Air Education and Training Command has partnered with other major U.S. Air Force commands in an effort to build a competency-based training system for career enlisted aviator and aircraft maintainer positions.

The partnership aims to incorporate virtual and augmented reality, artificial intelligence, machine learning approaches into the Integrated Technology Platform, the Air Force said Tuesday.

“ITP will work to identify and utilize new technologies to teach to these occupational competencies while also implementing new methodologies for training that is learner-centric,” said Masoud Rasti, chief of force development strategy and technical adviser at AETC.

Rasti added the command is looking to adopt mixed and hands-on training equipment such as the Microsoft-built HoloLens 2 headset.

AETC and its partners began constructing virtual training hangars that will feature AR mechanisms, instructor tools and the 3D Aircraft Mission Design Series.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has released a new strategy to help expand the application of artificial intelligence in its missions.

The NOAA AI strategy sets five goals to improve coordination, understanding, application and awareness of AI across the agency and one of the goals is establishing efficient organizational processes and structure to advance AI.

There are five supporting objectives for the first goal, including the establishment of an AI center or a similar entity to facilitate coordination of AI research, data acquisition and algorithm development, among others.

The second goal calls for the advancement of AI research and innovation in support of the agency’s mission. One of the supporting objectives is establishing an annual research and development competition for AI applications in environmental science.

The three other goals of the strategy are accelerating the transition of AI research to applications, expanding and strengthening AI partnerships and promoting AI proficiency in the workforce.

Janice Degarmo, acting chief data officer at the State Department, told Federal News Network in an interview published Tuesday about the newly established Center for Analytics and how it helps the department address foreign policy issues through data analytics.

Degarmo discussed the use of various data sources to help the center understand and predict the evolving world dynamics and CFA's collaboration with offices to develop data forward strategies to address issues concerning 5G technology, China or Iran, among others.

When asked about the selection of datasets, she said the center works with policy experts, the intelligence community and other agencies to bring in the most defensible data. “Data integrity is at the heart of what the Center for Analytics, it’s one of our values. And so we were always very mindful on purposeful to make sure that we’re bringing in the right data to solve the problems,” Degarmo added.

Degarmo noted that leveraging the power of data as a strategic asset is one of the goals of a chief data officer and that requires collaboration. She also cited how the center looks at issues surrounding the COVID-19 virus.

The Transportation Security Administration has banned its employees from using the video and social media app TikTok, The Hill reported Monday.

TSA joins other federal entities like the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Army and Department of the Navy that banned TikTok, which is owned by a Chinese firm called ByteDance. In December, the Department of Defense issued a guidance detailing security risks associated with the app.

Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., recently wrote to TSA Administrator David Pekoske calling for action on employee use of TikTok due to “security and privacy concerns”. The letter urged Pekoske to address TikTok’s potential access to sensitive U.S. information.

Schumer additionally cited instances of TSA employees using TikTok on personal devices to drive social media presence for the agency. A TSA spokesperson said the practice “has since been discontinued”.

The U.S. Army placed its recruitment focus on younger individuals and has now exceeded the enlistment record of last year's first quarter through the use of digital methods. The service branch said Monday that it employed digital advertising, esports events and virtual recruiting methods to engage younger potential soldiers.

Maj. Gen. Frank Muth, who leads Army Recruiting Command, said the digital recruiting approach allowed the service branch to beat 2019 Q1's record by almost 2,300 successful applications.

"This year we are on track to exceed anything we did last year," Muth told reporters.

Army Recruiting Command established 43 virtual recruiting facilities in 2019 to attract individuals via messaging and social media. The Army also trains recruiters to personally meet potential applicants across the U.S., in addition to digital approaches. The Army aims to have a total of 485,000 active-duty warfighters by the end of the fiscal year in September.

NASA has issued solicitations for three Technology Transfer Program opportunities that will allow commercial entities to license the agency’s capabilities to benefit the general public, Nextgov reported Monday.

NASA offers a patent opportunity for a heart signal detection platform that may provide identification and biometric capabilities to verify a person's identity. According to the HeartbeatID solicitation, users can use the technology to record cardiac muscle movement.

The second technology is called the Portable Unit for Metabolic Analysis, which offers a wearable platform that provides “highly precise real-time measurements of human metabolic functions” such as heart rate, temperature and inhalation and exhalation airflow.

The agency also offers licensing opportunities for the Subcutaneous Structure Imager technology, which is a compact below-the-skin capability that helps visualize veins and other vascular structures in juvenile, elderly, dark-skinned, obese and other “challenging patient populations”.

Other NASA technologies up for licensing include human tissue modeling platforms and biochemical sensors suitable for diagnostics.