The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency will host an online industry event from June 23rd to 24th to inform companies about the Defense Sciences Office's upcoming research pursuits.

Discover DSO Day participants will gain insight into the office's science and technology priorities over the next year, DARPA said Tuesday.

Panel discussions at the event will cover the following topics: alternative computing, next-generation artificial intelligence, under governed spaces, resilient and environment-resistant systems, sensing, communications and metrology.

The office will also use the event to further explain an upcoming solicitation scheduled for release prior to the event. Proposers may engage in discussions with program managers from DARPA.

DARPA Director Stefanie Tompkins and DSO Director Valerie Browning will also present at the event.

William Nelson, director of the U.S. Army's cross-functional team for assured position, navigation and timing (PNT), said the service wants to maintain access to its future payloads hosted on non-Army satellites, Breaking Defense reported Tuesday.

Nelson said the Army does not want to build its own intelligence constellation but instead wants to make sure it can access its own payloads on satellites hosted by other services, federal agencies, or commercial entities.

The service branch seeks access to a tactical layer of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance satellites that help missiles navigate through adversarial territory.

The Army is now in talks with the U.S. Space Force, the Space Development Agency (SDA) and the intelligence community to achieve this goal.

The Department of Defense (DOD) has informed ethical hackers that they can now look for security issues across DOD's publicly available information systems under its expanded Vulnerability Disclosure Program.

DOD said Tuesday that its Cyber Crime Center-led program now covers public defense networks, connected devices and frequency-based communications platforms.

"This expansion is a testament to transforming the government's approach to security and leapfrogging the current state of technology within DOD," said Brett Goldstein, the director of the Defense Digital Service.

The initiative is a product of the “Hack the Pentagon” pilot project launched by the Pentagon five years ago in collaboration with bug bounty platform provider HackerOne to identify security flaws on publicly accessible defense websites.

Participants have reported over 29,000 vulnerabilities to the department since the program's inception, with more than 70 percent of the reports deemed to be valid, according to officials.

DC3 Director Kristopher Johnson said DOD's online portals account for a portion of its entire attack surface.

If you're interested in cybersecurity, check out GovCon Wire's Defense Cybersecurity Forum coming up on May 12. Click here to learn more.

The digital engineering team at the Department of Energy's (DOE) Idaho National Laboratory (INL) aims to expand the capability of general artificial intelligence by using algorithms and auditable data.

Chris Ritter, leader of the digital and software engineering group at INL, said on a Federal News Network segment that his office works to curate data and transform it into a format that could present scale-up advantages.

With data being required to train algorithms, he discussed a type of algorithm called “explainable or transparent artificial intelligence.”

"So it’s completely auditable. And we can apply some penalize regression techniques to those areas, and you can make that a more novel technique,” added Ritter.

He also talked about research efforts to address complex energy problems by applying machine learning.

"Machine learning is about having pre-programmed devices, which can conduct analysis on their own," the INL official said.

If you're interested in the government's data-related efforts then check out GovCon Wire's Data Innovation Forum coming up on June 15. Click here to learn more.

Ted Kaouk, chairman of the Federal Chief Data Officers Council, said the council is preparing to introduce 10 data science training program use cases compiled by its data skills development working group that seeks to help agencies strengthen their data workforces, FedScoop reported Tuesday.

“We have an opportunity to accelerate that learning because we can learn about what others are doing – what’s worked for them,” Kaouk said Tuesday during an ACT-IAC event Tuesday. “And I think that crosses the data skills domain; that crosses data sharing."

The council’s COVID-19 data coordination working group has created prototypes to tackle challenges related to data sharing between agencies. 

“That’s really focused on working with [the Department of Health and Human Services] to facilitate broader access to key public health data across internal agencies and developing decision support tools that are primed to be shared across agencies,” said Kaouk, who also serves as chief data officer of the Department of Agriculture.

He also expects agencies to come up with their first artificial intelligence inventories later in 2021 upon the release of guidance being developed by the Federal CDO Council with the Federal Chief Information Officers Council. 

To register for this virtual forum, visit the GovConWire Events page.

SAP National Security Services (SAP NS2) announced Tuesday its most recent FedRAMP Joint Authorization Board (JAB) approval for SAP NS2 Cloud Platform (SCP) as a Platform as a Service (PaaS). SCP is now authorized to appear on the FedRAMP Marketplace effective immediately. SAP NS2 is a subsidiary of SAP.

“SAP NS2 Cloud Platform is another important piece of the puzzle of solutions that customers can leverage in their daily operations. We are thrilled to have SCP become the newest addition to our JAB-approved solutions, joining the likes of SuccessFactors, Employee Central Payroll, and most recently, SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC). SCP is the secure core that unites all of SAP NS2 Cloud,” commented Harish Luthra, SAP NS2 Cloud’s president.

SAP Intelligence Enterprise’s foundation is SCP. By incorporating the SCP, customers can be agile, improve business value and enjoy constant innovation through integration, data to value, and extensibility of the SAP landscape.

SCP can also give customers the flexibility to build, manage and deploy applications. Customers who use SCP will have the capability to connect data and business processes to one integrated platform. Other features allow users to govern their data, gain insights about their recent operations and integrate or extend applications to optimize current processes and ignite innovation.

FedRAMP is a government program that supplies a standardized approach to security assessment, authorization and continuous monitoring for cloud products and services. FedRAMP saves time and expenses by enabling rapid procurement of information systems and services, prevents duplicate assessment efforts and ensures consistent application of information security standards across all government organizations.

About SAP NS2

SAP NS2 supports the mission of national security by providing innovative computing, analytics, and cloud solutions, all delivered by U.S. persons on U.S. soil. From custom, development to secure cloud, and virtually everything in between, SAP NS2 powers the secure intelligent enterprise.

Maj. Gen. DeAnna Burt, deputy commander of Space Operations Command, said the U.S. Space Force wants to gather more cyber personnel, National Defense Magazine reported Monday.

USSF is discussing with the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Cyber Command about expanding the former's cyber workforce, Burt said at a Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies event. She said USSF needs the expertise to handle the cybersecurity aspects of satellite communications and data networks.

Burt added that the cyber area also presents opportunities to collaborate with the private sector, which has the potential to help USSF characterize enemy behaviors. She said she expects USSF to build the envisioned cyber workforce within three to five years.