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The ribbon-cutting ceremony marked not just the inauguration of ANDRO’s new facility within the Griffiss Business & Technology Park but also symbolized the company’s ongoing commitment to innovation and excellence in the fields of defense research and commercial industry applications.

The event included esteemed representatives from the Rome Area Chamber of Commerce and the honorable Mayor Jeff Lanigan, who all joined forces to celebrate this significant milestone. The relocation to Griffiss Park, a hub for technology and development, in the previous year, was lauded as a strategic move that would further bolster ANDRO’s research, engineering, and technical services prowess.

Since its inception in 1994, ANDRO Computational Solutions has carved a niche for itself by leading the charge in advanced spectrum exploitation, secure wireless communications, software-based waveform development, cognitive software-defined radio networking, multi-sensor data fusion, and sensor resource management. The new facility promises to be a beacon of innovation, offering enhanced capabilities and fostering collaborations that will push the boundaries of what is possible in secure communications and defense technologies. The ribbon-cutting ceremony not only celebrated ANDRO’s past achievements and current endeavors but also looked forward to the future, where the company continues to play a pivotal role in shaping the technological landscape.

ROME, NY — The U.S. Navy has awarded ANDRO Computational Solutions, LLC of Rome a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract with a base value of $1.3 million plus additional funded options, to develop a new type of autonomous radio frequency signal intelligence (RF-SIGINT) capability for uncrewed air system (UAS) platforms or aerial drones, called RANGER ― Robust Autonomy for NeGation of Enemy Radar.  The work will be performed by ANDRO’s Marconi-Rosenblatt Artificial Intelligence Innovation Lab team in Rome led by Dr. Jithin Jagannath, Lab Director and Chief Scientist – Technology Sector.

The RANGER award builds upon an earlier investment by the Navy of almost $1.5 million for ANDRO’s D-MARVEL system, a complement to RANGER, for a total funding amount to ANDRO approaching $3 million to advance UAS autonomy goals.  RANGER and D-MARVEL both provide for next-generation machine learning (ML)-based UAS platforms that can autonomously perform a variety of tasks and conduct missions in diverse environments with little-to-no human intervention.   RANGER focuses on RF-SIGINT applications whereas D-MARVEL leverages human visual cues with artificial intelligence (AI) for human-machine teaming performance.

For RANGER, the ANDRO AI Lab team will apply novel ML techniques for enhancing radar detection and classification and will integrate the low cost, small-form-factor payload with small UAS host platforms.  RANGER represents the government’s focused investment in the development and deployment of lightweight, next-generation RF-SIGINT payloads for use in small military drones.

According to Jagannath, RANGER’s overarching goal is to bolster Manned-UnManned Teaming (MUM-T) to provide superior battlefield agility and improve platform survivability.  The design, integration, and flight testing of RANGER on UAS hardware is spearheaded by ANDRO engineers Sean Furman and Tyler Gwin with guidance by Anu Jagannath, Associate Director of ANDRO’s AI Lab and the company’s machine learning-enabled SIGINT subject matter expert.

ANDRO president Dr. Andrew Drozd explains that the impetus for human-machine teaming is driven by the need to migrate from a UAS platform that is strictly controlled by a human operator who must orchestrate its flight to effectively achieve a particular mission objective―representing a human-in-the-loop approach.  Rather, Jagannath and his team are focused on an end-to-end, human-on-the-loop framework that leverages specialized machine learning techniques to provide autonomy, adaptability, and highly effective human-machine teaming performance based on experiments recently conducted at ANDRO’s lab facilities.

Jagannath stated, “The RANGER technology sits at the intersection of ANDRO’s Marconi-Rosenblatt Lab expertise in UAS autonomy and efficient machine learning-enabled signal intelligence.  The AI lab team sees RANGER as the next-generation autonomous MUM-T planning and coordination system that will be engineered for operation in dynamic and austere application environments.”

Drozd anticipates growth in business arising from the work to incorporate the solution into advanced UAS platforms during the next phases of advanced research and development.  “RANGER is at the core of ANDRO’s strategic plan to continue to expand the company’s research portfolio and footprint, including the research activities of the Marconi-Rosenblatt AI Innovation Lab,” said Drozd.

ANDRO is a privately owned company established in 1994 focused on scientific research, development, and the application of advanced computer software in the domains of radio frequency spectrum exploitation, secure wireless communications, cognitive radios, advanced radar data fusion, and sensor resource management.  Visit www.androcs.com for more information.

Dr. Andy Drozd, President of ANDRO Computational Solutions, LLC, and Corporate Advisory Board Member, Bob Bojanek, have been invited to judge at the upcoming New York Business PLan Competition (NYBPC).

The New York Business Plan Competition (NYBPC) project is designed for students to encourage the development of greater entrepreneurial capacity in New York State. SUNY Poly is the regional host for the Mohawk Valley. The competition is open to all students from all universities in our MV region, all disciplines, and all levels–both undergraduate and graduate. Students are encouraged to form diverse teams and collectively have fun developing their ideas. The competition gives students the opportunity to bring concepts for new useful and inventive technologies, processes, services, and organizations to life. Students do not need a background in business to join forces with others and enter the competition. Cross-disciplinary teams are encouraged.

During the day of the competition (Friday, April 5, 2024), student teams pitch their venture concepts in thematic tracks to judges who then give them feedback and rubric-based evaluations. The tracks are as follows: Food & Agtech; Health & Wellbeing; Learn, Work & Live; Safety, Power & Mobility; Products & Hardware; and Software & Services. Past student participants have remarked that the competition benefited them in several ways including becoming more capable through experiential learning, being nudged to finally develop their dream ideas for helping others, getting valuable feedback from expert judges, being recognized and awarded with cash prizes, and having the chance to get funding for their exciting new ventures.

As an update for NYBPC MV, graduate students from the SUNY Upstate Innovation & Entrepreneurship group have expressed interest in partnering with other students who have complementary skills for our upcoming competition. Here is a description of the SUNY Upstate students and their interest areas:

The SUNY Upstate Innovation & Entrepreneurship student organization is a space for medical students and other students entering health professions to explore the intersection of business and medicine. Our goal is to offer local biomedical start-ups our expertise in science and medicine to help advance these businesses in any way our role as consultants within this sphere can contribute. While our student organization may have teams enter the competition on their own, we also have students who may be interested in serving as consultants to other teams, should their project ideas relate to science, medicine, health, and wellness. 

For more information, visit: New York Business Plan Competition (nybpc.org)

ANDRO Computational Solutions, LLC is a proud sponsor and exhibitor for the upcoming IEEE DySpan Symposium, held May 13-16, 2024 in Washington, D.C. The IEEE International Symposium on Dynamic Spectrum Access Networks will break new ground in spectrum access by uniting industry experts, academics, and innovative minds from across the globe. This symposium serves as a platform for pioneering advancements and collaboration in the radio frequency spectrum realm. Brace yourself for engaging presentations, illuminating discussions, and networking opportunities unlike any before. Let’s step into the future of spectrum technology together!

DySPAN 2024 will be co-located with National Science Foundation (NSF) Spectrum Week 2024, which will include SWIFT and NRDZ PI meetings, SpectrumX center meeting, National Spectrum Managers Association (NSMA) annual conference, and a WSRD R&D workshop related to the National Spectrum Strategy.

If you are a SWIFT or NRDZ PI, or if you interested in joining any of the NSF Spectrum Week 2024 programming during DySPAN, you will be given an option to add NSF Spectrum Week 2024 access to your DySPAN registration during checkout. The additional fee is a nominal $20.

If you are interested in attending the WSRD R&D Workshop on Friday, you will be given an option to add WSRD R&D Workshop access to your DySPAN registration during checkout. The additional fee is a nominal $10.

For more information, visit: 2024 IEEE DySPAN | IEEE International Symposium on Dynamic Spectrum Access Networks | 13–16 May 2024 // Washington, DC (ieee-dyspan.org)

Dr. Andy Drozd, CEO and chief scientist of ANDRO Computational Solutions, LLC will be a panelist at the upcoming Artificial Intelligence Roundtable Discussion hosted by County Executive Anthony J. Picente Jr. and New York State Sen. Joseph Griffo.

The free event, which is open to the public, will take place from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. on April 4, 2024 at the Mohawk Valley Community College Rome Campus at 1101 Floyd Ave. Space is limited.

The panel will discuss what is artificial intelligence is, its potential benefits and drawbacks and other related topics. Panelists will include: 

• Anthony Martino, director of the Northeast Cybersecurity and Forensics Center at Utica University
• Charles Green, cofounder, president and CEO of AIS
• Andy Drozd, president, CEO and chief scientist of ANDRO Computational Solutions, LLC
• Stephen J. Acquario, executive director of the New York State Association of Counties and member of the National Association of Counties Artificial Intelligence Exploratory Committee

“Artificial Intelligence has become a hot button topic as of late, and like with many other things, there are legitimate concerns and outright falsehoods surrounding it,” Picente said. “AI has the potential to significantly improve many areas of our lives, but we must tread carefully as we explore its capabilities and the negative aspects that could arise. I look forward to educating the public through a robust discussion about the pros and cons of this emerging technology and I thank Sen. Griffo and our panelists for participating.”

“The use of artificial intelligence is becoming more and more common,” Griffo said. “Given its widespread emergence, many people have questions and/or concerns and want to learn more about this technology. I thank Oneida County Executive Anthony J. Picente Jr. and our panelists for taking part in this important and informative discussion.”

Dr. Jithin Jagannath, Founding Director of ANDRO’s Marconi-Rosenblatt AI Innovation Lab, has been invited to speak at the 2024 AAAI Spring Series Symposium, highlighting Federated Learning on the Edge. The symposium will take place March 25-27, 2024 at Stanford University.

Computational intelligence bears the prospect of a trendsetting technology able to unlock solutions to previously difficult and large-scale problems outside of the current cloud-centric paradigm. In the following decades, intelligent agents trained in the cloud using machine learning algorithms on large amounts of data will be deployed in the real world. Under the requirements of dynamic applications, AI agents sharing a common goal will be designed on the fly. Therefore, real-time interactions between AI agents will be necessary to solve complex distributed problems where massive connectivity, large data volumes, and ultra-low latency are beyond those offered by 5G networks and beyond. To harness the true power of such agents, Federated Learning on the Edge is the key.

Federated Learning (FL) has recently emerged as a standard distributed machine learning computational paradigm to meet these needs by enabling coordination and cooperation among such agents on the Edge. FL was initially proposed for text recommendation on mobile phones to improve the communication efficiency of devices, i.e., by not sending their data to a central repository. However, FL has witnessed vast applicability across many disciplines, especially in healthcare, finance, and manufacturing. Since FL allows data to remain at the source, sources only need to share their locally trained model parameters. By preserving data locality, FL can reduce the data security and privacy risks associated with aggregating data in a single location.

Through this symposium, they will create a collaborative platform to address open issues frequently observed in FL on the Edge. Edge devices in a FL environment may experience computational power, memory capacity, and/or communication bandwidth limitations. Participating devices may have heterogeneous hardware equipment or be powered by small-capacity batteries, leading to network disconnections and packet drops. These challenges require novel algorithmic approaches and system solutions that can facilitate the deployment of FL in such resource-constrained computational environments. Considering the resource-intensive requirements of developing different security and privacy protocols on edge, providing solutions from a theoretical and practical point of view makes these challenges particularly attractive. 

View the full lineup of guest speakers here: Federated Learning on the Edge – Speakers (google.com)

Published 1/22/24

By Anna Volkwine, Office of Army Prize Competitions and Army Applied SBIR Program

WASHINGTON – While small and nontraditional businesses can solve some of the U.S. Army’s most extensive problems, the lack of connection with firms often impacts the technology exchange from innovator to Army.

The Army xTech and Army Small Business Innovation Research Programs aim to address this challenge. Both led by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology, the programs help to facilitate connections between innovators and Army transition partners — supporting the discovery of cost-saving solutions for the Army.

xTech connections at work

n March 2021, xTech partnered with Program Executive Office Command, Control and Communications-Tactical to host the xTechSBIR Waveform competition, which solicited open-hardware architecture technologies for software-defined radios from small, U.S-based businesses. Four winners, announced in June 2021, received ASA(ALT)-funded Direct to Phase II SBIR contracts totaling nearly $6.8 million to develop and demonstrate their solutions.

With 20- to 24-month periods of performance, the small businesses began demonstrating the progress made on their technologies to Army stakeholders in summer 2023, and are continuing down the pathway to technology transition. While this journey is years in the making, the journey itself exists because of xTech’s flexible funding and mechanisms to connect PEO C3T, transition partners and the right small businesses with the right solutions.

The companies — R-DEX Systems, ANDRO Computational Solutions, Skylark Wireless and Epiq Solutions — are currently in separate phases of the transition process with potential Army customers. Dr. Sayeed Hasan, PEO C3T Project Manager Tactical Radios, played a key role during the planning stages of the competition and when PEO C3T presented its unique SDR challenge to xTech. He remains involved and plans to see the process through until the end — with high expectations for successful transitions.

“PEO C3T’s vision is for these companies to transition their solutions,” Hasan said. “Success would save the Army customer a tremendous amount of time by optimizing waveform porting for SDRs, and could potentially save the government and taxpayer millions of dollars.”

Since the conclusion of the xTechSBIR Waveform competition, the companies’ capabilities have progressed across varying technology readiness levels — or TRLs.

Next, three of the companies — R-DEX Systems, ANDRO and Skylark Wireless — will each demonstrate their final proof-of-concept between April and July 2024 to Dr. Hasan and a group of Army stakeholders. From there, further follow-on Army SBIR contracts ranging from a Sequential Phase II or Phase III will push these solutions across the finish line. The fourth winner, Epiq Solutions, is still actively developing their solution for Army use, but has since been procured by a larger company and is pursuing alternate transition pathways.

Dr. Hasan shared that while the solutions are not complete, they have the potential that PEO C3T is looking for in SDR solutions.

Transitioning beyond xTech and Army SBIR

Through ASA(ALT)-funded programs, small businesses have multiple opportunities to collaborate directly with Army transition partners. ANDRO Computational Solutions, for example, was a winner of xTechSBIR Waveform, and has also seen success in another ASA(ALT) endeavor, the Army SBIR CATALYST Pilot Program, which announced a total of five awardees in May 2023, including ANDRO. The CATALYST Program launched in February 2023 to use Army SBIR program funding with matching capital from Army transition partners and major weapons systems integrators to drive contracts up to $75 million to tackle Army customer challenges.

Dr. Jithin Jagannath, ANDRO’s chief scientist of technology, and Dr. Ashwin Amanna, ANDRO’s chief scientist of research, noted that the company offers a broad range of technologies and expertise at various TRLs. As solutions mature, ASA(ALT) has programs and pathways that help to bridge the valley of death small businesses often experience trying to break through in the Army market.

“ANDRO has experienced a great deal of value in getting our solution in front of various Army stakeholders with the opportunity to accelerate the transition process,” Jagannath said. “The CATALYST Program incentivizes us and prime contractors to work together by rewarding collaborations. Similarly, the Phase II Sequential from the xTechSBIR Waveform competition provides a roadmap beyond Phase II to solve specific problems that are a high priority for customers.”

Thanks to the ASA(ALT) programming of xTech and Army SBIR, ANDRO now has multiple potential transition partners and increased possibilities, including working with Hasan’s office to identify a transition partner within the PM Tactical Radios umbrella.

“The focus is identifying a transition partner, and developing and customizing the statement of work so it focuses on the needs of the transition partner,” Hasan said.

The xTech Program holds several competitions per year, from open-topic competitions such as xTechSearch to technology-specific competitions targeting specific Army needs and challenges. For all competition information, go to the xTech website.

The Army SBIR Program releases contract opportunities ad hoc to respond to current and anticipated warfighting technology needs. For eligibility information and a list of open topics, please visit the Army SBIR|STTR website.

The Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology leverages technologies and capabilities to provide U.S. Soldiers a decisive advantage in any environment by developing, acquiring, fielding and sustaining the world’s finest equipment and services. For more information, visit the ASA(ALT) web page.

Read the full story here: xTech Program matches small businesses with Army transition partners – xTechSearch