VENNLI, INC. — Department of Defense STTR Phase I: AFX20D-TCSO1

Description

Vennli, Inc. teams with the University of Notre Dame to better understand the "Voice of the Airman." Hidden in big data sets are answers to strategic problems. Our tool would mine this information to improve QoL/Resilience-related phenomena. Innovative Acquisition Environment. The Defense Department can no longer press forward solely with expensive, lengthy acquisition programs, according to Mark Tapper, the Air Force’s AFWERX Steering Group Chair. The AF is moving to an adopt, apply, deploy, evolve methodology leveraging the investment and technology trajectory of the private sector. AF missions support joint service activities, harnessing emergent technology in business intelligence, networking, big data analytics and Artificial Intelligence (AI)/Machine Learning (ML). Companies are faced with big data exploration challenges to reveal patterns and hidden relationships. Team QoL Approach.  Quality of Life (QoL)/Resilience has been studied using traditional methods (T-tests, correlation coefficients, etc.). However, these require specific, oft-restricted health information that lacks context. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been successfully used to predict QoL/Resilience utilizing broader data sources to reveal underlying issues. Modern research shows that large, broad data sets subjected to AI/data-mining (e.g., consumer behavior, social media interaction, etc.) provides statistically relevant predictive accuracy and intervention strategies. Applied to AF challenges, our approach utilizes varied AI models (Recurrent, Convolutional, and Attention Neural Networks) to determine feasibility of mining common complaints, airmen job mobility/progression, software usage, social media sources, etc. Preliminary tests provide correlation insights between Airmen’s environments and job dissatisfaction, suicide prevalence, and more. Big Data Accessibility.  Open source business intelligence systems, indicative of big data processing platforms, can rapidly derive insights from massive primary, secondary, tertiary, etc. data sets, equipping the AF with an integrated solution. This innovative solution, based upon modern business intelligence and predictive analytics, can help the AF focus on its mission and provide real-time insights to commanders regarding AF Enterprise segmentation and the “Voice of the Airman”, enabling visualization of competitive opportunities. The Airman’s Quality of Life (QoL) and Resilience suffers in today’s military environment, negatively impacting mission accomplishment, retention, and overall morale. Operational tempo, cumulative inefficiencies in enterprise digital architecture, administrative creep on individual Airmen, and career goals/assignment mismatch result in increased suicide, attrition, career unhappiness, etc. An innovative, AI-enhanced content intelligence platform will differentiate data nodes, reveal data-subject relationships, and provide AF leadership with relevant insights to improve mission effectiveness.