Two directorates within the U.S. Air Force (USAF) are preparing to launch a new event that will challenge procurement officers to deliver an automated workload reduction system.

USAF said Friday its Digital Directorate and Command, Control, Communications, Intelligence and Networks Directorate will host the competition titled the “Building Digital Wingman Challenge" on March 15.

The event will feature a bot-building competition, a discussion panel, training events and coaching about RPA technologies.

The effort seeks a robotic process automation system that would perform repetitive computer tasks in place of human users, who can then instead focus on more important work.

“This is an opportunity to create real and useful software applications and create solutions for obsolete processes we use in conducting our acquisition business – a chance to solve that frustrating manual process that can be readily automated,” said Steven Wert, Digital program executive officer.

A team from Hanscom Air Force Base demonstrated RPA's support capabilities in a competition held last year by the Air Force's vice chief of staff. The team's Bouncer Bot system helped the base's personnel perform security checks on the base's guests.

Tom Sasala, chief data officer of the U.S. Navy, said the service branch intends to implement a modernized data architecture as it works to execute a holistic approach to data governance, Nextgov reported Friday.

“Data is contextual in nature, right, so not all pieces of information that are generated at the tactical, not all pieces of information generated in the enterprise need to flow across each side,” Sasala said.

Sasala said at a FedInsider event that the Navy wants to roll out a data architecture developed in April 2020 to enable the transfer of data to secure and integrated storage locations.

The modernization effort includes the implementation of a data environment called Jupiter to support the use of complex access controls. The Navy also created new data-related positions to manage everyday data management and command-and-control activities.

“We’ve actually appointed … deputy data officers for the Navy and the Marine Corps so we have a kind of triad where the secretariat, where I sit, and then the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps each have a data officer,” Sasala said.

Clark Cully, acting deputy chief information officer at the DOD, noted during the same event that the Pentagon’s command, control and communications team is “investing heavily in the industry and international consortia” to ensure the implementation of zero-trust and cybersecurity standards for 5G projects which utilize tactical edge-level data.

The Department of Agriculture has launched a customer service program to centralize contact center operations as part of the General Services Administration’s Centers of Excellence (GSA CoE) initiative.

“AskUSDA has helped us improve the customer experience we offer and that’s helped drive the success of the website,” Simchah Suveyke-Bogin, chief customer experience officer at USDA. “It’s been a rewarding experience that’s resulted in being able to seamlessly answer tens of thousands of citizen inquiries.”

GSA said Friday the self-service AskUSDA Contact Center covers inquiries made through email, phone, chat or the web to free up personnel time for addressing customer concerns.

The contact center effort first began in 2018 and has since enabled the GSA and USDA team to collect real-time data on trends and insights encompassing 748 services and 903 customer archetypes.

The USDA Office of Customer Experience used the AskUSDA team’s analysis with the USDA chief information officer to create a Final Insights Report and address 93,000 identified inquiries as part of a pilot program.

Naval Sea Systems Command held a virtual forum to discuss programs that fund the research, development and transition of technologies made in partnership with small businesses. 

“In the end, the event enabled our small business community innovators to make many key connections with our Navy acquisition team," Dean Putnam, SBIR/STTR program manager for NAVSEA, said about the event.

The Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer Transition online event ran from Jan. 27 to 28, marking the forum's first virtual rendition, NAVSEA said Friday.

SBIR/STTR program entries each run over three phases: feasibility study, research and development and transition. Phase two participants virtually exhibited electronics, airborne systems, autonomy, sensors, energy technology, resilience-focused engineering and other naval technologies during the event.

Putnam added the SBIR/STTR program has undergone changes to accelerate technology development and transition timelines.

“The SBIR/STTR program has been re-engineered for faster technology development. The program has the ability to insert emerging technology into programs earlier and puts capability into the warfighters’ hands faster,” said Putnam.

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev.; and Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb.; with Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich.; and Rep. Anthony Gonzalez, R-Okla., have introduced a bill to promote the development of privacy enhancing technologies and corresponding standards. 

The Promoting Digital Privacy Technologies Act would task the National Science Foundation (NSF) to further support PET research for data security applications, Stevens' office said Friday.

The bipartisan, bicameral legislation would boost research support across PET, associated mathematics and data minimization technologies; encourage cross-agency collaboration; and align with NSF’s Computer and Network Security Program. 

The bill would also have the National Institute of Standards and Technology partner with commercial and academic sectors to develop PET standards. Congress would also receive biennial reports on PET standards and research, if the bill becomes law.

“It is high time that we research ways in which privacy enhancing technologies can be utilized to protect Americans’ most sensitive and personal data," Stevens said.

CAE will work to diversify its defense and security portfolio, with an emphasis on space and cyber capabilities, Defense News reported on Monday. Daniel Gelston, group president of CAE’s Defense and Security unit, announced that the business will partner with defense primes during the early stages of new competitions. 

To remain a competitive partner, CAE will invest in research and engineering efforts. Gelston noted that the company has had a strong focus on traditional platforms, such as planes and unmanned aerial vehicles. 

However, with the shift in the defense market, Gelston has projected that CAE will have “a real focus on space and cyber, not only for that customer, but also for CAE, and those are areas that we need to augment our capabilities to make sure that we’re providing the best product, the best service to help our customers.”

“We could really bring a lot of our research and development, our capabilities in machine learning and AI and virtual reality and augmented learning management systems” to DHS, which “you could categorize a little more of a traditional time phased approach to training,” Gelston stated. 

Gelston’s unit will also look to increase the security segment of his portfolio by pursuing new contracts for government agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Transportation Security Administration (TSA), where CAE would support the training of security forces for airports.

“With space assets ability to target, with cyber assets ability to attack anywhere and everywhere, it’s not just the Pentagon, it’s critical infrastructure, it’s a lot of what we traditionally have separated into DHS. So that security element is crucial,” Gelston added.

Gelston noted that CAE could also break into  “robust training capability in the cyber realm… that’s an area that I can certainly see augmenting with potential acquisition here in the next 18 to 24 months if the right property comes along, I think we would be positioned to potentially pursue that.”