Entries Tagged as 'SEI Research'

The Latest Research from the SEI

Insider Threat , Malware , SEI Research No Comments »

By Douglas C. Schmidt
Principal Researcher

Douglas C. SchmidtAs part of an ongoing effort to keep you informed about our latest work, I would like to let you know about some recently published SEI technical reports and notes. These reports highlight the latest work of SEI technologists in quantifying expert judgment, insider threat, detecting and preventing data exfiltration, and developing a common vocabulary for malware analysts. This post includes a listing of each report, author(s), and links where the published reports can be accessed on the SEI website.

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Standards in Cloud Computing Interoperability

Cloud Computing , SEI Research No Comments »

By Grace Lewis
Technical Lead,
Edge-Enabled Tactical Systems Research

Grace Lewis In 2011, Col. Timothy Hill, director of the Futures Directorate within the Army Intelligence and Security Command, urged industry to take a more open-standards approach to cloud computing. “Interoperability between clouds, as well as the portability of files from one cloud to another, has been a sticking point in general adoption of cloud computing,” Hill said during a panel at the AFCEA International 2011 Joint Warfighting Conference. Hill’s view has been echoed by many in the cloud computing community, who believe that the absence of interoperability has become a barrier to adoption.  This posting reports on recent research exploring the role of standards in cloud computing and offers recommendations for future standardization efforts.

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Evaluation and Validity for SEI Research Projects

SEI Research No Comments »

By Bill Scherlis
SEI Principal Researcher and Director, Institute for Software Research

Bill ScherlisSome of the principal challenges faced by developers, managers, and researchers in software engineering and cybersecurity involve measurement and evaluation.  In two previous blog posts, I summarized some features of the overall SEI Technology Strategy. This post focuses on how the SEI measures and evaluates its research program to help ensure these activities address the most significant and pervasive problems for the Department of Defense (DoD). Our goal is to conduct projects that are technically challenging and whose solution will make a significant difference in the development and operation of software-reliant systems. In this post we’ll describe the process used to measure and evaluate the progress of initiated projects at the SEI to help maximum their potential for success.

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Looking Ahead: The SEI Technical Strategic Plan, Part 2

SEI Research No Comments »

By Bill Scherlis
SEI Principal Researcher and Director, Institute for Software Research

Bill ScherlisThe Department of Defense (DoD) has become deeply reliant on software. As a federally funded research and development center (FFRDC), the SEI is chartered to work with the DoD to meet the challenges of designing, producing, assuring, and evolving software-reliant systems in an affordable and dependable manner. This blog post is the second in a multi-part series that describes key elements of our forthcoming Strategic Research Plan that address these challenges through research, acquisition support, and collaboration with the DoD, other federal agencies, industry, and academia.  The first post in this series focused on Architecture-Led Incremental Iterative Development.  This part focuses on the remaining three elements of our strategic plan: (1) designed-in security and quality (evidence-based software assurance), (2) a set of DoD critical component capabilities relating to cyber-physical systems (CPS), autonomous systems, and big data analytics, and (3) cybersecurity tradecraft and analytics.

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Building Next-generation Autonomous Systems

Artificial Intelligence , Autonomy , Handheld Devices , SEI Research No Comments »

By James Edmondson,
Senior Member of the Technical Staff
Research, Technology, & System Solutions

James EdmonsonAn autonomous system is a computational system that performs a desired task, often without human guidance. We use varying degrees of autonomy in robotic systems for manufacturing, exploration of planets and space debris, water treatment, ambient sensing, and even cleaning floors. This blog post discusses practical autonomous systems that we are actively developing at the SEI. Specifically, this post focuses on a new research effort at the SEI called Self-governing Mobile Adhocs with Sensors and Handhelds (SMASH) that is forging collaborations with researchers, professors, and students with the goal of enabling more effective search-and-rescue crews.

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