The University of Maryland (UMD) Center for Advanced Study of Language (CASL)—which in 2018 became part of UMD's new Applied Research Laboratory for Intelligence and Security (ARLIS)—was created to be the national

laboratory A laboratory (; ; colloquially lab) is a facility that provides controlled conditions in which scientific or technological research, experiments, and measurement may be performed. Laboratory services are provided in a variety of settings: physi ...

for advanced

research and development Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in Europe as research and technological development (RTD), is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products, and improving existi ...

language Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of ...

and

national security National security, or national defence, is the security and defence of a sovereign state, including its citizens, economy, and institutions, which is regarded as a duty of government. Originally conceived as protection against military att ...

. Founded in 2003 under

Department of Defense Department of Defence or Department of Defense may refer to: Current departments of defence * Department of Defence (Australia) * Department of National Defence (Canada) * Department of Defence (Ireland) * Department of National Defense (Philipp ...

funding as a

University Affiliated Research Center A University Affiliated Research Center (UARC) is a strategic United States Department of Defense (DoD) research center associated with a university. UARCs are formally established by the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (US ...

(UARC) and located in

College Park, Maryland College Park is a city in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States, and is approximately four miles (6.4 km) from the northeast border of Washington, D.C. The population was 34,740 at the 2020 United States Census. It is best known ...

, CASL was a partnership between the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of ...

and the

United States Government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a feder ...

. In June 2013 CASL was said to be the largest language research center in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. CASL areas of expertise: #

Second-language acquisition Second-language acquisition (SLA), sometimes called second-language learning — otherwise referred to as L2 (language 2) acquisition, is the process by which people learn a second language. Second-language acquisition is also the scientific dis ...

(SLA) #Technology use #Performance and analysis #

Less commonly taught languages Less Commonly Taught Languages (or LCTLs) is a designation used in the United States for languages ''other than'' the most commonly taught foreign languages in US public schools. The term covers a wide array of world languages (other than English) ...

and cultures #

Cognitive neuroscience Cognitive neuroscience is the scientific field that is concerned with the study of the biological processes and aspects that underlie cognition, with a specific focus on the neural connections in the brain which are involved in mental process ...

CASL's mission was to defend and protect the United States by improving language readiness and capabilities of the U.S. Government workforce, with a particular focus on addressing the language needs of the Intelligence Community (IC). The Center was charged with bringing the best of academe and industry to the hardest government problems; providing the knowledge, resources, and technologies critical to analyst job performance; advancing workforce readiness for both regular and surge capabilities; improving operational performance; and underpinning critical leadership decisions on immediate and future staffing, technologies, and analyst workflow design and management.

Vision

CASL's vision was to be the premier strategic research partner to the DoD and IC on the most critical and challenging language problems, ultimately infusing language research into day-to-day job performance as well as critical leadership decisions that directly affect mission.

Strategy

* Conduct independent, empirically based science guided by the strategic needs of the DoD and IC, coupled with an agility when solving the toughest current operational language problems. * Capitalize on the extraordinary talents of a permanent staff of nationally recognized, multidisciplinary research scientists and former and current DoD and IC outstanding practitioners, supported by a stronghold of language experts from academe and business in the United States and around the world. * Collaborate with DoD and IC thought-leaders, managers, and analysts to successfully transition rigorous research into the operational environment and assess its impact.

Other news

According to press reports,

Edward Snowden Edward Joseph Snowden (born June 21, 1983) is an American and naturalized Russian former computer intelligence consultant who leaked highly classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA) in 2013, when he was an employee and su ...

worked at the CASL for less than a year in 2005 as a "security specialist" in what one report calls one of the

National Security Agency The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collecti ...

(NSA)'s "covert facilities."Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind the NSA surveillance revelations
by Glenn Greenwald, Ewen MacAskill and Laura Poitras in Hong Kong, The Guardian, 10 June 2013

References

External links

University of Maryland Center for Advanced Study of Language Home page
{{Authority control University System of Maryland Educational institutions established in 2003 Academic language institutions National Security Agency 2003 establishments in Maryland

Vision

Strategy

Other news

See also

References

External links