IARPA ARTS PROPOSERS’ DAY

ARTS Proposers’ Day

Tuesday, 27 June 2023 from 9:30am to 5:00pm EDT

(Event login available starting at 9:00am EDT)

Welcome to the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) Proposers’ Day Registration Page for the anticipated Anonymous Real-Time Speech (ARTS) program.

Overview

The ARTS Proposers’ Day meeting will be held on Tuesday, 27 June 2023 from 9:30am to 5:00 pm EDT to introduce the ARTS Program to potential proposers and to provide information on technical requirements and program objectives.

The purpose of the Anonymous Real-Time Speech (ARTS) Program is to develop novel algorithms that will modify spontaneous speech in real-time to protect an individual’s privacy. Countless electronics in modern life, like smart phones, digital assistants, televisions, remote controls, and even appliances, have microphones that are always listening for speech signals, using voice driven technologies to interact with people. But recorded speech contains a wealth of personal, sensitive information that can be exploited by privacy threats such as biometric recognition, background profiling, and emotional screening; a person’s speech can reveal not only their identity, but also static traits, such as dialect, gender, and age, as well as dynamic traits, such as fear, stress, and anger. The ARTS program aims to develop new methods that will anonymize conversational speech without degrading usability. The capabilities developed in this program will overcome threats to privacy such as speaker identification software, human evaluation of static traits, and automated classification of dynamic traits. The program desires novel software-based systems suitable for conversations, with the transformed speech that is understandable, sounds natural, and operates in real-time.

The ARTS Proposers’ Day is a hybrid meeting with limited seating for in-person attendees that will be broadcast via the Webex video conference platform for remote attendees. Only one in-person attendee per organization or research group will be permitted to attend, with the exception of professors at the same university or college at IARPA’s discretion. Details of the venue will be sent to those who are approved to attend in-person. Additional attendees will only be allowed to participate remotely. For planning purposes, the venue is located near the Dupont Circle Metro station in N.W. Washington, D.C. A recorded video of the meeting will be made available to the public on the IARPA website at https://www.iarpa.gov/index.php/research-programs/ARTS.

To attend, participants must register prior to Thursday, 22 June 2023 at 5pm EDT. Same-day registrations will not be accepted.

OPPORTUNITIES TO HIGHLIGHT CAPABILITIES

Successful ARTS proposals will assemble teams with diverse expertise and capabilities. This event provides an opportunity for prospective offerors to scout collaborations with other interested organizations. Participants are welcome to present lightning talks and submit capabilities statements. The information submitted in either format will not be reviewed or considered by the government for any purpose other than to ensure the appropriateness of content.

Lightning Talks

1. IARPA will make available the opportunity for registrants to present 5-minute lightning talks. These lightning talks should be seen as a mechanism to highlight technical capabilities of the presenter aligning with ARTS objectives. No live questions or overruns of the 5-minute presentation period will be permitted.
2. To ensure consideration for approval, lightning talk presentations should be submitted to dni-iarpa-ARTS-proposers-day@iarpa.gov  by Tuesday, 20 June 2023 at noon EDT.
3.  An agenda of accepted lightning talks will be emailed the week of 26 June 2023 and shared at the start of the ARTS Proposers’ Day.
4. Presentations which do not appear to address the ARTS objectives or are inappropriate will not be accepted for presentation.
5. Only one lightning talk per organization will be permitted, excepting professors at the same University or College.
6. Presenters must submit their lightning talk presentations from the email associated with their registration.
7. Each lightning talk may only have one presenter.
8. All submitted lightning talk slides will be made available for public access. Presentation of a lightning talk is assumed to construe consent to share the contents, even if they may be marked as proprietary or company sensitive information.
9. A maximum of 30 lightning talks will be presented. Any accepted lightning talks beyond this number will have their slides posted online for public access but no recording will be made.
10. Lightning talks may be presented in-person or virtually.

Capabilities Statements and Teaming Information Forms

1. As an option to facilitate teaming, potential proposers may submit a Capabilities Statement (5 pages maximum) and a completed Teaming Information Form (posted with this notice) to IARPA for possible posting on our website at https://www.iarpa.gov/index.php/research-programs/ARTS.
2. IARPA does not guarantee that all Capabilities Statements will be posted. This information will not be reviewed or considered by the government for any purpose other than review for appropriate content.
3. IARPA will attempt to post this content in a timely manner upon receipt. Such posting will be taken down at or around the time the BAA closes. 
4. Submission of a Capabilities Statement is deemed consent to post the statement, notwithstanding markings such as “Proprietary” or “Company Sensitive”.

Participants in either activity should not submit anything they consider proprietary or protected information as this information will be shared with the public. No classified information may be submitted or presented.

Deadline to register for the Proposers’ Day: to Thursday, 22 June 2023 at 5pm EDT.