HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (March 2020) — With the rapid development of our digital age, more and more challenges rely on software to accomplish specific tasks and advance programs efficiently. But over the years, software has become more than coding and programming. Historically, software meant programming mathematical formulas in a language that a computer processor could understand. This provided engineers, mathematicians, and physicists with results they could not get with a handheld calculator. Today, software provides an embodiment of data storage, queries, algorithmic processes, interpretation, visualization and presentation. Despite common misconceptions, software engineers are no longer defined by coding and programming practices. While code has been a significant software activity in the past, INTUITIVE engineers are moving from coding to design and from design to management, as organizations look to improve and evolve software products. INTUITIVE is using software to bolster a variety of capabilities.
Artificial Intelligence
Software is a significant asset when enabling Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and neural networks. While traditional approaches focus on sorting through data to answer questions we know to ask, AI has the potential to collect data and information for questions we might yet not know to ask. In some cases, specific software rules can be written to determine actions based on situations, however more advanced methods include the introduction of software algorithms, massive training data sets, and various approaches for training the model.
“At INTUITIVE, our software labs are currently assessing physical, cyber, and supply chain risk as well as developing anomaly detection in fields such as healthcare and cybersecurity,” said Chuck Speaks, INTUITIVE Senior Program Advisor. “These applications all require access to and evaluation of large amounts of historical and streaming data, complex algorithm development, and computational power for model training and deployment. All of these have been developed into core capabilities at INTUITIVE.”
The promise of AI comes from its speed, accuracy, and repeatability. In missions that require acting faster than a human can interpret data and act such as safety-critical applications, AI can deliver significant benefit. Given enough training data, AI/ML models provide for a higher degree of accuracy than can be delivered solely by human interaction. By combining the collective experience of a host of human subject matter experts with thousands or millions of simulated scenarios, we can develop a training AI/ML model.
“A benefit in using software in artificial intelligence is that it doesn’t get tired or need to take a break like a human,” Speaks said. “Fielded AI/ML applications are always-on, always-learning, and delivering the same results regardless of the time of day or consecutives hours in service.”
Big Data Analytics
Software is also critical in performing Big Data Analytics. Big Data Analytics is the process of analyzing massive amounts of data, whether structured or un-structured. Often processed with AI/ML techniques, Big Data is frequently the basis for learning systems by combining vast amounts of historical data with streaming time-series data. Entire hardware and software solutions have been developed to address the volume, variety, and velocity of Big Data.
“In support of INTUITIVE’s AI/ML capabilities,” explained Speaks, “we have created our own Big Data Lake by collecting various data feeds. This data provides a historical basis for baselines and back-testing while also providing continuous real-time or near-real-time streaming data for predictive analysis use cases.”
The concept of Big Data is important because it places value around the potential impact of data from disparate and nonhomogeneous sources. With the proliferation of intelligent devices in commercial operational environments to the military’s tactical edge, data drives decisions. Data provides the basis for extreme optimization, critical care, and operational effectiveness.
Data Science and Visualization
Data science describes methods of taking a large pool of data and extracting useful information and insights about the data using a variety of processes and methods. In other words, data science brings informational order to data chaos. The data lake can contain data that is structured; for example, an Excel spreadsheet can be viewed as a miniature data lake containing structured data. The data lake can also contain unstructured data, which may not fit well into a spreadsheet yet still contains data such as dates and other facts. Visualization is taking the information and insights discovered and conveying them to the data analyst in a way that makes sense.
“Software is used in data science to help break down the data lake into manageable pieces,” Michael Yohe, INTUITIVE Deputy Program Manager. “The process for determining those pieces comes down to factors defined by the data analyst, algorithms designed to analyze unstructured data and identify facts that can be extracted, filters to isolate certain types of data, and other characteristics to attain useful insight. Modern computers are fast and capable of ingesting and synthesizing data far more quickly than an army of data analysts.
Advanced algorithms for machine learning and artificial intelligence allow for the identification of related data that at first glance appears to be completely unrelated. Data analysts can train these algorithms on data characteristics that allow the computer to quickly digest and synthesize relationships accordingly.
Yohe said, “Software is key to effective visualization of the complexities of these pieces of data and relationships to extract knowledge and insight, capable of synthesizing the data into graphs, charts, maps, and timelines. Nothing can replace the data analyst’s intuition and experience on how to best utilize information; however, software can accelerate the ability to use the vast amount of data collected by today’s system to gain an insight into the situation presented.”
INTUITIVE has the ability to place the data analyst “inside their data” leveraging powerful visualization technologies such as virtual reality and mixed reality. Both technologies provide a key advantage in visualization over conventional methods such as looking at a chart displayed on a computer monitor. Using depth perception, these visualization methods allow the presentation of data in three or more dimensions, allowing immersion to let the data analyst fully exploit their experience and intuition and deeply interrogate the data.
As our industry has evolved beyond programming and code, INTUITIVE’s software engineering team has evolved, too. Our team now includes software engineers, computer engineers, analysts, data scientists, network and architecture specialists, cloud architects, digital engineers, and digital artists. This multidisciplinary team is prepared to handle and execute software projects across virtually all domains.
ABOUT INTUITIVE RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION:
INTUITIVE® is an aerospace engineering and analysis firm headquartered in Huntsville, Alabama that provides production support, systems engineering, programmatic support, product development, rapid prototyping, and technology management to the Department of Defense, other State and Federal Government agencies, and commercial companies. Our approach couples the latest technology with engineering expertise, analytical proficiency, and keen managerial oversight. From design through production to sustainment, we proudly provide management and technical solutions throughout all phases of the systems lifecycle.
For more information on INTUITIVE’s Software Solutions click here.