Difference between revisions of "IKRIS"

Revision as of 00:41, 8 May 2021

According to The MITRE TECHNICAL REPORT  MTR060158,
MITRE Support to IKRIS Final Report by Brant A. Cheikes, Ph.D. from November 2006

Abstract

In November 2004, the Intelligence Community’s Advanced Research a nd Development Activity 
(ARDA)</br>, which subsequently became the Disruptive Technology Office (DTO), requested that the Northeast Regional Research Center 
(NRRC)</br> hosted at MITRE provide technical oversight and management of a newly-funded “Challenge Workshop” called  IKRIS:  Interoperable Knowledge Representation for Intelligence Support.  The IKRIS workshop was chartered to address the following challenge problems:  (1) how to enable interoperability of knowledge representation (KR) technology developed by multiple organizations in multiple ARDA programs and designed to perform different tasks, and (2) how to practically represent knowledge that is relevant to intelligence analysis tasks in a form that enhances automated support for analysts.  This is MITRE’s final report on its activities and accomplishments as NRRC Program Manager for IKRIS.

The major accomplishments of the IKRIS Challenge Workshop are summarized as follows:

• IKL—the IKRIS Knowledge Language. This is the key technical result of the IKRIS Challenge Workshop. IKL is a formally-specified language, based on an emerging ISO standard called Common Logic, into and out of which a variety of distinctly different knowledge representation (KR) formalisms can be translated.
• ICL—the IKRIS Context Logic. ICL is a logic formalism for representing and reasoning about context-dependent knowledge, including alternative hypotheses, points of view, world states and scenarios.
• ISIT—the IKRIS Scenarios Inter-Theory. The Scenarios Inter-Theory specifies an approach to translating among the principal formalisms in current use for declaratively representing processes.
• Evaluation Report. The Evaluation Working Group has produced a report showing that IKL is a sound and effective mechanism for knowledge interchange.
• Capstone Demonstration. The Capstone Demonstration serves both as an evaluation of knowledge interchange using IKL, and as an illustration of the potential Intelligence Community impact of the IKRIS-developed approach to interoperability.
• IKL translators. IKRIS participants at Stanford University implemented a set of software tools for building automated translators into and out of IKL.

Chapter 1 of this report documents the workshop’s milestones, participants, accomplishments and impact. 
Chapter 2 describes MITRE’s support activities and accomplishments, and
Chapter 3 presents conclusions, recommendations and lessons learned.

Table of Contents

1 Introduction pg 1

In November 2004, the Intelligence Community’s Advanced Research and Development Activity (ARDA), which subsequently became the Disruptive Technology Office (DTO), requested that the Northeast Regional Research Center (NRRC) hosted at MITRE provide technical oversight and management of a newly-funded “Challenge Workshop” called IKRIS:  Interoperable Knowledge Representation for Intelligence Support.  The IKRIS workshop was chartered to address the following challenge problems:  (1) how to enable interoperability of knowledge representation (KR) technology developed by multiple organizations in multiple ARDA programs and designed to perform different tasks, and (2) how to practically represent knowledge that is relevant to intelligence analysis tasks in a form that enhances automated support for analysts.

According to ARDA’s workshop plan, MITRE was to serve as prime contractor for the effort, and was to subcontract with an approved team of scientists and engineers who would produce and deliver the desired technical products.  MITRE nominated Dr. Brant A. Cheikes to serve as the NRRC Program Manager for IKRIS.  Prof. Richard Fikes of Stanford University and Dr. Christopher Welty of IBM Corporation (who together conceived and proposed the original idea for IKRIS) were to serve as the IKRIS Technical Leads (TLs), and would be responsible for guiding the technical efforts of the IKRIS workshop team.

Beginning in December 2004 and continuing through early January 2005, MITRE worked with the TLs and ARDA to define a Statement of Work (SOW) for IKRIS.  ARDA identified two roles for MITRE: (1) to oversee the production of tangible deliverables from the IKRIS program, and (2) to facilitate technology transfer.  MITRE conveyed the revised and coordinated SOW to ARDA on 26 January 2005.  ARDA then released the funds and the IKRIS effort proceeded.  The overarching Project Work Statement (PWS) covering IKRIS was subsequently approved by the Government on 17 February 2005, allowing the official Period of Performance (POP) for IKRIS to run from 14 February 2005 through 1 October 2006 (nearly 20 months).  In mid-September 2006, a no-cost extension to 31 December 2006 was approved, to permit Prof. Fikes, Dr. Welty, and MITRE to prepare IKRIS deliverables and other reports for transfer to the DTO.

This is MITRE’s final report on its activities and accomplishments as NRRC Program Manager for IKRIS.  In this report we will only summarize the technical objectives and accomplishments of the IKRIS workshop team; details of the technical results will be provided in a separate report being prepared by Prof. Fikes and Dr. Welty.  This report will instead document MITRE’s supporting efforts.  In the remainder of this chapter, we document the workshop’s milestones (§1.1), participants (§1.2), accomplishments (§1.3) and impact (§1.4).  Chapter 2 describes MITRE’s support activities and accomplishments, and Chapter 3 presents conclusions, recommendations and lessons learned.

1.1 IKRIS Milestones pg 1

1.2 IKRIS Community Membership pg 3

1.3 Summary of IKRIS Accomplishments and Impact pg 4

1.4 Present and Future Impact of IKRIS pg 6

2 Summary of MITRE Support Activities pg 8 =

2.1 Administration and Logistics Support pg 8

2.2 Direct Technical Support pg 9

2.3 Summary pg 12

3 Conclusions, Recommendations and Lessons Learned pg 13

3.1 Conclusions pg 13

3.2 Recommendations pg 14

3.3 Lessons Learned pg 15