in the STRONG Lab (at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base). Triple Ring and Ohio State researchers are prototyping devices that will be tested in a joint exercise later in 2023. That exercise could include:  

— Air Force special operators and medics using personal protective equipment during a five-day surge; 

— Aircrew during long duration flights in the Pacific theatre; 

— Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) teams during high tempo, protracted missions; and  

— Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) analysts during long shifts in classified facilities.  

Year two will focus on analyzing the data generated and revising prototype devices and the integrated system. 

The goal is to supply a sensor system that is comfortably wearable and doesn’t pose a safety risk, yet still supplies accurate electrical and mechanical data in a range of hostile environments. 

“If it’s not able to be worn comfortably, or if it gets in the way of doing a mission, it won’t be used,” Broderick says.  

Partners Polar, Abbott Biowearables, and Triple Ring are key to the effort to maximize adaptation of existing technologies to the needs and demands of the populations A2PEX will serve.  

The Air Force is interested in what this might mean for aviators on long-duration missions, but it’s not only pilots who could benefit. Personnel who engage in long-duration, high-cognitive load activities – such as pilots flying unmanned vehicles or analysts reviewing reconnaissance images – also could benefit.  

A promising approach for A2PEX centers on noninvasive vagal nerve stimulation. The vagal nerves are gatekeepers of the autonomic nervous system. These nerves send messages that adjust cognitive function and alertness, which are especially important to those working for extended stretches of time in high-stress environments. 

How A2PEX came to be 

The thread of A2PEX can be traced back more than a decade, with ties to work Stone did with AFRL and work Broderick was part of with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), particularly with the Peerless Operator Biological Aptitude, (PEERLESS).  

That project was designed to increase the biological aptitude of warfighters so that they can increase their adaptability and resilience in extreme conditions.  

In those early years, researchers were gaining the ability to measure quantitative data on human performance. With that knowledge, researchers gained the opportunity to fill a gap in the optimization of a system that until then had focused on how the technology performed — but hadn’t fully accounted for the impact on the human operator. 

The confluence of neurology, biomarkers, and wearable technology made this a “sweet spot” for optimizing the performance of elite warfighters and the technologies they control. PEERLESS, and now A2PEx, originate at least in part from this space. 

For A2PEX, researchers are looking for the intersection of what researchers would like to measure, what materials and sensors need to be developed, and how it can enhance capability and safety in extreme environments. 

While focus has been on pilots on long-duration missions, Stone and Broderick both note that the same concerns about how fatigue and biology could impact cognitive focus and accuity, other personnel could benefit from A2PEX’s findings.  

Analysts working extended shifts in Sensitive Information Compartmented Facilities (SCIF) and those working on Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance also face demands on their attention and focus. A2PEX could benefit them as well. 

The implications for military operators are clear, but the findings could ultimately produce benefits for long-haul truckers, commercial pilots on transoceanic routes, and medical personnel working long shifts, Stone notes. 

IHMC is a not-for-profit research institute of the Florida University System where researchers pioneer science and technology aimed at leveraging and extending human capabilities. IHMC researchers and staff collaborate extensively with the government, industry and academia to help develop breakthrough technologies. IHMC research partners have included: DARPA, the National Science Foundation, NASA, Army, Navy, Air Force, National Institutes of Health, IBM, Microsoft, Honda, Boeing, Lockheed, and many others.