Automated Optimization of Processing Architectures for Autonomous Systems Software

AFIT's mission is to help build America's airpower, by educating military and civilian Airmen to innovatively accomplish the Air Force's core missions, in support of joint operations, more effectively, efficiently, sustainably and affordably. We provide unique defense-focused, research-enabled, multi-disciplinary advanced academic education, as well as globally delivering career-long, action-based, functional professional continuing education, over a continuum of learning, on-command and on-demand. Our success is measured by the career-long contributions of our graduates, faculty and staff. AFIT accomplishes this mission through four schools: the Graduate School of Engineering and Management, the School of Systems and Logistics, the Civil Engineer School, and the School of Strategic Force Studies. To learn more about the research performed at AFIT, please visit www.afit.edu.

We are seeking a self-motivated candidate to participate in research in the areas of cross-platform FPGA, GPU, and CPU algorithm development. This research project will involve implementing popular algorithms with known performance and DoD application, such as Fast Fourier Transforms (FFTs), filters, cryptographic hash functions, etc. These functions facilitate implementation because they are widely used toolkits targeting the different processing architectures that are widely available. The intern will contribute to research in the use of numerical optimization methods, genetic algorithms, and/or artificial intelligence methods to optimize the distribution of our given algorithms across different architectures. The ultimate goal is to find a best practice approach for deciding the distribution of DoD-centered applications in SWaP-constrained environments. The candidate selected for this research opportunity will gain a better understanding of techniques to split algorithms in a distributed fashion across a heterogeneous mixture of CPUs, GPUs, and FPGAs.

This appointment is a six month research appointment, with the possibility to be renewed for additional research periods. Appointments may be extended depending on funding availability, project assignment, program rules, and availability of the participant.

Participants will receive a stipend to be determined by AFIT. Stipends are typically based on the participant’s academic standing, discipline, experience, and research facility location. Other benefits may include the following:

The participant will not enter into an employee/employer relationship with ORISE, ORAU, DOD, or any other office or agency. Instead, the participant will be affiliated with ORISE for the administration of the appointment through the ORISE appointment letter and Terms of Appointment.