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MITRE Reveals New Autonomous Technology Laboratory to Improve Research Methodology; Zachary LaCelle Quoted
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MITRE Reveals New Autonomous Technology Laboratory to Improve Research Methodology; Zachary LaCelle Quoted
MITRE Reveals New Autonomous Technology Laboratory to Improve Research Methodology; Zachary LaCelle Quoted

MITRE has announced the Mobile Autonomous Systems Experimentation (MASE) Laboratory on Thursday, which will improve research methodology, accelerate advanced autonomous technology, and provide objective perspective and recommendations for broad impact in multiple domains, including drones, commercial aircraft, tanks and self-driving vehicles.

“We have cyber experts and autonomy experts working on ground transportation, urban air mobility, and defense applications. Our systems thinking mentality accelerates solutions to all of these problems. This broad combination of domain expertise allows us to provide additional, unique perspectives in this cutting-edge challenge area,” said Zachary LaCelle, senior autonomous systems engineer at MITRE.

MITRE has introduced the teams and has created divisions within the labs, including developing and evaluating technologies, identifying solutions for emerging challenges and recommending the most innovative technologies to sponsors and partners. 

The MASE lab will also demonstrate its capabilities to sponsors interested in autonomy software and its application. MITRE will have new capabilities in architecture, which will make autonomous modules and hardware easier to integrate across programs. 

One of the lab’s newest developments, the MASE Jeep, will be a commercially available Grand Cherokee augmented for autonomy.  MITRE will input engineers with sensors, analytic and data recorders, and powerful processors.

The Jeep has allowed the company to explore new autonomous technologies and cutting-edge algorithms on a large mobile platform. Additionally, the lab has provided an integrated testing environment for emerging hardware, software and approaches that will help to inform MITRE’s government sponsors and collaboration partners.

“We have the experts available to assist in research integration for people coming to us with specialized questions. We can also test new ideas, prototype them, and transfer them out to industry and other researchers,” added LaCelle. 

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.

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Accenture, NASCIO Report New Roles of CIO Innovation; Doug Robinson, Rick Webb Quoted
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Accenture, NASCIO Report New Roles of CIO Innovation; Doug Robinson, Rick Webb Quoted
Accenture, NASCIO Report New Roles of CIO Innovation; Doug Robinson, Rick Webb Quoted

Accenture and the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) have released a new report, focusing on the changes state chief information officers (CIO) need to make as technology continues to develop, the company announced on Thursday.

“The pace of technological change keeps accelerating, bringing new challenges and opening opportunities, and state CIOs have an important, central role to play in fostering innovation to help government deliver better services and value to citizens…state government operating models should evolve to better enable, emphasize and capture the benefits of innovation, and this research points the way forward,” said Doug Robinson, NASCIO’s executive director. 

The report has emphasized new approaches and success factors that could potentially advance innovative practices within the state government, including examples of leading practices of state CIO innovation governance structures, ecosystems, budgeting for innovation, recommendations to help state CIOs develop operating models and initiatives that can drive innovation in state government.  

The companies conducted a survey of 12 state CIOs and the data has concluded that 83 percent of CIOs see innovation is an important part of their day-to-day leadership responsibilities and 14 percent announced extensive innovation initiatives within their organizations.

The survey also identified current practices and CIO views regarding obstacles to innovation. The report has stated that a lack of funding for innovation is a top barrier, 63 percent of CIOs reported, while executive support for innovation is at 26 percent. 

Additionally, CIOs view supervised governance structures on innovation are becoming more common: 49 percent were reported to have one and 31 percent are still developing one. 

The report has also stated that collaboration in innovation ecosystems are mainly internally focused: the top source of innovative ideas, cited by 63 percent, while less than half point to external collaborations and only 14 percent  point to input from citizens. 

“State CIOs have many opportunities to foster innovation in their agencies and the departments they support,” said Rick Webb Accenture’s managing director. “Effective innovation depends on consistent, strong leadership support, collaborative systems and a conducive organizational culture, and state CIOs are key across all these dimensions.”

About Accenture

Accenture is a leading global professional services company, providing a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations. Combining unmatched experience and specialized skills across more than 40 industries and all business functions — underpinned by the world’s largest delivery network — Accenture works at the intersection of business and technology to help clients improve their performance and create sustainable value for their stakeholders. With 505,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries, Accenture drives innovation to improve the way the world works and lives. 

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Booz Allen Hamilton and Mindbreeze Collaborate on CDER for FDA; Dr. Roman Salasznyk Quoted
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Booz Allen Hamilton and Mindbreeze Collaborate on CDER for FDA; Dr. Roman Salasznyk Quoted
Booz Allen Hamilton and Mindbreeze Collaborate on CDER for FDA; Dr. Roman Salasznyk Quoted

Booz Allen Hamilton, in collaboration with Mindbreeze, is looking to deliver enterprise search capabilities for the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the company announced on Thursday.

Most recently, the FDA gave Booz Allen a contract to work with CDER in Feb. 2018 on a potential seven-year, $300 million blanket purchase agreement (BPA) to support its implementation of a transformational Informatics Platform.

"Our team of technologists and enterprise search experts are committed to transform FDA’s human drug review process leveraging enabling technologies that ultimately help bring live-saving treatments to market with greater speed and efficiency," added Dr. Roman Salasznyk, vice president at Booz Allen.

With Booz Allen’s partnership, Mindbreeze will support FDA staff by compiling more than 150 million submission documents, reviews and communications into a single user interface, making them available in a consolidated fashion. This involves machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) supported search functions, as well as natural language processing.

“Our partner Booz Allen Hamilton has built up a wealth of expertise about Mindbreeze in recent years. Their implementation skills and commitment make them the perfect partner for us and our efforts to accelerate future large-scale projects across the US government and life sciences sectors,” said Daniel Fallmann, founder and CEO of Mindbreeze.

About Booz Allen Hamilton

For more than 100 years, military, government, and business leaders have turned to Booz Allen Hamilton to solve their most complex problems. As a consulting firm with experts in analytics, digital, engineering, and cyber, we help organizations transform. 

We are a key partner on some of the most innovative programs for governments worldwide and trusted by their most sensitive agencies. We work shoulder to shoulder with clients, using a mission-first approach to choose the right strategy and technology to help them realize their vision.

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Dun & Bradstreet and QOMPLX Partner for Delivery of Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification to Government Contractors; Erik Ekwurzel, Bill Solms Quoted
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Dun & Bradstreet and QOMPLX Partner for Delivery of Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification to Government Contractors; Erik Ekwurzel, Bill Solms Quoted

Dun & Bradstreet and QOMPLX Partner for Delivery of Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification to Government Contractors; Erik Ekwurzel, Bill Solms Quoted

Dun & Bradstreet has announced their strategic partnership with QOMPLX on Thursday. The companies will provide the more than 100,000 Defense Industrial Base (DIB) companies and subcontractors with assessment and certification, which is required by the upcoming Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) model.

“We’re excited to partner with Dun & Bradstreet on such an important initiative,” said Bill Solms, president and general manager of  QOMPLX Government Solutions Division. “CMMC is a step in the right direction to further protect government data, and our partnership with Dun & Bradstreet gives companies in the Defense Industrial Base the best chance to get this done quickly and reliably.”

The companies will integrate CMMC to verify and ensure that the appropriate levels of cybersecurity practices and processes are in place to ensure ethical cyber use and protect controlled unclassified information (CUI) within the Department of Defense’s (DoD) indstrustry partner nextworks.

The DoD will also utilize the expertise of the companies to help suppliers understand and secure certification, and larger defense contractors evaluate and secure subcontractors within their own network.

“The implementation of the CMMC framework demonstrates that the U.S. federal government is prioritizing security internally, and holds its contractors to the same standard,” said Erik Ekwurzel, Chief Technology Officer, Government Solutions at Dun & Bradstreet. “We fully support this initiative, and with our partnership with QOMPLX, we plan to be contractors’ trusted partner in securing certification.”

About Dun & Bradstreet

Dun & Bradstreet, a leading global provider of business decisioning data and analytics, enables companies around the world to improve their business performance. Dun & Bradstreet’s Data Cloud fuels solutions and delivers insights that empower customers to accelerate revenue, lower cost, mitigate risk, and transform their businesses. Since 1841, companies of every size have relied on Dun & Bradstreet to help them manage risk and reveal opportunity.

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Red Hat Updates OpenShift Container Storage 4 with Multi-Cloud and Security; Ranga Rangachari Quoted
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Red Hat Updates OpenShift Container Storage 4 with Multi-Cloud and Security; Ranga Rangachari Quoted

Red Hat Updates OpenShift Container Storage 4 with Multi-Cloud and Security; Ranga Rangachari Quoted

Red Hat has developed its latest software updates for its OpenShift Container Storage 4 software to add a multiple-cloud gateway and new security features, the company announced on Wednesday. The updates will boost abstraction and flexibility to support both traditional and emerging workloads enabled through its Red Hat Ceph Storage with multi-cloud gateway technology.

The rights to the cloud technology were gained in a Nov. 2018 acquisition of NooBaa. With the multi-cloud on OpenShift Container Storage 4, customers have the freedom to choose data services across multiple public clouds.

They can also share and access sensitive data in a more secure fashion across multiple-locations and platforms. The use of multi-cloud strategies also reduces the vulnerability to a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack as the attack won’t affect all the clouds.

“The addition of NooBaa’s technology and talent pool adds a competitive edge to Red Hat’s offerings tailored to address the needs of developers building tomorrow’s cloud-native applications,” commented Ranga Rangachari, vice president and general manager of Storage at Red Hat.

Additional features included in the update are encryption, data anonymization, key separation and erasure coding to further drive security across disparate cloud environments.

About Red Hat, Inc.

Red Hat is the world’s leading provider of enterprise open source software solutions, using a community-powered approach to deliver reliable and high-performing Linux, hybrid cloud, container, and Kubernetes technologies. Red Hat helps customers integrate new and existing IT applications, develop cloud-native applications, standardize on our industry-leading operating system, and automate, secure, and manage complex environments.

Award-winning support, training, and consulting services make Red Hat a trusted adviser to the Fortune 500. As a strategic partner to cloud providers, system integrators, application vendors, customers, and open source communities, Red Hat can help organizations prepare for the digital future.

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KBR Receives Contract from IMCOM to Improve DoD and Federal Law Enforcement; Byron Bright Quoted
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KBR Receives Contract from IMCOM to Improve DoD and Federal Law Enforcement; Byron Bright Quoted

KBR Receives Contract from IMCOM to Improve DoD and Federal Law Enforcement; Byron Bright Quoted

KBR has been awarded a three-year, firm-fixed-price contract by the U.S. Army Installation Management Command (IMCOM) to provide video evidence management services for the Mobile Federal Law Enforcement Enterprise Technology Service (M-FLEETS) program, the company announced on Thursday.

“KBR’s integrated and innovative IT solution will allow first responders for the DoD and other federal agencies to capture, transmit, view and archive videos and critical data. Our turnkey services will ultimately make communities safer,” said Byron Bright, president of KBR Government Solutions.

The company has partnered with Panasonic to integrate the commercial evidence collection and management products and services, using Microsoft Azure Government Cloud and other platforms. KBR and its partners will deliver the first and most secure enterprise-scale video evidence collection and archival system available to the U.S. government and DoD law enforcement organizations.

Under the contract, KBR will integrate a secure end-to-end service that including, dash cameras, digital video recorders, ruggedized computers and mobile communications. The company will also help install and operate the devices in military police vehicles.

Additionally, KBR will help connect the end-to-end service to KBR Evidence Collection Archive & Retrieval Service (ECARS) cloud application. ICOM has stated that the company will include all equipment, software and support as a turnkey managed service for military police officers and supervisors.

KBR will connect 10 Army installations and 100 police vehicles to its service and support approximately 500 police officers. KBR has the potential to receive 40 DoD installations, 1600 vehicles and more than 5000 officers.

The company will primarily perform this work in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. KBR’s comprehensive service will be accredited as a FedRAMP High/DoD Impact Level 5 system.

About KBR, Inc.

KBR is a global provider of differentiated professional services and technologies across the asset and program lifecycle within the Government Solutions and Energy sectors. KBR employs approximately 38,000 people worldwide (including our joint ventures), with customers in more than 80 countries, and operations in 40 countries, across three synergistic global businesses.

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NSA’s Glenn Gerstell on Cybersecurity Challenges
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NSA’s Glenn Gerstell on Cybersecurity Challenges
Glenn Gerstell
Glenn Gerstell

Glenn Gerstell, general counsel of the National Security Agency, said the intelligence community should launch more efforts to address cybersecurity challenges caused by nation-state actors and the emergence of artificial intelligence, 5G, internet of things and other technologies, Fifth Domain reported Wednesday.

“It is almost impossible to overstate the gap between the rate at which the cybersecurity threat is getting worse relative to our ability to effectively address it,” Grestell said Wednesday at an American Bar Association event.

He cited the cyber challenges posed by China and the need for the IC to add to its workforce new experts in AI, biotechnology, finance, metallurgy, crop genetics and port logistics, among other areas, to counter China’s technological and economic growth.

Grestell, who is set to leave NSA later this year, said he wants to “see greater centralization in government within our cybersecurity initiative across government” to address silos.

James Gfrerer: VA to Measure Digital Transformation Progress With Scorecard
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James Gfrerer: VA to Measure Digital Transformation Progress With Scorecard
James Gfrerer
James Gfrerer

The Department of Veterans Affairs is developing a set of metrics to evaluate progress in digital transformation programs across the VA enterprise, FedScoop reported Wednesday.

James Gfrerer, chief information officer of VA, said at a health information technology summit Wednesday the scorecard under development is nearly 80 percent complete and designed to monitor the status of modernization work on various IT platforms.

"We're going to get a lot more focused around those measures, those metrics, those outcomes around the specific projects and start to be a bit more deliberate on what programs are succeeding or not," Gfrerer added, according to report.

He plans to discuss the scorecard development effort with members of Congress later this week. Gfrerer noted he expects VA to migrate 350 systems and applications to an enterprise cloud computing infrastructure by 2024.

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HHS Issues Draft Strategic Plan for Federal Health IT
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HHS Issues Draft Strategic Plan for Federal Health IT
HHS Issues Draft Strategic Plan for Federal Health IT

The Department of Health and Human Services has released a draft strategic plan that outlines goals for the use of federal health information technology to facilitate patients’ access to their electronic health data.

The office for the national coordinator for health IT within HHS worked with more than 25 federal agencies to develop the draft 2020-2025 Federal Health IT Strategic Plan, HHS said Wednesday.

“The draft federal strategic plan supports the provisions in the 21st Century Cures Act that will help to bring electronic health information into the hands of patients through smartphone applications,” said Don Rucker, national coordinator for health IT.

The draft plan sets several strategies and objectives to meet four goals: promote health and wellness; enhance the delivery and experience of care; build a secure, data-driven culture to accelerate research and innovation; and connect healthcare and health data through an interoperable health IT infrastructure.

Public comments on the draft are due March 18.

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Ryan McCarthy Offers Preview of Army’s Future Budgets Following FY 2021
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Ryan McCarthy Offers Preview of Army’s Future Budgets Following FY 2021
Ryan McCarthy
Ryan McCarthy

Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy said the service is likely to make large cuts to current programs and fleets after fiscal year 2021 since it has a clearer view of the progress of its modernization programs, Defense News reported Wednesday.

“There were some hard choices, there were some cuts,” McCarthy said of the Army’s FY 21 budget request. He added that those reductions “were refinements” to previous decisions and that “harder choices are coming again” in the couple of years.

He noted that the service will see prototypes and demonstrations transition to development and evaluation phases in the next 18 months as part of modernization efforts.

The Army’s FY 2021 budget request is expected to be released on Feb. 10.

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