"They add up to the biggest job in ISI's 32-year R&D history," said
Herbert Schorr, executive director of ISI and senior associate dean of
the Viterbi School of Engineering, of which ISI is a part.
USC Viterbi School Dean C. L. Max Nikias hailed the news. "These
grants illustrate that new space technologies are an increasingly
important sector of engineering and economic activity not only for
Southern California but for the nation. I’m thrilled that NASA has
chosen ISI to be part of this exciting new frontier."
Under the terms of the grants, ISI and subcontracters will
develop for NASA technologies enabling the implementation of modular,
multifunctional, self-reconfigurable autonomous machinary and systems,
automated/intelligent maintenance and logistics, and computationally
intensive processors for new generations of space missions.
Competition for the NASA funding was intense, with more than 4000
proposals submitted by hundreds of institutions, including both
universities and aerospace companies.
The three successful ISI proposals — from groups led by ISI's John Damoulakis,
Robert Neches, and Wei-Min
Shen were among only 70 winners,
and among the scant 16 awards that went to universities. ISI was the
only academic institution to receive three: MIT and Carnegie Mellon won
two each.
"This is a phenomenal achievement," said ISI Deputy Director
Ronald Ohlander, "and it portends good things for the future.”
The three approved projects include Shen’s "Modular,
Multifunctional Reconfigurable" system for construction and
maintenance, Neches' "Coordinated Multisource Maintenance- on-Demand"
space logistics system, and Demoulakis' "Fault- Aware, Modular,
Reconfigureable Space Processer" control system.
The three projects will be critical in creating mechanisms that
can work effectively with minimal human control in highly dynamic
situations in space.
ISI will directly receive about half the funding. The rest will
be spread among a number of subcontractors including other universities
(notably M.I.T.) and aerospace companies (notably Boeing).
All three systems build on computer science areas in which ISI is
strong, including artificial intelligence, automated construction,
sensor and machine networks and distributed collaborative systems.
Damoulakis and Neches direct ISI divisions, Damoulakis the
Integration Sciences Division, Neches the Distributed Scalable Systems
Division. Shen is a senior research scientist in the Intelligent
Systems Division. Neches and Shen also have appointments in the Viterbi
School Department of Computer Science.
The USC Information Sciences Institute is one of the world's
leading research centers in the fields of computer science and
information technology, concentrating on developing whole systems. A
birthplace of the Internet, ISI currently has more than 300
researchers, graduate students, and staff.
