Research Infusion is a key component of the Office of Safety and Mission Assurance (OSMA) Software Assurance Research Program (SARP). The goal of Research Infusion is to support increased software assurance and technical excellence by providing an opportunity for NASA project teams to test new technologies while mitigating some of the risks.
The Research Infusion Team identifies new technologies to solve software development and software assurance problems.
The Research Infusion Team surveys new software engineering research areas to identify promising technologies that are sufficiently mature to be adopted by NASA civil service and contractor development and assurance teams. The Research Infusion Team also surveys the commercial marketplace to identify promising technologies that have demonstrated benefits for software development and assurance, but are not in widespread use throughout NASA.
The Research Infusion Team holds an annual WebEx presentation of technologies that can be adopted outright or infused into development projects through collaboration with technology providers. Two WebEx teleconferences were held to promote the technologies selected for collaboration in 2008. The first was on January 14, 2008 from 1:00PM EDT to 2:30PM EDT, and the second was on January 23, 2008 from 12:00PM EDT to 1:30PM EDT. These presentations were the kick-off for the fifth internal, NASA-only request for the Research Infusion Initiative proposals (see the Proposal Submission page for additional details). Over 250 NASA civil service employees and contractors have attended previous presentations. More than a dozen software engineering technologies, including both tools and processes, have been presented.
Click here to see the WebEx Presentation held 14-JAN-2008
Click here to see the WebEx Presentation held 23-JAN-2008
The Research Infusion Team promotes collaboration between technology developers and software development and assurance teams to apply technologies to software development and assurance projects.
See the Previous Collaborations page for a list of completed Research Infusion Initiative efforts and related technologies. Most of these technologies have been successfully applied by NASA civil service and contractor software developers through funded collaborations between their projects and technology providers.
Many of the civil service and contractor personnel who participated in the Research Infusion Initiative have adopted selected technologies for continued use within their development and assurance processes.
The Research Infusion Team also surveys NASA software development and assurance organizations and feeds this information back to NASA's software engineering and assurance research programs. Software development and assurance issues and problem areas help drive the Research Infusion Initiative's technology selection.
This year, the Research Infusion Initiative has selected software engineering technologies for collaboration that:
Support Software Architecture Specification and Analysis
Support model-based software development and assurance
Support the improvement of software development processes
Support enhanced software verification
Each of these technologies provides ways to boost software development and assurance capability and risk reduction. The Research Infusion Initiative will provide funding to cover infusion costs and offset other associated with the incorporation of these technologies into NASA projects, including contractor projects.
For more information on the software engineering technologies selected for collaboration in 2008, see the Technologies page. For more information on how to submit a proposal for collaboration, see the Proposal Submission page. For other questions, contact the Research Infusion Team.
