Carnegie Mellon, Lockheed Martin sign new research agreement

Carnegie Mellon University and Lockheed Martin recently signed a new master research agreement to expand the organization’s research partnership and guide future joint research projects.

Lockheed Martin and its Sikorsky subsidiary have supported student groups and sponsored research at Carnegie Mellon since 1986, including many projects in the School of Computer Science and College of Engineering. Lockheed Martin recently expressed interest in partnering with Carnegie Mellon on research related to artificial intelligence, which President Trump declared a national priority in a recent executive order.

“Carnegie Mellon and Lockheed Martin have enjoyed a long, productive relationship, and this new master research agreement will help us expand and accelerate collaborations between our organizations on a range of important research topics,” Michael McQuade, CMU’s vice president for research, said. “We are especially pleased that Lockheed Martin is joining our CMU AI ecosystem, advancing a technology that will be critical for our nation’s welfare.”

In a recently approved project, Lockheed will support work at CMU on how AI can improve multiagent decision-making in settings such as humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. The research is focusing on enhancing coordination in these settings when not all involved parties are fully cooperative or have access to the same information.

“Lockheed Martin and CMU have a long and successful history of working together to solve some of the world’s most complex technical challenges,” Lockheed Martin Vice President for Technology Strategy and Innovation Robie I. Samanta Roy said. “Lockheed Martin is making significant investments in AI, so expanding our research partnership with CMU was a natural next step that will help us to continue accelerating the pace of innovation and create next-generation and generation-after-next technologies.”