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Rapid Evaluation and Analysis of Communication in Teams (REACT)

Award Information
Agency: Department of Defense
Branch: Air Force
Contract: FA9550-06-C-0150
Agency Tracking Number: F064-027-0465
Amount: $99,942.00
Phase: Phase I
Program: STTR
Solicitation Topic Code: AF06-T027
Solicitation Number: N/A
Timeline
Solicitation Year: 2006
Award Year: 2007
Award Start Date (Proposal Award Date): 2006-10-04
Award End Date (Contract End Date): 2007-07-04
Small Business Information
625 Mount Auburn Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States
DUNS: 115243701
HUBZone Owned: No
Woman Owned: No
Socially and Economically Disadvantaged: No
Principal Investigator
 Subrata Das
 Chief Scientist
 (617) 491-3474
 sdas@cra.com
Business Contact
 Paul Gonsalves
Title: Vice President
Phone: (617) 491-3474
Email: pgonsalves@cra.com
Research Institution
 UNIV. AT BUFFALO
 James Llinas
 
4455 Genesee St.
Buffalo, NY 14225
United States

 (716) 645-2357
 Nonprofit College or University
Abstract

In a Net Centric Battlespace, information is constantly shared along both formal and informal channels. Informal means of communication such as chat rooms are often employed when standard channels of communication do not fit the emergent work practice of a group. Despite its inefficiency, this unstructured communication is very natural and convenient for users. As such, it is a rich and plentiful data source for understanding group interaction. However, existing methods for analyzing such discourse are either low-fidelity (simple keyword matching) or extremely man-power intensive (manual transcription and tagging). With advances in speech recognition, part-of-speech tagging, and social networking theory, it is possible to improve on these discourse analysis techniques and use them to model an interaction. One primary output of this model is the performance of individual team members, and of the team as a whole. Such measures can be used to highlight areas of reduced performance or possible breakdown within a large team. We propose to develop a system for Rapid Evaluation and Analysis of Communication in Teams (REACT), combining traditional techniques from discourse analysis with advances in NLP and communication analysis. REACT rapidly analyzes streams of communication to highlight potential areas of coordination difficulty.

* Information listed above is at the time of submission. *

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