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Survey Finds Most Federal Employees Would Like to Telework Every Day Post-Pandemic
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Survey Finds Most Federal Employees Would Like to Telework Every Day Post-Pandemic

A Federal News Network survey has found that 48 percent of federal contractors and employees said they would like to telework on a daily basis and 35 percent said they would choose to work remotely three to four days each week if they had no restrictions post-pandemic, FNN reported Wednesday.

FNN conducted an online survey of 2,023 federal employees, contractors and readers from Dec. 8 to 21 about their views on the future of telework in government and found that most survey respondents said their productivity has either improved or remained the same since the COVID-19 pandemic started in March.

The survey also showed that 53 percent of respondents said they believe their agencies’ support for telecommuting will increase after the health crisis, while 16 percent said they were not sure how their organizations might support or adopt remote work after the pandemic.

“Our organization used to be against telework, but productivity increased so much they could not ignore that and are now embracing it,” said one respondent. “Established teams are being given the option to continue teleworking with in-person meetings at least once per week so any new team members can put a face to a name and integrate easier. The face-to-face meetings will only happen once the pandemic ends.”

Most federal employees said they believe the use of mobile devices and other physical equipment and collaboration tools like Microsoft Teams and Zoom would continue even after the pandemic. Others said their agencies would depend more on cloud-based platforms to perform their work.

Some respondents said they expect file sharing, electronic signature, virtual training, conferences and on-boarding to persist beyond the pandemic.

“The ways in which we leverage technology to connect with internal and external stakeholders [may change],” one respondent said. “We have become more efficient with less in-person interaction. Limited travel budgets can also be maximized through advancements in communications technology. Overall, we have learned to become more efficient with less. It’s really the elephant in the room.” 

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Pentagon Lays Out Framework for Addressing Small UAS With New Strategy
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Pentagon Lays Out Framework for Addressing Small UAS With New Strategy

The Department of Defense (DoD) has released a new strategy to establish a framework for addressing and countering small unmanned aircraft systems.

The DoD Counter-sUAS Strategy calls for department stakeholders to work together to meet three strategic objectives and one of those is the need to improve the Joint Force through collaboration and innovation to protect defense personnel, facilities and assets in the U.S., host countries and contingency locations.

The strategy also calls for the development of materiel and nonmateriel platforms that facilitate secure and safe implementation of DoD missions and development and expansion of relationships with partners and allies to protect the country’s interests at home and overseas.

Ready the Force, Defend the Force and Build the Team are the strategy’s three lines of effort. To prepare the force, actions include the development of threat assessments that can inform future and current joint capability requirements and efforts to accelerate the development of joint C-sUAS technologies.

The second line of effort calls for the development of operational concepts and doctrine to enhance the Joint Force’s competitive edge and establishment of joint training standards.

Building the team calls for stakeholders to strengthen and sustain interoperability with allies and partner nations and advance partnerships with the national security innovation base and other nonfederal entities to advance the rapid development of joint capabilities to defeat and deter hostile sUAS.

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DOE Unveils Policy Recommendations for Space Exploration; Dan Brouillette Quoted
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DOE Unveils Policy Recommendations for Space Exploration; Dan Brouillette Quoted

The Department of Energy (DOE) has introduced a set of recommendations that supports the U.S. government's National Space Policy. 

DOE Secretary Dan Brouillette said in a statement published Wednesday the department intends to apply its scientific and engineering capacities to adress space exploration gaps such as extreme conditions and complex operations as stated in the Energy for Space strategy.

The strategy builds on six decades worth of DOE's contributions to U.S. Space programs and indicates the role of the department's innovation enterprise in responding to large-scale research development challenges in space policies.

DOE has also outlined various objectives in the strategy such as addressing space mysteries and driving a safe and productive space market.

"In coordination with NASA, the interagency, and private sector partners, we must continue to harness the incredible capabilities throughout the DOE enterprise to expand exploration and utilization of the space domain," said Brouillette.

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Army Explores Augmented Reality Use in Bright Daytime Environments; Chou Hung Quoted
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Army Explores Augmented Reality Use in Bright Daytime Environments; Chou Hung Quoted

Army Research Laboratory (ARL), part of the service's Combat Capabilities Development Command (CCDC), has developed a new application that may help warfighters use augmented reality (AR) in bright light daytime scenarios. 

The new AR technique uses low contrast dimming highlights to address excessive brightness that hinders AR display quality, the U.S. Army said Tuesday. ARL researchers said this development presents opportunities in the outdoor use of head-up display technology, including in the commercial sector. 

“We knew that AR displays work well indoors, but outdoors, the icons disappear because the displays have limited brightness,” said Chou Hung, a neuroscience researcher with ARL.

Hung said his team's proposed system has exhibited high resilience against strong light changes.

“Our discovery paves the way towards enabling that use, including in challenging desert, snow, marine and dense urban environments," Hung added.

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NSF Uses Predictive Analytics to Mark Improper Grant Payments; Jesse Simons Quoted
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NSF Uses Predictive Analytics to Mark Improper Grant Payments; Jesse Simons Quoted

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has developed a predictive model designed to identify improper grant payments, and may share it with other agencies that award grants, Federal News Network reported Wednesday.

NSF’s payments and analytics branch has been experimenting with predictive analytics and produced an open-source model that eventually received the Association of Government Accountants’ (AGA) recognition. The agency studied how audit data, combined with other input, can inform predictive analytics.

“What we wanted to try to do is determine a subset of variables that we could use to accurately forecast whether one of these auditees would have a question cost," Jesse Simons, NSF branch chief, told Federal News Network.

The branch plans to deploy dashboards that would augment the agency's real-time data visualization.

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SAS Names Bryan Harris as EVP, CTO; Jim Goodnight Quoted
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SAS Names Bryan Harris as EVP, CTO; Jim Goodnight Quoted

SAS has appointed Bryan Harris as executive vice president and chief technology officer, the company reported on Thursday. With more than two decades of experience, Harris has a deep knowledge of the technology industry, including analytics, cloud and user experience across the public and private sectors. 

"As CTO, Bryan will push SAS to continue leading the market and drive innovation as he leads the organization to do what we do best: develop analytical solutions to address customers' business problems, with an emphasis on continuous integration/continuous delivery  and cloud-first technologies," said SAS CEO Jim Goodnight.

Harris has served as critical senior leader of SAS research and development (R&D) for nearly a decade. Most recently, as senior vice president and head of Engineering, Harris was instrumental in releasing the latest advancement of SAS software, SAS Viya. 

As vice president of R&D for Cyber Analytics with the company, he led the R&D of the SAS Cybersecurity, which is a scalable solution that processes over 100,000 records per second of sensor data.

Prior to SAS, Harris served as chief technology officer with ADG Creative. In the role, Managed all product research and development across commercial and federal business units while also managing IT operations and budgeting for ADG Creative’s headquarters. He also performed capabilities presentations to commercial and Department of Defense (DoD) executives in support of business development activities. 

Before that, Harris served as CTO of VSTI, where he built out an Advanced Solutions Lab for emerging technologies. He also led a team of engineers, leveraging SAS technology and innovative systems engineering, to address information overload within the intelligence community (IC).

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NASA, NSF Sign MOU to Drive Space Initiatives; Jim Bridenstine Quoted
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NASA, NSF Sign MOU to Drive Space Initiatives; Jim Bridenstine Quoted

NASA and the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU), solidifying their intent to continue a long term partnership in mutually beneficial space research activities, NASA reported on Thursday. 

“We look forward to continued collaboration on areas of research here on Earth and in space – including aboard the International Space Station – as well as inspiring the next generation of STEM professionals,” said NASA administrator and 2019 Wash100 Award recipient, Jim Bridenstine.

Under the agreement, the agencies will work to advance space, Earth, biological and physical sciences to support national space policy and scientific research. The MOU includes a range of research and activities, spanning across science, engineering and education.

Through the recent MOU, NASA and NSF will continue to advance NASA- and NSF-sponsored science programs. The agencies also will continue the NASA-NSF partnership for exoplanet research and enable integration of Earth’s ecosystem and biodiversity observations from ground-based, aerial and space-based sensing systems. 

Additionally, the agencies will continue collaboration to develop a space weather research-to-operations-to-research framework. The framework will strive to establish principles for interagency collaboration that will advance and predict Sun-Earth space weather. 

NASA and NSF have previously partnered to support research activities related to astrophysics, astrochemistry, planetary science, astrobiology and heliophysics that work to further understand space weather, exoplanets, gravitational waves and the origins of life.

The agencies also have engaged in field campaigns to address fundamental Earth system science, as well as Earth system modeling, remote sensing, and ocean and climate monitoring activities. NASA and NSF have also collaborated in research aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

“NASA has been a crucial partner for decades, and this interagency collaboration will ensure we can continue and expand our cooperative efforts, including building a strong and diverse scientific workforce,” said NSF director Sethuraman Panchanathan. 

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MITRE Names Gerald Gilbert as MITRE Fellow; Charles Clancy Quoted
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MITRE Names Gerald Gilbert as MITRE Fellow; Charles Clancy Quoted

MITRE has appointed Gerald Gilbert as a MITRE Fellow to lead and grow quantum science initiatives, MITRE reported on Thursday. As a fellow, Gilbert will join the company’s group of scientists that lead critical programs. 

“Gerry’s contributions to MITRE and his field run deep – few people in the world have dedicated their lives to this level of expertise and innovation,” said Charles Clancy, chief futurist, senior vice president, and general manager, MITRE Labs. 

Gilbert has served with MITRE for more than two decades, founding the quantum science research at the company. “As a MITRE Fellow, Gerry will continue to push the boundaries of what’s possible, which is mission critical in the race for global competitiveness in quantum science,” Clancy added.

He serves as the principal investigator of MITRE’s quantum program. The project has worked to develop the first fully universal scalable quantum computer and integrated quantum network. Currently, the project is designing and building programmable nano-photonic quantum processors to serve as engines of a scalable, universal quantum computer.

MITRE fellows work to develop and lead scientific or technical initiatives to address challenges. They also serve as subject matter experts and advisors to mission critical programs, officers and board of trustees. The fellows drive innovation in science and technology (S&T).

Gilbert is a member of the IEEE Standards Board for Quantum Technology and has served on the U.S. Defense Science Board and the U.S. Air Force Scientific Advisory Board. He is also a co-inventor on five patents in quantum information science.

About MITRE

MITRE’s mission-driven teams are dedicated to solving problems for a safer world. Through our public-private partnerships and federally funded R&D centers, we work across government and in partnership with industry to tackle challenges to the safety, stability, and well-being of our nation.

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Sev1Tech Names Matt Jordan as VP, Cloud Center of Excellence; Bob Lohfeld Quoted
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Sev1Tech Names Matt Jordan as VP, Cloud Center of Excellence; Bob Lohfeld Quoted

Sev1Tech has appointed Matt Jordan as vice president of Cloud Center of Excellence to accelerate growth of the Sev1Cloud practice, develop partnerships and drive innovation, the company reported on Thursday. 

“Matt’s experience with our cloud partner ecosystems, unparalleled drive, and continual focus on building the right solutions for each mission customer will help drive Sev1Tech’s capability. I am confident he will expand and deliver exceptional cloud offerings to our Government and Commercial partners,” said Bob Lohfeld, CEO at Sev1Tech.

Jordan has ten years of experience providing cloud-based solutions across the public sector, including federal, state and local government, non-profits, and industry. Throughout his career, he has developed partnerships with cloud providers to deliver innovative solutions.

He has also created strategic business plans to drive business development objectives and managed proposal efforts to increase company revenue. Prior to joining Sev1Tech, Jordan served as vice president of Corporate Strategy & Development at JHC Technology. 

With the company, he was responsible for managing strategic partnerships, business development, capture, marketing, brand and proposal efforts. He also led client engagement and strategic account development, as well as partnerships with Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft and Google. 

Jordan has also served in the federal government as an IT Program Specialist with the Department of Commerce (DOC). In the role, he drove Microsoft SharePoint’s integration with current business processes to gain both time and resource efficiencies. He also captured and implemented high-level agency business requirements and determined end user needs. 

“The investments that Sev1Tech is making in cloud to grow the already impressive capabilities – from mission critical TIC needs to multi-cloud dashboarding, to automated server recommendation and provisioning are exciting and timely for our customers across the board. I’m thrilled to join the family here,” Jordan said. 

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NGA’s Andy Brooks on Efforts to Deploy Cloud for Secure, Unclassified Data Access
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NGA’s Andy Brooks on Efforts to Deploy Cloud for Secure, Unclassified Data Access

Andy Brooks, chief data scientist at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, has said the agency was able to harness cloud to provide access to secure but unclassified data for its remote staff, FedTech Magazine reported Tuesday.

Brooks told the publication that NGA modified its data-access strategy and launched an effort to balance data protection with value delivery for global users. He noted that NGA now plans to evolve its analytics and data-sharing tools in the coming years with a potential intelligence analysis effort slated for 2022. 

According to a new U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF) white paper, NGA was to employ a DevSecOps-based approach to developing new technologies that support cross-domain workflows.

NGA's initiatives include a partnership with Booz Allen Hamilton to establish a “develop low, deploy high" framework that “provided a strong foundation” for artificial intelligence and machine learning development amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the white paper states.

“We’ve shown that parts of that can be safely and securely done in unclassified spaces, and we can do that in various secure but unclassified forms,” noted Brooks. “We can do that in different ways that will continue to grow, and people have that experience now.”

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