IARPA details population mobility patterns examination initiative

The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) has launched a research program the agency maintains examines global population mobility patterns while providing alerts when anomalies emerge.

Serving as the advanced research and development arm of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, IARPA officials noted that the Hidden Activity Signal and Trajectory Anomaly Characterization (HAYSTAC) program seeks to establish normal movement models across times, locations and populations, in addition to determining what makes an activity atypical.

“An ever-increasing amount of geospatial data is created every day,” HAYSTAC Program Manager Jack Cooper said. “With HAYSTAC, we have the opportunity to leverage machine learning and advances in artificial intelligence to understand mobility patterns with exceptional clarity. The more robustly we can model normal movements, the more sharply we can identify what is out of the ordinary and foresee a possible emergency.”

Utilizing expansive Internet of Things and Smart City infrastructures data provides opportunities to build new models understanding human dynamics at unprecedented resolution and creates the responsibility to understand privacy expectations for those moving through this sensor-rich world.

The IARPA indicated the agency awarded HAYSTAC research contracts to Raytheon Technologies Research Center; L3Harris Technologies, Inc.; STR; Kitware, Inc.; Leidos, Inc.; Novateur Research Solutions; Deloitte Consulting LLP;and Raytheon BBN, which are slated to bring 27 additional academic institutions, nonprofits and businesses into the program.