IU, Crane Partnership Focuses on Diagnostics

(Image Courtesy of Microscan)

Computer scientists at Indiana University will work with engineers at the Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center to improve the reliability of military computer systems. IU professor David Crandall has received a $450,000 grant from the Naval Engineering Education Consortium to conduct the research.

The work involves finding new ways to test electronic circuitry in platforms for the U.S. Navy. Crandall says "the Navy depends on a lot of critical electronic circuits in its equipment, so spotting defects before something goes wrong is of utmost importance, especially when lives are on the line. Our project will apply the principles of computer vision to improve the inspection of these technologies, which currently require quality control conducted by people painstakingly examining circuits underneath microscopes."

IU says the aforementioned computer vision method "trains" machines to create face, scene and action-recognizing algorithms. The partnership will work to apply these abilities for spotting tiny flaws in circuits and semiconductors.

The effort will allow opportunities for IU students and engineers at Crane to work together. The work will take place over the course of three years.