A Lafayette-based software company affiliated with Purdue University has been awarded a U.S. Air Force contract to develop an artificial intelligence-driven platform to quickly search through thousands of pages of vendor proposals.
Quantum Research Sciences says the platform, called Automated Commercial Industry Data-Repository, will quickly deliver details on commercial, military-focused products and services. Now, the Air Force receives new technology proposals through antiquated channels such as email, where relevant information is buried within PDFs that are up to 20 pages long.
The new platform will allow vendors to upload their proposal statements, and the AI-powered software will extract the relevant information.
“The Air Force will then be able to view, search and filter through thousands of proposals rather than manually reviewing each statement,” QRS CEO Ethan Krimins said in a Purdue University news release. “ACID-R will also automatically inform vendors of missing information that the Air Force needs, enabling them to create more effective proposals.”
QRS is partnering with Purdue University’s Rosen Center for Advanced Computing on the endeavor. QRS itself is a client company of Purdue Innovates, the university’s business accelerator.
“We have been collaborating with Ethan on federal contracts for nearly a decade,” said Laura Theademan, director of RCAC center operations and visualization. “This USAF project is the largest and most significant yet.”
The amount of the award was undisclosed.
Earlier this year, the software company received a contract from the Defense Logistics Agency for the use of an AI-tool that helps better predict when parts are close to becoming obsolete, Inside INdiana Business reported.
A year earlier the company received a $2.5 million contract to develop the U.S. Department of Defense’s first operational, production-level quantum computing software. The software aims to optimize the Air Force’s supply chain management.