The DARPA Model for Transformative Technologies

Patrick Windham, Richard Van Atta, William Boone Bonvillian

Description

The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has played a remarkable role in the creation new transformative technologies, revolutionizing defense with drones and precision-guided munitions, and transforming civilian life with portable GPS receivers, voice-recognition software, self-driving cars, unmanned aerial vehicles, and, most famously, the ARPANET and its successor, the Internet.


Other parts of the U.S. Government and some foreign governments have tried to apply the ‘DARPA model’ to help develop valuable new technologies. But how and why has DARPA succeeded? Which features of its operation and environment contribute to this success? And what lessons does its experience offer for other U.S. agencies and other governments that want to develop and demonstrate their own ‘transformative technologies’?


This book is a remarkable collection of leading academic research on DARPA from a wide range of perspectives, combining to chart an important story from the Agency’s founding in the wake of Sputnik, to the current attempts to adapt it to use by other federal agencies. Informative and insightful, this guide is essential reading for political and policy leaders, as well as researchers and students interested in understanding the success of this agency and the lessons it offers to others.
 

Sujets

• Public Policy

Informations

• Publié par: Open Book Publishers
• Date de parution: 09 janvier 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 5
• EAN13: 9781783747948
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

The DARPA Model for Transformative Technologies
The DARPA Model for Transformative Technologies
Perspectives on the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Edited by William B. Bonvillian, Richard Van Atta, and Patrick Windham
https://www.openbookpublishers.com
© 2019 William B. Bonvillian, Richard Van Atta, and Patrick Windham. Copyright of individual chapters is maintained by the chapters’ authors.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs license (CC BY-NC-ND). This license allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the text; to adapt the text and to make commercial use of the text providing attribution is made to the authors (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Attribution should include the following information:
William B. Bonvillian, Richard Van Atta, and Patrick Windham (eds.), The DARPA Model for Transformative Technologies Perspectives on the U.S.: Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency . Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2019, https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0184
In order to access detailed and updated information on the license, please visit, https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0184#copyright
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ISBN Paperback: 978-1-78374-791-7
ISBN Hardback: 978-1-78374-792-4
ISBN Digital (PDF): 978-1-78374-793-1
ISBN Digital ebook (epub): 978-1-78374-794-8
ISBN Digital ebook (mobi): 978-1-78374-795-5
ISBN XML: 978-1-78374-796-2
DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0184
Cover design: Anna Gatti.
Contents
Notes on Contributors
xi
Acknowledgements
xix
1.
Introduction: DARPA—The Innovation Icon
1
Patrick Windham and Richard Van Atta
DARPA’s Historical Mission and Organization
2
DARPA’s Organization and Budget
9
Important Features of the DARPA Model
12
The Remainder of this Book
24
References
25
PART I: PERSPECTIVES ON DARPA
27
2.
Fifty Years of Innovation and Discovery
29
Richard Van Atta
The “DARPA Model”
30
DARPA’s Origins: Strategic Challenges ~1958
31
DARPA Roles
37
Key Elements of DARPA’s Success
37
Tension Between DARPA Roles
39
DARPA’s Successes
39
DARPA’s Role in Creating a Revolution in Military Affairs
41
Sustaining the DARPA Vision
42
References
43
3.
NSF and DARPA as Models for Research Funding: An Institutional Analysis
45
Michael J. Piore, Phech Colatat, and Elisabeth Beck Reynolds
I. Methodology and Research Approach
47
II. Basic Findings
48
III. Interpretation
67
Conclusions
72
References
75
4.
The Connected Science Model for Innovation—The DARPA Model
77
William B. Bonvillian
Introduction: Fundamentals of Defense Technology Development
77
Innovation Systems at the Personal Level: Great Groups
88
DARPA as a Unique Model—Combining Institutional Connectedness and Great Groups
93
Elements of the DARPA Model
98
Summary
112
References
113
5.
The Value of Vision in Radical Technological Innovation
119
Tamara L. Carleton
The Value of Vision in Radical Technological Innovation
119
Conclusion
135
References
136
6.
ARPA Does Windows: The Defense Underpinning of the PC Revolution
145
Glenn R. Fong
Introduction
145
PARC and HCI
147
Alto’s Offspring
151
The Rest of the Story
158
Xerox’s ARPA Brats
164
Windows on the Future
171
Conclusions
173
References
175
7.
Rethinking the Role of the State in Technology Development: DARPA and the Case for Embedded Network Governance
179
Erica R. H. Fuchs
1. Introduction
179
2. The Developmental Network State
183
3. The Changing Faces of DARPA
189
4. Methods
198
5. Results and Discussion
200
6. Discussion: the DARPA Program Manager—Embedded Network Agent
219
7. Conclusions
222
Acknowledgements
223
References
224
8.
DARPA’s Process for Creating New Programs
229
David W. Cheney and Richard Van Atta
Introduction
229
General Framework and Typical Patterns of Program Development
233
Case Studies of the Development of DARPA Programs
236
Have Blue (Stealth)
237
Assault Breaker (Standoff Precision Strike)
244
Amber/Predator (High Altitude Long Endurance UAVs)
249
Optoelectronics Program
256
High Definition Systems
262
Spintronics (Quantum Computing)
268
Personalized Assistant that Learns (PAL)
272
Topological Data Analysis
276
Revolutionizing Prosthetics
279
Findings, Conclusions, and Key Observations
282
Concluding Thoughts
286
References
287
9.
Some Questions about the DARPA Model
289
Patrick Windham
References
297
PART II: THE ROLE OF DARPA PROGRAM MANAGERS
301
10.
DARPA—Enabling Technical Innovation
303
Jinendra Ranka
The Role of DARPA
303
DARPA and Innovation?
304
Developing and Running DARPA Programs
306
Important Questions to Ask
310
Timelines
311
Additional Thoughts on Why DARPA is Needed
312
A Flexible and Supportive Agency
314
11.
Program Management at DARPA: A Personal Perspective
315
Larry Jackel
Getting New Programs Approved
316
Soliciting and Reviewing Proposals
316
Managing Programs
317
Independence, Responsibility, and Accomplishments
318
PART III: APPLYING THE DARPA MODEL IN OTHER SITUATIONS
321
12.
Lessons from DARPA for Innovating in Defense Legacy Sectors
323
William B. Bonvillian
Conclusion: Innovation in the Defense Legacy Sector
354
References
357
13.
ARPA-E and DARPA: Applying the DARPA Model to Energy Innovation
361
William B. Bonvillian and Richard Van Atta
Overview
361
I. The DARPA Model
365
II. ARPA-E—A New R&D Model for the Department of Energy
383
III. The Remaining Technology Implementation Challenge for DARPA and ARPA-E
409
IV. Conclusion—Brief Summary of Key Points
426
References
428
14.
IARPA: A Modified DARPA Innovation Model
435
William B. Bonvillian
The DARPA Model in the Context of Innovation Policy
436
The IARPA Model
441
Two Challenges to DARPA and its Clones—Manufacturing and Scaling up Startups
447
Conclusion
449
References
450
15.
Does NIH need a DARPA?
453
Robert Cook-Deegan
Biomedical Success
455
PART IV: CONCLUSIONS
461
16.
Lessons from DARPA’s Experience
463
Richard Van Atta, Patrick Windham and William B. Bonvillian
Important Features
464
Creating New Technical Communities
466
DARPA and the Future
467
Further Reading
471
DARPA Documents
471
General Histories of DARPA
471
Histories of DARPA’s Contributions to Information Technology
472
List of Illustrations and Tables
473
Index
475
Notes on Contributors
William B. Bonvillian is a Lecturer at MIT, and Senior Director at MIT’s Office of Digital Learning, leading a project on workforce education. From 2006 until 2017, he was Director of MIT’s Washington Office, supporting MIT’s historic role in science policy. He teaches courses on innovation systems at MIT and is coauthor of three books on innovation, Advanced Manufacturing: The New American Innovation Policies (2018), Technological Innovation in Legacy Sectors (2015) , and Structuring an Energy Technology Revolution (2009), as well as numerous articles. Previously he worked for over fifteen years on innovation issues as a senior advisor in the U.S. Senate, and earlier was a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Transportation. He serves on the National Academies of Sciences’ standing committee for its Innovation Policy Forum and chairs the Committee on Science and Engineering Policy at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He was elected a Fellow of the AAAS in 2011. He has a BA from Columbia, an MAR from Yale and a JD from Columbia.
Tamara Carleton , Ph