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The summer’s smoke from Canada blotted out the sun over New York City—drifting as far south as Florida. The haze was a startling reminder of the increasing dangers of uncontrolled wildfires and their climate impact, as the world’s forests grow hotter, become drier, and burn faster. As these infernos spread closer to population centers in places like Colorado and California, they bring often devastating results to lives and property. Firefighters use an array of human-managed and automated measures to combat the blazes, from controlled burns and fireline barriers, to satellite imagery and drone reconnaissance. MITRE researchers have added two potential capabilities to the arsenal. Developed under our independent R&D program, these systems use AI, data analytics and modeling, and remote sensing to help mitigate the effects of wildfires—and stop the burn. FiReLine (the “RL” stands for reinforcement learning) blends projection modeling and machine learning to provide a scalable, open-source decision-support tool. It includes the unique feature of integrating historical data on human mitigations implemented during real-world fires, stored in a data set called BurnMD. Our complementary tool, ART3MIS (Augmented Real-Time 3D Mapping with Intelligent Sensing AI), integrates deep-learning algorithms with remote-sensing data, such as from satellites and drones. This fusion offers a quick, tailored forestry mapping solution. It can also serve as a state-of-the-art data source.
Seventeen percent of our staff self-identify as military veterans. It has always been our organization’s commitment to create an environment where we honor their service while recognizing the incredible wealth of unique experiences, backgrounds, and ideas they deliver.
Can video games protect troops overseas? The new e-sports concept GameX combines experimental rigor with first-person combat games to help the U.S. Air Force protect assets and project power around the world. MITRE is entering the wide world of e-sports with the new digital combat game “Drone Guardians.” But this game will do more than determine champions, it may help determine how we defend our servicemembers deployed abroad. Eight teams gathered at Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina and MITRE headquarters in McLean, Virginia, to participate in the first tournaments of a MITRE-designed, interactive, e-sports experiment platform known as GameX. The winners walked away with cash prizes, and MITRE with terabytes of new data. It’s part of a series of tournaments to be held at MITRE locations across the country. The core concept: to answer questions of national importance through crowd-sourced experimentation and then develop novel ideas on adapting to pressing threats through public participation. Which means these digital victories could help shape the strategies and tactics of the U.S. Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center (IMSC). Small drones can pose a major threat to Air Force operations, both through electronic surveillance and kinetic attacks. “GameX could help address ground threats and elicit what level of protection we need on the ground,” says IMSC Deputy Branch Chief John Enyeart. “This needs to drive the operational test and evaluation work we’re
When Jessica Dooley’s son fell ill on her first day at MITRE, it was a wake-up call many parents experience: She needed a more reliable childcare arrangement. MITRE made it possible for Dooley to complete her onboarding from home. And our Bright Horizons Family Solutions tuition discount benefit made childcare more affordable. Bright Horizons, founded in 1986, identified reliable childcare as a challenge for working parents, and opened on-site daycare centers. Today, Bright Horizons offers childcare, elder care, and help for education and careers to more than 1,000 employers like MITRE around the world. For Dooley, an executive administrative assistant in the Engineering and Prototyping Subsector, the simple enrollment and the center’s proximity to MITRE have been game-changing. “I truly don’t know how I did it before,” she says. “As soon as I enrolled my son, there was a noticeable shift for me. The ease of knowing he’s well taken care of and happy each day has made a world of difference for me personally and professionally.” “For our working parents, balancing priorities at work and home can be challenging and Bright Horizons can help navigate this challenge,” says Katie Borgasano, MITRE’s benefits and well-being manager. “Providing quality, thoughtful resources to help our employees manage their priorities is central to our holistic approach to employee well-being and engagement,” she notes.
MITRE’s Charles Clancy, Ph.D., was named chief technology officer, in addition to his role as senior vice president and general manager of MITRE Labs. He assumes management of the MITRE independent research and development (IR&D) program. Across these integrated responsibilities, Clancy leads MITRE's science, technology, and engineering workforce, IR&D program, and extramural research activities. Dr. Jay Schnitzer, MITRE senior vice president and chief medical officer, was named corporate chief engineer. He will help assure company-wide technical quality and mission impact, support technical staff development, and continue as chief medical officer. “Science and technology are critical to our nation’s future, in an era of global strategic competition,” said Jason Providakes, Ph.D., MITRE president and CEO. “Charles will leverage MITRE’s research activities to drive whole-of-nation impacts across our work with sponsors and partners in industry, academia, and other non-profit organizations. Jay will ensure our work meets the high bar of technical excellence needed to help our federal sponsors succeed in their missions and will continue to advance our cancer and quantum computing R&D programs.”
MITRE Engenuity ATT&CK® Evaluations (Evals), a program of MITRE Engenuity™, MITRE’s tech foundation for public good, released its latest round of independent ATT&CK Evaluations for 30 enterprise cybersecurity solutions. Through the lens of the MITRE ATT&CK knowledge base, this round focused on adversary behavior informed by Turla (G0010), a known Russia-based threat group. The ATT&CK Evals team chose Turla based on its innovative stealth, the relevancy of its activity to various sectors, and the breadth of open-source reporting on its tradecraft. The emulation represents how Turla achieves post-exploitation persistence with a minimal footprint through in-memory or kernel implants, evades detection by defensive tools, and exfiltrates sensitive information from Linux and Windows infrastructure. These open and fair evaluations, which were paid for by the vendors, include solutions from AhnLab, Bitdefender, BlackBerry, Broadcom, Check Point, CrowdStrike, Cybereason, Cynet Systems, Deep Instinct, Elastic, ESET, Fortinet, HarfangLab, IBM Security, Malwarebytes, Microsoft, Palo Alto Networks, Qualys, Rapid7, Secureworks, SentinelOne, SOMMA, Sophos, TEHTRIS, Trellix, Trend Micro, Uptycs, VMware, WatchGuard, and WithSecure.
MITRE’s new Driver Research for Intelligent Vehicles and Environments (DRIVE) Lab has parking for one—yet offers the potential of safer transportation for millions. At first glance, the nimble looking, matte black car parked in front of a huge, wrap-around screen may look like a video game. But the lab’s intent is deadly serious: to facilitate research at the complex intersection of people, how they move around, and increasingly intelligent vehicles. The lab’s overall focus will be to create a safer surface transportation environment. “This is part of MITRE’s effort to take the impactful work we’ve done to modernize and improve the safety of the aviation system over the years and begin to apply that success to other forms of transportation,” says Beth Meinert, senior vice president and general manager, MITRE Public Sector.
Generational impact and innovation in America are interconnected. Continuing a decades long trend, private industry is investing approximately five times more than the government in research and development. Paired with decreasing confidence in the government, these trends are driving the nation towards an inflection point where public good objectives are no longer as influential. In MITRE Talk: Resilient Nation, MITRE SVP and MITRE Engenuity Chief Acceleration Officer Dr. Laurie Giandomenico paints a picture of the past, present, and future for innovation in America. Watch this video to learn more and how you can amplify your impact for public good at MITRE.
MITRE has named Deborah Youmans as its new chief information officer (CIO). Youmans will oversee more than 400 IT professionals in MITRE’s Enterprise Computing and Information Systems division in areas including innovation and experimentation, information security, enterprise information technology, business and knowledge services, and sector operations. Youmans joins MITRE from Booz Allen Hamilton, where she served as vice president and deputy CIO, leading the strategic and technical direction of a team with more than 500 members focused on the development and delivery of enterprise solutions across Booz Allen Hamilton’s 30,000 users. Prior to that role, she worked as director of Booz Allen Information Systems for more than 10 years. “Deborah brings the vision, strategy, and tactics to continue and build on our best-in-class IT capabilities, paving the way for MITRE’s continued growth,” said Cedric Sims, MITRE’s senior vice president for enterprise innovation and integration. “We welcome her leadership on the adoption of new systems and technologies that will play a critical role in enabling cross functional, cross sponsor engagement as MITRE leans into the future to tackle challenges of national importance.”
Aura Teasley’s fascination with viruses started in high school when she read a book about a fictional Ebola-like outbreak. Now a doctoral student at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) and MITRE cyber resiliency graduate intern, Teasley focuses on detecting and disarming infections of a different kind: malware and ransomware. She shares what drew her to MITRE and what she hopes to contribute to the field. Biology was my strength, so I first studied biomedical engineering at UTSA. My senior year capstone project opened my eyes to actually applying engineering. Before that, I just read about it. I fell in love. So, instead of doing my Ph.D. in biomedical engineering, I decided to start over and get a bachelor’s in electrical engineering. Then I went for a master’s degree. My professor encouraged me to join a research project with Sandia National Laboratories, where I learned about MITRE ATT&CK® [our knowledge base of adversary tactics and techniques based on real-world observations]. I’d heard of malware, but I didn’t really understand it. With Sandia, I correlated system sensors like Sysmon [Windows’ System Monitor] to the ATT&CK framework. That’s when I became engrossed in the idea of being a part of the cyber threat intelligence world and cybersecurity.
