Office-wide BAA: Information Processing Techniques Office

Office-wide BAA: Information Processing Techniques Office is sponsored by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) - Information Innovation Office (I2O). The Information Innovation Office (I2O) seeks revolutionary research ideas for topics not being addressed by ongoing programs or other published solicitations, focusing on artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, data analytics, and human-machine teaming.

[](https://www. darpa. mil/about/offices/ipto) ### About the Information Processing Techniques Office The Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO) creates technological surprise through groundbreaking information science, technology development, and the delivery of fundamentally new information capabilities for national security.

**AI innovation and Execution** We envision vastly more energy-efficient and assured AI systems to advance asymmetric capabilities at the edge of the network and to provide trustworthy, understandable AI to warfighters where and when they need it. We also seek to mitigate risks of misalignment of machine actions and human interests.

**Inherent Security and Privacy** We seek to create a new generation of systems that are inherently secure, and inherently private, together with security and privacy tools that are more effective and more adaptable – both in the moving target and reactive senses – than current solutions.

We aim to develop more trustworthy and resilient systems based on the fundamental principles of the cyber networking, computing, and storage environment, and to create an asymmetric advantage in cyberspace.

**Resilient Megasystems** We aim to develop machine-derived abstractions and models that expose the governing principles of highly complex and interconnected systems – like supply chains and power grids – to identify hidden systemic risks and emergent properties, and to enable the precise targeting of interventions and the proactive assurance of mission-critical functions.

IPTO leadership is responsible for guiding and overseeing the research and development activities within specific technical areas. Office Director, Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO) Patrick Lincoln, Ph. D.

, leads program managers who are funding the development of programs, technologies, and capabilities to ensure a surprising information advantage for the United States and its allies. * John-Francis Mergen provides technical leadership and works with program managers to envision, create, and transition capabilities that ensure enduring information advantage for the United States and its allies.

Assistant Director Program Management, Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO) Nicholas Haeuptle is the assistant director for program management (ADPM) for the Information Processing Techniques Office. He was previously a Program Analyst for the Strategic Technology Office.

Opportunities to engage include R&D programs and efforts, challenge competitions, and technology transition efforts for the Information Processing Techniques Office. | See all DARPA Opportunities | RSS feed for Opportunities _Use these filters to narrow your results by research topic or date. Search by keyword to find your specific IPTO opportunity.

_ The Decentralized Artificial Intelligence through Controlled Emergence (DICE) program seeks theory and algorithms for decentralized coordination and local inference control. | See Program Deadline date: Aug.

25, 2026 Information Processing Techniques Office The Lightweight Universal Codec (LUC) program aims to develop a universal encoder-decoder (codec) capable of sending and receiving information using any known communication error correction code. | See Program Deadline date: Aug.

28, 2026 Information Processing Techniques Office ## Pushing Technology's Limits Our IPTO research programs are finite in duration, but the revolutionary advancements they drive create lasting change. Learn more about recent and ongoing efforts across our key thrust areas. | See all DARPA programs _Use these filters to narrow your results by research topic or status.

Search by keyword to find your specific IPTO program. _ The Anticipatory and Adaptive Anti-Money Laundering (A3ML) program aims to develop algorithms to sift through financial transactions graphs for suspicious patterns, learn new patterns to anticipate future activities, and develop techniques to represent patterns of illicit financial behavior in a concise, machine-readable format that is also easily understood by human analysts.

Information Processing Techniques Office This program aims to establish an industry/university/government research forum focused on solving critical AI challenges for national security. Information Processing Techniques Office The Artificial Intelligence Quantified (AIQ) program seeks to develop technology to assess and understand the capabilities of AI to enable guaranteed performance.

Researchers will test the hypothesis that mathematical foundations, combined with advances in measurement and modeling, will guarantee an AI system's capabilities, when they will or will not manifest, and why in a quantified way.

Information Processing Techniques Office The AI Cyber Challenge (AIxCC) is a two-year competition that brings together the best and brightest in AI and cybersecurity to safeguard the software critical to all Americans. AIxCC will ask competitors to design novel AI systems to secure this critical code and will award a cumulative $29.

5 million in prizes to teams with the best systems, including $7 million in prizes to small businesses to empower entrepreneurial innovation during the initial phase of AIxCC.

Information Processing Techniques Office The Assured Neuro Symbolic Learning and Reasoning (ANSR) program seeks breakthrough innovations in the form of new, hybrid AI algorithms that integrate symbolic reasoning with data-driven learning to create robust, assured, and therefore trustworthy systems.

Information Processing Techniques Office ## Brightest Minds in Science and Engineering Our IPTO program managers are visionary leaders whose experience spans industry, government, and academia. They conceive, plan, and oversee the high-risk R&D efforts for which we are best known. | See all DARPA program managers #### Search our Program Managers _Use these filters to narrow your results by research topic or date.

Search by keyword to find a specific IPTO program manager or their research interests. _ Lt. Col.

Alex “HEFOE” Hillman, Ph. D. , U.S. Air Force, has research that seeks to advance technologies that couple kinetic and non-kinetic effects, with an emphasis on advanced signal processing, systems and information theoretic methods, and applied computation to enable scale.

Susmit Jha, Ph. D. , has research interests in advancing trustworthy and steerable generative AI and controllable multi-agent systems.

Caleb Royer's research interests include distributed systems, networks, space systems, security, and edge computing. Xenofon Koutsoukos, Ph. D.

, has research interests that include learning-enabled systems, security and resilience, diagnosis and fault tolerance, distributed algorithms, formal methods, and adaptive resource management. Stephen Kuhn, Ph. D.

, has research interests that include resilient systems design, language security (langsec), and blended architectures focusing on transition to solve warfighter needs. Byron Cook, Ph. D.

, has research interests that include automated formal reasoning and programming languages. He is a distinguished scientist at Amazon, where he founded Amazon’s Automated Reasoning Group (ARG). Derek S.

Bernsen's research interests focus on cyberspace operations, cybersecurity, program analysis, automation, and other defense mission areas. David Rushing Dewhurst, Ph. D.

, has research interests which include financial intelligence, the design of economic mechanisms and financial assets, capital markets, and payment systems. Victoria Romero, Ph. D.

, joined DARPA to develop, execute, and transition programs in cognitive security and the integration of behavioral science into artificial intelligence development and evaluation. Patrick Shafto, Ph. D.

, joined DARPA to develop, execute, and transition programs in artificial intelligence (AI), mathematics, machine learning, and human-machine symbiosis. Nathaniel D. Bastian, Ph.

D. , U.S. Army, has research interests that span the security, assurance, and robustness of AI systems, AI for autonomous cyber decision-support, intelligent battlefield command and control systems, data security and alternative computing, cognitive security, and cyber-human systems engineering. Dan Wallach, Ph.

D. , joined DARPA to develop, execute, and transition programs in computer security, cryptography, and related applications. Michael Lack's research interests focus on privacy, secure communications, cybersecurity, and embedded systems.

Matthew Marge, Ph. D. , joined DARPA to create, execute, and transition programs in artificial intelligence (AI), human-machine interaction, and multi-agent systems.

Naim Merheb joined DARPA to develop, execute, and transition programs in cyber operations. Marc Calabrese's research interests include automation, network security, and program analysis. #### Energy-aware machine learning The Mapping Machine Learning to Physics program aims to strike the balance between energy usage and performance.

| **Learn more** #### AI Cyber Challenge marks pivotal inflection point for cyber defense Teams’ AI-driven systems find, patch real-world cyber vulnerabilities; available open source for broad adoption. | **Learn more** Aims to establish an industry/university/government research forum focused on solving critical AI challenges for national security. | **Learn more** Embark on a journey of innovation and impact!

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