Human and Sociotechnical Systems
The Human and Sociotechnical Systems Research (HSSR) Program at NSI focuses on the study of people interacting with technologies to design systems that are ethical, effective, safe, and usable. By leveraging research in human factors, sociology, AI, data science, psychology, and systems engineering, our program aims to study and design systems that enhance human capabilities and ensure operational effectiveness. At NSI, our placement at ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ Boulder provides access to expertise in all these disciplines enabling us to address research and development challenges critical to national security:
- Responsible Human Machine Teaming: The scientific study of humans working with intelligent machines, including AI, for the responsible design, use, and evaluation of autonomous technologies in real-world missions.
- Cognitive Security and Resilience: Research to defend against malign influence and support future operations in the information environment.
- Ethics, AI, and Human Performance in Space: Addresses the performance challenges of deploying humans and AI systems in space
- Emerging Topics in Human Factors: Explores key areas including wearable technology, education and training, extended reality (XR), workload, user experience, interface design, diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) research, and medicine.
We are committed to interdisciplinary and people-centered approaches to support the design and operations of future defense systems. As technology advances, considering the human element in these sociotechnical systems remains vital to national security.
Missions: C2, Operations in the Information Environment, Education & Training, Air Dominance, Human-Systems Integration
Challenges: Ethical human-AI collaboration, trust transparency, critical thinking, visualization/UI
¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ Strengths: Interdisciplinary expertise (STEM, Social Sciences, Humanities), ecological “labsâ€
Federal Agencies: SSC/S6, USAFA, SWAC