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.

The Department of Defense (DOD) has used its new electronic health records system to collate data on COVID-19 vaccine administration on service members and their family members. 

The U.S. Air Force Medical Service (AFMS) said Thursday the DOD’s Military Health System GENESIS platform housed a digital repository of military COVID-19 vaccination data to support tracking efforts for the government’s vaccination campaign.

In September 2020, Naval Hospital Twentynine Palms in California received the MHS GENESIS-based “MassVax” digital archive designed to integrate with EHR data and automate the processing of large-scale vaccination information.

Col. Thomas Cantilina, chief health informatics officer at the Defense Health Agency (DHA), said the DOD enlisted Cerner to help develop the archive as MHS GENESIS contnues to evolve. He noted that MassVax also provides data on patients’ drug intake and allergic reactions to help inform clinicians prior to vaccine administration.

The DOD has administered 84 percent of COVID-19 vaccines it received as of March 5. The department is also slated to immediately secure newly approved single-shot vaccines from Johnson & Johnson.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has issued a list of telecommunications equipment and services that pose a national security threat as part of its compliance with the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act of 2019. 

FCC said Friday the covered list released by the public safety and homeland security bureau includes telecom and video surveillance equipment from five Chinese companies: Huawei Technologies, ZTE, Hytera Communications, Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology and Dahua Technology.

Jessica Rosenworcel, acting chairwoman of FCC, said the list marks a big step in restoring trust in U.S. communications networks.

“This list provides meaningful guidance that will ensure that as next-generation networks are built across the country, they do not repeat the mistakes of the past or use equipment or services that will pose a threat to U.S. national security or the security and safety of Americans,” Rosenworcel added.

“The inclusion of these entities on the Covered List extends both to subsidiaries and affiliates of these entities, as well as to ‘telecommunications or video surveillance services provided by such entities or using such equipment,’” an FCC public notice reads.

Leaders and commissioners of the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence (NSCAI), said the Department of Defense (DOD) and federal civilian agencies should come up with career pathways to help recruit and retain AI talent in government service, Federal News Network reported Friday.

“I was really struck in my work with the Defense Department of how many people work there for low and in difficult conditions because they were patriotic,” Eric Schmidt, chairman of NSCAI and former CEO of Google, said Friday during a joint hearing of the House Armed Services and House Oversight and Reform Committees.

“The ones that I spoke with did not fundamentally leave for money. They left because the opportunity in their career was more interesting in the private sector – that work that they wanted to do, they could not do well as federal or military employees. That’s got to get fixed,” he added.

Mignon Clyburn, an NSCAI commissioner and former commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), said Congress should direct the Pentagon to establish an emerging technology certification process for service personnel to help identify and retain AI talent.

Robert Work, vice president of NSCAI, former deputy defense secretary and a two-time Wash100 Award winner, said adding a computational thinking section to the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery could help the military identify potential AI talent.

The Potomac Officers Club will hold its 3rd Annual Artificial Intelligence Summit on March 30 to foster discussions on how to advance AI technology at speed and how private-public partnerships are key to maintaining the competitive advantage within the tech race. To register for this virtual summit and view other upcoming events, visit the Potomac Officers Club Events page.

U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Robert Skinner, director of the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), said he is in favor of outsourcing information technology services to commercial vendors to achieve cost savings, C4ISRNET reported Friday.

“I’m a big proponent of commercial IT as a service,” Skinner said Friday at the AFCEA Rocky Mountain Cyberspace Symposium. “We have to be careful as we kind of move forward with this. … I think we really need to get after this in a more holistic look and a faster pace.”

He said the military should take advantage of commercial technologies and advance the adoption of robotic process automation.

“How do we leverage the robotic process automation — bringing that into the fold with the combatant commands — to, I’ll say, take care of the irritants, so that the focus can really be on the command and control, the forces, getting after strategic competition in their area of responsibility,” Skinner said.

The Department of Energy (DOE) will award $18 million in funds through the second phase of the Next-Generation Energy Technologies for Connected and Automated On-Road Vehicles program to four projects that aim to lower automobile emissions.

Michigan Technical University will work to grow its test vehicle fleet and identify opportunities for range optimization while Southwest Research Institute will expand and implement hybrid power control, eco-driving and routing approaches into vehicles with level 4 automation capabilities, DOE said Thursday.

Ohio State University will incorporate system-level control and optimization tools into a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle in a bid to increase energy efficiency by 30 percent. The University of California Berkeley will focus on expanding its set of eco-drive, route and charge controls.

DOE initially awarded $32 million in funds to 10 teams during the first phase of NEXTCAR. The current group of awardees will receive additional funds at an undisclosed date to hold demonstration activities.

Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy launched the NEXTCAR effort to mitigate automobile energy consumption via the development of connected and automated vehicles.

The first phase of the program sought to build CAV technologies that could lower vehicle energy usage by 20 percent. Phase II seeks to decrease light-duty passenger vehicles' consumption by 30 percent.