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Robert Popp

Founder & CEO
Dr. Robert Popp is Founder and CEO of NSI, Inc., a premier Federal government contractor that specializes in applying multidisciplinary social and decision science techniques and data-driven analytics on critical, complex national security problems. Prior to NSI, Dr. Popp served for five years as a senior government executive within the US Department of War—one year at OSD as Assistant Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Advanced Systems and Concepts and four years at DARPA as Deputy Director of the Information Exploitation Office (IXO) and Information Awareness Office (IAO). Dr. Popp was inducted into the University of Connecticut Academy of Distinguished Engineers in 2003 which honors College of Engineering alumni whose careers are characterized by their sustained and exemplary contributions to the engineering profession through research, practice, education, policy or service. Dr. Popp has also served on the Defense Science Board and Army Science Board. He co-chaired a National Academies National Research Council (NRC) committee on “Organizational Modeling: Improving the Decision Making Abilities of Small Unit Leaders” in 2012 as well. Dr. Popp has a patent and is the editor of the book Emergent Information Technologies and Enabling Policies for Counter-Terrorism, published in 2006 by Wiley-IEEE Press. Dr. Popp holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Connecticut and a BA/MA (summa cum laude) in Computer Science from Boston University.

SMA Publications

SMA Publication

Barriers to Civil Order in Palestinian Security Sector

The origins of the Palestinian security sector can be traced to the 1993 Oslo I Accord, which established divisive security and policing responsibilities between the Palestinians and Israelis and the Oslo II agreement, which codified interim boundaries, including the division of the West Bank into a complex and fragmented patchwork of different jurisdictions. These divisions of land and security responsibilities remain in place to this day and have fostered a unique, complicated, and at times perplexing situation for both the Palestinian security sector and the civil society it serves to protect. The environment in the West Bank is replete with confusion over security sector authorities and responsibilities, frustration over barriers1 to the provision of security and justice, and fear and mistrust of the security sector forces. Moreover, the absence of publically available mission statements and codified legal documents, that clearly delineate the Palestinian security sector roles and responsibilities, adds to the complex situation.
Year Published:
2015
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SMA Publication

Pathway Indicators Analysis of Pakistan

This report explores the potential pathways associated with two hypothetical futures for the nation of Pakistan–Fragmentation and Muddling through. We started with theoretical propositions about the nature of, and points along, the pathways, tested these against historical cases, refined our characterizations of the paths, and then applied these to look at Pakistan from today forward.
Year Published:
2013
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SMA Publication

Unconventional Challenges in the Human Domain

One of the major challenges the US has faced during the opening decades of the 21st Century is the growth in the number and international reach of insurgents, terrorists, WMD proliferators and other sorts of nefarious groups. Among many others, the current situation in Iraq illustrates the difficulty of countering insurgencies once they have become violent and operationally well-established. The apparent transition of contemporary war away from the traditional physical battlefield towards the human element as the battlefield poses new challenges for both intelligence and operations – collections and analysis within the human domain requires new thinking and new methods.
Year Published:
2008
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SMA Publication

Social Science Modeling and Visualization

The Social Science Modeling and Information Visualization Workshop provided a unique forum for bringing together leading social scientists, researchers, modelers, and government stakeholders in one room to discuss the state-of-the-art and the future of quantitative/computational social science (Q/CSS) modeling and information visualization. Interdisciplinary quantitative and computational social science methods from mathematics, statistics, economics, political science, cultural anthropology, sociology, neuroscience, and modeling and simulation - coupled with advanced visualization techniques such as visual analytics - provide analysts and commanders with a needed means for understanding the cultures, motivations, intentions, opinions, perceptions, and people in troubled regions of the world.
Year Published:
2008
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SMA Speaker Series

There are no SMA Speaker Series with Robert Popp listed as a speaker.

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NSI Publications

NSI Publication

Unconventional Challenges in the Human Domain

One of the major challenges the US has faced during the opening decades of the 21st Century is the growth in the number and international reach of insurgents, terrorists, WMD proliferators and other sorts of nefarious groups. Among many others, the current situation in Iraq illustrates the difficulty of countering insurgencies once they have become violent and operationally well-established. The apparent transition of contemporary war away from the traditional physical battlefield towards the human element as the battlefield poses new challenges for both intelligence and operations – collections and analysis within the human domain requires new thinking and new methods.
Year Published:
2008
View Publication
NSI Publication

Social Science Modeling and Visualization

The Social Science Modeling and Information Visualization Workshop provided a unique forum for bringing together leading social scientists, researchers, modelers, and government stakeholders in one room to discuss the state-of-the-art and the future of quantitative/computational social science (Q/CSS) modeling and information visualization. Interdisciplinary quantitative and computational social science methods from mathematics, statistics, economics, political science, cultural anthropology, sociology, neuroscience, and modeling and simulation - coupled with advanced visualization techniques such as visual analytics - provide analysts and commanders with a needed means for understanding the cultures, motivations, intentions, opinions, perceptions, and people in troubled regions of the world.
Year Published:
2008
View Publication
NSI Publication

Pathway Indicators Analysis of Pakistan

This report explores the potential pathways associated with two hypothetical futures for the nation of Pakistan–Fragmentation and Muddling through. We started with theoretical propositions about the nature of, and points along, the pathways, tested these against historical cases, refined our characterizations of the paths, and then applied these to look at Pakistan from today forward.
Year Published:
2013
View Publication
NSI Publication

Barriers to Civil Order in Palestinian Security Sector

The origins of the Palestinian security sector can be traced to the 1993 Oslo I Accord, which established divisive security and policing responsibilities between the Palestinians and Israelis and the Oslo II agreement, which codified interim boundaries, including the division of the West Bank into a complex and fragmented patchwork of different jurisdictions. These divisions of land and security responsibilities remain in place to this day and have fostered a unique, complicated, and at times perplexing situation for both the Palestinian security sector and the civil society it serves to protect. The environment in the West Bank is replete with confusion over security sector authorities and responsibilities, frustration over barriers1 to the provision of security and justice, and fear and mistrust of the security sector forces. Moreover, the absence of publically available mission statements and codified legal documents, that clearly delineate the Palestinian security sector roles and responsibilities, adds to the complex situation.
Year Published:
2015
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NSI Publication

Countering Terrorism with IT and Privacy Protection

Security and privacy aren’t dichotomous or conflicting concerns—the solution lies in developing and integrating advanced information technologies for counterterrorism along with privacy-protection technologies to safeguard civil liberties. Coordinated policies can help bind the two to their intended use.
Year Published:
2006
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NSI Publication

Social Science to Understand Strategic Threat

During the Cold War era, the strategic threat against the US was clear. The country responded clearly with a policy toward the Soviet threat that centered on deterrence, containment, and mutually assured destruction. To enforce this policy, the US created a strategic triad composed of nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles, Trident nuclear submarines, and long-range strategic bombers. Today, however, our security environment is profoundly different.
Year Published:
2017
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NSI Publication

m-Best S-D Assignment Algorithm for Tracking

In this paper we describe a novel data association algorithm, termed m-best S-D, that determines in O(mSkn^3) time (m assignments, S >=3 lists of size n, k relaxations) the (approximately) m-best solutions to an S-D assignment problem. The m-best S-D algorithm is applicable to tracking problems where either the sensors are synchronized or the sensors and/or the targets are very slow moving.
Year Published:
2001
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NSI Publication

Parallelizations For Multitarget Tracking

To date, there has been a lack of efficient and practical distributed- and shared-memory parallelizations of the data association problem for multitarget tracking.
Year Published:
1999
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NSI Publication

Information Technologies for Countering Terrorism

This book explores both counter-terrorism and enabling policy dimensions of emerging information technologies in national security.
Year Published:
2006
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NSI Publication

m-Best 2-D Assignment Algorithm Parallelization

In recent years, there has been considerable interest within the tracking community in an approach to data association based on the m-best two-dimensional (2-D) assignment algorithm. Much of the interest has been spurred by its ability to provide various efficient data association solutions, including joint probabilistic data association (JPDA) and multiple hypothesis tracking (MHT).
Year Published:
1999
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NSI Publication

Data Association Shared Memory Parallelization

The focus of this paper is to present the results of our investigation and evaluation of various shared-memory parallelizations of the data association problem in multitarget tracking. The multitarget tracking algorithm developed was for a sparse air traffic surveillance problem, and is based on an Interacting Multiple Model (IMM) state estimator embedded into the (2D) assignment framework.
Year Published:
1997
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NSI Publication

Parallel Tracking Algorithm with Super-linear Speedups

The interacting multiple model (IMM) estimator has been shown to be very effective when applied to air traffic surveillance problems. Hence, in an effort to design a real-time multiple model multi-target tracking algorithm that is independent of the number of modules used in the state estimator, we propose a “coarse-grained” (dynamic) parallelization that is superior, in terms of computational performance, to a “fine-grained” (static) parallelization of the state estimator, while not sacrificing tracking accuracy.
Year Published:
1997
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NSI Publication

Counter Terrorism Through Information Technology

September 11, 2001 might have been just another day if the U.S. intelligence agencies had been better equipped with information technology, according to the report of Congress’s Joint Inquiry into the events leading up to the Sept. 11 attacks.
Year Published:
2004
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NSI Publication

Response To POTUS Executive Order

On September 15, 2015 President Barack Obama released the Executive Order, Using Behavioral Science Insights to Better Serve the American People. Within this order the President encourages US agencies to develop strategies for applying behavioral science insights to programs and, where possible, rigorously test and evaluate the impact of these insights.
Year Published:
2015
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