Software Engineering Institute (SEI) Applied Research

Mission— Cyber Security, Applied Research

Work conducted under this project will enable resilient mission assurance in heterogeneous and contested environments through the verification and validation of system performance and architecture. The program will also assist the DoD in retaining a long-term advantage in the area of cybersecurity by enhancing assurance, exploiting automation, and understanding human-computer interaction.

Mission— Software Engineering Institute (SEI) Applied Research

This program supports the Department's initiative to Build Sustainable and Long-Term Advantage. The Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute (SEI) Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC) was established in 1984 as an integral part of the DoD’s initiative to identify, evaluate, and transition software engineering technologies and practices. The mission of the SEI is to provide the DoD with technical leadership and innovation through research and development to advance the practice of software engineering and technology. The SEI works across government, industry, and academia to improve the state of software engineering from the technical, acquisition, and management perspectives. The SEI engages in research and development of critical software technologies and tools and collaborates with the larger software engineering research community. It facilitates the rapid transition of software engineering technologies into practice and evaluates emerging software engineering technologies to determine their potential for improving software-intensive Department of Defense (DoD) systems. Since its inception, the SEI has helped to transform the fields of software engineering and acquisition, network security, real-time systems, software architectures, and software-engineering process management. Software is critical to meeting the Department of Defense's (DoD) increasing demand for national defense systems that are high quality, affordable, and deployed in a timely way. With growing global parity in software engineering, the DoD must maintain leadership in all aspects of software-based system development, operation, defense, and evolution to avoid strategic surprise. To assist the DoD in retaining a long-term differential advantage over potential adversaries, the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) Applied Research program element (PE) develops and evaluates the feasibility and practicality of software and computer science concepts, with the potential to improve future DoD systems. The research conducted by this PE directly benefits the technical domains Autonomous Systems and Artificial Intelligence (AI), Cyber, and Engineered Resilient Systems.

Mission— Software Engineering Institute (SEI) Applied Research

Work conducted under this Program Element (PE) will enable resilient mission assurance in heterogeneous and contested environments through the verification and validation of system performance and architecture. The program will also assist the Department of Defense (DoD) in retaining a long-term advantage in the areas of software-intensive systems and cyber security by enhancing assurance, exploiting automation and Artificial Intelligence (AI), and understanding human-computer interaction. The Software Engineering Institute (SEI) Applied Research PE has two main research thrusts with known military applications: (1) Software Engineering, Systems Verification and Validation, and Mission Assurance (formerly Mission Assurance); and (2) Information Assurance. This area is increasingly being applied to AI and autonomous systems.

Accomplishments & Planned Programs (3)