Complex Systems &
Space Governance.
Engineering institutional homeostasis at the edge of the known. From astronaut metabolic defense to the thermodynamic governance of critical terrestrial infrastructure.
Operational Nodes
Unit 03 executes cross-domain sorties focused on High-Reliability Organization (HRO) engineering.
Space Health &
Extreme Environments
Investigating the metabolic and physiological constraints of deep-space isolation and planetary analogs.
Research Vector
"Mitigating systemic failure in closed-loop life support through metabolic homeostasis."
Resilient Governance
& Cognitive AI
Developing the NERVE and CORTEX engines to govern state infrastructure via Active Inference.
Research Vector
"Automating entropy detection in national supply chains and energy grids."
Unit 03 Command Team
Dr. A. Hodgers
President & PI
Dr. M. Jadhav
Director: Space Systems
Dr. C. Culligan
Director: Systems Eng
Dr. S. Poradosú
Lead: Aerospace Bio
Nicholas Dillon
Fellow: AI Governance
Aaron Zak
Fellow: Human Factors
Doctoral Integration (DHS)
Unit 03 Thesis Tracks for candidates under the Sovereign Research Scholarship program.
Track A: Frontier Logistics
Metabolic performance and closed-loop supply chains in extreme isolation (Antarctic/Deep-Space analogs).
Track B: Systemic Governance
HRO implementation and AI diagnostic oversight for critical terrestrial infrastructure during crisis events.
Command the Complexity.
Join Strategic Unit 03 to engineer institutional homeostasis.
Apply for Selection
Aaron Zak
Fellow: Human Factors
Unit 03: Complex Systems
Cognitive Engineering &
Decision Integrity.
The Research Frontier
Aaron Zak specializes in the Human-Machine Interface (HMI) within high-reliability environments. His research focuses on the "Cognitive Last Mile"—the critical juncture where automated intelligence is transmuted into human action.
The IHRI Command
Zak leads the Human Factors Integration for the CORTEX and NERVE stacks. His mandate is to architect the interface protocols used by Sovereign Node Commanders, ensuring that AI-driven outputs minimize cognitive friction and maintain human agency during crisis events.
"If the algorithm is perfect but the Commander is overwhelmed, the system fails. We engineer the interface to ensure that the human remains the primary governor of the signal."