The University of ÁùºÏ±¦µä, Reno is part of a new Department of Defense (DOD) Center of Excellence to facilitate collaboration between military and academic researchers studying artificial intelligence in modern warfare.
A DOD grant funds the new center, called CREDIT+: Advancing Data Analysis for Mission-Critical Applications in the Era of Artificial Intelligence. In addition to the center’s goal of improving military decision-making, CREDIT+ could provide students with a path to careers in the DOD and military research. Grant funding began last month and will continue through August 2028. The University is slated to receive $1 million in DOD funding for this project.
“This is a good opportunity for the University of ÁùºÏ±¦µä, Reno,” Electrical & Biomedical Engineering Associate Professor Hao Xu, who leads the University’s collaboration on CREDIT+, said. “We can definitely contribute.”
Prairie View Texas A&M University is the lead academic institution, with the University of ÁùºÏ±¦µä, Reno and the University of Southern California participating.
“Everybody’s working on different aspects of AI in military decisions,” Xu said.
Xu’s team is working on cross-domain decision-making and planning, an area of research in which Xu has been active. Prairie View Texas A&M is working on data processing from social network wireless communications, according to Xu, and USC is tracking social networks using large language models.
Lots of data, little time
In our digital age, the data glut — the sheer volume of available information — from communications channels as well as from machines such as drones makes it difficult to pull out the information relevant to military operations. Artificial intelligence (AI) long has been utilized by U.S. forces to extract the data that can help guide decisions. Just last fall, the DOD updated its “to accelerate the adoption of advanced artificial intelligence capabilities to ensure U.S. warfighters maintain decision superiority on the battlefield.”
CREDIT+ will work toward that goal by bringing together AI and machine learning (developing algorithms that allow machines to learn from and make decisions based on data) as well as game theory (a mathematical framework applied within AI to design systems where agents make decisions in competitive or cooperative environments).
Xu’s research for CREDIT+ will focus on real-time AI, or AI that processes data and provides responses instantly or very quickly — a function that is necessary in military decision-making. Real-time AI often is connected to machinery, especially in instances where decisions are made based on continuous data from the physical world.
It’s the connection between the physical and the virtual worlds where electrical engineers are particularly adept.
“Thy physical world has a lot of impact on the computer world,” Xu said. “Electrical engineers understand the machines and know their limitations. Understanding that will affect decisions.”
Career opportunities for students
Enhancing military decisions is the subject of a similar project Xu is working on with the Air Force Research Lab called TITAN: a Novel Trust and Efficient AI-based Hierarchical Heterogeneous Planning and Scheduling at Tactical Edge.
That project, expected to be completed in 2025, is expected to produce a prototype system that will use advanced math and computer algorithms to winnow data to provide high-quality information to decision-makers. Xu’s work with the Air Force Research Lab also enabled him to help one of his graduate students secure an internship at the Air Force Research Lab.
Xu says CREDIT+ center could offer similar opportunities for graduate students interested in DOD internships.
“The center is trying to open the door for academia to the DOD,” Xu said.
