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GSA, JAIC Partner to Integrate AI Into DoD Acquisition Process
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GSA, JAIC Partner to Integrate AI Into DoD Acquisition Process


GSA, JAIC Partner to Integrate AI Into DoD Acquisition Process

The General Services Administration has partnered with the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center to speed up the Department of Defense’s acquisition operations through the implementation of artificial intelligence, Federal Times reported Friday.

The GSA intends for the accelerated process to support military personnel through the deployment of mission capacities.

“Technology changes so rapidly that there needs to be a way in the acquisition space to speed that up,” said Michelle McNellis, acquisition lead at the GSA Centers of Excellence.

Defense Digital Service Seeks to Expand Staff at Satellite Office in Georgia
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Defense Digital Service Seeks to Expand Staff at Satellite Office in Georgia


Defense Digital Service Seeks to Expand Staff at Satellite Office in Georgia

The Defense Digital Service has opened a satellite office in Augusta, Ga., near the U.S. Army Cyber Command and Fort Gordon, Defense One reported Saturday.

The Augusta office, nicknamed “Tatooine”, is located at the Georgia Cyber Center and has a staff of around 15 full-time personnel. Rachel Breitfeller, communications director at DDS, said the Department of Defense unit is “actively hiring civilians” that will work on software development, design, product management and other digital-related activities.

“Our goal is for colleagues that work in Tatooine to touch projects that we take on regardless of location,” she said. “Our plan with Tatooine was to tap into the tech ecosystem and talent in Augusta and the surrounding areas, and create a secondary, accessible space that all colleagues would want to work out of.”

Defense Digital Service was launched in 2015, with Chris Lynch tapped to served as its director.

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Bechtel, ENKA to Build 5G Motorway, Flood Defense System to Boost Serbian Economy; Mike Wilkinson Quoted
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Bechtel, ENKA to Build 5G Motorway, Flood Defense System to Boost Serbian Economy; Mike Wilkinson Quoted


Bechtel, ENKA to Build 5G Motorway, Flood Defense System to Boost Serbian Economy; Mike Wilkinson Quoted

The government of Serbia has selected Bechtel and ENKA, working together in a joint venture, to construct a 70 mile, 5G-ready dual carriageway to connect the communities and businesses of Eastern Pojate to Western Preljina and enhance regional economic prospects, Bechtel announced on Friday. 

 A telecommunications corridor will be built beneath the side of the motorway to allow for future 5G fiber and tower installations. Construction is expected to begin in 2020. 

In addition, the Bechtel ENKA team will also build a major flood defense system, the first of its scale in the Balkans, to protect the areas around the motorway from flooding, erosion and water pollution. 

“We are delighted and honored to have been chosen by the Serbian Government to build this transformational motorway, our first in the country. It is thanks to their vision that we will be delivering much more than a road – the motorway will create a vital economic corridor as well as solve the challenge of flood protection and provide digital connectivity,”  said Mike Wilkinson, Bechtel’s general manager for Europe. 

The flood defense system reflects Serbia’s goal to strengthen the national infrastructure’s resilience against extreme weather conditions. 

As part of a wider regional transport plan, the motorway will also build economic ties to improve trade links throughout the Balkans and Western Europe. Approximately 10,000 jobs are projected to be created in Serbia during construction.

“The Bechtel ENKA team now looks forward to breaking ground, marking the start of a long-term partnership with Serbia to support world-class infrastructure that creates jobs, connects communities and grows the local economy,” Wilkinson added. 

Bechtel, the first U.S. contractor to be involved in a major infrastructure project in Serbia, and ENKA’s partnership has developed roadways in the Balkan peninsula since the 1990’s in many of Serbia’s neighbors with over 15,000 miles of road built, 100 tunnels and 26 major bridges. 

About Bechtel

Bechtel is a trusted engineering, construction and project management partner to industry and government. Differentiated by the quality of our people and our relentless drive to deliver the most successful outcomes, we align our capabilities to our customers’ objectives to create a lasting positive impact. 

Since 1898, we have helped customers complete more than 25,000 projects in 160 countries on all seven continents that have created jobs, grown economies, improved the resiliency of the world’s infrastructure, increased access to energy, resources, and vital services, and made the world a safer, cleaner place. 

Bechtel serves the Infrastructure; Nuclear, Security & Environmental; Oil, Gas & Chemicals; and Mining & Metals markets. Our services span from initial planning and investment, through start-up and operations. www.bechtel.com

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Oracle Health Services to Use AI/ML to Improve Cancer Treatment; Steve Rosenberg Quoted
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Oracle Health Services to Use AI/ML to Improve Cancer Treatment; Steve Rosenberg Quoted


Oracle Health Services to Use AI/ML to Improve Cancer Treatment; Steve Rosenberg Quoted

Oracle Health Services, a division of Oracle Corporation, announced its participation with The Opportunity Project (TOP) Technology Sprint: Creating the Future of Health to match patients more effectively with clinical trials and experimental therapies, the company announced on Monday.

The company’s involvement will utilize artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to standardize data from clinical trial requirement forms to specific eligibility criteria, enable intuitive interfaces that provide data at point of care and track patient care to determine the best treatment for patients.

Patients would be able to retain their privacy, identity and receive information and therapy that’s relevant to their treatment. Clinical trial participants will be provided through de-identified precision oncology open data sets from the National Cancer Institute and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

Steve Rosenberg, senior vice president and general manager said, “It is paramount that we collaborate with our peers within the federal government and technology communities to collectively evaluate what innovative opportunities exist and to explore the potential applications  AI and machine learning can offer to fight deadly diseases such as cancer.”

TOP is a 12-week technology development effort involving both private enterprise and government to solve real-world problems using open data. TOP will host its Demo Day 2019 on December 10, 2019 at the U.S. Census Bureau in Suitland, MD.

About Oracle Health Sciences

Oracle Health Sciences breaks down barriers and opens new pathways to unify people and processes to bring new drugs to market faster. As a leader in Life Sciences technology, Oracle Health Sciences is trusted by 30 of the top 30 pharma, 10 of the top 10 biotech and 10 of the top 10 CROs for managing clinical trials and pharmacovigilance around the globe.

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. For more information about Oracle (NYSE: ORCL), please visit us at oracle.com.

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Stuart Hazlett: Army Corps of Engineers to Test New Contract Writing System
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Stuart Hazlett: Army Corps of Engineers to Test New Contract Writing System


Stuart Hazlett
Stuart Hazlett

Stuart Hazlett, deputy assistant secretary of the Army for procurement, said a new contract writing system designed to streamline the service’s contracting process will be first tested by the Army Corps of Engineers in February, the Army said Friday.

Hazlett said the Army Contract Writing System is set to replace two legacy platforms – the Standard Procurement System and the Procurement Automated Data and Document System.

“This system would not only expedite the acquisition and contracting process, but it has the ability to award and sustain those major weapons systems,” he said of ACWS at an Association of the U.S. Army Hot Topic forum. “We will be able to track all of our acquisitions from a complete requirements package to award to contract closeout. It will be interoperable with our finance systems, invoicing, and payments will speed up.”

The service plans to field the ACWS to Mission and Installation Contracting Command by June once it completes the initial assessment. The system uses cloud to facilitate management and sharing of large data volumes.

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Adm. Michael Gilday on Challenge Posed by Lack of International Cyber Standards
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Adm. Michael Gilday on Challenge Posed by Lack of International Cyber Standards


Michael Gilday
Michael Gilday

Adm. Michael Gilday, chief of naval operations, said the lack of international standards for appropriate cyber behavior makes it hard for the U.S. and its allies to watch over adversaries, Fifth Domain reported Saturday.

“We have international norms in the maritime; we don’t have those in cyber,” Gilday said during a panel at the Reagan National Defense Forum. “It makes it difficult to enforce standard that don’t exist, and to therefore hold nations accountable for nefarious behavior. It’s a challenge.”

He and the three other service chiefs have expressed support to Gen. Paul Nakasone, commander of U.S. Cyber Command and a 2019 Wash100 award winner.

CNAS Assesses US Competitiveness in Indo-Pacific Amid China Challenge
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CNAS Assesses US Competitiveness in Indo-Pacific Amid China Challenge


CNAS Assesses US Competitiveness in Indo-Pacific Amid China Challenge

The Center for a New American Security has submitted to the Department of Defense a congressionally mandated study that sets principles for advancing U.S. strategy in the Indo-Pacific amid competition with China.

CNAS said Friday the independent study “Rising to the China Challenge: Renewing American Competitiveness in the Indo-Pacific” was mandated by the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act and offers approximately 100 policy recommendations across seven vectors of U.S. competitiveness.

The vectors include sustaining conventional military deterrence; securing U.S. technological advantages; strengthening U.S. diplomacy; and bolstering U.S. economic power and leadership.

“At a fundamental level, the China challenge is about us—it’s about renewing American competitiveness,” said Ely Ratner, executive vice president and director of studies at CNAS. “This requires a comprehensive strategy that bolsters U.S. advantages in economics, technology, diplomacy, defense, ideology, human capital, and more.”

CNAS CEO Richard Fontaine said the center plans to release a public version of the independent study in early 2020.

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DHS S&T Studies Use of K9 Teams in Active Shooting Events
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DHS S&T Studies Use of K9 Teams in Active Shooting Events


DHS S&T Studies Use of K9 Teams in Active Shooting Events

The Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate is exploring ways to deploy security dogs in unconventional scenarios.

DHS S&T said Thursday it partnered with other entities to study the use of K9 teams for new applications such as path clearance and explosive detection during active shooter scenarios.

The directorate worked with the Counterterrorism Advanced Training Center and Battelle Memorial Institute in September to demonstrate this concept.

Experts from S&T’s Detection Canine Program joined law enforcement practitioners to discuss roles and needed training for the concept’s application in active shooter scenarios.

The demonstrations put first responders and K9 teams in simulated scenarios that featured realistic gunfire, hidden bombs, smoke and actors who played shooters and injured victims.

S&T then used the gathered data to assess the teams’ performance and identify ways to integrate bomb detection personnel with first responders for such a scenario.

“Based on our first two active shooter response pilot demonstrations, it’s fair to say that explosive detection canine teams can potentially be a great asset to first responders during an active shooting scenario,” said Don Roberts, who manages the S&T Detection Canine Program.

“However, we will need to conduct more studies and collect more data on the canine teams specifically, before we can draw any statistically significant conclusions,” he added.

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GAO Seeks to Expand Science & Technology Assessment Team
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GAO Seeks to Expand Science & Technology Assessment Team


GAO Seeks to Expand Science & Technology Assessment Team

The Government Accountability Office said it intends to “continue to build its capacity” to meet congressional demand for science and technology activities through the agency’s new Science, Technology Assessment and Analytics arm. GAO said Thursday it established the STAA team in January to support its operations focused on providing S&T-based federal agency assessments to Congress.

The watchdog noted that the team works to “address key congressional interests” in S&T programs and oversee such efforts across the federal enterprise. According to GAO, its S&T portfolio has expanded to include engineering and project controls, best practices guidelines and technology assessments.

The agency plans to hire more experts in technical areas such as aerospace, computer science, biology and nuclear physics in the future. The STAA team is currently comprised of 59 professionals or around one-half of GAO’s projected amount detailed in its April 2019 plan.

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DoD Looks to Address Industry’s Risks of Intellectual Property Theft
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DoD Looks to Address Industry’s Risks of Intellectual Property Theft


DoD Looks to Address Industry's Risks of Intellectual Property Theft

The Trump administration, Department of Defense and intelligence community have launched efforts to mitigate intellectual property theft with particular focus on preventing China from using data for cyber and information warfare, FCW reported Thursday.

John Rood, the undersecretary of defense for policy, said during a hearing with the Senate Armed Services Committee that the Pentagon’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center is leading the department’s efforts to combat IP theft.

Lt. Gen. Allvin, director for strategy, plans and policy at the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in a testimony that the DoD wants to identify gaps in IP and cybersecurity to help industry understand the importance of protecting crucial information for national security.

“It becomes a relationship between us and the defense industrial base,” said Allvin. He noted that industry needs to understand that information can be considered classified when aggregated with other critical pieces of data.

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