AFRL teams with academia to win Phase I of AFRL Grand Challenge

The Air Force Research Laboratory, or AFRL, has selected a joint research team from Carnegie-Mellon University and the University of North Carolina as the Phase I winner of the AFRL headquarters-sponsored Grand Challenge, an opportunity for small businesses, startups and academic teams to propose potential solutions to meet wide-ranging U.S. Department of the Air Force warfighter needs. The winning team pitched a solution for a machine learning-artificial intelligence system that will support the optimization and discovery of synthetic compounds, manmade substances that are applicable to a wide range of defense sector needs. Machine learning, a subfield of artificial intelligence that gives computers the ability to learn from experience and operate without explicit programming or instructions, has significant future implications for a wide range of academic and industrial fields, including synthetic chemistry, digital manufacturing, robotics and fuel development. (U.S. Air Force graphic / Gregory Gerken)