Workshop Overview

The Defense and Aerospace Test and Analysis (DATA) Workshop is the result of a multi-organization collaboration with the Director of Operational Test & Evaluation (DOT&E) within the Office of the Secretary of Defense, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA), and the Section on Statistics in Defense and National Security (SDNS) of the American Statistical Association (ASA). The workshop is designed to strengthen the community in applying statistical approaches to test design and program evaluation in the fields of defense and aerospace.

The three-day workshop will showcase a combination of applied problems, unique methodological approaches, and tutorials from leading academics.
Our goal is to facilitate collaboration among all involved, including other government agencies.

Modeling & Simulation

The complexity of modern defense and aerospace systems, and the environment in which they operate, means that “live” testing is often expensive or even impossible.  Thus, modeling and simulation (M&S) capabilities are critical to fully understanding a system’s capabilities and limitations.   However, if operators or acquisition officials are going to depend on M&S results to inform decisions, testers should thoroughly investigate the degree to which a model or simulation provides an accurate representation of the real world.

Sessions with this theme will explore techniques for M&S test design and analysis, uncertainty quantification, and methods for verification and validation (V&V).  Topics may cover what testers can do when there is no live data available for V&V, as well as Certification by Analysis.

Integrated Testing

Integrated test and evaluation (IT&E) is a core practice the Test & Evaluation community can implement to aid the DoD in shifting the acquisition process left. However, its use across the community is uneven. Integrated testing focuses on the early and efficient collection of information to support independent evaluations.

Sessions with this theme will focus on integrating, to the extent possible, all available information, including previous test outcomes, to sequentially update and refine future testing. Methodological topics covered in these sessions may include design of experiments, reliability, and Bayesian analysis methods.

Test & Evaluation Methods for Emerging Technology and Domains

The drive to develop new technologies is relentless, expanding to more actors with lower barriers of entry, and moving at accelerating speed. New threats to our systems will continue to emerge, putting pressure on our operational T&E community to include these in realistic scenarios. Our warfighters also need emerging technology at the speed of relevance, which calls for faster and more broadly-scoped T&E. 

Sessions with this theme will explore the Test & Evaluation methods and challenges for emerging technologies and domains including: Cybersecurity of software-enabled systems, hypersonics, directed energy weapons, electronic warfare, autonomous weapon systems, artificial intelligence, and additive manufacturing.

Modeling Human-System Interaction

Mission outcomes are heavily determined by how effectively operators interact with systems under operational conditions as decided by their objective performance and their perceived performance. In order to effectively assess these systems, we need to observe team dynamics to predict how changing operating conditions will affect the dynamic and therefore productivity.

Sessions with this theme will discuss methods used to collect and model the quality of human-system integration and its impact on operational performance, survey development and test design, scale validation, and network analysis.

Special Topics

Special topics sessions will include topics like Sustainment Analyses, Modeling Public Health Data, and Earth Science Problems