The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is developing forecast models to help the government carry out reopening decisions amid the COVID-19 pandemic through the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning.

The models will employ information from open data sources to simulate events within counties and military installations in the U.S., the U.S. Air Force said Wednesday.

Ryan Kramer, explainable artificial intelligence lead at AFRL's 711th Human Performance Wing, said the team built a SIR model that identifies asymptomatic carriers, hospitalized individuals and people who are in self-isolation. Kramer added that AFRL helmed a simulation library that covers various ranges within every transition parameter and presents potential outcomes in each model.

AFRL plans to release the forecast models in publicly-accessible dashboards. The team has tapped KBR to provide support services for the project.

Omar Baez and Matt Wallace, NASA officials, said online that the space agency has more than enough time to address potential problems that may affect the Mars 2020 launch schedule, Space News reported Wednesday.

The two said processing activities are running on schedule toward the launch set for July 20. NASA moved the launch date from July 17 due to a technical issue but Baez and Wallace said that current processes are proceeding on time.

The space agency implemented a work safety program, titled Mars 2020 Safe at Work, to have preparation activities continue running and reduce personnel risks amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The objective was to keep the team as safe, or safer, than they would be if they were not working,” said Wallace, a deputy project manager of the Mars 2020 effort. Baez, meanwhile, serves as the mission's launch director under NASA's Launch Services Program.

NASA will launch the Mars 2020 rover, named Perseverance, on United Launch Alliance's Atlas 5 rocket from Florida-based Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

The mission will deploy Perseverance on the red planet to collect rock samples and explore for signs of life.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has agreed to fund Lingming Zhang, an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Dallas, with $520,000 for a project on automated debugging. Zhang, a computer science academic, will use the five-year Faculty Early Career Development or CAREER grant for his project titled “Maximal and Scalable Unified Debugging for the JVM Ecosystem," UT Dallas said Thursday.

He said the project's goal is to simplify the debugging process for software developers. The project will aim to collectively localize bugs and repair software automatically with no need for manned operation. Zhang's proposed approach is designed to identify all bugs potentially present in a software, rather than only the bugs automatically fixable.

“Dr. Zhang has made significant contributions toward building systems that can predict, detect, localize and fix software bugs automatically,” said Gopal Gupta, a computer science professor at UT Dallas.

Team Telecom has recommended that the Federal Communications Commission deny Pacific Light Cable Network’s (PLCN) application to establish direct undersea cable connection between the U.S. and Hong Kong citing national security risks.

Team Telecom, also known as the Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the U.S. Telecommunications Services Sector, suggested that FCC approve PLCN’s request to install subsea cable systems to connect the U.S. to Taiwan and the Philippines on the condition that the subsidiaries of Google and Facebook sign mitigation agreements with the U.S. government, the Department of Justice (DoJ) said Wednesday.

The committee’s recommendation was based on concerns about PLCN’s connection to Hong Kong-based Pacific Light Data subsidiary of Dr. Peng Group, which has ties to China’s intelligence and security services. The committee also cited the Chinese government’s efforts to gain access to sensitive data of U.S. citizens.

“PLCN’s high capacity and low latency would encourage U.S. communications traffic crossing the Pacific to detour through Hong Kong before reaching intended destinations in other parts of the Asia Pacific region,” DOJ said in the report.

The committee was created through an executive order signed in April to evaluate foreign entities operating in the U.S. telecommunications sector. The committee is led by the foreign investment review section at DOJ’s national security division and includes the departments of Defense and Homeland Security.

Affigent, an Akima subsidiary, has achieved the Titanium tier in the Dell Technologies Federal Partner Program for 2020, the company reported on Thursday.

“Dell Technologies is a leader in digital transformation, and we are extremely proud to have reached the Titanium tier,” said Carol Rivetti, president of Affigent. “Our goal at Affigent is to deliver solutions that help customers scale their efforts while simplifying the procurement of IT.”

Affigent has delivered IT products and services to support agencies’ IT infrastructure modernization, security improvements and mission-serving solutions to enable faster responses at a lower cost.

The company was recognized as a Titanium member of the Dell Technologies Federal Partner Program for providing innovative solutions that solve customers’ problems. Affigent has demonstrated high levels of competencies across pre-sales, sales, technology, and services, from the edge to the core to the cloud, which enabled the company to achieve the designation.

“The comprehensive solutions offered by Dell allow us to not only achieve that goal, but also facilitate the rapid adoption of the transformative technologies agencies need to support their increasingly complex missions,” Rivetti added.

Affigent will continue to partner closely with Dell Technologies throughout 2020 to provide and 5G, multi-cloud, artificial intelligence and edge solutions. The company recently integrated Oracle Cloud Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure services to its General Services Administration MAS Contract under SIN 518210C. 

The expansion of Affigent’s GSA schedule (GS-35F-0509S) will ensure that government agencies have direct access to Oracle hardware and cloud services at the best value. Under the GSA Schedules Program, GSA will establish long-term government-wide pre-competed contracts with commercial firms.

GSA Schedule will provide access to over 11 million commercial products and services at volume discount pricing. Affigent will provide products and associated services, training and maintenance. Oracle’s FedRAMP-compliant cloud services span across SaaS, and Iaa. The services will simplify government agencies’ digital transformation of legacy mission systems securely, efficiently and effectively.

About Akima

Akima is a global enterprise with more than 7,500 employees, delivering agile solutions to the federal government in the core areas of aviation, construction, facilities and logistics, IT and mission support, protective services and detention management, and systems engineering. 

As a subsidiary of NANA, an Alaska Native Corporation owned by more than 14,300 Iñupiat shareholders, Akima’s core mission is to enable superior outcomes for our customers’ missions while simultaneously creating a long-lived asset for NANA consistent with our Iñupiat values. In 2019, Washington Technology ranked Akima #38 amongst the top 100 government contractors.