Communicating with Computers (CwC) | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

The DARPA Communicating with Computers (CwC) opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number DARPA BAA 15-18) is a basic research solicitation focused on making human-computer interaction feel more like natural, two-way communication rather than a one-sided process where a person issues commands and the machine simply executes them. Run by DARPA's Information Innovation Office, the program is explicitly framed as a 6.1 effort, meaning it is aimed at foundational science and early-stage breakthroughs rather than near-term product development. The core technical idea is to push beyond traditional interfaces and toward systems that can both interpret and participate in interaction using a broader set of human communication signals.

CwC is looking for innovative research that taps a full range of natural communication modalities. While language is an obvious piece of that, the solicitation highlights that communication may also involve gesture, facial expressions, and other expressive or contextual signals that people routinely use to convey intent, emotion, emphasis, or situational meaning. The program emphasis is not just on improving how computers "listen," but on enabling interaction where the computer can contribute in a richer way, supporting genuine back-and-forth exchange. In practical terms, this points to research challenges like integrating multiple sensor and input streams, interpreting ambiguous or incomplete cues, dealing with context and shared situational awareness, and developing computational models that can handle the fluidity of real human communication.

From an administrative standpoint, the opportunity is classified as discretionary and supports multiple award instruments, including cooperative agreements, grants, other transactions, and procurement contracts, giving DARPA flexibility in how it structures awards depending on the proposer, the technical approach, and the level of collaboration needed. It falls under the Science and Technology and other Research and Development activity category and is associated with CFDA 12.910 (Research and Technology Development). There is no cost sharing or matching requirement stated in the opportunity data provided, and eligibility is described as unrestricted, meaning it is generally open to any type of entity as long as any specific constraints in the full announcement are met.

Key dates for the solicitation are centered on an early 2015 cycle. The opportunity was posted and created on February 19, 2015. Proposals were due on April 9, 2015, by 12:00 noon Eastern Time, with the archive date listed as May 9, 2015. The additional information link points to the full DARPA BAA 15-18 announcement hosted via FedBizOpps (as referenced in the posting). For access issues or solicitation-related questions, the listed contact is Dr. Paul Cohen, DARPA/I2O Program Manager, along with the I2O BAA Coordinator.

Overall, CwC is best read as an invitation for exploratory, high-impact research that could change the basic paradigm of interacting with machines. Instead of treating communication as a narrow channel of typed text or spoken commands, the program is oriented toward multi-modal, context-aware, interactive systems that can engage with people in ways that feel closer to everyday human communication, potentially using coordinated cues from speech, movement, expressions, and other behavioral signals to enable more natural and effective collaboration between humans and computers.

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