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Agency
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
Capabilities
AI Research & Innovation
01 / Customer Challenge

The challenge our customer brought us.

Current test and evaluation frameworks for AI-enabled code translation are limited. They focus primarily on closed team testing rather than public usage or metrology research, failing to capture the complexities of real-world scenarios.

This oversight leaves reliability and usability gaps that hinder the transition of legacy C code to safer, modern Rust—the core objective of the DARPA TRACTOR (Translating All C TO Rust) challenge.

02 / Knexus Approach

What we designed and delivered.

The Public Usage Language Lab (PULL) Challenges will evaluate AI-enabled C to Rust Translation systems in public deployment conditions, and leverage analysis of evaluation results to direct research attention towards high value open problems that must be resolved to achieve mature deployable systems.

The PULL Challenges will conduct foundational metrology research to develop robust, novel benchmark methodologies for automated C to Rust translation solutions by engaging the public to inform and validate a custom, iterative sequence of performance benchmark products.
This will occur over a series of four public challenges (a preliminary ‘dry run’ challenge, followed by three annual challenges), with each challenge resulting in the development of a Research Acceleration Bundle including benchmarks, target problems and problem analysis, providing research support to solution developers over three years of development.
03 / Mission Impact

The difference it made.

PULL delivers measurable advancements by enabling developers to identify system limitations and prioritize high-value research directions early in the project lifecycle

Provides a highly public platform for tools and demonstrations and makes sure the automated translators built by DARPA performers get transitioned to real world use to make our country’s technological infrastructure safer and more secure.
Establishes a four-challenge sequence—one preliminary dry run followed by three annual challenges—to support iterative evaluation over the planned three-year development period.
Uses evaluation findings to identify high-value open problems and focus subsequent research on the areas most important to mature deployable systems.

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Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR)

Next Generation Threat System (NGTS) GPT

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Defense Logistics Agency (DLA)

Generative AI Logistics for Communication and Execution (GAILFORCE)

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Office of Naval Research (ONR)

Augmenting CILEMP to Enable Fleet Autonomy with Generative AI (CILEMP-FLAG)

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U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL)

Goal Reasoning for Satellite Constellation Decision Making (GRANITE)

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U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL)

Deep Reinforcement Learning

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Office of Naval Research (ONR)

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Department of the Navy (DON)

Minefield Planning Evaluation and Gaming Suite

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Information Technology Services (LITeS) III

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U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM)

Cyber Warning and Operations Center (CWOC) Research and Analysis

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Department of Defense (DoD)

Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Operations (ISRO)

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U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM)

All Source Intelligence Cyberspace II

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Office of Naval Research (ONR)

Continuous Interactive Learners for Mission Planning (CILEMP)

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DARPA

DARPA Explainable AI

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NIST

NIST Privacy Engineering Program

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U.S. Census Bureau

U.S. Census Disclosure Avoidance System

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Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR)

NAVAIR Next Generation Threat System (NGTS)

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Defense Logistics Agency (DLA)

Enterprise Master Management Agents (EMMA)

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Defense Logistics Agency (DLA)

FIT Next-Sizing Scanner

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Defense Logistics Agency (DLA)

Journal Vouchers (JV)

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Defense Logistics Agency (DLA)

Annual Financial Report (AFR)

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Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)

Anticipatory and Adaptive Anti-Money Laundering (A3ML)

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22

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

Genomic Project

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23

U.S. Department of Labor

Gemini for Government

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Army Logistics Data Analysis Center (LDAC)

Logistics Information Technology Enterprise Solution (LITeS)

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25

USSTRATCOM

Strategic Command Information Technology Lifecycle Support (SCITLS)

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