The military venture capital arm has tapped technology research firm Galois and University of Washington scientists to develop computer games that will rope in the public to verify if military systems are free from software errors and security bugs, contract databases show.

The funding came out of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency program Crowd Sourced Formal Verification. The goal of the experiment is to create puzzles that gamers can solve on laptops and mobile devices. The game solutions would help run formal verification, the application of mathematical theories to determine if software code is free from bugs.

The three-year research and development effort, previously reported by NextGov, aims to help the Pentagon cut costs while it grapples with a shortage of security specialists to test weapons systems software.

The agency estimates that it will spend $4.7 million on the project in fiscal 2012, and $32 million by fiscal 2015, according to a DARPA request for proposals. Neither Galois nor the University of Washington responded to queries.