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Single Sign On: A/I Design Solutions for Improving
User Experiences (ModSim World?)
Both commercial and defense communications
require universal, secure, easy and rapid Single Sign-On (SSO)
experiences for multiple platforms. Instantiations of effective and
secure service capability after either natural disasters or cyber
attacks are vital for society. Before resorting to a major redesign
of SSO, which is a potentially disruptive evolution, simulation
could be used to evaluate efficacy, interoperability and security.
Emerging technologies in Artificial Intelligence may facilitate or
enhance these processes, offering new dynamic, non-deterministic
security barriers to intrusion. Today, different solutions exist for
different platforms. A plethora of Identity Providers (IdP's) are
managing credentials across ranges of choices of incompatible tools
for implementing SSO. This paper asserts that a new solution should
be implemented with cross-platform flexibility. Also, this new
paradigm should be designed to be easier to deploy today and to
re-establish network communications after network disruptions. These
changes would dramatically reduce the amount of work system
administrators need to do to "onboard" users or to terminate them.
This would directly translate to financial benefits and time
savings. This solution would also increase security, as passwords
would be less likely to be reused, and centralized login flows, e.g.
multi-factor authentication and biometric identification, can be
instituted easily and without undue burdens. Without widespread
adoption, creating a new standard for SSO would prove problematic.
This solution can and must leverage existing platforms and allow for
easy adoption, so it can easily gain the required adoption. When a
user or service member can log onto every system that they need and
verify their identity with a single account, the benefits would be
manifold. This paper presents how emerging technology will enable
improved network and user interface simulations allowing for
improved evaluations of time economies, security improvements,
network recoveries, and even user affirmation.
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Implementing Interactive Cinema Clip Analytics to
Enhance Leadership Training (I/ITSEC?)
New technologies now can provide a better and
more agile way to improve leadership within the uniformed services.
For millennia, a major but elusive goal of defense training and
education has been the improvement of leadership skills among those
tasked with directing operations. This paper holds that such
improvements can be accomplished by training and education, as well
as by selection processes. Current approaches, which are heavily
hampered by operations tempos and geographical dispersion, are
amenable to enhancement by exploiting emerging technologies in
computation, data management, Artificial Intelligence (A/I) and
Natural Language Processing (NLP). This paper reports on an effort
by researchers to create a useful leadership training utility that
is enabled by all of the emerging technologies. Initially spawned as
an unintended side-product of another project, the researchers found
that using the compelling narrative abilities of the cinema industry
was an effective way of attracting, engaging and retaining the
attention of the target audience: junior officers and new NCO's. A
full description of the creative process and VV&T design for
this initial project is given. Then the paper turns to the issue of
the value of training versus that of selection of those with innate
leadership skills. using A/I to avoid the contentious "nature vs.
nurture" debates. The application of A/I and NLP techniques is
explicated and analyzed in this context. Several issues identified
by the researchers are raised and resolved within the framework of
this research. These issues include: security, privacy, A/I
misfeasance, intervention by live human analysts, establishing
criteria, and long time-scale longitudinal studies. Many, if not
most, of these activities could easily be adopted by others in
pursuit of similar training and education goals, so the current
research is characterized in such a way as to allow the
implementation in similar projects without further external
intervention. Resources in the Reference section will provide
additional details for implementation designs. The paper closes with
a brief discussion of the value of the emerging technologies and an
analysis of the likelihood of their future advances.
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Computer Agents and Training Software: Increasing
Learning Application and Retention (MORES?)
The application of more sophisticated Computer
Agents like Virtual Humans (VH's) and Conversational Agents (CA's)
offers new pedagogical power to DoD training and education. Recent
needs to provide on-line education to diverse, dispersed and
disinterested K-12 students has dramatically shown the demand for
the immediate improvement in implementation. A brief survey of these
observations will be presented herein. The paper then focuses on the
range of computer agents, analyzing the utility and hurdles found in
their use. Specific examples from the research of the authors are
described in such a way as to invite use in the reader's own
efforts. Both anecdotal and statistical data are provided to
substantiate the engagement of the user in these programs, as well
as bolstering the assertion that this interactive approach did have
and will have a beneficial impact on the users that will translate
into pedagogical goal achievement and performance enhancement. The
paper then lays out an ambitious but feasible program for evaluating
the impact of the implementations. Several issues are identified and
discussed: quantification of skill or trait in users, definition of
underlying goals, establishment of priorities, and ethical or moral
issues that may arise. The need for close coordination with the
creative arts communities is advanced as an attractive vehicle due
to their patent ability to gauge and fulfill the emotional needs of
their public This paper maintains that is missing in many otherwise
effective on-line educational programs. Also, development of a set
of metrics to assist A/I-enabled programs in future implementations
and in identifying the needs for remediation or opportunities for
improvement is considered. The paper concludes with an outline for
future research in the area and a strawman design for an effective
evaluative module to guide responses to meet the needs for
individual students.
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Needs, Designs and Implementations: DoD Training
Devices User Interface Standards (SISO SIW?)
Emerging capabilities in data management enable
new opportunities to identify, quantify, and verify the efficacy of
DoD training and education. Current systems for assessing the
utility of training and education often fall back on the easily
monitored and precisely quantified parameters like number of courses
offered, personnel completing the training, funds expended, sites
created, and instructors trained and available. Sometimes efforts
are made to assess immediate reaction by students via end-of-course
surveys or final tests. This paper focuses on the more salient goals
of improved readiness, sustained retention, spirited morale, and
increased mission success. Taking an Operations Research (OR)
perspective, the paper examines the germane metrics and considers
the various new technologies that might employ them to better
measure goal realization. One of the issues presented is the
interface of the burgeoning numbers of on-line training devices and
applications. The various types of user/machine interfaces are
outlined and the important parameters surveyed. Then the paper
considers a range of analytic approaches, e.g. linear
algebraic formulae, evolutionary computing, synthetic or quantum
annealing, and stochastic simulation. From that body of knowledge,
the paper proposes a list of important parameters that should be
considered for standardization in nomenclatures, achievement
measures, and VV&T procedures. The paper concludes with an
assessment of how this line of inquiry might inform the approaches
to similar new areas of standards, as well as suggestions as to
which related areas of research might be good candidates for
collaboration and cross-disciplinary efforts. The paper purports to
present both the data and the analysis in such a way as to make it
applicable to similar challenges.
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Virtual Human Mentors: Leadership Training using
Video Scenario Analyses (ModSim World?)
This paper examines the engaging quality of
certain computer agents used as the computer interface with the
student or trainee. At this time, much on-line training relies on a
straight didactic pedagogy that is ostensibly effective at conveying
specific information and is often evaluated by examining the
student's short-term ability to regurgitate the proffered
information. The authors' thesis is that this interface does not
create the amount of real engagement that would allow the young
commissioned and non-commissioned officers to internalize the
training so effectively that it could be easily and quickly applied
in times of high stress to a range of issues. Neither the stress nor
the range of issues could be been envisioned by the training
creators. The paper then presents the current work into the use of
Virtual Humans (VH's) and other more interactive computer agent
interfaces. It analyzes the benefits and costs of the various
approaches. Data is adduced as to the quantified engagement and
acceptance levels, as well as the delta in the attitudinal status of
the subjects. This line of investigation is then extrapolated into
suggestions of its impact if fully implemented into leadership
training. The initial instantiation of the program is outlined and
documented with examples of pages presented as templates..The
constitution of a military leader review panel is reported along
with their reaction to the new interface. Further progress is
outlined and discussed. No special skills or equipment is required
for implementation of similar training programs; suggestions for
application design and production are given. The utilization of a
"no cost to the Government" review/advisory board is advanced for
the reader's consideration. A final section proposes the salutary
impact on leadership in the DoD and the benefits that will occur
therefrom.
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Establishing Leadership
Improvement Criteria and Metrics: A/I and Virtual Humans (MORES?)
One of the nation's most critical requirements is better criteria
and metrics for leadership among DoD personnel, be they commissioned
or non-commissioned officers. This paper outlines the current
thinking on leadership, management and command skills within the DoD
and then surveys the present view of the state of that skill set.
Part of that review will be a survey of the critiques of the
accepted view of these important qualities. While many have argued
that there have been millennia of analyses into what makes a good
leader, many others will point out the repetition of leadership
failures in war after war. This paper sets forth the hardware and
software approaches now available to give this challenge a new look.
Specifically the introduction of parallel computing, general purpose
graphics processing units, synthetic/quantum annealing and mass data
manipulation have provided new capabilities to analyze the myriad
data that already exists. New advances in Artificial Intelligence
(A/I), Natural Language Processing, and data manipulation allow
previously unavailable capability to quantify leadership skills and
their applicability under stress. The use of battlespace simulation
and war-gaming as test-beds for this approach is outlined and
considered. Previous research into these issues is reported and
analyzed. Assuming the validity and utility of the results from this
vision, the next section of the paper turns to how these insights
might be applied to the very real challenge of assessing leadership
potential, measuring improvement following leadership training and
augmenting current programs tasked with identifying leadership
skills in candidates for critical positions in the DoD. The paper
then summarizes conclusions and sets forth paths for the future.
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Using A/I Data Lakes Analyses: Improving
Multidisciplinary Research Opportunity Awareness (ModSim World?)
Data analysis techniques now provide the DoD with
a hitherto unheard of ability to enhance cross-disciplinary efforts
and reduce redundant research. The current, familiar method of
scientific communication via conferences and journals is not keeping
pace with the explosion of new data being generated by proliferating
research efforts. This paper opens with a survey of the inability to
recognize collaboration opportunities and the repetition of research
already reported in traditional channels. This has been ameliorated
by the advent of digitization and concomitant search engine
application capabilities, but exacerbated by the geometric growth of
relevant data. The next section reviews the vast amounts of
heterogeneous, unstructured data in what is being called "data
lakes." These data assets are suggested as a way to inexpensively
enhance collaboration and reduce redundancy. This data would be so
huge as to not admit of any one person incorporating it all; it
would be so diverse in content as to resist any kind of global
analysis; the staffing load would be an intolerable expense. On the
other hand, a well-designed data manipulation program could do this
analysis relentlessly in the off-hours and never miss an insightful
conceptual relationship due to human fatigue. A subsequent section
describes in which ways Artificial Intelligence could be used to
continuously survey the data lake looking for corresponding
parameters, some of which might be outside of human imagination.
These relationships might lead to productive collaboration
opportunities for research funders, managers and researchers. These
insights could then be forwarded to the appropriate research leaders
for consideration. The impacts on familiar research situations are
presented. In conclusion, all these issues will be coalesced into a
view of the present and the concepts will be synthesized into a
vision for the future.
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Military Leadership Development: Emerging Computational Data Analyses for Psychometric Ascendancy (I/ITSEC, Emerging Technologies?)
This paper asserts that emerging computational data analytic techniques
can significantly enhance the quantification, study, understanding,
and elevation of military leadership skills. A brief review of the millennia
of attempts to resolve the issues of leadership in defense organizations
and the constraints that often led to sub-optimal results are presented.
This will include some visions of how such matters may be better psychometrically
quantified using emerging technologies. These technologies are presented
and include: advanced data management, data-lake analysis, deep learning,
Natural Language Processing (NLP), and quantum computing. A short
explicatory section is devoted to each with an analysis of likely
trajectories of their future development. Then a multi-dimensional theory
of the military leadership is laid out with supporting observations and
quantified data corroborating the paper's thesis. This complex analysis
is discussed, focusing on how the multi-dimensionality requires an analytic
approach that is not easily envisioned, let alone mastered, by un-aided
human intellect. Data is adduced from early implementations of these concepts
to show the potential of these approaches. The paper then turns to how
these emerging computational capabilities will impact a wide range of
stake-holders and the salutary impacts it will have on mission success,
loss reduction, morale improvement, and personnel retention. A set of
metrics are proposed, including the utilization of the aforementioned
emerging technologies, to allow studies of both short-term and longitudinal
studies to asses validity and to track changes in all of the dimensions of
the proposed analytical framework. These propositions are then subjected to
a critical analysis of both the risks of such an initiative and the
potential paradigm metamorphoses that may render the process less useful.
The paper concludes with a set of suggestions as to how this analytic
lattice may be usefully applied to other research efforts and effectively
adopted in other disciplines.
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