What More Pakistani DARPA Could Do?

[imadul]

What More Pakistani DARPA Could Do?

According to public domain knowledge DESTO is engaged in defense related R&D but I would want to strongly advocate for DESTO to get closely involved with public and private sector universities to further standard of R&D at local academic institutions and help create an environment of healthy competition between universities to get research grants from DESTO. Though Pakistan does not have institutions of the caliber and prestige of MIT, UC Berkley, Cornell, University of Michigan etc. which work with DARPA on futuristic technologies, but gradually Pakistani universities could raise their standard of teaching and R&D and DESTO and Army can play a great role in that regard.

I am suggesting these technology areas for DESTO to get involved in research and collaboration with public and private sector universities, and private commercial companies. May be hitherto underutilized office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff could oversee these research activities so that other defense organizations could also be engaged:

I. Cyber Security


1. Research and customization of open systems and COTS to suite defense requirements

2. Network and systems security from intrusion

3. Operating Systems (recompiled and modified version of Linux Kernel to reduce stack surface for domestic systems)

4. Networking technologies

5. Computer applications


II. Advance Research and Engineering


1. Automation and Robotics

2. Communication, Detection and Targeting

RADARs, Thermal Imaging, Long-haul communication (e.g. secure communication between nuclear submarines and on-shore command center)

3. Materials Engineering

Nano technology, super conductors, high grade metallurgical research (Metals and alloys for turbofan, ramjet, and rocket propulsion)

4. Electro Magnetic Radiation

Research and application of Infrared, Ultraviolet, Terahertz, and sound waves (sound though are not a form of EM radiation but have defense and commercial applications).

5. Optoelectronics


III. Application, Innovation, and Improvisation

This is important because there are so many COTS and public research available which can be used for innovative application of existing technologies. This will also improve culture at armed forces and to think out of the box.

Examples:

1. NATO/US improvised the use of discarded artillery barrels as casings for bunker buster bombs during 1st Gulf War.


2. Use of efficient batteries to warm high altitude clothing

For example small efficient batteries could be sown or installed in hand gloves and shoes to electrically warm hands and feet and save from frost bites for soldiers stationed at Siachen. Lithium-Oxygen AKA Lithium-Air batteries have shown remarkable efficiencies during research conducted at MIT. Most efficient batteries still produce heat as by product which can be utilized for warming.

3. 3-D printers to print pliable solar cell sheets which could be used at higher altitudes for power requirements again for soldiers and officers working at harsh conditions of Siachen and agency areas.

4. Smart dust have numerous communication and detection applications

 

[Hareeb]

I think there is a trust issue. Military doesnt trust civilian institutions. NUST, AU, and some others are there but for cyber security and R&D, universities like FAST/COMSATS/UET or any other seem not to be trusted.

 

[Ultimate Weapon]

Probably NUST did some research in radars.

 

[sparten]

I think there is a trust issue. Military doesnt trust civilian institutions. NUST, AU, and some others are there but for cyber security and R&D, universities like FAST/COMSATS/UET or any other seem not to be trusted.

Are you kidding me? All the major research organizations are civilian. NUST, COMSATS etc absolutely positively do research work for the military.

I have a friend who works for a major well-known university. To work there, he needed security clearance, without it he was not even permitted to enter their labs; and he was not even working on military projects.

 

[Flash_Ninja]

I've said this before but while I dislike the Israeli state, I do appreciate their military research model.

Public institutions and research centers are so closely intertwined with the military that solutions can be developed and tested very quickly and very cost-effectively. The government also directly supports individual research and defense industries, for instance; if a student is conscripted into the army, and they see a huge tactical disadvantage or potential for a new weapon, they can easily secure funding for research and develop that new solution to then sell back to the army once they finish their service.

In other countries, usually the military has to go out and find an issue, which eventually gets reported up the chain of command, which then gets discussed, tested and then finally procured, and by that point the enemy may be very different or the environment may have completely changed.

I'm not saying that the military should start conscription (though a selective service system would give us an advantage), but the military should work more closely with industry and education, while the federal government should subsidize and fund the research and testing of new weapons systems.

 

[imadul]

Trust is something, but all R&D is not directly defense related but it's application. So GHQ and DESTO can play its role in furthering standard of R&D and culture of research

When DARPA funded internet research it resulted in adoption and development of tcp/ip which os so ubiquitous now in computer networking.
DARPA funding so many other researches like Exoskeletons r&d with MIT, and many others.
R&D is expensive and GHQ can play a role. You always get indirect benefits anyway.

 

[Hareeb]

Are you kidding me? All the major research organizations are civilian. NUST, COMSATS etc absolutely positively do research work for the military.

I have a friend who works for a major well-known university. To work there, he needed security clearance, without it he was not even permitted to enter their labs; and he was not even working on military projects.

I have already mentioned NUST and AU. FAST and COMSATS are involved in government projects but not militiary projects.

 

[CriticalThought]

Here is the problem with 'research'. It is focused on building the careers of professors and getting degrees for students. As such, you could take an impossible edge case, put a lot of restrictions around it, and produce a publication.

What Pakistan needs is actual production of goods based on whatever technology exists today. But instead of acquiring foreign 'kits' and assembling them, we need indigenization down to the level of nuts and bolts. Especially in the areas of electronics, metallurgy, mechanical engineering, materials engineering, and optics. This should lead to production of high-tech goods that we should then export in the international market. Once we have this deep understanding of what's out there, we can start extending the boundaries.

To summarize, we need to prioritize building a solid industrial base first.

 

[Khafee]

Are you kidding me? All the major research organizations are civilian. NUST, COMSATS etc absolutely positively do research work for the military.

I have a friend who works for a major well-known university. To work there, he needed security clearance, without it he was not even permitted to enter their labs; and he was not even working on military projects.

SSSHHHHHHH let the kids prove how well they know more than the military. It's one of those feel good threads. Don't interrupt. Just sit back and enjoy.

 

[Kompromat]

DESTO should have a membership program for all STEM undergraduate and postgraduate students.

 

[imadul]

Some deep impacting and interesting DARPA Projects:

Just a sample of some projects DARPA has been working with universities.

I am not providing any particulars links because information is scattered throughout and classified info will be hidden anyway. But it just shows that innovation and advancement is not possible without close collaboration with higher educational institutions.

All these will eventually trickle down to civilian and commercial usage like GPS and Internet.

Atomic or Quantum Navigation

These jam proof and satellite communication independent navigation devices use cold atom interferometry for high-precision navigation without dependence on external fixes for long periods of time. Atomic GPS will work in conjunction with how Earth’s magnetic field acceleration and position will affect cooled down cloud of atoms.


Electromagnetic Metamaterials

The concept is to develop materials that can bend, absorb or reflect light in a way that an image will not be formed in the viewer’s eye. These materials will exploit light wavelength in the manufacture of these materials. Potentially radiation from full EM spectrum could be manipulated including Infrared light to make an object invisible to both visible and infrared spectrum.


DARPA has provided funding to many universities; MIT, UC Berkley, UC LA etc.


HACMS, or High-Assurance Cyber Military Systems

In the world of cybersecurity, HACMS, or High-Assurance Cyber Military Systems is one heck of a concept. This is in short developing applications in a hack-proof coding style, known as formal verification. This programming style uses mathematical proofing of all the codes. DARPA invited hackers and they could not hack military’s “Little Bird” unmanned helicopter in months even after getting a head start.

This program had collaboration with Tufts University

https://www.wired.com/2016/09/computer-scientists-close-perfect-hack-proof-code/

Here is the problem with 'research'. It is focused on building the careers of professors and getting degrees for students. As such, you could take an impossible edge case, put a lot of restrictions around it, and produce a publication.

What Pakistan needs is actual production of goods based on whatever technology exists today. But instead of acquiring foreign 'kits' and assembling them, we need indigenization down to the level of nuts and bolts. Especially in the areas of electronics, metallurgy, mechanical engineering, materials engineering, and optics. This should lead to production of high-tech goods that we should then export in the international market. Once we have this deep understanding of what's out there, we can start extending the boundaries.

To summarize, we need to prioritize building a solid industrial base first.

It is education and R&D culture that has to change. Pakistan's biggest capital is human.
Army and GHQ can play their role to raise the educational standard of pub/pvt sector universities by providing them funding for some defense related research programs. The gain in research quality of pub/pvt institutions will go long way.

 

[CriticalThought]

Some deep impacting and interesting DARPA Projects:

Just a sample of some projects DARPA has been working with universities.

I am not providing any particulars links because information is scattered throughout and classified info will be hidden anyway. But it just shows that innovation and advancement is not possible without close collaboration with higher educational institutions.

All these will eventually trickle down to civilian and commercial usage like GPS and Internet.

Atomic or Quantum Navigation

These jam proof and satellite communication independent navigation devices use cold atom interferometry for high-precision navigation without dependence on external fixes for long periods of time. Atomic GPS will work in conjunction with how Earth’s magnetic field acceleration and position will affect cooled down cloud of atoms.


Electromagnetic Metamaterials

The concept is to develop materials that can bend, absorb or reflect light in a way that an image will not be formed in the viewer’s eye. These materials will exploit light wavelength in the manufacture of these materials. Potentially radiation from full EM spectrum could be manipulated including Infrared light to make an object invisible to both visible and infrared spectrum.


DARPA has provided funding to many universities; MIT, UC Berkley, UC LA etc.


HACMS, or High-Assurance Cyber Military Systems

In the world of cybersecurity, HACMS, or High-Assurance Cyber Military Systems is one heck of a concept. This is in short developing applications in a hack-proof coding style, known as formal verification. This programming style uses mathematical proofing of all the codes. DARPA invited hackers and they could not hack military’s “Little Bird” unmanned helicopter in months even after getting a head start.

This program had collaboration with Tufts University

https://www.wired.com/2016/09/computer-scientists-close-perfect-hack-proof-code/



It is education and R&D culture that has to change. Pakistan's biggest capital is human.
Army and GHQ can play their role to raise the educational standard of pub/pvt sector universities by providing them funding for some defense related research programs. The gain in research quality of pub/pvt institutions will go long way.

Completely agree with the need for tertiary education and research. But that alone will not give us a vibrant economy. Here are some of the technical problems faced by Pakistani industry that have come to my attention over many years:

1. How can I efficiently cut my materials to minimize wastage while producing all the designs I need?
2. I need to pay color specialists top money to create a color that matches a given printed fabric.. Can you automate this for me?
3. A defence related guy once asked me: We have a system for which the manufacturer has stopped giving support, yet we need to make changes. How can we reverse-engineer it?

The thing is, all of these problems have known solutions, they are just not part of published literature. Some of them require reverse engineering existing solutions, others require a better understanding of the knowledge out there. Now, you could try and come up with novel solutions to these problems and create a research publication, but I regard that as more of a luxury. The immediate need is to solve these problems as quickly as possible. Whether that leads to a research paper or not is secondary for me.

 

[imadul]

Completely agree with the need for tertiary education and research. But that alone will not give us a vibrant economy. Here are some of the technical problems faced by Pakistani industry that have come to my attention over many years:

1. How can I efficiently cut my materials to minimize wastage while producing all the designs I need?
2. I need to pay color specialists top money to create a color that matches a given printed fabric.. Can you automate this for me?
3. A defence related guy once asked me: We have a system for which the manufacturer has stopped giving support, yet we need to make changes. How can we reverse-engineer it?

The thing is, all of these problems have known solutions, they are just not part of published literature. Some of them require reverse engineering existing solutions, others require a better understanding of the knowledge out there. Now, you could try and come up with novel solutions to these problems and create a research publication, but I regard that as more of a luxury. The immediate need is to solve these problems as quickly as possible. Whether that leads to a research paper or not is secondary for me.

My premise was, Army, MoD, GHQ can play a big role to further R&D and research at tech institutes.
Issues of vibrant economy is another area. finding solutions of technical chalenges is also symptomatic of educational and research standard.
Short term, to increase existing existing talent capacity. Give undergrads exposure to work at industry during education so they could relate theory with practice.
Long term require real planning at Fed level, create opportunities to cut brain drain, create environment of creativity, do away with quota system, nepotism. Thats a big topic.
If students know how to analyse, then they can resolve industrial problems also. For that we need a culture of research and practical training during under grad evel.

 

[CriticalThought]

I feel there is also a disconnect between people facing problems and willing to pay on the one hand, and people who can provide solutions. We need better B2B and business to innovator relations.

 

[imadul]

I feel there is also a disconnect between people facing problems and willing to pay on the one hand, and people who can provide solutions. We need better B2B and business to innovator relations.

Are you talking about industries not ready to pay top price to solution providers, consultancies, and vendors? That might be the case becauae of "seth" culture.
B2B will require good secure internet communications throughout the chain of producers, vendors, and cosumers.
There are so many basic problems. Security, power shortage, a culture where creativity does not flourish. Only org which can play a catalytic
Role to encourage r&d is PA, GHQ,. At least undergrad and grad will have something to look into that their talent will be recognised and they will come out from theould of "glorified clerk" to thinking engineers and scientists. It will do lots of good to universities and for GHQ. If GHQ can engage vast pool of top talent. Innovations amde at GHQ MoD orgs can trickle down to civil use later furthering engineering and commercial activities.