Calian Leading a Team to Develop Intelligent Systems For the Department of National Defence

Ottawa, ON, Wednesday, July 31, 2019 – Calian Group Ltd. (TSX: CGY) has been awarded a contract to lead a large-scale project to support the development of intelligent systems for the Department of National Defence (DND) and Canadian Armed Forces (DND/CAF).

Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC) Toronto has established a requirement for Human Automation Interaction (HAI) concepts, methodologies and technologies, with the goal of improving the integration of humans with complex and intelligent machines for the CAF. Calian has assembled a best-in-class team to meet this requirement and support DRDC’s objectives related to technology dominance in intelligent adaptive systems (IAS). Their work on this program will support the integration of transformative systems into the CAF with advanced analytical capabilities and IAS design methodologies, enabled by modelling and simulation technologies for experimentation and concept development.

The contract term starts immediately and runs through March 31, 2024, with a value of approximately $4.5 million.

To develop these emerging technologies, Calian Engineering is leading a team of the following partner organizations and researchers: C3 Human Factors, Dr. Catherine Burns, CogSim Technologies; Dr. Kevin Heffner; Dr. Hugh Liu, Dr. Jinjun Shan, Dr. Yingxu Wang, Menya Solutions and Thales Digital Solutions.

The Calian team will be working with a range of emerging technologies including artificial intelligence (AI), multimodal displays, attention-aware displays (sustained attention), clutter and situation awareness, trust in automation, human automation interaction with unmanned systems, man-unmanned teaming, intelligent adaptive interfaces, augmented cognition, adaptive learning and intelligent tutoring. The research will help the CAF in its design, implementation, acquisition, and operation of military systems such as AI, robotics and autonomous systems.

Calian is adhering to ISO 9001 standards in all aspects of its contract, project and quality management.

“This new business supports Calian Engineering’s service line evolution, one of the four pillars of our growth framework,” said Kevin Ford, President and CEO, Calian. “AI and autonomous systems are emerging as critical technologies shaping our future, and I am excited for our team delivering this contract as it supports our innovation agenda at Calian.”