An Overview of Information Processing and Management at APL Ralph D. Semmel Rapid advances in information technology have dramatically affected the manner in which complex systems are developed and used. Yet, despite new capabilities, decision makers are struggling to deal with endlessly increasing amounts and types of data. As a result, APL has been placing additional emphasis on information technology. This article provides an overview of mission-oriented information processing and management at the Laboratory, with a focus on associated science and technology. Consistent with the technology taxonomy developed by APL’s Science and Technology Council, four areas are discussed: distributed computing and Web technologies, software engineering and information systems engineering, information operations, and decision support and situ- ational awareness. For each area, historical roots, current Laboratory activities, and critical challenges are described. Recommendations to enhance APL’s posture in the fi eld are also offered. INTRODUCTION During the past decade, there have been amazing in IT activities. This number is particularly surprising advances in information technology (IT). Global acces- given our recent history. For example, less than a decade sibility, high-speed communications, high-performance ago, one of APL’s best-known computer scientists was computing systems, and the World Wide Web have dra- not hired when he fi rst sought employment at the Labo- matically and permanently changed the nature of busi- ratory. Although highly regarded for his work as a resi- ness and education. These same capabilities have also dent subcontractor, his department simply did not hire affected warfare and space science in ways unimaginable computer scientists as APL staff. During the past 5 years, just a few years ago. that same department has formed a well-regarded IT But how has APL responded to the rapidly changing group which has sought and succeeded in hiring many IT environment? In the past (and perhaps even today), computer scientists. many would not have characterized APL as an IT orga- In this article, a high-level overview of information nization. Yet a recent survey conducted by the Labo- processing and management at APL is provided, with ratory’s Science and Technology (S&T) Council indi- a focus on the S&T associated with the fi eld. In the cates that about half of the staff are engaged primarily next section, the fi eld is characterized and four critically 52 JOHNS HOPKINS APL TECHNICAL DIGEST, VOLUME 24, NUMBER 1 (2003) INFORMATION PROCESSING AND MANAGEMENT AT APL important areas identifi ed by the Laboratory’s S&T Coun- are conducted. There are many different ways to aggre- cil are discussed. These areas are then described more gate; however, four areas in particular refl ect critical cur- fully in subsequent sections. For each, some signifi cant rent technologies and serve as a basis for future oppor- historical events are highlighted, roots at the Laboratory tunities: distributed computing and Web technologies, are traced, a number of relevant S&T results are given, software engineering and information systems engineer- and critical challenges facing the Laboratory and its spon- ing, information operations, and decision support and sors are presented. In the fi nal section, some details on the situational awareness. state of information processing and management at APL Figure 1 illustrates the relationships among the four are provided, along with a few thoughts on future S&T areas. The circular boundary represents the controlla- directions in the area. ble portion of a system. Users within that boundary interact through human–computer interfaces with com- plex decision support systems. In turn, the decision sup- CHARACTERIZING THE FIELD port systems reside on increasingly distributed comput- The technologies associated with information pro- ing infrastructures. The infrastructure distributes both cessing and management can be viewed in numerous computing and data, parallelizes computation as appro- ways. An academic approach is to identify a set of con- priate, and increasingly depends on standard protocols centration areas in which research is conducted and and Web technologies as a means for sharing resources. courses are offered. For example, in JHU’s part-time The system must also enable people and systems out- master of science program in computer science, more side the boundary to share and retrieve appropriate than 80 courses are offered in 9 concentration areas: information. Thus the boundary also indicates that secu- software engineering, systems, theory, information secu- rity measures are required to protect information and rity, information and knowledge management, bioinfor- systems. Unfortunately, it is impossible to completely matics, visualization and human–computer interaction, protect a suffi ciently complex information system; con- data communications and networking, and distributed sequently, the protective barrier is porous. For example, computing. unknown software fl aws can serve as a basis for attacks, Given how new computer science is as a discipline, and it is effectively impossible to fi nd all fl aws in com- academic concentration areas are in a continuous state plex systems. On the other hand, fl aws also provide an of fl ux. Only in the last several years, with the advent opportunity to take advantage of unfriendly systems. of the Web, has distributed computing emerged as a dis- Information operations refl ects both perspectives and tinct area from systems. Similarly, although courses in provides a means to both protect and exploit informa- information security have been offered for many years, tion systems. only in the past 2 years has security evolved into a stand- Finally, the system residing within the circular bound- alone area. While new areas are constantly emerging, ary must be built. The triangular component on the other areas have evolved or been combined in unan- right of Fig. 1 represents the software engineering and ticipated ways. For example, the increasingly important information systems engineering effort APL expends to area of information and knowledge management evolved from previous concentration areas that focused on artifi cial intelligence and data- Situational awareness Information and display Software base systems. Moreover, the area sharing engineering is heavily infl uenced by advances and information Decision support systems in distributed computing, such as engineering eXtensible Markup Language (XML), activity as a means for building knowledge representations. People Even though an academic tax- and onomy provides a reasonable basis systems for delineating research and course offerings, it is not as well suited Distributed computing for characterizing the types of infor- and Web technologies mation processing and management activities at APL. Instead, a broader Information attacks perspective is needed that aggre- Information operations gates areas and refl ects the systems context in which information pro- cessing and management activities Figure 1. Relationships among APL information processing and management areas. JOHNS HOPKINS APL TECHNICAL DIGEST, VOLUME 24, NUMBER 1 (2003) 53 R. D. SEMMEL develop systems. From an S&T perspective, in particu- Air Defense Systems Department (ADSD).1 Similarly, lar, software engineering and information systems engi- starting in the 1970s, the Laboratory began to inves- neering capabilities are most signifi cant with respect tigate how networking technology could be used on to creating complex decision support and situational ships. This led to programs such as HiPer-D in the awareness systems such as the Area Air Defense Com- 1990s. HiPer-D has focused on distributed high-per- mander (AADC) and reliable fl ight software for space- formance computing, including software communica- craft. Although there are exceptions, the Laboratory has tions mechanisms, failure management and control, and signifi cantly less experience in the S&T associated with system execution and monitoring. Extensive work has developing large-scale Web-based computing or infor- also been done in the development of distributed space- mation operations systems. craft data processing capabilities to support large-scale space programs such as the TIMED (Thermosphere– Ionosphere–Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics) Distributed Computing and Web Technologies mission. Distributed computing seeks to provide wider access Although still relatively new to this fi eld, APL has to information and higher processing performance by several strengths in distributed computing and Web enabling computing systems to interact easily. A goal of technologies. Most signifi cant is the Laboratory’s exten- distributed computing is to shield users and developers sive experience with military networking and distrib- from the collection of components that constitute a dis- uted sensors. The Laboratory’s CEC system, for exam- tributed information system and instead provide a uni- ple, is highly regarded throughout DoD and serves as fi ed view. Underlying technologies in the area include a model for fusing data from multiple sensors. We are languages such as Java and XML, middleware such also conducting leading-edge research in the areas of as CORBA and Jini, heterogeneous data access, and information retrieval and heterogeneous systems inte- mobile computing. While still evolving, these technol- gration. In the latter area, the Research and Technology ogies are now serving as a basis for many application