Jacobs announced on Thursday that the company has partnered with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to build a new calibration device for the Mars Perseverance Rover. 

"NASA's Mars Perseverance Rover is equipped with sophisticated scientific instruments to aid in the search for signs of past life on Mars," said Jacobs Critical Mission Solutions senior vice president Steve Arnette. "The calibration device is another example of Jacobs' long standing partnership with NASA in delivering innovative technologies that lead to scientific discoveries."

One of the devices called the Scanning Habitable Environments with Ramen & Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals (SHERLOC) will be used to detect chemicals on the Martian surface that are linked to the possible existence of ancient life. 

The calibration device is mounted on the front of the rover so that researchers can check SHERLOC's analytical instrumentation's accuracy by directing it to scan the baseline materials on the calibration target. 

The researchers will know in advance what the readings on those materials should be when SHERLOC is working correctly. If the actual readings are off, they can make adjustments to SHERLOC to get it set properly or know to compensate for the errors when they analyze the data later.

"The rover's scientific instruments go through all sorts of harsh conditions from the time they leave the lab until they arrive on the surface of Mars," said Jacobs chief scientist Trevor Graff. "SHERLOC needed a way to make sure it still operates as expected once it's on the surface and throughout the duration of the mission."

The Mars Perseverance Rover was launched on July 30h, 2020 to find signs of past microbial life and collect rock and soil samples. NASA's Rover will travel over a seven-month period to the red planet. 

About Jacobs 

At Jacobs, we're challenging today to reinvent tomorrow by solving the world's most critical problems for thriving cities, resilient environments, mission-critical outcomes, operational advancement, scientific discovery and cutting-edge manufacturing, turning abstract ideas into realities that transform the world for good. 

With $13 billion in revenue and a talent force of more than 55,000, Jacobs provides a full spectrum of professional services including consulting, technical, scientific and project delivery for the government and private sector.

Researchers at the U.S. Army are working on two artificial intelligence projects to improve communications between warfighters and AI systems, C4ISRNET reported Wednesday.

The Joint Understanding and Dialogue Interface (JUDI) and Transparent Multi-Modal Crew Interface Designs projects support the Army’s efforts for its next-generation combat vehicle modernization initiatives. JUDI is an AI system designed to understand a soldier’s intent when providing verbal instructions to a robot.

Matthew Marge, a computer scientist at the Army Research Laboratory, said JUDI could help improve situational awareness of warfighters and is slated for field testing in September. The Transparent Multi-Modal Crew Interface Designs project seeks to help service personnel better understand why AI platforms make decisions and may prove useful in mission planning.

“We’re looking at ways of improving the ability of AI to communicate information to the soldier to show the soldier what it’s thinking and what it’s doing so it’s more predictable and trustworthy,” Brandon Perelman, a research psychologist at the ARL, said of the second project. “Because we know that … if soldiers don’t understand why the AI is doing something and it fails, they’re not going to trust it. And if they don’t trust it, they’re not going to use it.”

Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and the Wright Brothers Institute have partnered to virtually administer a competition through which university students exhibit skills in communications technology.

This year’s Beyond 5G University Challenge tasks its participants to develop applications for software-defined radios and networks, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base said Tuesday.

“Students get the opportunity to build real-world, relevant skills in using and programming SDRs,” said Stephen Hary, the challenge’s program manager who also serves as the lead for enabling sensor devices and components core technical competency at AFRL’s sensors directorate.

The effort aims to strengthen students’ capacity to analyze and address technical issues related to the competition’s tackled areas. The event’s hosts are interested to launch the competition again next year.

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is set to hold a free online training program aimed at refining the data science skills of up to 60 government personnel starting in mid-September 2020, FedScoop reported Tuesday.

Under the Federal Data Science Training Program, the 24 agencies covered by the Chief Financial Officers Act will secure two to three spots for the initiative that will cover topic areas such as graph analytics, coding, data ethics and visualization techniques.

Program participants will undergo eight hours of training every week to be followed by a two-month capstone effort in February.

Denis Ortega, a fellow at the White House Leadership Development Program, said at an ATARC event that the capstone phase will provide a more “hands-on” approach and involve datasets for COVID-19 relief.

“Because we know that large datasets were created and established over the last seven and eight months, we’re going to leverage that data,” Ortega noted.

The training initiative builds on OMB's data science pilot program for the Census Bureau launched in January 2020 as well as the Federal Cybersecurity Reskilling Academy.