The General Services Administration (GSA) has supported the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) information technology modernization initiative and helped consolidate several online contact centers, enhance the USDA website and boost the Farm Loan program's approval rates by 3.5 percent to date.

USDA became the first subject of the Technology Transformation Services' Centers of Excellence in 2018 and since then, the department has tackled IT modernization issues and avoided more than $50 million in costs, GSA said Wednesday.

The partnership has focused on addressing challenges in cloud adoption, contact center, customer experience, data and analytics as well as infrastructure optimization in an effort to transform USDA.

Collaboration results include the closure of 31 of 37 data centers, reduction of duplicate data analytics, dashboards and data visualization training, launch of a single omnichannel infrastructure for contract center support, development of a Centralized USDA Cloud Office and establishment of data analytics capability.

"The IT modernization initiative] creates not only a new customer-focused environment but also ensures we continue to save millions of dollars in duplicative and antiquated systems each year,” said Gary Washington, chief information officer of USDA.

The Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center (AFNWC) has partnered with contractor Sabel Systems to establish a hub that consolidates and manages data for the Minuteman III program.

The Teamcenter hub brings the opportunity to smoothen the 18-year transition from the aging Minuteman III system to the new Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD), Capt. John McCrae of AFNWC's Minuteman III Systems Directorate wrote in a commentary published Monday.

The hub will help the program office visualize workflows and work breakdown structures of systems through 3D illustrations.

“Teamcenter provides us the capability to maintain a digital library of our complex weapon system and has the ability to store that data in a secure cloud,” said Col. Erik Quigley, director, AFNWC Minuteman III Systems Directorate.

Minuteman III is an intercontinental ballistic missile system employed by the U.S. military since the 1970s. GBSD will serve as Minuteman III's successor.

Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is implementing a new platform designed to streamline research activities and standardize the regulatory review of VA research operations across the nation. VA said Monday its Office of Research and Development (ORD) has transitioned 105 research-active medical centers and the Central Institutional Review Board (IRBNet) to the new IRBNet platform.

IRBNet consolidates all research operations into a single platform and provides ORD a nationwide research overview in the form of a unified, authoritative dataset.

VA also expects IRBNet to support policy implementation, mitigate regulatory risks, boost research transparency and reduce the workload of research offices.

“This enterprise approach will decrease the need for national data calls and will enable the Office of Research and Development to have an ‘air traffic control board’ to see where studies, by topic, are happening across the system,” said Molly Klote, director at VA's Office of Research Protections, Policy and Education.

The National Nuclear Security Administration has launched a new web portal that contains guidance for commercial nuclear industry, information about U.S. export control regulations for civilian nuclear technology, and other features that support nuclear nonproliferation efforts.

The U.S. Nuclear Nexus also provides training, tools and recommendations from NNSA and the Department of Energy’s National Laboratory to promote understanding of understand export control compliance, nonproliferation and security standards, DOE said Tuesday.

In addition to supporting NNSA’s nuclear nonproliferation efforts, the platform is designed to help boost U.S. nuclear technology competitiveness within the global market.

Nexus will also include material and resources for academics working in nuclear technology, according to future plans. Argonne National Laboratory maintains Nexus in collaboration with NNSA.

The U.S. Air Force's research organization and the U.K.'s defense science and technology laboratory are set to conduct the final round of a collaborative challenge that features autonomous artificial intelligence agents designed to control small drone swarms and compete against each other in a simulated game of capture the flag.

The 2021 Swarm and Search AI Challenge kicked off in early May and is scheduled to culminate with a single-elimination event among five teams on Friday, the Air Force Research Laboratory said Tuesday.

For the showcase event, finalists will present technical approaches they used to win the head-to-head matches using AI algorithms.

“The goal of this annual challenge is to attract the best and brightest minds to solve autonomy and AI problems and to spark innovation," said Mick Hitchcock, AFRL’s program manager for the Swarm and Search Capture the Flag Challenge.

Hitchcock noted that the event seeks to highlight collaboration among AFRL, DstL, Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) and participants from the small business community.

“It’s all about the power of these groups coming together on a common problem and generating innovative ideas that can yield real-world solutions.”

GTRI built a multiagent simulation platform for the competition, while developers trained AI agents on speed, stealth, attack and defense strategies.