ARPA

In 1958 ARPA – the Advanced Research Projects Agency – was founded in the United States of America. In 1972 ARPA was renamed the first time in DARPA - Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The founding of ARPA was the American answer to the successful launch of the Sputnik satellite by the Soviets in 1957. The so called “Sputnik Shock” set off the fear in all of the USA of loosing scientific predominance in the world.
ARPA is a scientific Institution whose mission has been the maintaining of the American lead in science since its founding. ARPA reports the Department of Defence. ARPA works together with military research institutes, but it will remain an independent institution. Since its founding ARPA has been characterized by its flat organizational structure, giving it flexibility in research without a paralyzing bureaucracy. World class scientists and engineers from universities and companies are poached and replaced every three to five years to guarantee new Thinking and new ideas.
Many inventions can be traced back to ARPA. But one of the most well known projects is surely the founding of the ARPANET, a foundation stone and the forerunner of what is today called the internet. In the 1960s Robert Taylor tried to realize John Licklider’s work of a ‘galactic network’, which he managed by recruiting MIT professor Larry Roberts, who set up the first four nodes of the ARPANET.

Besides that ARPA has been responsible for many less public projects. In the early years ARPA research included the detection of nuclear tests above and under the Earths’ surface (Project Vela) or defence of hostile missile attacks (DEFENDER). The Aspen Movie Map, a virtual 3D map of the city of Aspen was developed in 1978 at MIT with ARPA fundings. Nothing special today, it was possible to record a drive through the virtual streets of Aspen. ARPA hoped to find a good possibility for soldiers to quickly get used to unknown terrains in combat zones. Another research area is the development of new weapons and defence systems for the US military.
Since 2004 ARPA has been hosting and sponsoring the DARPA Grand Challenge, a competition for driverless vehicles that have to cover a certain distance autonomously in the Nevada desert.
A current ARPA project, called „Combat Zones That See“, is the attempt of covering and observing a combat zone by a wide camera network to detect hostile actions early. The project reminds of a novel by Orwell and is highly discussed by data security activists.