The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA), an organization within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, has announced the UG2 Prize Challenge for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), gliders and ground data entries.
According to IARPA, the challenge aims to advance the analysis of images collected by small UAVs by improving image restoration and algorithm performance.
“This prize challenge seeks to improve image quality via software techniques, which will allow more actionable intelligence from low-quality images, such as those off of a small, fixed-wing UAV,” says IARPA’s program manager, Chris Boehnen. “Analysts need these types of tools to sift through the large amounts of imagery they receive on a daily basis.”
IARPA says it is conducting the challenge to invite the broader research community of industry and academia, both domestic and international, to participate in a “convenient, efficient and non-contractual way.” Participants can submit their algorithms for evaluation to IARPA’s challenge performer, the University of Notre Dame. The registration period will officially run until April 1, and winners will be announced in May.
IARPA invests in “high-risk, high-payoff” research programs to tackle challenges of the agencies and disciplines in the intelligence community.
More about the challenge can be found here.
