Defense AI Research & Consulting

The right architectures don't just support autonomy — they give rise to it

Emergent Autonomy is a senior research consultancy helping defense programs discover where AI and autonomous systems create real capability advantages. Three decades of R&D across all DoD branches, major primes, national labs, academia, and small businesses — from multi-agent systems to GenAI pipelines.

Defense systems need AI that works in the real world — secure, real-time, and operationally relevant. We help programs move beyond AI as a buzzword to AI as genuine capability: integrated into distributed architectures, hardened for contested environments, and designed to create advantages that matter in the field. We call it emergent autonomy — the conviction that with the right system designs, AI-enabled systems can evolve to exhibit increasingly autonomous, intelligent behavior. But autonomy is one outcome. The goal is operational AI that makes defense systems decisively better.

Research Focus

AI, Agentic Systems & Machine Learning

Applied AI/ML prototyping in secure, real-time defense pipelines. GenAI roadmap development. Multi-agent coordination architectures — from early agent-based computing research through today's agentic AI systems.

Real-Time Distributed Systems

Deep expertise in publish-subscribe middleware, data-centric connectivity, and scalable architectures for defense and Industrial IoT. The connective tissue that makes autonomous systems possible at operational scale.

Data-Centric Security & Cybersecurity

Data-centric threat modeling, MBSE-driven cybersecurity, classified information exchange in joint simulations, and securing real-time communications in contested environments. RMF, NIST 800-171, and CUI compliance.

Rapid Innovation & Fail-Fast R&D

50+ government-funded research programs designed, proposed, won, and executed. SBIR/STTR from Phase I through Phase II. Compressing the cycle from research question to demonstrated capability.

Background

Paul Pazandak, Ph.D. is the founder and chief scientist of Emergent Autonomy. His career spans three decades of defense research — from early work in multi-agent systems and runtime software instrumentation, through sensor exploitation and high-throughput tactical networking at Rockwell Collins, to leading a 10-person research organization at Real-Time Innovations where he managed, technically led, or advised the success of over 40 DoD contracts across AI/ML, cybersecurity, distributed systems, and edge computing.

He has built and sustained research collaborations with national laboratories (PNNL, Brookhaven, Fermilab, Oak Ridge), universities (UC Irvine, Dartmouth, Vanderbilt, Northeastern, Colorado, Cincinnati), and technology engagements with the Air Force, Army, Navy, Missile Defense Agency, DARPA, DOE, and major defense primes. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Minnesota and an active TS/SCI security clearance.

30+

Years in defense R&D

40+

Won/led DoD contracts

$30M+

In research funding secured

TS/SCI

Active clearance

How We Work

Emergent Autonomy operates as a senior research partner embedded within your technical team. We work with defense contractors who need deep domain expertise and a proven PI to tackle hard problems — designing experiments, building prototypes, and delivering the technical evidence that drives investment decisions. Our approach is rapid, iterative, and intellectually honest: find out what works, kill what doesn't, and do it fast.

Research Design & Technical Strategy

Scoping research questions, defining hypotheses and methods, and designing experiments aligned to sponsor objectives and business questions

Rapid Prototyping & Exploration

Hands-on R&D that compresses the innovation cycle — building working prototypes that generate real technical evidence, not slide decks

SBIR/STTR Proposals & Execution

End-to-end: competitive analysis, technical volume authorship, and program execution as PI from concept development through Phase II demonstration and Phase III transition

Cross-Domain Collaboration

Bridging government sponsors, national labs, universities, and industry partners — translating complex research findings into decision-ready guidance

Why Team With Us

A senior PI who wins proposals, creates discriminators, and delivers

When you add Emergent Autonomy to your team, you're not getting a body to fill a labor category. You're getting a research leader who has spent three decades doing exactly what your program needs — defining the technical vision, writing the winning proposal, building the prototype, and briefing the results to the sponsor. One person who owns the problem end to end.

Win More Proposals

Extensive SBIR/STTR and BAA proposal experience with a strong win rate. I know how to frame a research narrative that resonates with government evaluators — because I've been on both sides of that conversation for 30 years.

Create Real Discriminators

Your proposal needs a technical edge that reviewers can't ignore. I identify where genuine innovation exists in your approach and sharpen it into the discriminator that separates you from the pack — grounded in what's actually achievable, not marketing.

Define Vision & Scope, Then Execute

From initial concept through research design, milestone planning, and hands-on execution — I define what we're going to build, why it matters, and then I build it. No hand-off to junior staff. The person who scopes the work does the work.

Bridge Every Part of Your Organization

Decades of working across executives, product teams, marketing, sales, field application engineers, and development. I translate between the business case and the technical reality — and I'm comfortable in any room in the building.

Senior Expertise, Zero Overhead

No layers of management, no bait-and-switch with junior staff, no overhead markup. Direct access to a Ph.D.-level research leader with an active TS/SCI clearance who starts contributing on day one.

Lead With Confidence

I've led research teams, managed multi-million-dollar programs, and presented to senior government sponsors and corporate executives. When your program needs someone who can step in and lead the technical effort, that's what I do.

Domain Experience

GenAI & Large Language Models

Agentic AI Architectures

Multi-Agent Systems

Real-Time Middleware (DDS)

Publish-Subscribe Systems

Edge & Containerized Computing

Data-Centric Security

MBSE-Driven Cybersecurity

Classified Information Exchange

Electronic Warfare

Sensor Exploitation (RADAR, LADAR)

Air-to-Ground Networking

High-Assurance Software

Smart Grid & Energy Systems

Medical Device Security