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Mathematician Bruce West Retires From Army Research Lab; Director Patrick Baker Quoted
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Mathematician Bruce West Retires From Army Research Lab; Director Patrick Baker Quoted

Bruce West, a senior research scientist for mathematics at the Army Research Laboratory (ARL), retired on June 29th after over two decades with the federal government. West has developed mathematical models for physical, social and life sciences over a span of 50 years, the U.S. Army said Tuesday.

His mathematical research contributed to medicine theories, mechanical ventilation, cardiopulmonary bypass pumps and depression treatment. He also developed a mathematical strategy to address complexity-driven research barriers that challenged the Army.

The Army Research Office (ARO) held a ceremony at Research Triangle Park to honor West's service.

“Complexity is increasing, and the impact of Bruce and his research will be enduring," said Patrick Baker, ARL director.

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USAF Col. Jeffrey Phillips Adopts New Leadership Approach With Expanded Responsibility
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USAF Col. Jeffrey Phillips Adopts New Leadership Approach With Expanded Responsibility

Col. Jeffrey Phillips, commander of the U.S. Air Force's 67th Cyberspace Wing, said he has created a task force that not only trains and equips teams but also operationally leads them, C4ISRnet reported Wednesday.

This approach, used by Task Force Mustang, provides the commander a wider scope of oversight, which now includes assigning the right teams for missions.

“That construct has enabled us to more efficiently get cyber protection teams on task to defend critical systems that are of importance to both the Air Force and joint force commanders,” the commander said in an interview with C4ISRnet.

Phillips said that some cyber teams remained idle for up to two years because there was no authority available to properly give them assignments. His new approach grants colonels the responsibility to determine campaign requirements and assign corresponding units.

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Report: DHS Procurement Chief Soraya Correa to Retire July 31st; PSC CEO David Berteau Quoted
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Report: DHS Procurement Chief Soraya Correa to Retire July 31st; PSC CEO David Berteau Quoted

Soraya Correa, chief procurement officer at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) since 2015, has informed her staff that she will retire from the federal government at the end of July after a more than four-decade career. 

Correa is responsible for ensuring the delivery of operational procurement services throughout the DHS in her current capacity and is known for leading the establishment of the department's Procurement Innovation Lab framework, which received the Secretary's 2016 Award for Excellence. 

Her federal service also included leadership roles at Naval Sea Systems Command, General Services Administration (GSA), NASA and the Immigration and Naturalization Service. 

Several industry executives said Correa's leadership brought common sense to federal deals, encouraged internal collaboration within the DHS, opened the CPO's office to the industry and championed innovation. 

“She was reachable and responsive no matter the issue. We didn’t always like the response we got, but we always got one no matter the issue,” David Berteau, president and CEO of the Professional Services Council (PSC) as well as a two-time Wash100 Award winner, was quoted as saying by Federal News Network.

“She also brought continuity and stability to DHS procurement that was very much appreciated by industry," he added.

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DOE to Fund Wave Energy Conversion Projects; Secretary Jennifer Granholm Quoted
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DOE to Fund Wave Energy Conversion Projects; Secretary Jennifer Granholm Quoted

The Department of Energy (DOE) has unveiled a $27 million funding opportunity for research and development projects that will focus on converting ocean wave energy into carbon-free electricity. 

DOE said Tuesday that grant recipients under the Advancing Wave Energy Technologies through Open Water Testing initiative will create and test wave energy converters (WEC) at the PacWave South facility in Oregon.

The department expects the program to generate open-access data about wind, wave and other relevant measurements that could support WEC system design efforts for PacWave and the energy community as a whole.

"With wave energy, we have the opportunity to add more renewable power to the grid and deploy more sustainable energy to hard-to-reach communities," said Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.

She added that the department seeks to encourage clean energy technology adoption through investments in the domestic business and academic sectors.

DOE will host a webinar on July 22nd to discuss the funding opportunity. Interested parties can submit concept papers through Aug. 13th and complete full applications until Oct. 5th.

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GSA Names Nina Albert Public Buildings Service Commissioner
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GSA Names Nina Albert Public Buildings Service Commissioner

Nina Albert, formerly vice president of real estate and parking at the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), has been named commissioner of the General Services Administration’s public buildings service (GSA PBS).

She will be responsible for managing the agency’s federal real estate portfolio that includes facility construction and maintenance projects, GSA said Wednesday.

Her two-decade professional experience covers public real estate disposition, public-private partnership negotiation and sustainable development work. In her previous role, Albert oversaw WMATA’s transit-oriented development and multibillion-dollar real estate portfolios in the Washington, D.C. metro region.

She also worked as a project manager at the D.C. Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development and as a company executive officer at the U.S. Army Signal Corps earlier in her career.

Albert holds both an MBA in real estate and an MRP in urban planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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NASA Seeks Tech Payloads Under Flight Opportunities Program
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NASA Seeks Tech Payloads Under Flight Opportunities Program

NASA is seeking proposals from industry, academia and research institutions to test and demonstrate technology and research payloads on commercial suborbital vehicles as part of the Flight Opportunities program.

The space agency said Wednesday awardees can get up to $650,000 each in the form of a grant or cooperative agreement under the program to procure flights from commercial providers that operate suborbital rockets, high-altitude balloons, parabolic aircraft and other vehicles.

NASA is interested in three topics for the 2021 Tech Flights solicitation: capabilities that support national lunar efforts and other initiatives in cislunar space including scientific discovery and human and robotic exploration; Earth-observing capabilities to support national efforts to address climate change; and technologies that ensure national leadership in space and support the commercial space industry’s growth.

The agency will hold a question-and-answer session on July 14 with plans to accept preliminary proposals through July 26 and full proposals by Oct. 4. NASA intends to select awardees by December and award funding by February 2022.

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GAO: Policymakers Should Support Increased Training on Use of Forensic Algorithms
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GAO: Policymakers Should Support Increased Training on Use of Forensic Algorithms

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has presented three possible actions policymakers can take to address challenges related to the use of forensic algorithms by law enforcement agencies and one is supporting increased training for criminal investigators and analysts. 

GAO noted that training on human factors could help reduce risks related to analyst error and enable users to understand and interpret the results, according to a report published Tuesday. 

With regard to facial recognition and latent print algorithms, providing analysts training on cognitive biases could help improve objectivity and awareness. 

GAO also recommended that policymakers support the development and implementation of policies and standards on the appropriate use of such algorithms and advance increased transparency with regard to the use, performance and testing of the technology. 

Law enforcement agencies use latent print, facial recognition and probabilistic genotyping algorithms in criminal investigations. However, the congressional watchdog found that the use of forensic technologies presents challenges to investigators and analysts, including potential bias and misuse and difficulty in interpreting results.

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Bob Newberry on Top Priorities of DOD’s Irregular Warfare Technical Support Directorate
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Bob Newberry on Top Priorities of DOD’s Irregular Warfare Technical Support Directorate

Bob Newberry, head of the irregular warfare technical support directorate at the Department of Defense (DOD), talked about his top priorities as director and the first one he cited is “greater affordability at the speed of relevance,” which is part of the National Defense Strategy.

“We want to get to contracts in less than a year, so that is really tightening up a schedule from requirements to signing a contract, and we want to deliver whatever capability we’re trying to develop in one to two years,” Newberry said.

Another priority he mentioned is the use of analytical tools based on artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms for big data analysis.

“We’ve really expanded that this year on a recent broad agency announcement — we asked the vendors to look at how they could use artificial intelligence or machine learning on all of the requirements to reduce the workload on individual operators,” Newberry added.

Other priorities Newberry cited are increasing lethality with a focus on small teams and individuals, improving survivability for personnel and facilities, strengthening alliances, optimizing human performance and learning and addressing chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive threats.

Newberry also talked about the directorate’s reorganization effort and the focus areas of the irregular warfare subgroup.

He said industry can reach out to the directorate and present their technologies and ideas through industry days, tactical communications and telematics workshops and challenge programs.

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Pentagon Cancels $10B JEDI Cloud Contract; Acting DOD CIO John Sherman Quoted
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Pentagon Cancels $10B JEDI Cloud Contract; Acting DOD CIO John Sherman Quoted

The Defense Department announced that its potential ten-year, $10 billion Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) cloud computing contract, which was first awarded to Microsoft in Oct. 2019, has been canceled due to cloud advancement and the development of other initiatives, the Pentagon said in a statement on Tuesday.

“JEDI was developed at a time when the Department’s needs were different and both the CSPs technology and our cloud conversancy was less mature,” said John Sherman, acting chief information officer for the Department of Defense (DOD).

“In light of new initiatives like JADC2 and AI and Data Acceleration (ADA), the evolution of the cloud ecosystem within DoD, and changes in user requirements to leverage multiple cloud environments to execute mission, our landscape has advanced and a new way-ahead is warranted to achieve dominance in both traditional and non-traditional warfighting domains,” he added.

Following the decision to cancel the $10 billion JEDI cloud computing contract on Tuesday, the Pentagon also announced its intent to seek request for proposals (RFPs) from both Microsoft and Amazon Web Services (AWS), for its new Joint Warfighter Cloud Capability (JWCC) multi-cloud and multi-vendor indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract.

The Pentagon said that AWS and Microsoft are the only two cloud service providers with the capabilities to meet DOD’s requirements for its up-to-date cloud computing efforts under the current administration. However, the department plans to continue its market research to determine other potential CSPs with the capabilities to meet DOD’s requirements.

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Huntington Ingalls Industries to Acquire Alion Science and Technology For $1.65B; Andy Green Quoted
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Huntington Ingalls Industries to Acquire Alion Science and Technology For $1.65B; Andy Green Quoted

Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) announced on Tuesday that the company has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Alion Science and Technology for $1.65 billion in cash from Veritas Capital, subject to customary adjustments. Alion is a technology-driven solutions provider for the global defense marketplace.

The transaction constitutes an enterprise value-to-expected 2022 adjusted EBITDA1 multiple of approximately 12.2x. It will make Alion a part of Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Technical Solutions division and is expected to close in the second half of 2021.

“The combination of Alion and our Technical Solutions business represents a significant value creation opportunity that broadens our capabilities and customer access in our target markets,” commented Andy Green, HII’s executive vice president and president of Technical Solutions.

“The experienced Alion team and the highly complementary solutions and products they provide are consistent with the strategic vision we have articulated for the Technical Solutions business, and we are excited about the significant growth potential this combination represents,” added Green, a 2021 Wash100 Award recipient.

Alion provides innovative advanced engineering and R&D services in ISR, military training and simulation, cyber, data analytics and other next-generation technology-based solutions to Department of Defense (DOD) and Intelligence Community customers, with the U.S. Navy representing approximately one-third of the company’s annual revenues.

Alion is expected to continue growing with over $3 billion in backlog, over $5 billion in estimated contract value and a notable opportunity pipeline. The company employs more than 3,2000 professionals, with over 80% of employees maintaining security clearances.

The acquisition will create over $2.6 billion revenue products and solutions business. It also creates substantial revenue and value creation opportunities over the long term, further positioning the Technical Solutions division as HII’s growth driver.

The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2021, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals.

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