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NIST Earmarks $50M for COVID-19 Manufacturing Efforts
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NIST Earmarks $50M for COVID-19 Manufacturing Efforts

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has provided $50 million in funds via the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act to back U.S. manufacturing companies in their COVID-19 response efforts. 

NIST said Wednesday that it seeks to help Manufacturing Extension Partnership centers market services meant to augment the production of various items such as personal protective equipment. The funding effort also aims to assist manufacturers in contacting new suppliers and recovering from potential supply chain disruptions.

The institute awarded funds from $91,000 to $6.1 million to 51 MEP centers within 50 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. The MEP program is established in an effort to reinforce the competitiveness of small and medium-sized manufacturers in the U.S.

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Space Force, Northrop to Begin Test, Integration of Polar Satcom System’s Control Segment
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Space Force, Northrop to Begin Test, Integration of Polar Satcom System’s Control Segment

The U.S. Space Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) has completed critical design review activities for the control and planning segment (CAPS) of a Northrop Grumman-developed satellite communications system over the North Pole.

SMC said Wednesday the review, which took place on June 24 and 25, follows more than three months of critical baseline assessments for the Enhanced Polar System Recapitalization (EPS-R) CAPS concept.

Northrop secured an $87 million contract to develop EPS-R CAPS in 2019 and will now help SMC test and integrate CAPS before working on command and control capabilities for other EPS/EPS-R payloads.

EPS-R serves as a follow-on effort to EPS and includes two eXtended Data Rate payloads intended for encrypted coverage ahead of the delivery of protected tactical and strategic satcom polar variants.

EPS is designed to handle satcom operations over the polar region to support various applications including homeland defense, wartime, humanitarian assistance and contingency support.

The system includes two Extremely High Frequency (EHF) communications payloads, CAPS, a Global Information Grid, a gateway and modified Advanced EHF terminals.

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Nand Mulchandani: JAIC Working to Integrate AI, Joint C2 Operations
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Nand Mulchandani: JAIC Working to Integrate AI, Joint C2 Operations

The Department of Defense’s (DoD) Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC) is looking to incorporate AI capabilities into the Pentagon’s proposed enterprise multidomain platform, C4ISRnet reported Wednesday.

Nand Mulchandani, acting director of JAIC, recently told reporters that the center is “spending a lot of time and resources” on the Joint All-Domain Command and Control platform’s AI components ahead of testing various tactical-edge AI capabilities.

“The AI capabilities JAIC is developing as part of the joint warfighting operations mission initiative will use mature AI technology to create a decisive advantage for the American warfighter,” he said.

“As we have matured, we are now devoting special focus on our joint warfighting operation and its mission initiative, which is focused on the priorities of the National Defense Strategy and its goal of preserving America’s military and technological advantages over our strategic competitors."

Mulchandani’s comments come after JAIC awarded an $800 million task order to Booz Allen Hamilton to provide system support for joint warfighting operations.

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Report: Federal Gov’t Making Progress on Acquisition Mgmt Reforms
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Report: Federal Gov’t Making Progress on Acquisition Mgmt Reforms

The federal government has reported progress on three cross-agency priority (CAP) goals and introduced a new category focused on improving the management of major acquisitions.

An update issued Monday on Performance.gov states that CAP Goal teams and agencies “continue to make progress” on efforts to implement key strategies under the President’s Management Agenda as of July 2020.

The joint effort between the General Services Administration (GSA) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) also created a tool called the Strategic Objectives Dashboard that visualizes agency objectives and long-term goals.

According to the notice, agencies achieved maturity and implementation for the “Modernizing the Infrastructure Permitting Process”, “Getting Payments Right” and “Security Clearance, Suitability, and Credentialing Reform” CAP goals.

The achievement will enable CAP teams to demonstrate reforms amid continuous monitoring through Performance.gov, the notice states.

The new CAP goal, known as “ Frictionless Acquisition”, covers efforts to fortify the resiliency of the government contracting base while modernizing business models and reducing procurement lead-times.

Other updates include the transition of the “Federal IT Spending Transparency” CAP goal into the “Category Management” and “IT Modernization; Data, Accountability, and Transparency” categories.

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Oracle Secures Framework Agreement to Provide Applications to Canadian Government; Walter Dann Quoted
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Oracle Secures Framework Agreement to Provide Applications to Canadian Government; Walter Dann Quoted

Oracle has been awarded a Framework Agreement for the provision of secure cloud services to the Government of Canada, enabling the company’s Canadian federal government customers the ability to securely store, manage and process sensitive data and applications in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, Oracle reported on Thursday.

"By achieving this milestone, we are able to help the federal government and Canadian public sector tap into our second generation cloud to not just keep pace, but also stay ahead of the evolving business and technology landscape,” said Walter Dann, Area Vice President, Oracle Public Sector.

With this new agreement, the Government of Canada will gain access to a variety of advanced technology, including machine learning-enabled applications, integrated security tools, automated analytics and Oracle Autonomous Database. The Canadian Government also has access to the second generation Cloud built to run Oracle Autonomous Database. 

Oracle will provide cloud services to regions in Toronto and Montreal to support Canadian government and affiliated public sector entities in their digital transformation efforts. Oracle's Canadian Cloud regions will offer CPU and GPU virtual machine and bare metal; block, object, and archive storage; Oracle Database; and Oracle Exadata Cloud Services, FastConnect, Identity and Access Management, Key Management Service and Load Balancer.

“Oracle's outstanding price-performance, Oracle Autonomous Database, machine learning and AI innovations along with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure secure by design will be key to enabling our customers' enterprise workloads in the cloud," Dann noted. 

In order to work with the international government, Oracle Cloud was assessed across a set of controls and global certifications including SOC and ISO. Oracle's support of these controls and certifications will ensure that workloads across the government and private sector meet a high level of assurance.  

"This Framework Agreement for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure is a critical step in meeting the growing demands and compliance requirements of our public sector customers," Dann added. 

About Oracle

The Oracle Cloud offers a complete suite of integrated applications for Sales, Service, Marketing, Human Resources, Finance, Supply Chain and Manufacturing, plus Highly-Automated and Secure Generation 2 Infrastructure featuring the Oracle Autonomous Database.

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Telos Launches The Epios Project to Facilitate COVID-19 Testing; Suvi Rinkinen, Douglas Horn Quoted
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Telos Launches The Epios Project to Facilitate COVID-19 Testing; Suvi Rinkinen, Douglas Horn Quoted

Telos has launched The Epios Project, designed to facilitate anonymous testing for COVID-19 and other epidemics, on Thursday.

"The Epios Project and mobile app are prime examples of how blockchain technology can be used to securely collect, anonymize and manage public health data," said Suvi Rinkinen, CEO at The Telos Foundation. "We look forward to working with additional partners to grow Epios and improve disease testing and outcomes worldwide." 

Within the project, Telos will utilize a mobile app to connect  anonymous testers with providers that supply and process test kits in compliance with local requirements. Epios will integrate a new method for recording anonymous information within a system that will require disclosure of personally identifiable information. 

Telos will not require payment to be made directly by the testing subject to the processing lab.  The company will use a cryptographically protected coupon provided along with each test kit with untraceable codes, enabling labs to verify that a payment is valid without tracing it to a specific purchaser. 

The project will create a network of project, regional and country managers to arrange permissions for third-party organizations to record and access data on the blockchain. Telos will work with non-governmental organizations (NGO), government organizations and other partners to grow the project globally. 

"By providing an option for structurally anonymous testing, people may be more likely to get tested and take better precautions if their results are positive," said Douglas Horn, chief architect of the Telos Blockchain and Epios Project lead. "Providing aggregate, anonymous results to researchers with some geographic granularity also helps the medical community and policymakers make more informed decisions for the COVID-19 pandemic and future epidemics." 

About Telos

Telos is a third-generation blockchain platform for building fast, scalable applications. Launched in 2018, it is designed to power purpose-driven companies, organizations, and projects.

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USDA Awards Evoke Task Order to Provide Consulting Services to DA
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USDA Awards Evoke Task Order to Provide Consulting Services to DA

The Department of Agriculture (USDA) has awarded Evoke Consulting a 36-month task order under the ITGMSS Blanket Purchase Agreement to provide strategic consulting services to the Departmental Administration (DA), the company announced on Thursday.  

Under the contract, Evoke will partner with the DA to develop a shared services model and enhance the IT Organization’s strategy, policies, and procedures, enabling delivery of effective administrative programs that meet USDA organizations’ needs.

The DA will provide essential services for USDA in human resources policy and planning, procurement policy and operations, property management, homeland security and small and disadvantaged business utilization.  

The administration has leveraged its experience in IT portfolio management, enterprise architecture and strategic planning. Evoke will help accelerate DA’s organizational maturity and achievement of the goals established by leadership.   

Evoke will utilize its experts to enhance the resilience and compliance of systems through an IT Security Roadmap and the establishment of asset management practices and procedures.

About Evoke

Since our inception, we have worked to significantly raise the expectations of our workforce and the organizations we serve. Our dedication to each employee is expressed with unwavering support, personalized career mapping and opportunities to apply existing and newfound expertise to diverse initiatives.

The pride we all have in the business stems from the culture the dedicated staff embody every day—the staff Evoke’s clients align themselves to as trusted partners to impact their organization’s missions and communities. As Evoke continues to enjoy tremendous growth, we still refer to it as an experiment. That’s because it represents the same ideas it was originally built upon. And because it’s always evolving to best serve those who define it and rely on it.

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Perspecta Named Enterprise-Wide ITIL4 ATO; Mike Kirkland Quoted
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Perspecta Named Enterprise-Wide ITIL4 ATO; Mike Kirkland Quoted

Perspecta Inc. has been named an enterprise-wide ITIL4 Foundation accredited training organization (ATO), the company reported on Thursday.

"The ATO certification extends our ability to train our already highly capable workforce in cloud, digital transformation and IT managed services practices to help our customers reduce cost, accelerate service delivery, reduce risks and optimize resources," said Mike Kirkland, senior vice president, offerings and solution development at Perspecta.

ITIL is an industry-standard framework for developing, managing and supporting IT services based on industry best practices. Certifications are available for individual IT professionals, and entire IT teams can benchmark their performance and efficiencies against industry standards. 

As an ATO, Perspecta will be able to provide training and certification to its nearly 14 thousand employees as well as government and commercial customers. ITIL 4 Foundation ​training is accredited by Peoplecert and is designed to introduce modern IT-enabled services.

The accreditation was issued by PeopleCert, a global leader in the assessment and certification of professionals and organizations and was received in May 2020. Through the certification, Perspecta has enhanced service management key concepts, ITIL principles, the service value system (SVS), practices and the company’s role in a service provider organization.

PeopleCert is an approved examination institute for AXELOS, which is responsible for developing, enhancing and promoting several best practice frameworks and methodologies used globally by professionals working primarily in IT service management, project, program and portfolio management and cyber resilience.

"This accreditation marks an incredible achievement for the team, and positions us at the forefront of service management across the entire ITIL 4 service delivery framework," Kirkland added. 

About Perspecta Inc.

At Perspecta (NYSE: PRSP), we question, we seek and we solve. Perspecta brings a diverse set of capabilities to our U.S. government customers in defense, intelligence, civilian, health care and state and local markets. Our 280+ issued, licensed and pending patents are more than just pieces of paper, they tell the story of our innovation. 

With offerings in mission services, digital transformation and enterprise operations, our team of nearly 14,000 engineers, analysts, investigators and architects work tirelessly to not only execute the mission, but build and support the backbone that enables it. Perspecta was formed to take on big challenges. We are an engine for growth and success and we enable our customers to build a better nation.

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IBM to Acquire WDG Automation to Expand Automation Capabilities; Denis Kennelly, Robson Felix Quoted
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IBM to Acquire WDG Automation to Expand Automation Capabilities; Denis Kennelly, Robson Felix Quoted

IBM has developed a definitive agreement to acquire WDG Automation, a Brazilian software provider of robotic process automation (RPA) to expand its AI-infused automation capabilities across business processes and IT operations, IBM reported on Wednesday. 

"With today's announcement, IBM is taking that a step further and helping clients accelerate automation to more parts of the organization, not just to routine, but more complex tasks so employees can focus on higher value work," said Denis Kennelly, general manager of Cloud Integration, IBM Cloud and Cognitive Software.

IBM will embed WDG Automation's RPA capabilities into its AI-infused automation capabilities to enable users to access intelligent automation through software robots. The acquisition will extend IBM services' and enhance enterprise workflows by delivering automation pervasively across client organizations.

The WDG Automation technology is designed for business users to create automations using a desktop recorder without the need of IT. These software robots can run on-demand by the end user or by an automated scheduler.

WDG Automation will enable IBM to quickly identify opportunities for automation and help ensure consistent and accurate data will be integrated into the company’s tools and business functions, including customer service, IT, finance, human resources and supply chain.

Under the terms of the acquisition, IBM will integrate more than 600 pre-built RPA functions from WDG Automation into Cloud Pak for Automation to help businesses turn insights from AI into automated actions.

In addition to business operations, IBM will integrate WDG Automation RPA into its capabilities for automating IT operations, specifically Watson AIOps and Cloud Pak for Multicloud Management to enable CIOs to self-detect, diagnose and respond to IT anomalies in real time. 

The WDG Automation technology will join the IBM Cloud Integration organization and be available through IBM Cloud Pak for Automation on-premises, and in public or private cloud environments. Financial terms were not disclosed. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions. It is expected to close in Q3 2020.

"Automation is crucial in the digital era, as businesses need to perform several repetitive or routine tasks, so that employees are able to focus on innovation. I'm incredibly proud of the role WDG Automation has played in the RPA market with a unified and integrated platform to help companies in Brazil increase their productivity," said Robson Felix, founder and CEO, WDG Automation.

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Hanwha Energy Corporation Selects Jacobs to Advance Solar Photovoltaic Power Plant; Patrick Hill Quoted
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Hanwha Energy Corporation Selects Jacobs to Advance Solar Photovoltaic Power Plant; Patrick Hill Quoted

Jacobs has been selected by Hanwha Energy Corporation to deliver owner's engineer services to support the design, engineering, procurement, construction, installation, testing and commissioning of a new 100 megawatt alternating current (MWac) solar photovoltaic power plant in Malaysia, Jacobs announced on Thursday.

"This project is a great opportunity for us to continue to support Malaysia as it expands its renewable energy sector in pursuit of more affordable, sustainable and cleaner energy to meet the future needs of its nation," said Jacobs People & Places Solutions senior vice president Global Operations Patrick Hill.

Jacobs will support the plant and connect it to the electricity transmission system operated by utility provider Tenaga Nasional. Hanwha Energy Corporation has expected the project to begin commercial operation in 2021.  

The project is one of five selected in a national Large-Scale Solar (LSS) third procurement program led by Suruhanjaya Tenaga, Malaysia's Energy Commission. The LSS program will diversify  power generation mix and increase the country's renewable resources from 2 percent to 20 percent by 2030.

Jacobs has been involved in both the first (LSS1) and second (LSS2) phase of the LSS scheme. The company has fulfilled owner's engineer, independent engineer and lender technical advisor roles for a variety of projects under the program, including a 49 MWac project in Sungai Siput, Perak under LSS1 and three 30 MWac projects. 

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.

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