IDEaS 2024

IEEE International DEFENCE EXCELLENCE and SECURITY SYMPOSIUM (IDEaS)

Toronto, Canada

15th May 2024

The International Defence and Security (IDEaS) Symposium is an Annual Event that is sponsored by IEEE and IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society. It brings together participants in innovation eosystems from Defence, Industry, and Academia to exchange ideas and information and to foster connections and collaborations among Military operations, Defence decision-makers, Academic experts, and Industry capability developers. The 2nd IDEaS Symposium aims to bring together subject matter experts from Military, Government, Industry, and Academia to discuss and demonstrate concepts and technologies of trustworthy teaming between human and artificial intelligence (AI) or autonomy for effective command and control (C2) decision-making.

Tentative schedule

Morning:

Invited keynote speeches from senior military officers, defence R&D organization executives, industry leaders, academic experts, and NATO representatives, including Mr. Pete JW Saunders (Director General, RCAF NORAD Modernization Office) and LCDR Joseph W Geeseman (Co-Chair of NATO Human Factors Specialist Committee, US Navy), Siegfried Usal (VP, Thales Digital Solutions), etc.

Afternoon:

Panel discussions about defence challenges in Air, Land, Sea, and Space, R&D directions and potential solutions, as well as possible collaboration opportunities among all stakeholders from all sectors, including MGen Kathryn Toohey (Rtd) AUS Army, Air Marshal Mel Hupfeld (Rtd) RAAF, Vice Admiral Michael Noonan (Rtd) RAN, Maj. Cody-Jean Carignan (Deputy Project Director, Future CAOC Capability, NORAD-CONTINENTAL Defense Modernization Office), Ms. Shadi Ghajar-Khosravi (Section Head, DRDC Toronto), Dr. Aren Hunter (Group Head, DRDC Atlantic), Mr. Anthony Faust (Program Manager, DRDC Suffield), and Mr. Jack Collier (Group Head, DRDC Suffield), etc.

Best of Both Worlds: Human-AI Teaming for Effective Decision-Making

With its ubiquitous application and transformative potential, AI holds the promise of delivering both incremental and profound changes in many aspects of our society. However, AI (or automation or machine intelligence more broadly) is not a silver bullet for eliminating human errors when information processing and timely decision-making demands exceed the capacity of human operators. Many AI-enabled systems operate in environments that are not specifiable a priori. Further, there will always be environments (e.g., for missile and air defense operations) in which data come from multiple sources, including new or partially unreliable ones, and where the integrity of data sources and AI processes and outputs cannot be fully trusted. The problem of trustworthy AI and thus human-AI teaming (HAT) is complex and multidimensional and it is largely dependent on both effective human-machine interaction and robust, reliable AI systems. To achieve the full HAT potential for C2 operations, there is the need for mutual trust between human operators and AI-enabled decision aids in the context of wide area surveillance, advanced training systems, and after-action analysis, etc. With such trusted partnership, a persistent and reliable HAT decision support capability will help enable and ensure HAT capabilities and thus achieve information dominance and decision superiority.

The specific objective of this symposium is to discuss and demonstrate innovative concepts, methodologies, and technologies as potential solutions to address trustworthy issues in HAT for effective decision-making. Presentations are expected to provide trustworthy tools that demonstrate effective HAT in defence and security C2 operations that results in timely responses and trusted and verifiable AI decisions. These tools should have been developed based on scientific excellence and support C2 human operators for the test, evaluation, and audit of AI enabled decisions. These tools should be related to broad defence and security contexts such as advanced C2, training, and after-action analysis systems for continental surveillance, etc.

This is an invitation to stakeholders in academics, defence research institutions, industrial and commercial organizations, and the military to attend and/or offer ideas and experience in the development of requirements, methodologies, and technologies of trustworthy HAT for effective C2 decision-making and training.

General Chairs:

Ming Hou (Canada)

Saeid Nahavandi (Australia)

Organizing Committee:

LCol David Dunwoody (Office of the Secretary to the Governor General, Canadian Armed Forces)

LCol Edgar Reuber (EUROCONTROL and German Air Force)

LCdr Joseph W Geeseman (Medical Service Corps, United States Navy)

Ming Hou (Defence Research and Development Canada)

Saeid Nahavandi (Swinburne University of Technology, Australia)

  1. (Anneloes) Maij (Royal NLR – Netherlands Aerospace Centre, the Netherlands)

Dale Richards (Thales, United Kingdom)

Jessie Chen (United States Army Research Laboratory, USA)

Stefan Wolfgang Pickl, (University of the Bundeswehr Munich, Germany)

Eddie Tunstel (Motive Space Systems, USA)

Michael Hardy (KBR, Australia)

Vinod Puri (CSIRO, Australia)

International Technical Program Committee:

LCol David Dunwoody (Office of the Secretary to the Governor General, Canadian Armed Forces)

LCol Edgar Reuber (EUROCONTROL and German Air Force)

LCdr Joseph W Geeseman (Medical Service Corps, United States Navy)

LCdr Adam Bradly (Medical Service Corps, United States Navy)

Dr. Ming Hou (Defence Research and Development Canada)

Dr. Dale Richards (Thales, United Kingdom)

Dr. A. Anneloes Maiji (Royal NLR – Netherlands Aerospace Centre, the Netherlands)

Dr. Jessie Chen (United States Army Research Laboratory, USA)

Dr. Adrian Stoica (JPL – NASA, USA)

Dr. Eddie Tunstel (Motive Space Systems, USA)

Dr. Michael Hardy (KBR, Australia)

Professor Saeid Nahavandi (Swinburne University of Technology, Australia)

Professor Vinod Puri (CSIRO, Australia)

Professor Kostas N. Plataniotis (University of Toronto, Canada)

Professor Arash Mohammadi (Concordia University, Canada)

Professor Marina Gavrilova (University of Calgary, Canada)

Professor Henry Leung (University of Calgary, Canada)

Professor Mehrdad Saif (University of Windsor, Canada)

Professor Axel Schulte (University of the Bundeswehr, Germany)

Professor Stefan Wolfgang Pickl (University of the Bundeswehr, Germany)

Professor Rodney Roberts (Florida State University, USA)

Professor Abdollah Ebbie Homaifar, North Carolina A&T State University, USA)

Professor Anthony A. Maciejewski (Colorado State University, USA)

Abstract Information for Prospective Panel Organizers.

Since the symposium will provide a forum for panel discussions on the theme topics, prospective panel organizers are invited to submit Abstracts electronically to the conference General Chair at [email protected]. Abstracts (1 page) should be concise but contain sufficient details about the proposed discussion topics and  panelists (maximum 5) with the abstracts of all panelists (half page each) to allow critical review.

Deadlines:

Submission of Panel Abstracts: January 12th, 2024

Acceptance Notification for Panel Abstracts: January 26, 2024

Deadline for early registration: February 1, 2024