Research Topics

Atomic and molecular systems provide a set of highly precise and accessible energy level transitions that can be used as stable frequency references for precision timing. Some questions we are seeking insight into are:

• How can we reduce the size of chip-scale atomic clocks? 
• Can we design clocks with atomic references at much higher frequencies that are used today (e.g., from gigahertz to terahertz) to improve timing accuracy and stability? Can we miniaturize these clocks so they can be ubiquitously adopted in fielded applications?
• How can we rapidly and accurately synchronize multiple independent clocks that are spatially separated?
• Beyond the commonly used systems, what other atomic or molecular gases have the potential to achieve very high timing precision?  Can the ancillary support structures also be miniaturized and packaged?

Though there are many navigation techniques that can and do complement GPS in current operations, even the best of these techniques have limitations.  Terrain registration, as a simple example, only works over feature-rich land, not over open water.  Other approaches, such as signals of opportunity, rely on the presence of RF signals.  Thus far, no “silver bullet” complementary PNT approaches exist.  Instead, navigation systems synthesize multiple navigation techniques together to generate a coherent navigation update. For example, the navigation system may combine inputs from sensors already on the platform – inertial, radar and imaging systems– and new sensors installed solely for complementary PNT. Open research questions include:

• How to optimally combine information from various APNT sources?
• How can information added from various sensors be quantified?
• Computationally efficient and modular algorithms for combining information from APNT sources

The ability to measure celestial objects across different spectral regions, using advanced imaging processing techniques, utilizing ultrasensitive detection techniques, and/or leveraging adaptive optics can enable significant increases in observational capacity and ultimately better positional accuracies. We seek to foster a number of different modalities that can improve the imaging of celestial objects (including those in Earth orbit). Some questions that we are interested in are:

• How can non-centrosymmetric optics be used to improve compact telescope designs (particularly by removing obscurants)?
• Can size-, weight-, and power-constrained focal plane arrays be built that examine multiple spectral regions? Can multiple focal plane arrays be used in highly limited form factors to increase spectral ranges?
• Are there novel methods for sensing and correcting incoming light through highly degrading environments or rapidly changing conditions?
• How can field of view be maximized while limiting or eliminating aberrations (spherical, chromatic, etc.)? Are there techniques, methods, or processes for achieving very high fields of view?
• Advanced, lightweight telescope concepts and designs
• Very high bandwidth camera and image processing throughput for examining wide fields of view and/or multiple, independent fields of view.

Magnetic anomaly navigation (MagNav) is an unjammable and environment-agnostic navigation modality that utilizes earth’s magnetic anomaly field to estimate position. Such anomaly fields arise from globally distributed crustal deposits of magnetic material. Separate from earth’s core field, these deposits generate magnetic signatures high in spatial frequency and stable in time. This anomaly field must be extracted from scalar magnetometer measurements, which capture the earth’s core field and platform magnetic noise in addition to the desired signal. Once isolated, the anomaly signal is compared to a geo-referenced anomaly map to estimate position. Open MagNav research questions include:

• Current MagNav systems are size-, weight-, and power-intensive. How can system size be reduced while maintaining performance?
• How can MagNav be rapidly integrated on new vehicles while minimizing the negative effects of platform magnetic noise?
• What are the optimal filter architectures for accumulating and integrating magnetic anomaly signals into a navigation system?

We seek advancements in atomic and molecular sensing of electric and magnetic field, such as:

• Use of Rydberg atoms to simultaneously sense both electric (RF) and magnetic fields. Can detectability be increased?  Can the detection be shown to be vectorized?
• Atomic gravimetry for precision sensing of gravity in highly constrained (size, weight, and power) packages and/or unstable platforms (e.g., moving vehicles, airplanes, ships, etc.).
• Use of atomic or molecular gases for very high precision magnetic field detection (magnitude or vectorized).
• Low-dimensional materials for sensing acoustics (air or underwater) at very specific frequencies (narrowband) and very high detectabilities.
• Ionic, atomic, dopant, or vacancies in materials that can be used for magnetic field sensing, such as nitrogen vacancies in diamond, dopants or inclusions in optical fiber for Faraday rotation detection, or magnetic dopants in quantum dots.

A new generation of materials has shown that when the material size becomes similar to or less than the size of relevant quantum wavefunctions, new capabilities and novel physics can be achieved.  We seek a greater understanding of how phenomena in these materials (largely at room temperature) can be used in chip-scale devices and packaging for very sensitive detection or manipulation of electric, magnetic, acoustic, optical, or quantum behaviors.  Topics may include:

• Spontaneous self-assembly of materials to form a simple device or sensor.
• High-performance materials (e.g., graphene, topological insulators, phase-change materials, etc.) that can be used for sensors that manipulate light.
• Electrical control of light-matter interactions, such as rapid control over indices of refraction, high-speed manipulation of reflection/absorption/transmission, or coherent energy transfer to/from incoming light in a narrowband frequency region.
• Materials that can be used for novel acoustic sensors.
• Materials for packaging and sensing in harsh environments.

The use of precision-controlled light using unique geometries and tailored refractive indices enables a radical reduction in the size, weight, and power across the APNT spectrum.  We seek to explore topics in photonics such as:

• Squeezed light for improvements in accelerometry, imaging, or sensing.
• Ultrasensitive and size-reduced sensing of rotations and linear movements in photonics.
• The use of topological photonics for novel APNT solutions.
• Flat optics for precision imaging and/or optical control.
• Photonics for observing through degraded optical environments or unique spectral regions.
• Photonics for detecting, sensing, or measuring vibrations and acoustic perturbations.
• Broadband, high-efficiency, and alignment tolerant PIC waveguide coupling mechanisms.

As autonomous vehicles proliferate, mission designs naturally move towards multiple autonomous agents working in cooperation to solve problems. We seek frameworks applied to multiple agents that don’t just enhance single vehicle capabilities but instead enable new mission designs and revolutionary advances in autonomous team achievements.

In large and complex engagements, many open questions remain when incorporating autonomous agents with operators, decision makers, and planners. Some questions we are seeking insight into are:

• What level of centralization vs. decentralization in command and control is optimal in an engagement? How does this change as the environment, enemy, and resources evolve?
• What level of autonomy should be given to agents in a large operation? How does this change as the environment, enemy, and resources evolve?
• What is the optimal teaming formulation (crewed, uncrewed, crewed-uncrewed) to complete an objective? How does this change as the environment, enemy, and resources evolve? How is the trade-off between successfully completing this mission vs. reserving resources for future engagements made?

There has been a push by governments and the space-industry to increase the amount of verifiable autonomy used in orbit operations and extra-terrestrial exploration. We seek advancements in spacecraft autonomy that can apply to Earth orbit, the Moon, and beyond.

Robust navigation is an underpinning to higher level autonomy functions. We seek vehicle navigation and perception technologies that operate robustly both with and without GPS across domains from underwater to beyond Earth orbit.

We seek planning and decision making frameworks that have an awareness of system uncertainty and can present operators with optimal plans including knowledge of uncertainty before and after planned actions. We would be targeting PhD students for the development of novel approaches, and MS students for the application of existing approaches to specific problems of interest to Draper.

Although Draper has been successful in fielding autonomous systems across domains, we are constantly seeking for ways to decrease the development and fielding times while increasing our robustification, continuous testing, and V&V capabilities. To meet the increasing performance guarantees required by these advanced autonomous systems and our customers, we are seeking PhD and MS level research in simulation, V&V, automated field testing, and enabling advanced autonomy architectures.

Even though there have been significant advances in AI-based autonomy over the past decade, there are still areas that warrant additional research to increase the field-worthiness of these proposed approaches. Specifically, we seek AI research in the sub-fields of mission planning, explain-ability and robustness measures, AI-based planning and battlefield estimation heuristics, GN&C, and swarm tactics.

Infectious diseases, chemical agents and toxins represent a significant threat global public health and to the health of our military service members. Factors such as climate change, increased population growth, expansion into animal habitats, and prevalence of antimicrobial resistance have led to emergence of novel pathogens as well as rise of previously controlled infections.  Global instabilities and rising conflicts worldwide also increase the threat of release or use of chemical or biological agents that pose a danger to the general public and to warfighters in particular. The ability to rapidly monitor the presence of threat agents or the spread of disease is crucial for prevention, interference and control. With the emergence of SARS-CoV-2, wastewater surveillance is an example of a useful rapid approach for monitoring disease spread and levels in the community. Additional pathogens have been shown to be detectable in wastewater, allowing for the monitoring of multiple circulating pathogens. The principles of wastewater biosurveillance can extend beyond the general public to the government agencies to help monitor safety and to protect key assets and locations, and are applicable to other more complex environmental samples. Development of rapid threat agnostic detection is necessary to protect communities against and these chemical and biological threats.

Draper has been developing organ-on-chip, or microphysiological systems (MPS) technologies toward a range of applications for over two decades, with a central focus on engineered tissues for disease modeling, safety testing and drug development, and for screening of medical countermeasures against high priority pathogens and other threat agents.  While engineering platforms for these model systems are fairly well-established, several key technical advances could augment and expand capabilities toward key drug development and biosecurity applications.  These include: 1) the development of new MPS organ and disease models beyond Draper’s current portfolio, with particular interest in neural and cardiac models; 2) the integration of immune components into organ models; 3) the development of new disease models, such as for thrombosis and coagulopathy applications; 4) Automation of downstream assays via innovations in microfluidics, next generation sequencing, artificial intelligence/machine learning and high content imaging are also key to driving down the costs and increasing the throughput of these model systems.  Advancements in MPS technologies will enable rapid response to emerging threats and improve medical countermeasure development.

Modeling emerging threats and developing mitigation strategies requires an ever-advancing set of capabilities for analyzing data obtained from clinical samples, preclinical animal studies, and model systems such as organs on chips.  Conventional analytical tools provide a limited window into the dynamics of pathogenesis, including entry, replication, and immune downregulation, which has resulted in a dearth of countermeasures despite years of research. Novel capabilities in single-cell analysis and in capturing and probing multi-omics datasets including proteomics/genomics, epigenomics and the microbiome, will be critical in designing increasingly complex and powerful model systems for the investigation of disease mechanisms and evaluation of therapeutic approaches.  Integration of these multi-omic readouts at both the tissue and single-cell levels will ultimately contribute to accelerated response to emerging threats, and reduced costs and wider availability of vaccines and therapeutics during health emergencies.

This research area covers security mechanisms, along with the associated compositional aspects, to protect the entire compute stack. We are dealing with strong, nation state adversaries, and our solutions must withstand the most sophisticated attacks. Thus, Draper is interested in collaborations that span a wide range of topics including:

• Secure processor design that includes methods to (formally) verify the (generated) hardware and its security properties (i.e., lack of side channel leakage, integrity and confidentiality of the computation, and reverse engineering and Fault Injection protections).
• Secure software stack design that includes secure firmware, operating systems and languages, property-based fuzzing, compiler transformations to enforce security policies, etc.

Draper applies a wide range of formal methods to understand and then modify programs (in source code or binary form). Our analyses include static, dynamic, and hybrid approaches. We are interested not only in scaling and extending existing approaches, but also creating languages and tool interfaces to make these analyses useful for others. Research topics of interest include:

• Specification composition/synthesis, proof automation (i.e., in Coq, Agda, etc.), counterexample guided inductive synthesis.
• Secure compilation, sound decomplilation, weakest precondition analysis, abduction inference, abstract interpretation.
• Mathematical topics (e.g., type theory, homotopy, category theory, program logics), hyperproperties, datalog/e-graphs.

This research domain covers a broad area of offensive techniques at both the hardware and software layers. Specific areas of collaboration include:

• Reverse engineering and vulnerability research approaches and tool development, focused on cyber-physical systems.
• Novel hypervisor development for code protection, instrumentation, and code obfuscation techniques.
• Research into defeating hardware-based software protections within IoT/Embedded systems.
• Compiler-based techniques including automatic generation of exploits based on X-oriented programming, transformations to increase diversity and obfuscation (i.e., static and dynamic opaque predicates, etc.), taint analysis, control follow analysis, etc.
• Operating systems exploitation including via process injection, packer techniques, networking stack, etc.
• Analog-based attacks (i.e., RF, acoustic, power, etc.) and physical attacks AI-driven exploit campaigns, AI poisoning, etc.

This recently established research domain takes a multidisciplinary approach to solving tough problems in cyber by harnessing the power of machine learning and artificial intelligence. Research topics plan to include:

• Building machine learning models that have the power to identify adversarial techniques tactics and procedures (TTPs) in network traffic, executables, and source code.
• Delivering cyber security to the edge via AI; this includes techniques for hardening IoT devices, military hardware and software, and space systems that automatically adapt to protect the high value assets.
• Leveraging LLMs to aid in the analysis of firmware, binaries, and malware, helping to alleviate some of the manual labor for reverse engineers.

Interest areas include more efficient methods for developing digital system representations and to expand models into more complex areas such as hypersonic vehicle applications and digital twins for the human body and its key organs and subsystems (e.g., immune system). Of particular interest is bridging multiple sources of truth using data integrator technology, providing semantic and syntactic interoperability across model-based engineering domains.

Draper is interested in R&D innovations in trade space exploration that includes rapid generation of representative mission and system environment models, as well as cost models for development, production, and sustainment.

It is one thing to develop a system to operate in benign and uncontested mission conditions.   Draper is interested in R&D concepts to efficiently and effectively include harsh and contested environment representations into analysis, design, and test simulations.

Draper is interested in the use of rapidly advancing AI/ML tools in the employment of Digital Engineering as well as how Digital Engineering can better incorporate models of AI/ML-based subsystems.

Draper is interested in identifying and characterizing the potential benefits of basic research technologies that show great promise and that are at a maturity for consideration for more advanced R&D to be applied for solutions to important application needs.

Draper is interested in R&D for potentially disruptive new technology vectors.  Technologies that disruptive current practices and broaden the potential solution space.  For example biotechnology is rapidly advancing and providing new sensing, information management, and manufacturing options that show great promise.

Complex human state attributes (e.g., stress, fatigue) can be difficult to quantify robustly and reliably and can vary widely both within and across individuals and contexts. We are looking for novel analytic approaches that make use of a variety of multimodal data to generate meaningful and reliable metrics of human state attributes.

Our users experience difficult challenges such as: high cognitive workload situations, high stakes tactical scenarios, complex data problems (including data visualization and overcoming cognitive bias), safety critical operations, and collaboration across distributed teams. We are looking for strong user-centered research skills, and innovative application of interaction and visual design principles to create usable, engaging, modern, and intuitive interfaces for cutting-edge systems sponsored by the US Government, commercial customers, and internal R&D projects.

Despite the promise of Human-Machine (AI/Autonomy) symbiosis – leveraging the strengths of each, Human-Machine Teaming (HMT) has proven to be challenging.  Continued research and development into such areas as shared situational awareness, new forms of sensing and feedback for machines to understand the cognitive state of their human teammates, adaptive mixed-initiative decision making are among the gaps for advancing HMT capabilities for real-world applications.

Our System Engineering processes from concept development, requirements formulation, system design trade studies, detailed design, test, and validation and verification are centered around maturing Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) and Manufacturing Readiness Levels (MRL), but not yet as focused on Human Readiness Level (HRL).  We are interested in R&D efforts to help support such maturation of capabilities.

1. Navigation sensors (e.g. IMU and alternate Navigation devices) and algorithms that enable operation in dynamic and contested environments.
2. Flight computer and vehicle data bus technologies to enable high assurance operations in harsh environments. Including associated microelectronics technologies.
3. EO & RF sensors that can be used to localize potential targets. Sensor includes targeting algorithms
4. Transmit and receive radio technologies that can receive and send offboard messages or waveforms and/or can be used for electronic warfare purposes
5. Radio Frequency antennas to enable receipt or transmission of RF signals, including omnidirectional, beam nulling and/or beam steering technologies and clutter and noise rejection technologies
6. Safe, high density power sources
7. Miniature actuators that can be employed to affect aerodynamic control either locally or globally

1. Guidance and control algorithms that enable hypersonic flight while minimizing resulting stresses on the airframe and/or minimizing propulsion energy losses.
2. Micro/nano sensors imbedded in the structure and/or propellant to enable better understanding of the systems aging and potential resulting degradation.
3. Miniature actuators that can be employed to affect aerodynamic control either locally or globally.

1. Algorithms that enable detection and tracking of high speed flight vehicles using current and future sensors and sensor modalities and advanced data processing techniques.
2. C2 Decision Aid technologies that enable processing of detection, tracking and targeting signals, target typing and data assimilation such that human leadership can quickly absorb incoming information and quickly make actionable plans and courses of action. This includes hardware and software, display approaches, display set ups, data aggregation techniques, automated information processing, etc.

Space probes and other high reliability systems have a need for power in remote, harsh environments that require novel materials development to meet growing power and thermal management requirements while still maintaining small form factors. Areas of interest include novel materials and architectures that have potential to enable new energy and power systems that achieve extreme performance, ultra-low SWAP, and/or ruggedized operation in harsh environments. Example areas might include:

1. Microelectronic coolers and novel MEMS devices
2. High temperature thermoelectric materials
3. Radiation and neutron based power systems
4. Battery development
5. Piezoenergy transfer systems
6. Supercapacitors

Draper may share specifics of particular interests once the collaborative research topic has been agreed to.

1. There are many challenges to overcome and technologies to develop to enable continuous operation in VLEO and LEO. These include but are not limited to air-breathing inlets, atomic oxygen resilient and low drag materials, thrusters, accelerated test infrastructure, payloads, avionics, power, guidance navigation and control (GN&C), and position, navigation and timing (PNT). Draper is interested in technologies, modeling, simulation, and testing to enable persistent operations in areas including but not limited to:
   1. Power
   2. Materials
   3. Propulsion
   4. GN&C and PN&T
   5. Avionics and Payloads

Draper may share specifics of particular interests once the collaborative research topic has been agreed to.

Rapidly printing 3D structures enables new applications across a wide variety of fields biological systems, communication systems, and various electronic systems. These fields require techniques that enable at least one or more of the example areas below

1. Print smaller structures
2. Print performance materials
3. Conformal
4. High temperature tolerance
5. Flexible

Draper may share specifics of particular interests once the collaborative research topic has been agreed to.

The efficient transfer of data through high temperature, high radiation, remote, and/or other harsh environments is critical to ensure sufficient guidance navigation and control and information gathering. Similarly, materials which enable transformative capabilities in sensing and function devices are of interest. Example areas might include:

1. High temperature, rad hard transducers, electronic materials, and/or insulation materials
2. Hypersonic window materials
3. Enabling communication systems including antennae materials, and structures
4. Dust- and debris-tolerant electronic and PMAD system components
5. Novel sealing/bonding technologies for extreme environments
6. Bio and quantum sensing
7. Advanced coatings (ex. high temperature)
8. Microthrusters and Energetics

Draper may share specifics of particular interests once the collaborative research topic has been agreed to.

1. Polymeric Materials Development - Developing more accurate polymer-based models will allow for rapid design across various systems and environments, high fidelity failure prediction and prevention. Current approaches use microscopic models that are difficult to integrate at the system level. Development of lumped element, plug and play non-linear models of polymeric materials with known material parameters with interface feature inputs would be able to predict polymer behavior over time. The focus areas might include microelectronics, polymer-ceramic arrays, bonded interfaces, and potted component models.
2. Alloy Design and Development – Developing novel alloys enables unique material properties coupled with stability under harsh mission conditions. Leveraging computational techniques allows for rapid screening of new and existing compositions and deeper understanding of potential processing conditions and capabilities.
3. Molecular Dynamics – Understanding how the surface chemistry of a material interacts in a harsh environment or how the structure of the material impacts the mechanical properties is critical to many mission applications. Being able to quickly screen or evaluate novel materials can enable rapid materials development that would otherwise be impossible to gain any significant insight into without extensive and challenging testing. Pre-screening candidates can help focus experimental work on the most promising candidates.

We would be targeting PhD students for the development of novel approaches; and MS students for the application of existing approaches to specific problems of interest to Draper.

• Automated attachment
• A large number of optical connections
• A very large number of electrical connections (ex. bump bonding).
• Compatibility with different waveguide material systems (Silicon, III-V, LiNbO₃, garnet)
• Vertical optical coupling to free space (for LiDAR or Free Space Optical Communication applications)
• The ability to couple to different mode shapes and sizes
• The ability to add and remove disposable PICs in the field

It is unlikely that a single method can simultaneously serve all these needs, but all these needs do impact systems in which Draper has interest.  It is therefore preferred to meet all these needs with as few unique methods as possible.  Many institutions are actively researching improved optical coupling methods to meet these needs [1].

Methods can be divided into two categories, depending on whether they couple light from the edge of chip or from above.  The most common method for coupling light from above is by using a grating.  This method lends itself to standard planer fabrication methods but is limited in efficiency and bandwidth.  A technique with better performance in these areas is shown in figure 2 [2]. This method uses a 3D mirror to both direct and focus the light to above.  The fabrication of such a mirror is a challenge and Draper is exploring an alternative method to fabricate integrated mirrors.  This method uses self-assembly of gold nanoparticles, functionalized with DNA, to create pyramids aligned to wells in the substrate, as shown in figure 3 [3] [4].

This is one method of light coupling that is of interest, but other methods, such as adiabatic tapers, photonic wirebonding and are also of interest. Also of interest are the aspects of packaging other than light coupling, such as the physical packaging itself and improved methods for alignment.

Securing the compute stack is a core building block for guaranteeing resiliency and preventing malicious changes and updates to critical systems. Draper is interested in secure boot technology, secure operating system designs across multiple architectures, tooling and resources for the virtualization of various architectures, cryptography implementations for securing data and communications, and circumvention and recovery methodologies.

Draper is looking for Design Tool R&D that focuses on incorporating security and resiliency from the earliest stages of development through product or program execution. This includes tools for assessing the safety, security, and reliability of existing software and hardware, a layout and assembly toolkit that includes a library of components to standardize the design process, hardened, secure and explainable AI and ML technologies, secure toolchains and languages, and mitigations for supply chain risk.

Integrated Circuits and MEMS devices require packages to provide environmental isolation and to connect the tightly spaced electrical contacts on the integrated circuit or MEMS device with the larger feature sizes found on most printed circuit boards.  Draper is interested in R&D for Advanced packaging that enables higher density connectivity, allows for the heterogeneous integration of multiple die including 3rd party die, as well as the capability to form complex standalone microelectronics (ME) systems.

Integrated Circuit design, board design, and software design need investment for product testing and characterization. After the design is completed, the key to effective and continuous innovation is validation of the ideas that created the state-of-the-art design.

Draper is interested in R&D for cyber-based V&V capabilities that include embedded device reverse engineering, software reverse engineering, hardware and software vulnerability analysis, forward development of vulnerability exploitation, binary analysis, and general-purpose cyber tool development.  Cyber analysis that covers the full compute stack, from developing low-level, boutique solutions for unique, one-off devices to building binary analysis tools using compiler theory-driven methods.

Draper seeks advanced concepts, designs and demonstrations of novel, low SWAP sensing across a wide range of sensing modalities - emphasizing, but not limited to inertial, clocks, optical, CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear), EO/IR, quantum (sensing only) and magnetic. Sensor packaging for harsh environments and sensor integration for broader system use are also of interest.

Draper seeks advanced concepts, designs and demonstrations of novel, low SWAP communications technology and networks. Of particular interest is temporary and dynamic systems in operational environments. Low frequency electromagnetic systems (sensors, transmitters, and signal processing) are also of merit.

Novel methods for sensor fusion that increase the information content using multiple sensors with different sensing modalities continues to be a challenge of interest. Demonstrations of advanced estimation and fusion algorithms with simulated and / or actual data are of most benefit. AI/ML methods should be able to work with sparse data, or have application areas that are known to have abundant data.

1. Sensitivity to different lighting conditions for vision-based navigation, and develop methods to improve VAN robustness to changes in lighting conditions and seasonal terrain.
2. Increased autonomy for TRN onboard vehicles including optimized database search methods, optimized feature detection, and reduced processing power

1. Explore other measurements that do not rely on optical and visual sensors, such as IR and LIDAR measurements.
2. Focus on developing these measurements in shadowed or low-light scenarios, such as at night terrestrially, undersea, in high-contrasting shadows such as at the moon, and at small bodies.

1. Expand our TRN technology to navigate on the surface of Earth or another planetary body such as the Moon and Mars. Focus on wearable tech for humans and rovers.