Teamed with the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (CCDC) Aviation & Missile Center, Wichita State University’s FirePoint Innovations Center is collaborating with industry, educational institutions and Department of Defense partners to help Army researchers develop technologies and deliver new capabilities to Army warfighters. 

FirePoint’s efforts enlist innovation and cutting edge technologies from across the nation to help accelerate Army technology development efforts. Recently FirePoint coordinated a productive multi-core processor qualification solutions workshop, held April 30-May 1 at the Air Force Research Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio. The workshop was a follow-on to a successful first workshop held in late 2018.

Partnering with the CCDC Aviation & Missile Center’s Systems Simulation, Software & Integration Directorate (S3I), the goal of the workshops was to gather bright minds to discuss safety-critical applications.

“Identifying and mitigating numerous risk elements associated with the introduction of (multi-core processors) into Army aviation systems is a significant challenge,” said Josh McNeil, software airworthiness division chief for S3I.

“The MCP solutions workshop was a success as it brought together stakeholders from industry, academia, the Army and other DoD organizations from across the country to discuss the risk areas and solutions to the challenge. An emerging outcome of this workshop is the formation of a new community of interest focused on certification requirements, standards development, and implementation guidance for MCPs used in safety-critical applications.”

“FirePoint is pleased to partner with the CCDC Aviation & Missile Center on bringing together a community of interest to work on this important issue,” said Peter Perna, FirePoint executive director. “Airworthiness qualification of multi-core processors is a challenge shared not just by our military, but by general and commercial aviation as well. We’re looking forward to continuing our work to support the center’s leadership in this area.”

FirePoint was established in September 2017 through a partnership with CCDC Aviation & Missile Center headquartered at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama. The partnership is part of a broader commitment by Wichita State to help the new Army Futures Command address its modernization priorities, including future vertical lift, long-range precision fires, air and missile defense, and next generation tactical ground vehicle.

FirePoint Innovations Center at Wichita State University is a partner of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command, Aviation and Missile Center. National in scope, FirePoint investigates, collaborates and produces courses of action to solve technology development and transition challenges faced by the Army. FirePoint accelerates the delivery of innovative capabilities to the warfighter through partnerships and engagement with small and large business, universities, and other government organizations. 

The U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (CCDC) Aviation & Missile Center, formerly known as the Aviation & Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center (AMRDEC), conducts research, development and life cycle engineering to deliver the aviation and missile capabilities the Army depends on to ensure victory on and off the battlefield today and tomorrow. Through collaboration across the command's core technical competencies, CCDC leads in the discovery, development and delivery of a broad range of technology-based capabilities. CCDC is a major subordinate command of the U.S. Army Futures Command.

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