News story

Improving intelligence data processing and enhancing situational awareness

Case study from Polaris Consulting who pitched their ideas to industry and investors at the CDE Marketplace on 6 September 2016.

Polaris Consulting Ltd

Polaris Consulting Ltd, in conjunction with the University of Portsmouth, have successfully developed and tested a proof-of-concept machine learning tool which allows analysts to quickly process data and extract actionable intelligence.

This is one of 3 projects the company has received funding for from the Centre for Defence Enterprise (CDE).

Testing the ‘Dominance-based Rough Set Approach’ (DRSA) tool in a lab experiment showed a significant increase in the ability of analysts to process, identify and extract intelligence from large volumes of data.

Future work will focus on maturing the tool by testing more complex sets of data, building in additional analysis capabilities, configuring the tool for multiple analyst use and developing the user interface.

It’s envisioned that the DRSA tool will provide intelligence analysts with an automated processing capability, speeding up the timeliness and quality of the intelligence analysis process, and hence significantly improving situational awareness.

Polaris is primarily exploring application of the DRSA tool for Electronic Warfare (EW)/Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) processing with aspirations to expand into broader intelligence domains across Defence and Security.

David Bangert, Founder, Polaris Consulting Ltd says:

Winning funding for 3 CDE proposals has been of huge benefit to Polaris. They’ve enabled us to apply our analysis expertise to some cutting edge defence problems, build partnerships with other companies, and raise the profile of the business. Like most SMEs, we relish a challenge, and CDE has expanded our horizons and will undoubtedly provide us with new opportunities in the future. It’s also good to be working with like-minded partners to deliver tangible benefits for the UK’s Armed Services.

View the pitch presentation slides.

About CDE

CDE funds novel, high-risk, high-potential-benefit research. We work with the broadest possible range of science and technology providers, including academia and small companies, to develop cost-effective capabilities for UK armed forces and national security.

CDE is part of Dstl.

Centre for Defence Enterprise

Building R103
Fermi Avenue
Harwell Oxford
Oxfordshire
OX11 0QX

Email cde@dstl.gov.uk

Telephone +44 (0)30 67704236

Alternative number +44 (0)30 67704237

Please email for the quickest response.

Published 15 August 2016