The Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) has entered into a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with Microsoft to look to integrate and utilize emerging technologies in service of the warfighter and national security, the Navy announced May 2.
NPS will utilize Microsoft Cloud services as part of the CRADA, and the pair will also research operational uses of cloud-enhanced networks and edge computing under the scope of the agreement.
“Today, so much innovation and technological research and development is powered by America’s robust corporate base,” Aaron Weis, Navy’s chief information officer, said in the release. “The Department of the Navy has been trying to find ways where our organizations can emulate and evolve with the nimble agility of these organizations, and with success.”
“This agreement between NPS and Microsoft takes that initiative to the next level, creating a defined cooperative research collaboration between a global tech giant and the capabilities it brings to bear, with the Navy’s leading science and technological university, where operationalizing innovation is core to their mission,” Weis added.
Other areas of research the pair plan to collaborate on include how “gaming, exercising, modeling, and simulation can improve military capability development and the decision-making of Navy and Marine Corps commanders,” and understanding how NPS can make use of the advances in digital teaching in order to create a “smart campus” available to Marines and sailors worldwide.
“The type of cutting-edge research which will be enabled by this partnership is something that can only happen at NPS,” retired Vice Adm. Ann E. Rondeau, president of NPS, said. “We are, and have always been, a center for excellence and innovation – a catalyst for transformative capabilities and the education of our future Navy and Marine Corps leaders.”
“With this agreement, we look forward to working with our colleagues at Microsoft in an effort to find solutions to all of the challenges facing our fleet and force, now and in the future,” Rondeau said.
