NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter performed its initial flight on the Red Planet and flew for a total of 39.1 seconds at an altitude of 10 feet on Monday. 

A team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) confirmed the first flight demonstration of the solar-powered helicopter after receiving data from Ingenuity through the space agency’s Perseverance Mars rover, the agency said Monday.

The rover documented the helicopter’s autonomous flight operations using its Navcam and Mastcam-Z imagers. The Ingenuity team developed the algorithms running on navigation, control and guidance systems aboard the helicopter.

Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for science at NASA, said the Martian field that served as the venue for the flight demo will be called the Wright Brothers Field in honor of aviation pioneers Orville and Wilbur Wright from Dayton, Ohio.

The helicopter team will analyze all imagery and data from the flight demo and come up with a plan for the second flight test that is set to take place no earlier than April 22nd. The team will assess how to expand the aircraft’s flight profile once Ingenuity carries out and survives the second experimental test.

Anne Neuberger, deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technology and a 2021 Wash100 Award winner, said that due to an increase in patching efforts, the Biden administration is “standing down” the two unified coordination groups that were established in response to cyber breaches involving SolarWinds and Microsoft Exchange.

The White House “will be handling further responses through standard incident management procedures,” Neuberger said in a statement on Monday.

She said the private sector played a role in the development of a Microsoft one-click tool to help facilitate data sharing and expedite patching efforts for victims. “This type of partnership sets precedent for future engagements on significant cyber incidents,” she added.

Neuberger mentioned other efforts in response to the cyber incidents, including the release of cyber advisories by the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the creation of a methodology by CISA to monitor trends in patching and efforts of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the FBI to identify the scale of the cyber incidents in partnership with industry and legal authorities.

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The State Department's Global Engagement Center (GEC) uses artificial intelligence in efforts to address the fake news spreads and state-sponsored propaganda targeting the U.S. government, Nextgov reported Friday.

Daniel Kimmage, acting coordinator of GEC, said at a Foreign Policy event that the center uses AI to identify coordinated threats and understand the corresponding landscape.

He said they apply AI and statistics to process input gathered from the intelligence community and traditional information sources. GEC's AI tools include natural language processing and mathematical models that help analysts determine the contextual meaning of the selected text.

The center has tasked a team to identify modern technologies that have the potential to support the GEC mission, with more than 200 tools reviewed so far.

Unisys Corporation today announced the winners of the 12th annual Unisys Cloud 20/20™ contest, one of India's largest and most popular annual student innovation programs. The contest received more than 685 submissions from more than 400 colleges across India. 

"Our flagship event Cloud 20/20 has been encouraging innovative thinking among the young minds of today, equipping them with holistic experiential learning to make them industry-ready. Established as an event that truly celebrates the spirit of innovation and collaboration, Cloud 20/20 has proven to be the perfect platform that bridges the gap between industry and academia.

Our aim is to bring together the country's technical talent, hone their knowledge with practical experience, and provide them with a stepping stone into the professional world," said Sumed Marwaha, managing director, Unisys India and regional vice president, Services, Unisys.

The project titled Edge-driven Biometrics and Facial Recognition was picked as the winner. The winning project was led by students of M.S. Ramaiah Institute of Technology who had submitted a next-generation, reliable biometric and facial recognition model, based on edge computing and designed for a workplace environment. 

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released a draft publication focused on digital twin technology, a new research and standardization area for providing and viewing electronic representations of real-world entities. 

NIST said Friday it seeks comment on "Considerations for Digital Twin Technology and Emerging Standards," or Draft NISTIR 8356, and will receive responses until June 16th.

The report aims to help the public understand the concept of digital twins as well as its purpose by defining the said technology, describing its characteristics, features and functions and detailing its expected operational uses.

Novel and traditional cybersecurity challenges posed by digital twin architectures were discussed in the draft publication. Draft NISTIR 8356 was also created to tackle trust considerations and run them in the context of current guidance and documents from the agency.

Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I., said a cybersecurity bill that was reintroduced in the House would create a diplomatic path for the federal government to define norms and boundaries in cyberspace, the Auburn University Samuel Ginn College of Engineering reported Friday.

Langevin and fellow lawmaker Michael McCaul, R-Texas, gave their perspectives during a virtual forum hosted by the university’s McCrary Institute regarding how the Cyber Diplomacy Act could facilitate interagency efforts to address the global threat landscape.

A bipartisan group of five House members revived the Cyber Diplomacy Act in February to establish an international cyberspace policy at the State Department and appoint an official to represent U.S. cyber interests abroad.

“Reasserting ourselves with a high-level, high-ranking ambassador-level position representing the nation and our interests on the international stage, with an appropriate bureau to back up that person and personnel with the expertise, will effectively help with the rulemaking and norm-setting,” Langevin said.

McCaul added that the bill seeks to increase the State Department’s collaboration with allied and partner countries in dealing with cyber adversaries. The House is scheduled to vote on the bill later this month.

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