Sarah Armstrong, director of the Joint Hypersonics Transition Office (JHTO) Systems Engineering Field Activity at Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Crane Division, said her work involves looking for “similarities between program needs and ways to maximize investments,” Naval Sea Systems Command reported Monday.

“I look at today’s research and state-of-the-art systems and determine how they can help carry out the long-term strategy for the hypersonics enterprise,” she added.

The office of the undersecretary of defense for research and engineering’s JHTO created the systems engineering field activity at NSWC Crane in Oct. 2020 and Armstrong said one reason behind the move is that the division has the capability to establish a connection between research and the warfighter. 

“We have a history of looking at what’s in the research world and connecting that with the needs of our customers,” Armstrong said. “We also have a host of capabilities from a systems engineering view, modeling and simulation view, and testing view. That helps us take these ideas into a fieldable capability.” 

She also cited the importance of communication in accelerating tech deployment and shed light on her work at NSWC Crane.

“My job is to take the systems engineering view of the overall hypersonics strategy and break it down to pieces of approachable technologies for the research community to address. We then accelerate the transition of those technologies into program implementation,” Armstrong said.

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Brendan Carr has proposed a spectrum roadmap and new infrastructure reforms meant to extend U.S. leadership in 5G. 

Carr proposed several actions in 2021, including an auction of 100 MHz of spectrum in the 3.45 GHz band at power levels that will support 5G builds, adoption of an order that allows very low power devices to operate in the 6 GHz band and efforts to collect feedback on increasing the power levels for Citizens Broadband Radio Service operations in the 3.5 GHz band, FCC said Monday.

He also outlined his plans for 2022, including holding an auction for the 50 MHz of spectrum between 1300-1350 MHz and another auction of millimeter wave spectrum with the 42 GHz band as one of the prime candidates.

“So in 2017, the FCC put a plan in place to turn things around,” Carr said Monday at an American Enterprise Institute-hosted event. “I am proud of the results our reforms helped deliver—including accelerating new tower builds from just 708 in 2016 to over 46,000 in 2019 alone. Now is the time to build on these accomplishments.”

Carr said the FCC should get the broadband maps done by the fall 2021, kick off the 5G Fund auction in early 2022 and establish a Federal Lands Desk to address permitting delays.

The Department of Energy (DOE) will dole out $4 million in funds to support the development of clean energy technologies as part of the Binational Industrial Research & Development (BIRD) Energy program. 

BIRD Energy was created through the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 to promote U.S.-Israel partnerships to help bring renewable energy technology platforms to market, DOE said Monday.

BIRD Energy invested about $42 million in 55 projects between 2009 and 2020 and has attracted over $700 million in venture capital funds to advance clean energy tech commercialization efforts. Four projects have entered into the commercialization phase, including a new enzyme for biodiesel production and self-powered wireless sensor for energy use monitoring in buildings.

DOE will accept executive summaries through June 30 and final proposals through Aug. 13th with plans to decide on the submissions by late Oct. 2021. The department works with the Israel Innovation Authority and Israel's ministry of energy on the program.

Deloitte AI Institute announced Monday a new partnership with Chatterbox Labs to develop Model Insights for Trustworthy AI, a Deloitte-branded product that will assist organizations address artificial intelligence (AI) ethics by monitoring, updating, and validating clients’ AI models.

"Our Trustworthy AI framework guides organizations in developing appropriate safeguards and using AI in an ethical manner. Through our collaboration with Chatterbox Labs, our Model Insights technology solution can help our clients put the Trustworthy AI framework into action and mitigate the ethical risks associated with AI," commented Beena Ammanath, executive director of Deloitte AI Institute. 

Deloitte discovered in its “State of AI in the Enterprise" third edition study of AI adopters that 95% of respondents were concerned about ethical implications. In response to the survey, Deloitte created its Trustworthy AI framework, which will guide clients on how to use AI in their business models responsibly and effectively. 

The partnership with Chatterbox will operationalize the Trustworthy AI framework with a new technology solution, Model Insights for Trustworthy AI. Model Insights will recognize immediate insights and unaccounted for biases which will allow clients to be sure their AI models are ethical and fair. 

Deloitte's Model Insights solution is built on Artificial Intelligence Model Insights (AIMI) from Chatterbox Labs. This patented platform delivers data and insights into enterprise AI models, enabling organizations to validate and understand their AI initiatives and ensure they are operating fairly and ethically. 

"Our collaboration with the Deloitte AI Institute will provide Deloitte clients with deep insights into how their AI models are operating so that they can mitigate ethical risks and validate their systems are trustworthy and fair," said Danny Coleman, CEO of Chatterbox Labs.

Deloitte and Chatterbox’s collaboration can impact a wide variety of organizations that are rapidly adopting AI technology, such as financial services, government, public sector, life sciences and healthcare. Model Insights for Trustworthy AI could provide those organizations with a deep AI experience with an ethical framework. 

"Rapid developments in AI have unlocked incredible opportunities for organizations globally. At the same time, more work is needed to ensure the ethical use of AI technology," concluded Ammanath.

The U.S. Air Force received a Boeing-built multirole fighter aircraft March 11 at Eglin AF Base in Florida. USAF said Thursday the F-15EX aircraft will undergo a series of developmental and operational tests throughout its entire deployment. Aircrews will perform local airspace flights to familiarize themselves with the fighter prior to the tests.

"Combining these test capabilities on day one of flight test helps ensure F-15EX is ready to execute on air tasking order day one," said Lt. Col. Richard Turner, commander at the 40th FLTS. 

The 40th Flight Test Squadron and the 85th Test and Evaluation Squadron aim to help the aircraft achieve test objectives and ensure rapid delivery of the unit to warfighters via the integrated tests. F-15EX features updated electronic flight controls, cockpit, mission systems, software tools and payload capacity. 

The fighter is also built in support of the Department of Defense's DevSecOps program, an effort that seeks to create secure, agile and flexible software technologies. A second F-15EX unit, dubbed as EX2, will arrive in April.

The Department of Defense (DOD) has established a new center of excellence at the University of California, Riverside, dedicated to communications and situational awareness. 

DOD said Friday that it invested $7.5 million in the Networked Configurable Command, Control and Communications for Rapid Situational Awareness COE or COE-NC4.

The center will focus on large-scale networked systems and support pursuits related to data analysis, communications, computing and sensing, under the management of Army Research Laboratory (ARL).

The Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering launched the COE under a research and education effort to support historically black colleges and universities and minority-serving institutions. UCR is a Hispanic-serving minority institution. 

Jagadeesh Pamulapati, acting deputy director of the research, technology and laboratories office within OUSD (R&E), said partners at the University of California, San Diego, will also contribute research on novel communication and computing paradigms made to facilitate safe transfers of sensitive information.

A group of students hot-fired a rocket engine in a 3D-printed launch and landing pad at Camp Swift in Texas to determine how it can handle launches. The structure, dubbed as Lunar Plume Alleviation Device, is designed to address issues brought by lunar dusts during launch and landing activities, NASA said Saturday.

NASA funded the Lunar PAD project through a competitive proposal writing workshop managed by the agency's Office of the Chief Technologist.

Texas A&M University, startup company ICON and NASA supported the construction of a small-scale prototype for the launch pad. The project is a part of NASA's Artemis Generation effort, a program that seeks to field humans and robots to the Moon's surface.