Qu organizes ARO workshop on information technologies

Professor Gang Qu (ECE/ISR), who also has an appointment in the Maryland Cybersecurity Center, recently organized a two-day workshop focusing on the future roles and impact of military information technologies.

The workshop, held in College Park, Md., from March 10 -11, was sponsored by the U.S. Army Research Office. Approximately 30 experts from academia, government agencies, and industry were invited to attend the event, which looked at how information technologies will co-evolve with future technologies for key military functions.

“We cannot visualize information technologies of 2050 while anchored in mental images of war-fighting tools and techniques of 2010,” said the Army Research Laboratory's Alexander Kott, a co-organizer of the event. “Thus, we have to explore visions of both informational and physical aspects simultaneously.”

Qu said the productive workshop will lead to more discussions on how to better prepare soldiers. “The workshop concentrated on emerging technologies and how they can be used in the ground combat field to give our soldiers an edge. Cybersecurity is one of the most frequently mentioned themes. There are a lot of interesting discussions to be had on security issues related to war-fighting operations, countermeasures, and counter-countermeasures.”

 

Published March 15, 2015