NewMonics, Inc., a software company head quartered in the Iowa State University Research Park, has been awarded a $1.3 million contract by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

The contract calls for NewMonics to continue the development of its software, which DARPA uses in the products it builds for the U.S. Department of Defense.

“DARPA builds a lot of embedded computers for analysis of radar, automatic missile systems and airplane navigation and communication, both data and voice,” Jack Linge, director of business development for NewMonics, said.

Embedded computers are the microprocessors “hidden” in cars, telephones, fax machines, cellular phones and many other consumer products.

NewMonics produces software based on technology licensed from ISU that allows manufacturers of embedded computers to use a precise version of the popular new computer language called Java, which allows programs and data to be easily shared and transferred over the Internet.

Linge said the contract is similar to a research grant. “This is an exploratory award. They are funding us to develop exploratory technologies,” he said.

He said the potential applications of NewMonics’ software are “quite broad,” adding that DARPA would decide how to use the technology after it ran a series of tests.

“[The contract] allows us to be more aggressive in recruiting ISU graduates to come work for us and to accelerate our development of the project,” Linge said.

NewMonics currently employs several ISU graduates, said NewMonics founder and president Kelvin Nilsen, a former ISU computer science professor who started the company in March 1996.

The agreement between DARPA and NewMonics also means more jobs for Iowa.