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USAF Conducts Electric VTOL Flight Test
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USAF Conducts Electric VTOL Flight Test

LIFT Aircraft has demonstrated an electric vertical takeoff and landing flight vehicle at Camp Mabry in Texas as part of a U.S. Air Force initiative.

The Agility Prime effort aims to speed up the commercialization of air mobility vehicles including eVTOL systems, the service branch said Friday.

Col. Nathan Diller, Agility Prime lead and director at AFWERX, said USAF has received more than 15 applications from various aircraft manufacturers for the program.

Diller added USAF plans to perform more tests to mitigate technical risks and prepare for Agility Prime's deployment in 2023.

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DOT Invests in Academe-Led UAS Research, Education Initiatives; Elaine Chao Quoted
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DOT Invests in Academe-Led UAS Research, Education Initiatives; Elaine Chao Quoted

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has awarded grants worth $7.5 million combined to support eight unmanned aircraft research, training and education efforts under the agency’s Centers of Excellence (CoE) institutions.

FAA said Friday the selected universities represent the Department of Transportation (DOT) component’s Air Transportation CoE for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) network.

The CoE group, also dubbed the Alliance for System Safety of UAS through Research Excellence (ASSURE), secured 19 awards for the grant program's third round for fiscal year 2020.

The new funding brings the current FY 2020 amount of ASSURE funding to $13.4 million.

Elaine Chao, the secretary of transportation, said the federal investment is meant to fund the universities’ efforts related to “the safe integration of drones into our national airspace.”

Topic areas covered by the grants include low-altitude UAS detection, airport safety approaches, flutter flight testing and wake turbulence, urban air mobility, UAS mapping, cybersecurity and remote identification.

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Los Alamos Nat’l Lab Develops AI Algorithm to Secure Cryptocurrency Data in Supercomputers
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Los Alamos Nat’l Lab Develops AI Algorithm to Secure Cryptocurrency Data in Supercomputers

Researchers from the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico have developed an artificial intelligence algorithm intended to detect malicious codes that breach cryptocurrency data.

LANL said Thursday the algorithm is meant to identify codes that hack data from supercomputers to mine cryptocurrency forms such as Bitcoin and Monero.

The lab’s AI-driven approach utilizes graph comparisons and fingerprint-type identification to prevent hacker break-ins and seemingly legitimate programming that hide cyber threats.

Gopinath Chennupati, a researcher at LANL, said his team developed the AI algorithms in an effort to address recently reported cryptocurrency break-ins in Europe.

“Our deep learning artificial intelligence model is designed to detect the abusive use of supercomputers specifically for the purpose of cryptocurrency mining,” he said.

The LANL researchers’ findings are detailed in the “Code Characterization with Graph Convolutions and Capsule Networks” paper in the IEEE Access journal.

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NASA Eyes Machine Learning, DoD Partnerships to Support Zero-Trust Implementation
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NASA Eyes Machine Learning, DoD Partnerships to Support Zero-Trust Implementation

Mike Witt, associate chief information officer for cybersecurity and privacy at NASA, has said the agency is working to apply zero-trust principles through emerging technologies and partnerships with the Department of Defense (DoD), FedScoop reported Friday.

Witt told attendees at an ACT-IAC webinar that NASA is investing in an enterprise-wide system that will leverage machine learning to collate system logs and detect cyber threats.

According to Witt, NASA is also partnering with the DoD and intelligence community in red teaming activities to improve agency capacities for network threat detection. NASA is additionally looking to collaborate with commercial entities to complement threat analysis activities, he added.

“We’ve got to get away from the mindset of: You can account for every alert,” Witt noted. “You’ve got to embrace orchestration … artificial intelligence, machine learning.”

Most NASA employees worked remotely in missions during the COVID-19 pandemic including the Demo-2 launch in May, according to FedScoop.

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Texas A&M Regents Approve $60M Funding for Combat Dev’t Complex Construction
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Texas A&M Regents Approve $60M Funding for Combat Dev’t Complex Construction

The Texas A&M University System's board of regents has cleared $60.3M in funds to support the construction of the George H.W. Bush Combat Development Complex as part of an agreement with the U.S. Army Futures Command.

Regents have allotted $22.5M to build a hypersonic and directed energy testing range, while the board approved $37.8M for the Innovation Proving Ground vehicle test track, Texas A&M said Thursday.

The hypersonic testing facility will support the assessment of high-energy lasers and hypersonic technologies, while the vehicle track will accommodate experiments on autonomous ground, subterranean and ground vehicle systems.

John Sharp, chancellor at Texas A&M, said military officials, defense industry executives, technology companies and allies have expressed interest in the complex.

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ManTech Recognized for Supporting Veteran Workforce; Jeff Brody Quoted
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ManTech Recognized for Supporting Veteran Workforce; Jeff Brody Quoted

ManTech has been named a Best for Vets Employer of 2020, ranking number 15 out of 144 companies, reporting a workforce of more than 48 percent Veterans, the company reported on Monday. 

“ManTech is well-known and respected by service men and women who share our commitment to the mission of Securing the Future in ways that advance and protect our nation,” said Jeff Brody, ManTech’s chief human resources officer. “When the time comes for them to consider careers in the private sector, Veterans look to ManTech as the gold standard in hiring, training and long-term career enablement and advancement.” 

ManTech received recognition because of the company’s commitment to hiring and retaining military personnel and reservists. Before personnel leave the military, ManTech will provide extensive forums that prepare them for the transition to civilian work. Once hired, veterans receive comprehensive educational programs. 

“At ManTech, we focus on advancing Veterans’ ability to serve the world’s most important customers,” added Brody. “On Day One they can begin tuition-paid degree programs in cyber, analytics and cloud computing at Purdue University Global, and leverage thousands of free Skillsoft courses in technology and business that advance their careers and lead to lifelong opportunity.”

About ManTech

ManTech provides mission-focused technology solutions and services for U.S. defense, intelligence community and federal civilian agencies. In business more than 52 years, we excel in full-spectrum cyber, data collection & analytics, enterprise IT, systems engineering and software application development solutions that support national and homeland security.

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David Egts, Red Hat Director & Chief Technologist, to Join Expert Panel During Potomac Officers Club’s Secure IT Modernization in Today’s Environment Virtual Event on Aug 26th
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David Egts, Red Hat Director & Chief Technologist, to Join Expert Panel During Potomac Officers Club’s Secure IT Modernization in Today’s Environment Virtual Event on Aug 26th

David Egts, director and chief technologist of the Red Hat’s North American public sector, will serve on the expert panel during Potomac Officers Club’s Secure IT Modernization in Today’s Environment Virtual Event on August 26th.

Click here to register for the Secure IT Modernization in Today’s Environment Virtual Event.

With Red Hat’s North America Public Sector, Egts directs a global team of technical experts and field product management to help Red Hat help government clients improve service delivery the open source way.

He also guides his cross-functional team with a focus on ensuring Red Hat’s products and services address government needs for security, compliance, standards, efficiency and technological improvements. Egts and his team work with public sector decision-makers to increase their understanding of open source as an engine of technological innovation to meet their specific needs.

Egts recently took part in a Q&A session with ExecutiveBiz regarding the impact COVID-19 has had on government technology initiatives, how public sector agencies can adapt to the current environment and how open source technology might be the key to adapting to an uncertain future. Here’s a snippet:

ExecutiveBiz: Speaking of the current environment, as we begin to move into this ‘new normal,’ what are some of the primary concerns you’re hearing about from government agencies?

“Many agency employees are working in reduced capacity environments. Some are working from home, but some are still going into the office. Office workers supporting the intelligence community, for example, can’t go to a pure work-from-home environment; they need people in offices, even if those buildings are only at half capacity at any given time.

All of this means agencies need to make the most of what they currently have and look for ways to maximize efficiencies wherever possible. That’s probably the biggest concern.”

To read David Egts full Q&A, click here.

Secure IT Banner

During the event, Egts will address the integration and expansion of 5G and other emerging technologies; adaptation to a “new normal,” such as teleworking and reentry; and how leaders and businesses can use mission software factories to their advantage.

Egts will be joined on the panel by Paul Girardi, assistant vice president of Cybersecurity with AT&T Public Sector. The event will also host Michael Mestrovich, principal deputy chief information officer for the U.S. Department of State (DoS), who will serve as a keynote speaker.

Register for  Potomac Officers Club’s Secure IT Modernization in Today’s Environment Virtual event to learn more about how to evolve and adapt quickly in crisis to ensure global accessibility and connectivity. Click here to register for the Secure IT Modernization in Today’s Environment Virtual Event on August 26th.

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Jim Garrettson, CEO of Executive Mosaic, Presents Mike Twyman, President of Cubic Mission Solutions, His First Wash100 Award
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Jim Garrettson, CEO of Executive Mosaic, Presents Mike Twyman, President of Cubic Mission Solutions, His First Wash100 Award

Jim Garrettson, founder and CEO of Executive Mosaic, presented Mike Twyman, president of Cubic Mission Solutions (CMS), with his first Wash100 Award on Monday.

Executive Mosaic recognized Twyman for driving growth for the company, acquiring Nuvotronics and pushing Cubic’s technical services to help the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA). We are honored to present the most coveted award in government contracting to Mike Twyman of Cubic Mission Solutions.

Tywman has over 30 years of experience in the federal market and government contracting (GovCon) sector. In his CMS role, Twyman oversees the C4ISR businesses and strategy, including DTECH Labs, GATR Technologies, TeraLogics, XD Solutions and Cubic’s Communications & Electronics offerings.

As senior vice president and president with Cubic, Twyman supervises the C4ISR businesses and strategy. Under Tywman’s leadership, Cubic received a spot on a potential ten-year $5.1 billion contract with the U.S. Army to provide satellite communication platforms and services to the U.S. Army in March 2020.

Twyman joined Cubic in June 2014 as senior vice president of air training and secure communications, and served most recently as executive vice president, training and communications systems.

In this role, he led the development of Cubic’s C4ISR strategy as well as growth strategies for air training and secure communications, including common data link, avionics, communication products, restricted communications and optical solutions.

Prior to Cubic, Twyman held a variety of executive leadership positions at Northrop Grumman including sector vice president and general manager of the defense systems division, vice president of integrated C3I systems, vice president of joint network systems and vice president of communication and information systems.

About Wash100

The Wash100 Award, now in its sixth year, recognizes the most influential executives in the GovCon industry, as selected by the Executive Mosaic organization in combination with online nominations from the GovCon community. Representing the best of the private and public sector, the winners demonstrate superior leadership, innovation, reliability, achievement and vision.

Visit the Wash100 website to learn about the other 99 winners of the 2019 Wash100 Award.

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MITRE Enters Strategic Collaboration with Nuance Communications to Improve Cancer Research; Dr. Jay Schnitzer, Diana Nole Quoted
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MITRE Enters Strategic Collaboration with Nuance Communications to Improve Cancer Research; Dr. Jay Schnitzer, Diana Nole Quoted

MITRE and Nuance Communications have announced a strategic collaboration to advance the minimal Common Oncology Data Elements (mCODE) data standard for improved cancer research and treatment using the AI-powered Nuance Dragon Medical One solution, MITRE announced on Monday. 

“We need data that is standardized and collected in a computable manner so it can be aggregated with data from many other patients and analyzed for best practices. And it must be collected in a streamlined way that doesn't burden the clinicians. The Nuance offering will enhance this effort," said Dr. Jay Schnitzer, MITRE's chief medical and technology officer.

Through the collaborative effort, clinicians will be able to populate vital cancer data directly into electronic health records (EHRs) using their voice. The feature will improve the quality of documentation and reduce data entry. 

The Nuance-MITRE strategic collaboration will combine data elements and technology solutions. mCODE will provide a core set of structured data elements for oncology that establishes minimum recommended standards for the structure and content of health record information across use cases and users.

Nuance Dragon Medical One will improve documentation and reduce administrative tasks by collecting and accessing oncology data to integrate into existing workflows. Dragon Medical One will also be configured to incorporate mCODE data elements.

Diana Nole, Nuance Communications, executive vice president and general manager of healthcare, said, "Combining Nuance's AI expertise with the mCODE data standard provides oncologists with the ability to easily collect and gain access to critical outcome data by simply using their voice to securely dictate notes and search within the EHR using Nuance Dragon Medical One."

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. For more information, please visit www.mitre.org.

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BAE Systems Wins $495M Contract to Support USAF Missions; Pete Trainer Quoted
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BAE Systems Wins $495M Contract to Support USAF Missions; Pete Trainer Quoted

The U.S. Air Force (USAF) has awarded BAE Systems a $495 million, firm-fixed-price indefinite-delivery indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract to continue to provide a wide range of instrumentation support and sustainment services to military and government agencies for the nation and its allies, the company reported on Monday.

The single-award, cost-plus-fixed-fee and cost-reimbursable contract has a ceiling amount of $945 million over seven years.

“Since 1985, we have been the sustainment contractor of choice for the IRSP program to ensure test ranges are operational and mission ready… Our work improving the mission readiness of these systems ensures air, missile, and space situational awareness is provided seamlessly to the warfighter and decision makers,” said Pete Trainer, vice president and general manager of BAE Systems’ Air Force Solutions business.

Under the contract, BAE Systems will enhance the accuracy and operational reliability of tracking systems in support of national security missions. BAE Systems will service components and subsystems for instrumentation tracking systems such as radars, telemetry and optical range mission systems, flight termination systems, data acquisition systems and global positioning systems.

BAE Systems will perform work on 27 global ranges that are part of the IRSP, including those in the U.S. operated by the U.S. Air Force, Army and Navy, NASA and the Department of Energy (DoE), as well as allied ranges operated in the United Kingdom, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Republic of Korea and Switzerland.

“We are pleased to continue our instrumentation sustainment, engineering support, and maintenance services for the 27 IRSP test ranges worldwide,” Trainer added.

About BAE Systems

BAE Systems is a leading systems integrator supporting militaries, governments, and U.S. intelligence community members across the globe. The company’s advanced technologies and services protect people and national security, and keep critical information and infrastructure secure across air, land, sea, space, and cyber domains.

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