# DARPA’s Process for Creating New Programs  * Programs really come from different places #### Have Blue * OG stealth program * Planning from 1974-1976 * Solicited directly from defense contractors but not labs * Ken Perko was the program manager * Getting industry inputs * Assessing competing approaches * Selecting eventual contractor * `Director George Heilmeier was both a champion and a skeptic ` * Have Blue was “above top secret” * [[DARPA works on programs that go against the established paradigm]] #### Assault Breaker * Standoff precision strike 1978 -> 1983 * DARPA started with a study asking a very general question * Inputs from study, PM (Leland Strom) and Industry * Administration change in 1976 changed leadership * Key individual was not the PM but the TTO Director * AB had four sub programs and a steering committee #### Amber/Predator Drones * WWI idea for British radio controlled explosive air vehicle * Teal Rain created the Amber Aircraft * Transferred to navy and then cut * `* military service interests in UAVs were generally short-lived and at critical junctures DARPA was critical in promulgating and refocusing UAV developments ` * [[DARPA works on programs that go against the established paradigm]] #### Optoelectronics Program * Started 1984 -> * Researchers realized you could multiplex light in the 1970’s * AT&T piloted WDM but it had severe limitations * AT&T and IBM had worked on multiplexing but had budget crunches and didn’t see value in it * PM Andrew Yang * Successful programs are a matter of timing * `Technical communities recognize that it is good to get their people into DARPA to help keep the funding flowing to their community. ` * Programs need to be flexible * DARPA supported optoelectronics from 1985-2005 * Broad Agency Announcements were established around 1990 * DARPA was not very metric driven until after the early 90’s #### High Definition Systems * Creating high definition displays 19890>1993 * Created digital mirror protection technology * Marko Slusarczuk was not initially a display technologist, but he had a substantial background in the underlying microelectronics and materials technologies. * Fields was removed from the DARPA Director position in 1990 in part due to his disagreement with the Bush White House on DARPA’s role in supporting dual-use technologies. * Slusarczuk saw his approach as consisting of (1) providing an overall vision; (2) identifying and filling holes; (3) providing connectivity across the technology area. From his perspective, his role was to seek out potential in what was unproven. * He required university programs that received more than $250,000 from his program to send their principle investigator to a private company working on the DARPA display program to learn what problems commercial firms had in display technologies. #### Spintronics (Quantum Computing) * Started by Stuart Wolf in 1993->2005 * The argument was that use of MRAM technology would allow a memory device with 128 Kb capacity, that cost $250,000 and weighed 40 pounds, to be replaced by an MRAM megabyte chip that would cost on the order of $1000. * Cost share with industry on a sliding basis 80-20->70-30->60-40 #### Personalized Assistant that Learns (PAL) * 2002->2009 - CALO project and RADAR Project * DARPA had funded artificial intelligence since the 1960s, * Tony Teather (Director) hired Ron Brachman as IPTO director started program and *then* hired PM David Gunning * Used SRI as prime contractor * Large and therefore got congressional scrutiny #### Topological Data Analysis [[Ben Mann]] introed Gunnar Carlsson to Douglas Cochran (the PM) * DSO in 2000’s New PMs were expected to come to their job interview with fairly well-developed ideas for new programs. * Became a VC backed company #### Revolutionizing Prosthetics * 2006 -> present * PM Geoffrey Ling recruited by [[Michael Goldblatt]] * $100M and 10 years - long and big `There is a variety of kinds of PM, and PMs view their roles somewhat differently. Some PMs are visionaries. Some are idea generators. Some are champions/drivers of other’s ideas. Some are facilitator/enablers of communities. Some are hired to manage complex programs that have been conceived by someone else, such as an Office Director or the DARPA Director. Each kind can be successful. ` * “which DARPA does one want to copy?” * Dual use darpa that supported key industries * DSO - breakthrough new technologies * TTO/STO - respond to well articulated needs * [[The definition of the ARPA model has changed over time]] ### Published ## Questions ## Thoughts ## Related ## Authors * [[David Cheney]] * [[Richard Van Atta]] ## Link