A Message from the Director and Chief Executive Officer: Making Software a Strategic Advantage for National Security
The Department of Defense’s mission is to “provide the military forces needed to deter war and ensure our nation's security.” Now and even more in the future, success in that vital mission can depend on the quality of software that the DoD acquires, operates, secures, and sustains. When the DoD created the SEI as a federally funded research and development center in 1984, it established a strategic partner for effectively and efficiently building, securely running, and evolving software capabilities that deliver asymmetric and decision advantage to U.S. warfighters.
The SEI delivers, as no other organization can, innovation matched to DoD warfighter needs in AI, cybersecurity, and software engineering.
SEI Director and CEO
The SEI contributes to the DoD mission by integrating three domains central to the development, application, and transition of mission-critical software technology. The first is artificial intelligence. The SEI tackles the DoD’s need for leap-ahead capabilities that are trustworthy, safe, and fit for the mission. We build AI capabilities for real-world needs; research and define enabling processes, practices, and tools; and translate leading practices for national security. Our work results in the fielding of robust and secure, scalable, and human-centered AI systems that address current needs and are ready for future challenges.
Software is another essential domain. The SEI focuses on tools, technologies, and practices to rapidly deploy software capabilities. We ensure that complex software-reliant systems will deliver critical capabilities even in the most challenging environments. Part of our software acquisition process and policy work focuses on improving the capability delivered for every dollar invested in software systems by grounding policy and decision making in high-quality data and analysis. Our work spans acquisition through sustainment with a continual insertion of new and needed software technologies.
We also work to ensure that software capabilities are secure in development and operation. Our researchers, software engineers, security analysts, and digital intelligence specialists collaborate to find and mitigate software vulnerabilities, provide key improvements to combat threats to networked systems, and develop leading-edge information and training to improve the DoD’s cybersecurity practice. Our work produces advanced methods and tools to counter increasingly sophisticated, large-scale cyber threats.
The SEI delivers, as no other organization can, innovation matched to DoD warfighter needs in AI, cybersecurity, and software engineering. The examples of our R&D in this Year in Review highlight only some of our best work in fiscal year 2024. I invite you to review our website, blogs, reports, podcasts, and webcasts to learn more, and I welcome every opportunity to discuss the needs of those who defend our nation.
Paul Nielsen
Execution Strategy
The SEI facilitates the transfer of research results to practice in Department of Defense (DoD) programs, the Office of the Secretary of Defense’s science and technology initiatives, and non-DoD U.S. government organizations where improvements will also benefit the DoD. In doing so, we gain deeper insight into mission needs—insight that forms the basis for new research. In addition, we transition matured technologies more broadly to defense industrial base organizations and others in the DoD supply chain.
We execute applied research to drive systemic transition of new capabilities for the DoD. Our deep understanding of DoD needs and of the state of the art inform our selection of challenges in software, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence.
To validate research and development concepts, we rapidly iterate with the research community and select mission partners. The results typically impact a single agency. We then scale the concept to multiple agencies and domains by iterating with additional mission partners based on their timing and needs. Finally, we engage policy agencies and industry partners and build the DoD’s awareness of and capacity for the solution to create DoD-wide capability.
Our multidisciplinary approach informs prototype tools, innovative solutions, and input for our sponsor’s policy decisions about software and related technologies. Through ongoing work and communication with customers, the SEI identifies priority areas for further research and development. We combine our body of knowledge with external material and systems engineering to deliver quantitative impact to U.S. government organizations, DoD organizations, and DoD end users.
Funding Sources
In fiscal year 2024, the SEI received funding from a variety of sources in the DoD, civil agencies, and industry.
