NSF Engines Development Award: Advancing autonomous systems technologies in the Northern Front (ND, SD, MT, ID)

University Of North Dakota Main Campus, Grand Forks ND

Investigators

Abstract

This Regional Innovation Engine Development Award provides support to develop a plan for a comprehensive ecosystem to advance autonomous systems in four northern-tier states. North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Idaho have a shared interest in serving the needs of rural and tribal communities, and more broadly the nation, by developing and fielding autonomous systems in critical sectors including transportation, agriculture, mining, energy, defense, and health care. Autonomous systems provide significant benefits, including increased safety, efficiency, resiliency, and inter-operability, while also addressing challenges such as workforce shortages and economic disparities in rural and tribal areas. This region is poised to build and deepen an autonomy-based innovation ecosystem given the strong needs/demands, its deep expertise in use-inspired needs, its existing capabilities across its critical sectors (transportation, agriculture, etc.), and its strong partnerships with stakeholders who require or engage with autonomous systems, with government agencies that establish policy and regulations, with industry, academia, and government organizations, and with economic development organizations that enable realization/commercialization. The project's academic partners are the University of North Dakota, Montana State University, the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, and Boise State University, which will partner with the Tribal Nations Research Group in Belcourt, ND. These partners, combined with stakeholders (communities, industry sectors, etc.), government agencies that establish policy and regulations, and suppliers of AS solutions (industry, tribal leadership, academia, government, economic development organizations), comprise the NFASIDE leadership team, ensuring that all aspects that are critical to the realization of the benefits of autonomous systems are incorporated. This project will identify needs/use cases, develop, and translate autonomous systems into practice. Key enablers include clear delineation of needs/opportunities, consolidation of a team that has both deep and broad expertise in key areas, early engagement with stakeholders to ensure realization viability within desired timeframes, extensive utilization of digital engineering to accelerate development, close coupling of development stages, clear pathways to translation/commercialization, and workforce development that serves all stakeholders -— especially under-represented populations across the educational spectrum from high schools to post-doctoral programs. This effort will coalesce the NFASIDE team to provide an organizational and operational structure and a roadmap for realizing a self-sustaining and productive AS engine that drives the rapid realization of autonomous systems' benefits. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.