NSF Engines Development Award: Advancing autonomous systems technologies in the Northern Front (ND, SD, MT, ID)

该区域创新引擎发展奖为制定综合生态系统计划提供支持，以推进北部四个州的自主系统。北达科他州、南达科他州、蒙大拿州和爱达荷州在服务农村和部落社区以及更广泛的国家需求方面有着共同的利益，通过在交通、农业、采矿、能源、国防和医疗保健等关键部门开发和部署自主系统。自治系统提供了显著的好处，包括提高安全性、效率、弹性和互操作性，同时也解决了农村和部落地区劳动力短缺和经济差距等挑战。考虑到强大的需求/需求、在使用启发需求方面的深厚专业知识、关键部门（交通、农业等）的现有能力，以及与需要或参与自主系统的利益相关者、与制定政策和法规的政府机构、与行业、学术界和政府组织的牢固伙伴关系，该地区准备建立和深化基于自主的创新生态系统。并与经济发展组织合作，实现/商业化。该项目的学术合作伙伴是北达科他州大学、蒙大拿州立大学、南达科他州矿业与技术学院和博伊西州立大学，博伊西州立大学将与位于ND Belcourt的部落国家研究小组合作。这些合作伙伴与利益相关者（社区、行业部门等）、制定政策和法规的政府机构以及AS解决方案的供应商（行业、部落领导、学术界、政府、经济发展组织）相结合，组成了NFASIDE领导团队，确保对实现自治系统利益至关重要的所有方面都被纳入其中。该项目将确定需求/用例，开发并将自治系统转化为实践。关键的促成因素包括清晰地描述需求/机会，整合在关键领域拥有深厚和广泛专业知识的团队，尽早与利益相关者接触以确保在期望的时间框架内实现可行性，广泛利用数字工程来加速开发，开发阶段的紧密耦合，明确的翻译/商业化途径，以及服务于所有利益相关者的劳动力发展——特别是从高中到博士后项目的教育范围内代表性不足的人群。这项工作将联合NFASIDE团队，为实现自我维持和高效的AS引擎提供组织和操作结构以及路线图，从而推动自主系统的快速实现。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This Regional Innovation Engine Development Award provides support to develop a plan for a comprehensive ecosystem to advance autonomous systems in four northern-tier states. North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Idaho have a shared interest in serving the needs of rural and tribal communities, and more broadly the nation, by developing and fielding autonomous systems in critical sectors including transportation, agriculture, mining, energy, defense, and health care. Autonomous systems provide significant benefits, including increased safety, efficiency, resiliency, and inter-operability, while also addressing challenges such as workforce shortages and economic disparities in rural and tribal areas. This region is poised to build and deepen an autonomy-based innovation ecosystem given the strong needs/demands, its deep expertise in use-inspired needs, its existing capabilities across its critical sectors (transportation, agriculture, etc.), and its strong partnerships with stakeholders who require or engage with autonomous systems, with government agencies that establish policy and regulations, with industry, academia, and government organizations, and with economic development organizations that enable realization/commercialization. The project's academic partners are the University of North Dakota, Montana State University, the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, and Boise State University, which will partner with the Tribal Nations Research Group in Belcourt, ND. These partners, combined with stakeholders (communities, industry sectors, etc.), government agencies that establish policy and regulations, and suppliers of AS solutions (industry, tribal leadership, academia, government, economic development organizations), comprise the NFASIDE leadership team, ensuring that all aspects that are critical to the realization of the benefits of autonomous systems are incorporated.This project will identify needs/use cases, develop, and translate autonomous systems into practice. Key enablers include clear delineation of needs/opportunities, consolidation of a team that has both deep and broad expertise in key areas, early engagement with stakeholders to ensure realization viability within desired timeframes, extensive utilization of digital engineering to accelerate development, close coupling of development stages, clear pathways to translation/commercialization, and workforce development that serves all stakeholders -— especially under-represented populations across the educational spectrum from high schools to post-doctoral programs. This effort will coalesce the NFASIDE team to provide an organizational and operational structure and a roadmap for realizing a self-sustaining and productive AS engine that drives the rapid realization of autonomous systems' benefits.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.