Tech Vision V3 - No AI Bias Version

Bring on tomorrow

Innovations are often born of crises. The global pandemic has spurred technologists and futurists to action – accelerating development of the “next big thing” that will help government agencies meet their missions through 2021 and beyond. SAIC’s innovative solutions have aided the public sector’s adoption of cloud technologies, enabling agencies to interact digitally with their constituencies and to support a hybrid workforce without sacrificing security. And that’s just the beginning. SAIC’s Tech Vision, provides a forecast and guide on technology developments that will continue to drive innovation in the near term and at least a decade into the future.

We’re Innovating for a Stronger Tomorrow

SAIC’s Tech Vision:

SAIC's Tech Vision

To successfully achieve their missions, U.S. government agencies must address challenges related to...

Improving

The User Experience

Enhancing

Decision Making

Increasing

Operational Efficiencies

Maintaining

National Security in a Changing World

Accelerating

Innovation

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Forward Thinkers

BIAS In AI

The next decade of technology must create environments where people of all backgrounds are on equal footing. The solutions we design today must be ethical and accurately represent diverse populations. As businesses and government agencies increasingly rely on AI systems to automate and augment their workflows, SAIC is focused on improving them in order to reduce, and eventually eliminate, implicit bias.

Ending bias in

Machine-learning Bias and Human Implicit Bias >

Corrections in data science >

Adopt a Culture of anti-racism >

Crate Environments of Equality >

Improving the User Experience

Improving how government agencies serve citizens through modern public websites and other digital services is critical but also mandated in the 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act.

Enhancing Decision Making

Data that supports daily mission-critical decisions enables government stakeholders to quickly pivot and adjust.

Increasing Operational Efficiencies

Efficiency is part of every customer’s strategy; for our customers, it’s essential to their modernization journeys.

Maintaining National Security in a Changing World

Hostile foreign nations and terrorist organizations are routinely making technological advances, and our customers must be adaptive to stay ahead of threats to national security.

Accelerating Innovation

With the government’s growing appetite for innovation, technologies must be implemented in months rather than years, then iterated over time.

Charles Onstott

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Senior VP and Chief Technology Officer

SAIC’s CTO on the need for AI ethics and diversity

Digital Engineering

Additive manufacturing

Digital Engineering

VR in Engineering

Government Services

Digital Twins

Personalized Genomics

Synthetic Biology

Digital epidemiology

Molecular Manufacturing

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Beyond +

Digital transformation is everywhere. The government is increasing its focus on modernizing engineering, medicine, manufacturing, and other government services. By leveraging digital tools and emerging technologies, agencies can achieve mission success.

Digital Engineering

This augments and automates the way organizations practice engineering fundamentals to create a digitally transformed and agile engineering enterprise. Digital engineering brings high efficiency, accuracy, and agility to complex system development efforts leading to traceable requirements, iterative design efficiency, automated verification and validation, seamless workflow management, and predictive lifecycle maintenance.

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Additive Manufacturing

Also known as 3-D printing, additive manufacturing consumes less time and money than traditional manufacturing methods by reducing the steps needed to create a finished product.

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VR in Engineering

SAIC's virtual reality solutions directly integrate with our digital thread to enable (a) intuitive visualizations of complex engineering results (b) rapid experimentation and prototyping during development, and (c) operational and training materials.

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Government Services

Many of us think about digital twins being created to represent physical objects, like vehicles or equipment. But digital twins can be created of all kinds of things, including services. When creating digital twins of services, the workflow alongside any technology used to enable the workflow is modeled and can then be used to find ways to improve the overall user experience.

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Digital Twins

A digital twin is a digital model which leverages continuous real-world data that enables the model to register how it’s performing in the real world. Engineers can use this evolving, interconnected baseline to improve designs and features and establish predictive maintenance.

YEARS

Personalized Genomics

Personalized genomics is the analysis and interpretation of information from an individual’s genome. The information increases awareness of disease risks and allows health-related planning across one’s lifespan. Increased self-knowledge comes with significant privacy risks, however, so a high level of oversight is necessary.

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Synthetic Biology

Synthetic biology applies engineering principles to biology. Synthetic biology combines chemical synthesis of DNA with knowledge of genomics to enable researchers to make catalogued DNA sequences and assemble them into new genomes. Improvements in the speed and cost of DNA synthesis are enabling scientists to produce advanced biofuels, bio-products, renewable chemicals, and bio-based specialty chemicals such as pharmaceutical intermediates, fine chemicals, and food ingredients.

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Digital Epidemilogy

The goal of epidemiology is to understand the patterns and causes of disease and health dynamics in populations and to use this understanding to mitigate disease, and promote health. Digital epidemiology is epidemiology that uses data that was not generated with the primary purpose of doing epidemiology, such as electronic medical records data, prescription drug databases search engines, and sources that were generated without the purpose of doing epidemiology, such as social media services, mobile phones, and website access logs.

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Molecular Manufacturing

This is a kind of nanotechnology that involves building very small devices using very small tools. And by very small, we mean at the molecular scale. This enables very high precision in building things of all sizes.

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Transforming To Digital

Re-shaping Experience

Multiplying Productivity

Expanding Frontiers

Re-shaping Experience

Multiplying Productivity

Expanding Frontiers

Mobile

Virtual Reality

Inclusive Design

Natural Language Interfaces

Wearables

Augmented Reality

Smart spaces

Mixed Reality

Extended Reality Convergence

Augments

Implants

Beyond +

NOW

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Government agencies are constantly seeking to enhance the end-user experience and the experience for employees. Modernizing the user experience has become mission-critical, and a number of technologies will be critical keys to revamping the user experience.

Mobile

Because mobile technologies carried or used by individuals are a given, they should be leveraged as a key technology when modernizing the user experience. For example, mobile devices, such as phones and laptops, provide many new capabilities that developers can assume will be present, like cameras, GPS, accelerometers, and thermometers. This enables developers to use these new given capabilities in enriching a person’s experience of a service.

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Virtual Reality

Government agencies use virtual reality to optimize immersive learning in a realistic and effective simulated environment. In virtual reality, through a head-mounted display, everything users see mirrors reality, allowing them to interact with objects, learn on the fly, and gain near-real-life experience.

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Inclusive Design

When we design our algorithms and solutions for our customers, we ensure that diversity and inclusion are taken into account. By including a wide range of people in the design process, we obtain the most objective results.

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Natural Language Interfaces

NLI enables people to interact with their computers using spoken or written speech. NLI must understand speech and dialect variations across regions. When we develop software applications, we use software that allows us to teach computers to recognize language, including verbs, synonyms, and nuances. Many of us use this every day when we communicate with voice assistants like Siri or Alexa, even through our television.

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Wearables

Many of us use devices such as a smartwatch that are connected to a computer or the internet, can be worn and removed easily, and can store and track biometric data that may even be used to detect health issues such as cardiac arrhythmia.

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Augmented Reality

Augmented reality blends the physical world with computer-generated images. We use augmented reality to interact with the computer-generated imagery, move it around, change its color, etc. This helps us design realistic complex solutions, like satellites, for our customers.

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Augmented Reality

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Augmented Reality

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MIXed Reality

Mixed reality is where computer-generated imagery and the physical world take shape. In this hybrid world of reality and virtual reality, we build models that have realistic reactions to a scenario in real time. This is where we learn how our objects or solutions interact with each other.

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Smart Spaces

A smart space communicates with the synthetic images in an extended reality (XR) world and can respond, possibly even moving components, changing the size of the room, or changing the temperature or the illumination as needed and as directed by the XR world. And this feedback can go both ways. For example, if a user turns up the heat in a smart space, the visuals in the XR world may change accordingly. If they open a door, the XR world will know to draw synthetic images outside the door into the hallway.

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Extended Reality Convergence

Extended reality encapsulates augmented reality, virtual reality, mixed reality, and everything in between. Soon, all of these realities outside of the physical world will meet and none will supersede the other.

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Augments

Unlike wearables, these are devices that repair or improve upon our bodies beyond their normal physical limits, such as prosthetic limbs.

YEARS

Implants

Rather than being worn or attached to the body, implants are devices that are inserted into the body to provide new abilities or replace systems that have failed. These are mostly magnets or RFID chips but also devices such as cochlear implants, which directly stimulate the auditory nerve when there is damage to the inner ear. The future of healthcare may involve implants to replace eyes or even show displays under skin.

YEARS

Beyond

Transformed To Digital

Re-shaping Experience

Multiplying Productivity

Expanding Frontiers

Transformed To Digital

Multiplying Productivity

Expanding Frontiers

Analytics

Cloud Computing

Knowledge Management

Modeling and Simulation

RPA

Autonomous Things

Robotics/Cobots

Narrow AI/ML

More Generalized AI

Multi-AI Integration

Advanced Autonomous Systems

Beyond +

NOW

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Work smarter, not harder. We are seeing progress in the use of artificial intelligence and related technologies such as basic machine learning, robotic processing, and knowledge management to improve productivity. Although we remain nowhere near human-level AI, we will see an expansion of its use in a number of specific situations. Today, services are largely delivered by people using technology to help other people. But in the future, services may be delivered via machine-to-machine interaction, with people helping the AI only when needed.

Analytics

To understand analytics, it is important to contrast it with data science and big data. Data science is the combination of statistics, mathematics, programming, problem-solving, and capturing data in novel and innovative ways Gartner defines big data as: “High-volume and high-velocity or high-variety information assets that demand cost-effective, innovative forms of information processing that enable enhanced insight, decision making, and process automation.” Data analytics is the science of examining raw data to reach certain conclusions and involves applying an algorithmic or mechanical process to derive insights and running through a number of data sets to look for meaningful correlations. Analytics enables organizations to make more informed decisions, as well as verify and disprove existing theories or models.

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Cloud Computing

Per the National Institute of Standards and Technology, “Cloud computing is a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.” Cloud computing is ubiquitous in today’s IT environment and is a key enabler for other technologies that enhance productivity through easy and rapid data sharing, scalable compute to analyze data, and high availability and durability of data.

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Knowledge Management

A knowledge management framework built on knowledge engineering principles bridges the gap between data analysts and decision makers who need to rely on growing amounts of data to support rapid decision making across complex enterprises. Knowledge engineering-based knowledge management techniques employ a comprehensive approach to knowledge modeling fueled by automation and artificial intelligence, as well as deep domain and data expertise.

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Modeling and simulation

Modeling and simulation (M&S) refers to using executable models of real-world systems to perform tasks that would be otherwise too costly, too time consuming, or too risky to attempt. Key considerations in M&S include model fidelity, model complexity, model resolution, and simulation execution speed. Applications of M&S are vast, including training, analysis, and "what if"-style experimentation with new concepts. Because it is a foundational concept, M&S professionals play a role in many engineering fields from artificial intelligence, digital twins, and cloud computing.

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RPA

Robotic process automation is a form of business process automation technology that allows anyone to configure computer software, or a “robot” to emulate and integrate the actions of a human interacting within digital systems to execute a business process. Computer software 'robots' handle repetitive, rule-based digital tasks such as filling in the same information in multiple places, reentering data, or copying and pasting with amazing accuracy.

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Autonomous Things

Autonomous things (AuT), or the internet of autonomous things (IoAT), are devices that work on specific tasks autonomously without human interaction thanks to AI algorithms. These devices include robotics, vehicles, drones, autonomous smart home devices and autonomous software.

YEARS

Robotics/Cobots

Collaborative robots, (cobots” are robots that are intended to work hand-in-hand with human beings. These machines focus on repetitive tasks, such as inspection and picking, to help workers focus more on tasks that require problem-solving skills.

YEARS

Narrow AI/ML

Artificial narrow intelligence (ANI) also known as “weak” AI is the AI that exists in our world today. Narrow AI is AI that is programmed to perform a single task — whether it’s checking the weather, playing chess, or analyzing raw data to write journalistic reports. ANI is not conscious, sentient, or driven by emotion the way that humans are. It operates within a pre-determined, pre-defined range, even if it appears to be much more sophisticated than that. Narrow machine learning is similar but it pertains to machine learning. AI is a bigger concept to create intelligent machines that can simulate human thinking capability and behavior, whereas, machine learning is an application or subset of AI that allows machines to learn from data without being programmed explicitly.

YEARS

More Generalized AI

Artificial general intelligence or “strong” AI refers to machines that exhibit human intelligence. In other words, AGI can successfully perform an intellectual task that a human being can. This is the sort of AI where humans interact with machines and operating systems that are conscious, sentient, and driven by emotion and self-awareness.

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Multi-AI Integration

Multi-AI integration (MAI) refers to solutions that are able to talk to each other, share insights, and make each other smarter, in order to create larger, broader and more capable A.I. systems.

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Advanced Autonomous Systems

Fully autonomous systems have truly disruptive potential, where autonomy is aided by artificial general intelligence (AGI) or artificial super intelligence (ASI). AGI is where a machine with general intelligence mimics human intelligence and/or behaviors, with the ability to learn and apply its intelligence to solve any problem. AGI can think, understand, and act in a way that is indistinguishable from a human in any given situation. ASI is the hypothetical AI that doesn’t just mimic or understand human intelligence and behavior; ASI is where machines become self-aware and surpass the capacity of human intelligence and ability.

YEARS

Transformed To Digital

Re-shaping Experience

Multiplying Productivity

Expanding Frontiers

Transformed To Digital

Re-shaping Experience

Expanding Frontiers

Cybersecurity

Data Management

Data Lakes

Cloud Computing

Edge AI, Cloud, Cyber, Cloud

Zero Trust Security

Small Sats

Blockchain

Low Cost Launch

Leo Satellite Internet

Quantum Networking

Bio Computing

Quantum Computing

Beyond +

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As IT modernization and digital transformation efforts grow beyond the data center, new frontiers will continue to emerge as growth sectors. By investing in cybersecurity, 5G networks, low-earth orbiting satellites, and more, we can make the internet accessible from anywhere.

Cybersecurity

The evolving nature of the cyberspace domain has continued to challenge the cyber defenders. Each time a class of threats is countered with a new technology, the attackers move on to new tactics and exploits. Cyber defenders must be armed with tools that allow them to challenge malicious actors in real-time, regardless of their attack vector, not respond well after an attack has occurred.

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Data Management

Data management refers to the overarching process of dealing with the data in an enterprise so that data is made available to its users in an organized, usable and secure manner. Data management involves modeling, architecture, metadata, governance, stewardship, operations, and master data management. As data is the important asset in an organization it is mission critical for every enterprise to have a good framework in place to implement the data management principles.

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Data Lakes

A data lake in a one-stop repository for organizations’ structured and unstructured data. Data can be collected in this data lake in a raw format for further upstream and downstream processing. Typically, the data is brought into the raw zone as is from transactional systems, devices, data processing engines etc. Further cataloging, curation, transformation, aggregation, structuring is applied to this data to enable this data for analytics, predictive modelling, building decision making processes, dashboards, etc.

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Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is the elastic way of making the computing resources available for users on an as needed basis. Different IT resources like compute, network, storage, database, applications, etc. are available from cloud computing vendors like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, IBM, Oracle etc. The on-demand nature of cloud computing will help organizations to pay as they go and not incur huge capital expenditures to stand up a data center. This enables large and startup businesses to venture into innovation without much overhead on upfront investment.

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Edge AI, Cloud, Cyber, Cloud

The term edge AI comes from advancements in two areas. The first area is edge computing, the increasing capabilities of devices on the edge (e.g., the phone in your hand, the tablet or laptop you use for work). In addition, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) has increased, allowing the use of machine learning in ways we have never seen before. The combination (AI at the Edge) has allowed us to start using machine learning on devices on the edge. Thus, edge AI is when an edge system (your phone) uses machine learning algorithms to process data generated locally by the device. Edge AI takes the data and its processing to the closest point of interaction with the person.

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Zero Trust Security

The cyber security paradigm of zero trust focuses on protecting our systems by never trusting that any connection, system, or source has not been breached. By trusting no one organizations ensure all systems are validating proper access throughout each day. That way if you leave your desk during the day and someone else tries to use your computer the system will challenge them. The technology works by putting in checks at all connection points where risk is evaluated in the context of the connection and what is being accessed.

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Small Sats

Small sats are replacing their less nimble predecessors on a growing basis because they are less expensive and require fewer resources to create, launch, and monitor. They can also be manufactured faster, using standardized and commercially available technology, which means more satellites can be launched for a set budget. Building smaller, less expensive satellites not only reduces financial risk, but it also lessens mission failure risk compared to putting “all your eggs in one basket” with one large satellite.

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Blockchain

Blockchain refers to a type of distributed database where the data is fully replicated across participating network nodes and can be added by any participant node by submitting a transaction to the network. Transactions are time-stamped and cryptographically signed using asymmetric or public-key cryptography to provide proof of origin. Transactions are verified by each participant node and assembled into blocks using cryptographic hash functions. Blocks are validated by a distributed consensus mechanism and valid blocks are added to and linked into a chain, hence the name blockchain. Blockchain has been a disruptive solution in finance, supply chain management, records management, and more.

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5G is the latest iteration of cellular technology, engineered to greatly increase the speed and responsiveness of wireless networks. 5G networks and services will be deployed in stages over the next several years to accommodate the increasing reliance on mobile and internet-enabled devices, and is expected to accommodate speeds up to 100 times faster than 4G. 5G will enable more connectivity between machines, objects, and IoT devices.

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Low Cost Launch

Launch vehicle rides are expensive, and what is considered “low cost” is continually evolving. Decades ago, a price under $20,000/kilogram may have been considered a great deal. As technology improves and the industry develops, expands and matures, the price-per-kilogram continues to drop. Today, a price point of $3,000/kilogram may be considered a “low cost” launch.

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Leo Satellite Internet

Low Earth orbit is typically considered to cover orbits up to 2,000 kilometers in altitude. The relatively low altitude allows these satellites to perform Earth observations with higher resolution with cheaper hardware than satellites in higher orbits. Satellites in LEO also orbit the Earth much faster, which means shorter contact times with ground sites. The lower altitude also exposes these satellites to more — albeit still very, very little — atmospheric drag, causing the mission life of these satellites to typically be shorter than satellites in higher altitudes.

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Quantum Networking

Quantum networking relies on entanglement, the relationship between two physically separate quantum particles that act in perfect unison. Albert Einstein called this “spooky action at a distance.” Entanglement is the means of transferring data in the form of quantum bits (qubits) between physically separated quantum processors.

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Bio Computing

Biological computers are made from living cells instead of silicon and copper or glass and use chemical inputs, proteins, and DNA. Once a technician has programmed a single biological cell, it’s very cost-effective to grow billions more with only the cost of the nutrient solutions and a lab tech’s time. Although biocomputing has similarities with biology and computer science, it doesn’t fit within either discipline. In biology, the goal is to reverse-engineer things that are already built. Biocomputing aims to forward-engineer biology. In computer science, machines execute a sequence of known commands. A cell operates as a statistical function of pressure, temperature, and biochemical concentrations, and can have unpredictable outcomes. What occurs could be what you want, or something else, which could be a function of the cell's programming, or something external such as environmental conditions, nutrition, or timing.

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Beyond

Quantum Computing

Traditional computing is constrained by binary code, or strings of ones and zeroes. Quantum computing, however, uses what we call quantum bits, or qubits, to create an infinite combination of states, including zero and one simultaneously. It sounds impossible, but this is known as “superposition” and is one of the phenomena used to perform quantum computing.

YEARS

Beyond

Transformed To Digital

Re-shaping Experience

Multiplying Productivity

Expanding Frontiers

Transformed To Digital

Re-shaping Experience

Multiplying Productivity

Our Tech Vision serves as a guide to enable government agencies to operate more efficiently, improve the user experience for constituents and employees, accelerate innovation, and ultimately succeed and secure the future. We believe that digital transformation solutions; advances in re-shaping user experiences; developments in artificial intelligence and other techniques to multiply productivity; and the expansion of technology to the enterprise edge and into the space domain will drive future innovation.

THEREFORE, SAIC AND OUR TECHNOLOGY PARTNERS ARE INVESTING IN SOLUTIONS THAT ALIGN WITH FOUR MEGATRENDS.

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