Can an application help intelligence analysts engage in better reasoning and produce reports that help decision makers make better decisions? A multidisciplinary team of researchers from Syracuse University, the University of Arizona, Colorado State University and SRC Inc. aims to answer this question by developing digital tools for improving reasoning and decision making.

The team, led by School of Information Studies (iSchool) Professor Jennifer Stromer-Galley, will develop TRACE (Trackable Reasoning and Analysis for Collaboration and Evaluation), a web-based application aimed at improving reasoning through the use of techniques—such as debate and analogical reasoning—along with crowdsourcing to enhance analysts’ problem-solving abilities and foster creative thinking in order to provide support and guidance where human reasoning falls short.

The 50-month project is supported by a $11.5 million contract from the CREATE (Crowdsourcing Evidence, Reasoning, Argumentation, Thinking and Evaluation) Program of the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA), an arm of the Office for the Director of National Intelligence, which heads the nation’s intelligence services.

Read the full story at SU News.