Project 3-6: Modeling Socio-Cultural Processes in Network Centric Environments

Principal Investigator: Eunice E. Santos (The University of Texas at El Paso)

Numerous studies have addressed various aspects of the Network-Centric Operations (NCO) network layer, but little is known about the socio-behavioral layer that embodies the human decision-making aspects of such networks. AHPCRC researchers are developing a framework that uses socio-cultural factors coupled with large-scale parallel-distributed methods to model individual and group behavior in large Network-Centric Operations/Warfare (NCO/NCW) networks. Incorporating the uncertainty in socio-cultural and decision-making processes is a critical component of a realistic model, which must also take into account the incomplete state of the available data.

Researchers for this project are modeling socio-cultural factors using Bayesian Knowledge Bases. They are working toward an explicit incorporation of the dynamism of the socio-cultural processes, which requires incorporating the dynamism in the network layer as well. This dynamism, and the large number of parameters typical of such large and complex networks, will require high-performance computing capabilities, including parallel and distributed processing. In particular, this project will focus on designing and analyzing parallel and distributed algorithms to provide quick, in-depth analysis for the various metrics, modeling, and simulation that will run on HPC platforms. Scenarios and testbeds of relevance to the Army are under development, and will be used to validate the framework.