DARPA Risers
DARPA Riser discussing research

DARPA Risers are up-and-coming standouts in their fields, whose research is related to national security and demonstrates the potential to lead to technological surprise — the heart of DARPA's mission. The Risers program provides individuals in the early stages of their research career a unique opportunity to be recognized for their notable work and present their ideas directly to DARPA.

For DARPA Forward, DARPA program managers and faculty at universities near each event identified a small group of early career scientists and engineers to join the 2022 DARPA Risers cohort.

An invitation-only DARPA Risers program will take place directly prior to each Forward event.

 
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Members of the 2022 DARPA Risers class are:

Sarah Adams
Johns Hopkins University
Future of Optical Computing for Ubiquitous Service (FOCUS)
Zachariah Addison
The Ohio State University
Theory of Hall Effects in Chiral Magnets with Skyrmions
Bikram Adhikari
Colorado School of Mines
Perfusable 3D Printed Gelatin Methacrylate Scaffolds for Trabecular Meshwork Modeling and Glaucoma Studies
Konrad Ahlin
Georgia Tech Research Institute
Hyper-Redundant, Flexible Manipulator for DoD Applications
Mirza Riyaz Akhter
Texas A&M University
Plasma processing for recovery of critical and rare earth metals from wastewater
Presenting at Texas A&M University
Ramya Akula
Unversity of Central Florida
Interpretable Multi-Head Self-Attention Architecture for Sarcasm Detection in Social Media
Ali AlQahtani
North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University
Zero Effort Client-Side Two Factor Authentication
Elena Dalla Benetta
University of California, San Diego
The development of a highly specific and programmable RNA-targeting platform with minimum off-target activity
Kyle Bentz
Illumina, Inc.
Metal-Directed Soft Materials
Jared Beyersdorf
Emory University
Development of an mRNA-based Strategy for Protection Against Nerve Agent Toxicity
Ganapati Bhat
Washington State University
Self-Powered Internet of Things for Wide Area Sensing and Situational Awareness
Michael Bianco
University of California, San Diego, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Learning-based inference and detection for physical systems, with applications in acoutstic and radio-frequency signal processing
Benjamin Bowman
Cybermonic
George Washington University
Augmenting the Cybersecurity Analyst Workflow with Graph Intelligence
Michael Boyle
Colorado State University
What is MEV and how could it affect the stability of blockchain consensus mechanisms?
Robert Broberg
University of Pennsylvania
Quantum Network Interface Controller (QNIC)
Nicole Brown
Univeristy of Colorado
Decoding the molecular computation that underlies learning, cognition, and memory
Jonathan Calvert
Brown University
Development of Intelligent Spinal Interfaces for Phantom Limb Pain
Nicholas Campbell
University of Colorado-Boulder
Gas Conductivity Manipulation for Next Generation Plasma Flow Control
Jared Chandler
Tufts University
Developing An Automatic Linguist for Binary Protocols
Presenting at Texas A&M University
Suraj Cheema
University of California, Berkeley
Ultrathin Ferroelectric Negative Capacitance: A New Platform for Energy-Efficient Transistors
Lingwei Chen
Wright State Univesity
Beyond Adversary: Advancing Adversarial Vulnerability of Machine Learning for Supporting Real-world Tasks
Shuyu Cheng
The Ohio State University
Topological Magnets for Potential Applications in Data Storage
Allegra A. Beal Cohen
University of Florida
Partially Automated Knowledge Engineering
Nicole Couto
University of California, San Diego, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Bottom Ekman-driven heat exchange at the Chukchi shelf break
James Crawford
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
Leveraging our addiction to single use plastic for carbon capture and storage
Nathan Crookston
Metron
Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations
Presenting at Texas A&M University
Shauna Crowley
AbCellera Biologics
Keeping pace with a pandemic: An integrated technology stack for the fast discovery of antibodies
Mathieu Dahan
Georgia Institute of Technology
Strategic Allocation of Heterogeneous Resources to Fortify Complex Networks and Detect Attacks
Sahar Daraeizadeh
Intel Labs
Machine-Learning-based Automatic and Real-Time Calibration of Quantum Computers
Blake Davis
Johns Hopkins University
Automated Celestial Navigation System
Presenting at Texas A&M University
Phillip Davis
MRIGlobal
Feature Enginner Sequence Data for Machine Learning Applications
Presenting at Texas A&M University
Jacob Defilippis
University of California, San Diego, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Understanding & Exploiting Multi-path Propagation in a Complex Medium for Signal Processing
Joseph DeFranco
Colorado State University
Investigating CWD prion strain propogation following varying routes of prion exposure and their interspecies transmission potential
Dante Disharoon
Case Western Reserve University
Miniaturized Dielectric Coagulometry for Point-of-Care Assessment of Hemostatic Dysfunctions
Aneesh Dixit
Texas A&M University
Logic Locking Framework for Protecting Critical Microelectronic Assets
Presenting at Texas A&M University
Danny Drury
Colorado School of Mines
High Operating Temperature Ferroelectric Non-Volatile Memory
Ciprian Dumitrache
Colorado State University
Plasma Assisted Combustion Studies for Hypersonic Propulsion
Brian Eckstein
Colorado School of Mines
Assembling Supramolecular Organic Frameworks with Chalcogen Bonds
Joseph Epperson
University of Texas at Dallas
Enabling unsupervised closed-loop neuromodulation to enhance recovery after neurological injury
Presenting at Texas A&M University
Giovanni Esteves
Sandia National Laboratories
Emerging Ferroelectric Materials for Microelectric Technologies
Presenting at Texas A&M University
Gregory Falco
Johns Hopkins University
A Resilient, Zero-Trust Architecture for Hosted Payloads and Space Infrastructure as a Service: The (ORBITS) Architecture
Laur Ferris
University of Washington
Autonomous sensing of rapidly evolving features of the high-latitude ocean
Cindy France
Raytheon Technologies
Multi-Spectral Deception
Presenting at Texas A&M University
Xiaojing (Ruby) Fu
California Institute of Technology
Building a digital twin of permafrost degradation informed by geophysical and chemical sensing
Amandine Gamble
University of California, Los Angeles
Predicting epidemiological parameters from laboratory experiments: an illustration with SARS-CoV-2 incubation period
Thomas Gartner
Georgia Institute of Technology
Machine learning-enhanced molecular simulation tools for advanced polymer materials
Walter Gerych
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Recovering The Propensity Score From Biased Positive Unlabeled Data
Alok Ghanekar
University of Southern California
Violation of Kirchhoff's Law of Thermal Radiation with Dynamic Permittivity Modulation
Alan Ghazarians
Leidos, Inc.
Hyperdimensional Encoding for Learning Feature Representations of Sensor Data
Abraham Gonzalez
University of California, Berkeley
Chipyard: An Open-Source Generator of RISC-V Systems-on-a-chip
Lakshmi Narasimhan Govindarajan
Brown University
Artificial intelligence guided spinal neuromodulation for restoration of sensorimotor function after spinal cord injury
Presenting at Texas A&M University
Michael Grace
University of Arizona
A Quantum Assist for Computer Vision
Presenting at Texas A&M University
Kevin Grout
BAE Systems, FAST Labs
Hybrid-Integrated Packaged Photonic Oscillator Generating RF using Internal Fast Frequency Synthesis
Quinton Guerrero
Georgia Tech Research Institute
Fractional Fourier Transformed Prolate Spheroidal Sequence Waveforms for MIMO Systems
Matt Guidry
University of California, Santa Barbara
Characterization methods and modeling to bring novel semiconductors including N-polar GaN to the next generation of efficiency and linearity
Ankur Gupta
University of Colorado-Boulder
Multi-scale Dynamic Simulations of Electrochemically Mediated CO2 Capture
Rohit Gupte
Texas A&M University
A versatile microfluids platform for phenotyping and recovery of single microbial cells from complex natural communities
Presenting at Texas A&M University
Blake Harrison
Arizona State University
Unsupervised Dynamics Learning for Visual Robot Navigation
Presenting at Texas A&M University
Christopher Heidelberger
MIT Lincoln Laboratory
Wafer-Scale Heteroepitaxial Photonic Integration
Rebekah Herrman
University of Tennessee
A Novel Solution to Nondeterministic Polynomial (NP) Graph Problems using Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithms
Timothy Hoffman
University of Colorado-Boulder
Intracellular crowding by bio-orthogonal hydrogel formation induces reversible molecular stasis
Sanghyun Hong
Oregon State University
Building Secure and Reliable Deep Learning Systems from A Systems Security Perspective
Can Huang
Texas A&M University
Adapted biological systems for long-distance universal space-traveling ecosystems (ABSOLUTE)
Presenting at Texas A&M University
Sitao Huang
University of California, Irvine
Python-based High-Level Programming Flow for Efficient Heterogeneous Accelerators
Syed Rafiul Hussain
The Pennsylvania State University
Automated Reasoning of Security and Privacy of 5G Cellular Networks
Joel Hypolite
University of Pennsylvania
Organizing AI Strategies Into Systems (OASIS)
Mohsen Imani
University of California, Irvine
Hyperdimensional Computing for Efficient, Robust, and Secure Cognitive Learning
Bryce Inman
University of California, San Diego, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Bacterial Tunneling: A biophysical mechanism mediating fluxes in the marine phycosphere
AKM Kamrul Islam
North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University
Classification of Epileptic Seizures from EEG Using Machine Learning Approach
Zeinab Jahed
University of California, San Diego
AI-assisted, high-thorughput and non-invasive reconstruction of intracellular action potential waveforms
Waylon Jepsen
Colorado State University
A Theory of Constant Function Market Makers
Jianan Jian
University of Pittsburgh
Penile Erection Induced by Stimulation of Sacral S1/S2 Spinal Roots in Cats
Sagar Karandikar
University of California, Berkeley
Hyperscale SoC: An open-source hyperscaler-optimized RISC-V server system-on-chip
Alexander Keesling
QuERA Computing, Inc.
Making quantum computers useful and scalable
Presenting at Texas A&M University
Dakshita Khurana
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Securing Computation Over the Quantum Internet
Presenting at Texas A&M University
Kateryna Kostenkova
Colorado State University
Non-innocent vanadium imidazole-and pyridine-based Schiff base anticancer complexes: synthesis and characterization
Courtney Kurinec
Washington State University
Training specific cognitive skills to mitigate sleep deprivation-related impairments on situational awareness and decision making in dynamic, operationally complex environments
Scott Ledgerwood
Colorado State University
Effects of Multiple Sensory Integration on Virtual Reality Training Simulations
Sarah Lehman
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
ISVAR: IN-SITU Edge Case Detection, Patching for Mobile Augmented Reality Systems
Tamara Lehman
University of Colorado-Boulder
Security as a First-Class Design Constraint
Manling Li
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Open-World Multimedia Multilingual Event Knowledge Acquisition for Intelligence Analysis and Foraging
Shaowei Li
University of California, San Diego
Design and Implementation of Hyperdimensional Scanning Tunneling Microscopy
Shuang Li
University of California, Los Angeles
Non-convex Optimization for Signal Processing and Machine Learning
Jacob MacWilliams
Colorado State University
Adaptive role of specific toxic secondary metabolites in plant-herbivore interactions
Mahmoud Mahmoud
North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University
Accurate and Privacy-Preserving Person Localization in Large-Scale Camera Surveillance System Using Federated Learning
Lauren Malsick
Colorado State University
Novel Insights into RNA Decay in Bats and its Role in Disease Tolerance
Katie Martin
Colorado State University
Comparison of different nanoparticles paired with FANA technology for spray-on gene silencing in weeds
Janelle Mason
North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University
Information, Evidence, and Identity: A Computational Framework
Lucas McCabe
George Washington University
Contagion Source Localization
Presenting at Texas A&M University
Brian McMahon
Georgia Tech Research Institute
Ultra-Compact, Transparent Penning Trap for Quantum Applications
Akanksha Menon
Georgia Institute of Technology
Atmospheric Water Harvesting using Inorganic-Organic Composite Materials
Arya Menon
Texas A&M University
Bioinspired Hardware-Software Co-Design for Intelligent High-Frequency Active Sensors
Presenting at Texas A&M University
Anders Miltner
University of Texas at Austin
Program Verification Through Practical Program Synthesis
Presenting at Texas A&M University
Kerry-Ann Mitchell
The Ohio State University
Biocompatible Cranial Implant for Embedding Neurotechnological Devices
Jamal Molin
Northrup Grumman
INSITE - Interdisciplinary Neuromorphic Sensory Integration on The Edge
Matthew Molineaux
Parallax Advanced Research
Agent-Directed Learning
Britany Morgan
University of Tennessee
INFERNO: Introduction of Novel Foliar Engineering to Reduce Nefarious Oxidation
Rachel Mugge
University of Southern Mississippi
Microbiome Signal Propagation of Marine Biofilms from Steel Structures on the Seabed
Max Murphy
Carnegie Mellon University
Bridging Information with Neural Devices (BIND)
Vidya Muthukumar
Georgia Institute of Technology
Data-adaptive algorithms for learning in the presence of strategic behavior
Jake Nelson
Auburn University
The destabilizing force of exceeding urban carrying capacity under a changing climate
Byung-Doh Oh
The Ohio State University
Unified Unsupervised Grammar Induction for Typologically Diverse Languages
Kevin Okun
University of California, San Diego, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Semidiurnal inner shelf flow in the Southern California Bight
Priyadarshini Panda
Yale University
Energy-aware and Robust Distributed Learning for Extreme Edge Efficiency
Joon-Suh Park
Harvard University
Mass-Producible, Large-Diameter, All-Glass Metalens Operating at Visible Wavelength for 10 cm Aperture Optics and Beyond
C. Andrew Parlier
University of California, San Diego, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
New Instruments to Measure Small-Scale Flows and Mixing in the Ocean
Deepak Pathak
Carnegie Mellon University
Towards Continually Learning Robots In The Wild
Ahmad Patooghy
North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University
Reliable Embedded Systems for Real-Time Near Sensor Data Processing
Nicholas Paul
Soar Technology, Inc.
Urban Reconnaissance through Supervised Autonomy (URSA)
Devon Payne
Montana State University
Biomining of trace metals from pyrite by primitive archaea
Vitor Manuel Parreira Pereira
SRI International
Real-world Software Engineering Applications of Verified Cryptographic Code
Christopher Peterson
Georgia Tech Research Institute
Symmetry-breaking and symmetry-protection in electromagnetic structures
Lisa Poulikakos
University of California, San Diego
Colorimetric Metasurfaces for Next-Generation, On-Chip Disease Surveillance
Nikunjkumar Prajapati
NIST
Advancing the Sensitivity of the Rydberg Atom Based Electric Field Sensor
Presenting at Texas A&M University
Pranav SJB Rana
The Ohio State University
Establishment of wound infection models for assessment of therapeutic agents
Brandon Reagen
New York University
Enabling Practical Privacy Preserving Computing with Hardware-Software Codesign
Peter Renner
Texas A&M University
High-Performance Metal-ceramic Hybrid Coatings for Extreme Conditions
Presenting at Texas A&M University
Savannah Rocha
Colorado State University
Development of artificial intelligence neural networks for high throughput quantification of cellular pathology associated with neurotoxic central nervous system injury
Rachael Ryan
James Cook University
Inhalable helminth protein biologics to supress pathogen-induced lung inflammation
Ahmed Saeed
Georgia Institute of Technology
Improving the Performance and Robutness of LEO Satellite Networks
Anoop Sathyan
University of Cincinnati
Genetic Fuzzy Based Explainable AI towards Assured Autonomy
Albert Schmitz
Intel Labs
Measurement-free Quantum Error Correction as a Quantum Digital Entropy Pump
Ujjal Didar Singh Sekhon
Haima Therapeutics
Nanoscale Mimicry of Platelet Functions to Design Synthetic Intravenous Hemostats for Bleeding Control
Madhuri Siddula
North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University
Privacy enhanced recommendation system for a context aware location trajectory-based service in a Mobile Social Network
Lillian Skeiky
Washington State University
Increased Resilience to Sleep Loss: Uncovering Mechanisms Underlying Efficiency in Banking Sleep
Chelsey Smith
MRIGlobal
Development of a paper-based, equipment-free CRISPR assay
Presenting at Texas A&M University
Tyler Sodia
Colorado School of Mines
Next Generation Optical Sensors - Modular Nanoparticles for Laboratory and Field Testing
Sarath Sreedharan
Colorado State University
Building Human-Aware AI Agents for Naturalistic Collaboration
Srivasta Rangachar Srinivasa
Intel Labs
Process and Platform Technology (3D-IC) aware AI system architectures
Michael Stager
Colorado School of Mines
Methods and Application of Anti-inflammatory Photopolymerized Zwitterionic Hydrogels
Alexander Steele
University of Houston
Decoding the language of the spinal cord using non-invasive methods
Presenting at Texas A&M University
Jiefeng Sun
Colorado State University
Programmable Shape-Shifting Soft Robots Driven by Twisted-and Coiled Actuators
Cooper Svajda
Texas A&M University
The Strategic Case for Computational Protein Design (CPD)
Presenting at Texas A&M University
Issa Tamer
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL)
Next-generation laser operation using diode-pumped Tm:YLF
Xiaochuan Tang
Colorado State University
Development of low work function oxides for thermionic energy conversion
Kevin Tangen
MIT Lincoln Laboratory
Extension of SIGMA+ System to Greenhouse Gas and Health Equity Monitoring
Justin Toole
Colorado State University
Corrosion of Two-dimensional (2D) Semiconductors
Damiano Torre
Texas A&M University
Impact analysis of the vulnerabilities of AI-based techniques used to detect cybersecurity attacks
Presenting at Texas A&M University
James Trevathan
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Development of an Injectable Electrode for Dorsal Root Ganglis Stimulation in the Treatment of Pain
Presenting at Texas A&M University
Caroline Trippel
Stanford University
Scalable Assurance via Formal and Verifiable Hardware-Software Contracts
Colin Trout
Johns Hopkins University
Harnessing the Power of Quantum: Classical Supercomputer Design for Controlling a Quantum Computer
Anjo Vahldiek-Oberwagner
Intel Labs
The Rise of Memory-Safe Languages: Building a Secure and Peformant Hardware/Software
Sindhu Vangeti
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Preparing for the next respiratory viral pandemic
Vasudha Varadarajan
Stony Brook University
Detecting Dissonant Stance in Social Media: The Role of Topic Exposure
Shivam Vedant
Texas A&M University
Next-Gen Secure, Sustainable, and Resilient US Energy and Manufacturing Supply Chain
Presenting at Texas A&M University
Jelena Vicic
University of California, San Diego
Understanding Cyber Escalation: The Use of Experiments Informed by Wargaming for Studying Dynamics of State Interactions in Cyberspace Short of Armed Conflict
Nathan Wages
Wright State Univesity
Improving Neural Response to Fatigue-Induced Motor Performance
Boya Wang
University of Texas at Austin
Dynamic DNA Storage
Presenting at Texas A&M University
Xiaoguang (William) Wang
The Ohio State University
Design of Nanomaterials for Absorption and Conversaion of Radiant Energy
Xueji Wang
Purdue University
Controlling and Detecting Thermal Radiation with Infrared Metasurfaces
Tyler Whittier
Colorado State University
Bayes'd and confused: novel applications of Bayesian inference to better understand sensorimotor uncertainty
Anqi Wu
Georgia Institute of Technology
Understanding The Brain Using Interpretable Meachine Learning Models
Jonathan Wurtz
QuERA Computing, Inc.
Hybrid quantum combinatorial optimization beyond QAOA
Presenting at Texas A&M University
Danfei Xu
Georgia Institute of Technology
Learning to Solve Long-Horizon Robotics Tasks With Human-In-The-Loop
Brennan Yahata
University of California, Santa Barbara
Reducing Material Supply Criticality with Tailorable Microstructure Topology in Additive Manufacturing
Yan Yan
Washington State University
Robust Machine Learning Systems in the Wild via Novel Conformal Prediction and Anomaly Detection
Eunsoo Yoo
North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University
Nanoparticles/Exosomes Mediate Sensory Hair Cell Protection from Noise-Induced Hearing Loss
Jongeun You
Colorado School of Mines
Addressing Cyber Threats to the US Water Sector
Alexander Zaitzeff
Two Six Labs
Simulation of Grain Growth in Polycrystalline Materials
Han Zhang
Texas A&M University
A Microfluidic Platform for Bacteriophage Therapy
Presenting at Texas A&M University

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