Battelle announced on Wednesday its new collaborative effort with the Ohio State University and Northwestern University aimed at combating ‘misinformation’ related to COVID-19 by assessing the risk of COVID-19 ‘misinformation’ in near real-time. The effort is sponsored by a $1 million grant from the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA). 

Katie Liszewski, a cybersecurity engineer, stated that “These tools track the potential of new misinformation spreading through influential groups to the general public and eliminates the need to exhaustively catalog the millions of tweets, posts, and likes generated every day."

“The approach will enable decision-makers and spokespeople to quickly craft public service announcements to counter dangerous misinformation without causing information fatigue,” Liszewski added. 

Previously, attempts to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 ‘misinformation’ have been mostly unsuccessful because they were attempts to retroactively correct false narratives. The team’s investigators’ backgrounds include cyber trust and analytics, mathematics, social networks, communication and public policy. 

Erik Nisbet, Owen L. Coon Endowed Professor of Policy Analysis and Communication, said of the team, “There have been many efforts to track and mitigate misinformation, but this initiative is truly unique due to its combination of multiple approaches from network science, social media analytics, and computational linguistics, and an understanding of the psychology behind its spread and influence.”

The first concepts to battle ‘misinformation’ began when COVID-19 was first reported in the U.S. The collaboration was initially internally funded by both Battelle and the Ohio State Office of Research.

About Battelle

Every day, the people of Battelle apply science and technology to solving what matters most. At major technology centers and national laboratories worldwide, Battelle conducts research and development, designs and manufactures products and delivers critical services for government and commercial customers. Since its founding in 1929, Battelle, Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, serves the national security, health and life sciences and energy and environmental industries. 

President Biden plans to present a $6 trillion investment in transportation, infrastructure, education, environmental efforts and other factors relevant to the U.S. economy, the New York Times reported Thursday.

The planned budget proposal for fiscal year 2022 aligns with Biden's agenda to improve the nation's social security standards and modernize public infrastructure. 

Biden's plan would require historically high levels of spending for water piping, manufacturing research, internet service, and other investments that aim to sustain U.S. global competitiveness.

The investment would also include boosted spending in the areas of social welfare and national security. New York Times reported Biden's plan might require borrowed funds in addition to boosted tax revenue.

The Department of Defense (DOD) has proposed changes to the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation (DFARS) Supplement to implement a provision in the fiscal year 2018 National Defense Authorization Act that provides offerors enhanced rights with regard to postaward debriefings for competitively negotiated contracts, delivery and task orders.

Section 818 of the FY 2018 NDAA seeks to increase postaward debriefing requirements for contracts valued at $10 million or higher and provide debriefed contractors an opportunity to send follow-up questions and receive responses from agencies, according to the proposed rule posted on May 20.

The section also intends to “extend the timeframe during which the contracting officer shall immediately suspend contract performance or terminate the awarded contract if a protest is filed,” the document states.

The proposed rule would apply to contracts that deal with the procurement of commercial off-the-shelf products and other commercial items in an effort to promote competition and further develop small business capabilities.

“Properly conducted postaward debriefings with this enhanced transparency may minimize the number of unnecessary protests filed while strengthening relationships between DoD and industry,” the proposed rule reads.

Comments on the proposed rule are due July 19th.

The Department of Energy (DOE) has allocated $100 million in funding to support efforts to expand the skilled science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workforce through the Early Career Research Program. 

Eighty-three scientists representing 11 DOE National Laboratories and 41 universities will receive grants that will cover salary and research expenses over a five-year period, the department said Thursday.

Some of the awardees' research topics are advanced scientific computing research, basic and fusion energy sciences, biological and environmental research as well as nuclear and high energy physics. Grants also provide for accelerator and isotope research, development and production.

“Maintaining our nation’s braintrust of world-class scientists and researchers is one of DOE’s top priorities—and that means we need to give them the resources they need to succeed early on in their careers,” said Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm.

National Labs researchers are entitled to annual grants of $500,000 while university-based researchers are set to receive $150,000 funding per year.

AT&T announced on Thursday that it has secured four task orders from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to modernize and transform DHS’s telecommunications infrastructure with IP-based networking services. The awards have a combined value of $306 million over 12 years if all options are exercised.

The task orders require AT&T to work for networking services supporting the DHS’ Headquarters, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and Science and Technology Directorate.

“We’re honored DHS selected us to modernize its communications capabilities with an IP-based infrastructure. We expect the networking transformation to power the many missions of DHS agencies into the future,” commented Stacy Schwartz, AT&T vice president of FirstNet and Public Safety.

The DHS aims to benefit from AT&T’s innovative and advanced communications technology that includes highly secure, reliable networking capabilities that will broadly support critical missions of public safety users across DHS agencies.

AT&T will assist the DHS in virtualizing its networking capabilities on the company’s platform. It will also deliver advanced technologies to DHS such as its IP software-based networking capabilities, SD-WAN, cybersecurity protections that reduce the number of internet connections for improved monitoring and zero-trust networking.

The DHS employs over  240,000 personnel in a wide variety of jobs. In order to successfully achieve its mission, the Department requires a technologically advanced communications platform that offers fast connectivity and data transport in a highly secure manner that AT&T can provide.

The task orders also provide DHS with access to AT&T’s FirstNet, the only network built with public safety for public safety to deliver reliable, always-on priority communications to its first responders and public safety personnel. AT&T is currently working to execute the task orders.

Alion Science and Technology has received a potential five-year, $64 million task order under the  Department of Defense Information Analysis Center’s (DoD IAC) multiple-award contract (MAC) vehicle to perform for the C-5M Super Galaxy Reliability, Integrity, Maintainability, and Engineering for the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC)/WLS.

“Alion’s team of leading C-5 Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) will continue to provide innovative solutions to platform and sustainment engineering challenges,” said Terri Walker-Spoonhour, Alion’s senior vice president of Operations and Acting general manager of the Cyber and Electronic Warfare Group.

C-5M Super Galaxy Division (WLS) of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC), a sub-unit of the Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC), is located at Robins Air Force Base (AFB), GA and has worldwide management and engineering responsibility for the C-5M Super Galaxy (C-5M) fleet.

“We have years of experience across the C-5 platform, including support of Aircraft Wiring and Avionics Integrity Program (AVIP), Landing Gear Integrity Program (LGIP) parts obsolescence, DMSMS resolution and high maintenance driver investigations ultimately identifying proposed solutions and risk mitigation strategies which improve aircraft availability.”

WLS is responsible for scheduled maintenance requirements management, fleet management, Configuration Management (CM), and technical and logistical support of the C-5M fleet of 52 aircraft. These DoD IAC MAC task orders are awarded by the U.S. Air Force’s 774th Enterprise Sourcing Squadron.