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Program & Project Areas

Human Performance Consortium

The Wright State Research Institute-led Human Performance Consortium was formed to support the mission of the 711th Human Performance Wing and the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. The consortium is designed to give the Air Force a one-stop shop of expertise, equipment and facilities to help it achieve its human-performance objectives.

Members of the consortium include:

• Wright State Research Institute (WSRI): The research arm of Wright State University, WSRI was formed to solve problems for businesses by connecting them to Wright State's vast reservoir of researchers, scientists and resources. The institute has investigated everything from new technologies to identify terror suspects to strategies for minimizing combat fatigue. It has a staff of about 50 and annual research funding in excess of $10 million.
• Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC): A FORTUNE 500® scientific, engineering and technology applications company, SAIC employs more than 43,000 workers, about 600 in the Dayton region. The Dayton office primarily supports a variety of customers at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
• Kettering Health Network: Kettering Health Network is a comprehensive, nonprofit health care network that includes Kettering Medical Center, Grandview Medical Center, Sycamore Medical Center, Southview Medical Center, Greene Memorial Hospital and Kettering Behavioral Medicine Center. Patients receive care from more than 8,000 employees, 1,200 physicians and over 1,000 volunteers.
• Applied Research Associates (ARA): ARA is an international research and engineering company providing solutions to complex problems in the physical sciences. Its mission is to provide in-depth and diversified research, engineering and technical support services. ARA employs more than 1,200 workers in the United States and Canada.
• Radiance Technologies: Radiance has 20 offices in 12 states. Its key products include electro-optical systems, radar power distribution technologies, high-speed signal processing and life-sensing systems. Its technology applications work includes a program initiative in satellite-borne experimentation, control systems and software and simulation development.
• Advance Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC): ATIC is a university and industry-focused research, education and training nonprofit corporation in the Dayton region. ATIC incorporates on-site and distance learning environments and a research lab that broadens opportunities and options for research and collaboration in intelligence disciplines.
• SelectTech Geospatial: Located at the Springfield-Air National Guard airport in Springfield, OH, SelectTech GeoSpatial is home to the Dayton region's Advanced Manufacturing Facility (AMF). It delivers a flexible manufacturing process to serve the Defense Department and related U.S. government operations, ensuring rapid deployment of mission-specific technical solutions worldwide.
• Infoscitex: Founded in 2000, Infoscitex set out to create a dynamic corporation committed to excelling in the defense, aerospace, life sciences, energy and environment markets such as Corning Inc., the U.S. Navy, U.S. Army and the U.S. Air Force.
• Aptima: With offices in Dayton, Boston and Washington, D.C., Aptima, Inc. is a leading human-centered research, development and engineering company that works primarily for the military research labs, DARPA and NASA. The company optimizes the fit between people, the technology they use and the organizations in which they work. Aptima's innovative approach integrates social science and engineering to produce new knowledge and new technologies that ensure mission success.
• Siemens: Siemens AG is a global powerhouse in electronics and electrical engineering, operating in the industry, energy and health care sectors. For over 160 years, Siemens has stood for technological excellence, innovation, quality, reliability and internationality. The company is the world's largest provider of environmental technologies. More than one-third of its total revenue stems from green products and solutions.
• SET Corporation: A wholly owned subsidiary of SAIC, SET creates and commercializes smart sensing and information solutions to highly challenging problems of national importance. SET's scientists and engineers address 21st century threats requiring innovative technologies for counter-improvised explosive device (IED), persistent sensing, human terrain, tactical intelligence and cybersecurity applications.
• National Center for Medical Readiness: Developed by the WSU Boonshoft School of Medicine's Department of Emergency Medicine, the National Center for Medical Readiness (NCMR) is an Ohio Center of Excellence that provides training and education, research, a product development test-bed and commercialization opportunities that integrate medicine with disaster response. NCMR operates a tactical laboratory, called Calamityville©, in Fairborn, OH.

Aerospace Technology Evaluation and Assessment (ATEA)

The object of the ATEA program is to provide research and engineering for the technical requirements of AFRL and ASC. By employing and generating state-of-the-art modeling, simulation and analysis tools, techniques, and flight tests, this program will provide: research, development, demonstration, integration, and transition of new air vehicle technologies and modeling, and analysis and evaluation of current and future warfighter needs.

The scope of this program encompasses a broad spectrum of research and development activities and includes the development, maturation, assessment, and integration of aerospace vehicle technologies including, but not limited to: vehicle flight management systems; control theory; cooperative control; autonomous control; integrated guidance/navigation control; operator vehicle interfaces; vehicle configuration and aerodynamic performance; multidisciplinary design; multifunctional structures and systems; adaptive structures and systems; thermal management; sensor and effector systems; conventional and non-conventional weapon systems; observability; affordability; and systems engineering.

Wright Brothers Institute (WBI)

Knowledge Management and Metrics Reporting

The Wright Brothers Institute’s Tec^Edge initiative provides innovation capability through its offerings of development workshops, solution forums, and long term resident team support. Over 8,000 innovators have collaborated at the Tec^Edge environment over the course of nearly 300 collaborative forums. By utilizing knowledge management disciplines, WSRI designed and developed a formal process and set of database tools to measure success of those collaborations through metrics. The reporting system provides metrics in key performance areas to include human capital, collaboration, research innovation, technology development, technology transfer and commercialization, and economic development.

SNAP

The Special Needs Assessment and Planning (SNAP) environment has been jointly developed by the National Center for Medical Readiness (NCMR), the Wright State Research Institute, and RhinoCorps to provide a capability which can be used during disaster responses and in planning for potential future events. It is intended that the development of the SNAP environment will provide a tool that can be placed in the hands of event planning responders to better serve the evacuation and medical support needs of communities during times of need. While the purpose is not to locate individuals at specific addresses, the objective is to statistically establish the raw numbers of persons and expected medical conditions who will likely need evacuation and medical care based on census tract or other rational geographic segment. This number can then be translated into numbers and types of resources that will be needed to carry out the assistance. Much of the data needed for this objective already exists on government or academic databases, and SNAP will tie this data together in a modeling and simulation event to bring key information to the forefront.

Tec^Edge Works

WSRI is a foundational stakeholder in the Tec^Edge Works facility in Dayton, OH. This facility provides a flexible environment for hands-on rapid prototyping and experimentation by government, university, and industry collaborators. It features open high-bays, prototyping equipment and quick access to the Dayton region's precision fabrication, manufacturing and transportation resources. In collaboration with AFRL and industry partners, WSRI executes Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) research projects at this facility and also provides operational and facilities management support.

Center for Operator Performance

The Center for Operator Performance was created to provide an open forum for the identification, analysis, and dissemination of research in areas such as selection/training, interface design, decision aides, simulator effectiveness, automation, procedures, performance measurements and control room design. Wright State has partnered with Beville Engineering, a Dayton human factors engineering consulting company, to establish the Center.

AFRL ATR Center - Joint RF-EO Sensing of Dismounts

The goal of this project is to create algorithms for combining EO and RF sensor data to identify key features of human gait, body structure, and dynamics, and to perform recognition tasks using those features.

AFRL ATR Center - Terahertz Concealed Weapon Detection

The goal of this project is to create algorithms for recognizing objects in gray scale imagery under varied conditions of resolution, noise, phenomenology, object pose, etc. To focus the investigation, recent work has made use of the terahertz concealed weapon data set collect by The Ohio State University. In working with this data set, algorithms are designed to segment object signatures from a test image and then classify that object as a threat or non-threat.

AFRL Tec^Edge - SAVig - Low Cost Acoustic Array for Small Target Detection and Tracking

The goal of this project is to develop algorithms for exploitation of data acquired by acoustic sensors, especially acoustic arrays. The WSU acoustic array will be used in collaboration with RYA and Tec^Edge participants to support data collections.