Automated Discovery for Design and Control of Turbulent Systems (AutoDIDACTS) Proposers Day

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Defense Sciences Office (DSO) has issued a Special Notice announcing a Proposers Day webcast for the Automated Discovery for Design and Control of Turbulent Systems (AutoDIDACTS) program. This informational webcast is scheduled for April 1, 2026, from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time and will be conducted via webcast to brief potential proposers on program objectives and DARPA contracting mechanics. Advance registration is mandatory for webcast participation and must be completed by March 18, 2026, at 4:00 p.m. or at maximum capacity of 350 individuals, whichever occurs first. The Special Notice precedes an anticipated Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) that DARPA expects to release in March 2026, with the full solicitation to be posted on sam.gov and grants.gov. No registration fee is required for attendance at this informational event.

The Proposers Day is designed to introduce potential contractors to the AutoDIDACTS program, which aims to develop automated data-informed discovery of macroscale principles for design and control of turbulent systems with applications relevant to the Department of Defense, including micro-air vehicle design, adaptive flight control, supersonic optimization, and atmospheric optical communications. Successful teams must possess combined expertise in three core areas: compact experimental simulators for generating precision ground-truth data on turbulent flow; data-informed techniques for discovering predictive macroscale principles and surrogate models; and design and development capabilities for end-of-program challenge demonstrations. Eligible participants include U.S. citizens, U.S. permanent residents, and foreign nationals, with non-U.S. citizens required to submit DARPA Form 60 by the registration deadline. DARPA strongly encourages participation from non-traditional proposers, including small businesses and academic institutions. The Proposers Day agenda includes Lightning Talks, individual eight-minute sidebar meetings with the Program Manager (held from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. per Amendment 1), and a separate contracting meeting for proposer personnel (3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.), with webcast recording prohibited and voluntary attendance not required for future proposal submission.