Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) has launched this year's $95,000 prize challenge for 3D printing, cyber and data science technologies applicable to maritime operations. 

The four-day HACKtheMACHINE competition launched virtually on Tuesday with three separate tracks corresponding to the three technologies, NAVSEA said the same day.

The contest's cyber track will challenge participants to hack the U.S. Navy's 2021 cyber games in a virtual capture-the-flag manner. Contestants will attempt to disable a tool the Navy is looking to use for cyber surveillance.

The data science track will task participants to develop algorithms for health emergency response, and the 3D printing track will focus on metallic 3D printing of naval ship parts. The Navy may issue a small business contract for the 3D printing track's winner.

"HACKtheMACHINE is a great avenue for non-traditional partners, many who are small businesses," said Anne Bannister, director of NAVSEA's small business program.

NASA's Perseverance rover, now on Mars, is preparing to deploy its mini helicopter that will demonstrate flight on the red planet. The space agency said Wednesday that it wants to have the four-pound Ingenuity helicopter fly on April 8th at the earliest. The helicopter would fly over the Martian surface within 30 Mars days or 31 Earth days.

“Aptly named, Ingenuity is a technology demonstration that aims to be the first powered flight on another world and, if successful, could further expand our horizons and broaden the scope of what is possible with Mars exploration," said Lori Glaze, director of NASA's planetary science division.

Mars has a gravity that is approximately one-third of Earth's and gets half the solar energy received by the human-inhabited planet. NASA designed Ingenuity as a small, lightweight rotorcraft that can operate with Perseverance's limited resources. 

The space agency expects Ingenuity's deployment process to take six Mars days, also known as sols. Ingenuity must perform its first flight from a flat patch of Martian land that will serve as an airfield.

“If there is even a hint that something isn’t going as expected, we may decide to hold off for a sol or more until we have a better idea what is going on,” said Farah Alibay, who leads Mars helicopter integration for the Perseverance program.

Caroline Bean, Defense Enterprise Office Solution (DEOS) program director at the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), said DISA is developing a guide to help agencies facilitate their migration to cloud-based collaboration tools offered by DEOS, Nextgov reported Tuesday. 

Bean said the document will serve as a checklist to help defense agencies assess their readiness for migration to DEOS cloud tools and will evolve as more users make the transition. She added that the proposed document will also provide a comparison of capabilities and limitations before and after migration.

Bean noted that one of the migration-related challenges agencies will have to deal with is transitioning users to the permanent Impact Level 5 DEOS platform while the interim IL2 Commercial Virtual Remote tool is still in operation.

“There was a bit of an education that needed to occur as far as you know, make sure you're looking at whether this meeting is on CVR or whether it's on your IL5 instance because it does matter,” Bean said. “So there [was] definitely a lot of user-type education that we needed to do just to figure out how to maneuver through these different chat capabilities now that we have at our fingertips.” 

In October, the General Services Administration (GSA) and the Department of Defense reawarded the DEOS contract to an industry team led by General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) as a result of corrective action following protests to the blanket purchase agreement originally awarded in August 2019. 

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is looking for input on its plans to collect cyber risk information and recommendations from agencies, companies and individuals in the wake of the SolarWinds attack. 

DHS said in a Federal Register notice published Friday that it seeks to conduct information collection and dissemination activities through a standard online form designed to provide insight into vulnerable hosts, impacts and potential reproduction of security vulnerabilities.

The form is also meant to enable companies, organizations and individuals to report system vulnerabilities while providing initial insight to agencies on recently discovered risks. 

“There is constantly a search for security vulnerabilities within information systems, from individuals or nation states wishing to bypass security controls to gain invaluable information, to researchers seeking knowledge in the field of cybersecurity,” the notice states.

In addition, the form is intended to help researchers develop concepts for identifying such vulnerabilities, according to DHS. Comments on the information collection request are due on May 18th.

The Department of Energy (DOE) will award $27.5 million in funds to 16 projects that aim to deliver sustainable water sources and low-cost treatment options to various sectors across 13 U.S. states.

The funding effort's objectives include the assessment of potential opportunities for the generation of power from wastewater and the creation of treatment processes that could yield renewable energy, DOE said Monday.

DOE seeks to enhance wastewater treatment processes for livestock and agriculture field predictive process, machine learning and artificial intelligence controls to augment energy resiliency.

The department also intends to address environmental justice and social issues caused by lack of clean water access in native and rural areas through the funding opportunity.

The awardees are based from Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Georgia, Virginia and California.

The funding opportunity is a part of DOE's efforts to support the government's intent to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. DOE noted facility retrofits may increase energy savings up to 50 percent, while wastewater treatments could produce chemical, hydraulic and thermal energies.

The U.S. Air Force is continuing efforts to update its cyber training platform which the service branch envisions to include features for unique skill sets and new career areas, FedScoop reported Monday.

The Air Force’s office for Business and Enterprise Systems Product Innovation (BESPIN) told the publication that it seeks to provide more customizations for the Digital University (DU) tool to support specific upskilling activities. The service launched DU in collaboration with contractors such as Pluralsight, Udacity and Udemy.

DU leaders expect to expand the platform’s user base to include U.S. Space Force personnel and Airmen other than cybersecurity personnel, according to FedScoop.

“Technical training typically isn’t done well in the Air Force, so there is a demand to upskill our technical airmen for the jobs we need. DU was built to be that central hub,” said 1st Lt. Peyton Cleveland, project manager and lead developer for DU at BESPIN

Cleveland noted that the U.S. Army is also looking into piloting the platform.

NASA has launched an environmental test for the propulsion system of a small satellite that would verify the safety of the Moon's cislunar orbit.

The space agency said Tuesday its Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) would study the unique orbit's dynamics to reduce risks of NASA's planned Gateway lunar outpost.

Gateway would operate from the Moon's orbit to support future missions under the Artemis program, which aims to revive manned space exploration. CAPSTONE will also attempt to demonstrate space-to-Earth communications and navigation between spacecraft. 

California-based Stellar Exploration designed and developed CAPSTONE's propulsion system with early funds from NASA's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program.

Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems builds the CAPSTONE CubeSat under the leadership of Colorado-based Advanced Space and the management of NASA’s Launch Services Program.

A U.S. Army-supported research team from Louisiana State University has demonstrated the use of machine learning to correct errors found in quantum information systems.

The research team tested how a neural network's self-learning and self-evolving functions can correct information used in quantum sensing and communications, the Army said Monday.

This approach is designed to correct the distorted quantum information in photon-composed systems. The team said the technology has the potential to encode multiple information bits in a single photon during scenarios with atmospheric turbulence.

“The team’s result is an exciting step forward in developing this understanding, and it has the potential to ultimately enhance the Army’s sensing and communication capabilities on the battlefield," said Sara Gamble, program manager at the Army Research Office (ARO) within the Army Research Laboratory (ARL).

Join Potomac Officers Club for the 3rd Annual AI Summit on March 30th to learn about the progress, innovations and accomplishments of automation over the last year, what challenges remain, and how industry can help in 2021 and beyond.