Abstract
The Defense Science Study Group (DSSG) is a 2-year educational program, sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), designed to introduce outstanding young professors of science and engineering to the defense community and to current national security issues.
The program has two basic components. The first focuses on group activities and provides a broad introduction to the defense community. This is achieved through a series of briefings by senior military and civilian officials and through visits to Joint Commands, industrial facilities, and military installations. During the second component members are provided the opportunity to personalize the DSSG experience by selecting a specific area of interest, preferably outside their area of acedemic specialization, and spending about 2 weeks reviewing DoD activities in that area. This is done during the June and August sessions of the program's second year. The June session is held in Washington, and the members interact with IDA and DARPA staff as well as with military and civilians throughout DoD. The August session is held at Los Alamos National Laboratory where the members interact with laboratory staff and prepare brief reviews of their subject areas. In November, the final session of the program, members brief their study results to the other members and mentors of the program.
This report contains the unclassified papers of the eighth DSSG class, which met during 2002-2003. Again, each paper is brief, informal review of an area of specific interest to the participant. It primary purpose is to enable the authors to determine defense comunity interests in the selected area and to begin to make contact with apropriate individuals within that community.
All of the papers are unclassified. The reports were reviewed and organized by Dr. Phillip Gould, Director of DSSG program, and Ms. Karen L. Olson, DSSG Administrator.
