The National Center for Unconventional Thought (NCUT), was formed to support the Defense Department’s efforts in the areas of transformation and innovation. NCUT is dedicated to fostering and nurturing cutting-edge concepts in areas such as military robotics, chemical-biological defense, interagency operations, force protection, and non-lethal weapons. Currently, NCUT focues on the investigation and exploration of unknown unknowns. Unknown unknowns usually become known during tragic events that cause either physical damage or financial disaster. NCUT’s ability to tackle problems from very oblique angles will hopefully reduce the impact that these unknowns have on the United States of America. NCUT commissions papers and conducts conferences that include the input of a range of experts from around the country.
Current NCUT Programs
Lewis & Clark Fellowship:
This Fellowship resonates with the core of NCUT searching for the “Unknown Unknowns”. Named for the famous frontier-exploring duo who eagerly traveled uncharted territory, the fellowship encourages the chosen resident research fellow to push the frontiers of practical-oriented scholarship on science and technology topics of keen importance to our ever-changing democracy. This competitive Fellowship searches for those individuals that are willing to explore areas that are not fully understood. More information.
Recent NCUT Programs
SoS Group:
Problems of increasing complexity are facing decision makers within government and industry. It has been widely recognized that there are no existing methodologies, or processes, that properly support our decision makers in the evaluation of spending billions of dollars on a new infrastructure project, the implementation of a particular public policy, or the development of a new piece of technology. The lack of a methodology prevents leaders from determining if these decisions are good, bad, or indifferent for the nation over a generation or more. Characteristic to these problems is that they are of system-of-systems type, with multiple, heterogeneous, distributed systems involved (including policies, economies, and technologies). Effective analysis for decision support quickly becomes unmanageable within the “stovepipe” context that still characterizes many organizations in the research and development community. Therein lies a need for a methodology, or process, that can enable us to systematically solve these types of problems. Past attempts to change how system developers and managers solve problems (e.g. Six Sigma, Integrated Product & Process Development, etc.) have demonstrated that it will take a strong focused effort to deal with such a new concept.
More information on the project.
Past NCUT Events
2nd Systems of Systems Symposium: "A Summer Conversation"
May 23rd - 24th, 2005
Purdue University
West Lafayette, IN
NCUT Staff
- Mr. Sean Fitzpatrick, Creative Director
- Mr. Larry Todd Wilson, Adjunct Research Fellow
- Dr. Ronald Uscinski, MD, FACS, Adjunct Research Fellow
For more information on any of NCUT's programs, contact:
Phone: (703) 525-0770
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