The Army Research Office has developed an artificial intelligence-based system that uses software agents to discover materials for fuel cells that may be used to develop batteries with prolonged life, Federal News Network reported Monday.

The CRYSTAL tool deploys bots that process permutations that would lead to the discovery of an efficient catalyst for oxidized methanol, a material that could double or even triple battery life compared to hydrogen. Methanol-based fuel cells are known to be less difficult to store compared to hydrogen-based fuel cells.

ARO partnered with Cornell University to develop the AI bots for material science applications. Purush Iyer, division chief of network sciences at ARO, said the AI-driven tool will ease the difficulties in trying out material combinations that would make the appropriate alloy.

“It not only establishes that this fuel cell work can be done, but it also establishes that AI is usable in areas that people don’t usually think of like material design and other engineering problems,” Iyer said.

The Department of Commerce has given U.S. firms more time to cut all connections between their information technology infrastructures and Huawei, Nextgov reported Monday. The department changed the original Aug. 19 deadline to Nov. 19 due to the dependence of some rural companies on the Chinese technology firm.

“Some of the rural companies are dependent on Huawei, so we’re giving them a little more time to wean themselves off,” Wilbur Ross, secretary of commerce, said in an interview with Fox Business. Huawei may still provide updates and patches for linked devices during the extension.

The Chinese company’s ban stems from the intelligence community’s notion that Huawei is involved in espionage against the U.S.

The Federal Aviaton Administration hopes to complete a reorganization effort for its Office of Commercial Space Transportation as the unit continues to expand its workforce, Space News reported Monday. AST is responsible for licensing operations for commercial launches and reentries. The office currently has 97 personnel and is authorized to hire up to 108 people.

Wayne Monteith, associate administrator of AST, noted during a recent teleconference that the office has expanded its staff by 40 percent since 2012. He added that while the office has ramped up its hiring efforts, the workload also increased tenfold.

Monteith’s comments come after the FAA started accepting industry feedback on plans to update the agency’s regulations on commercial launch licensing procedures in May.

The General Services Administration has decided to extend the Transactional Data Reporting pilot through fiscal year 2020 to consolidate 24 schedules into just one platform. GSA said that it implemented the TDR rule as an optional three-year pilot in 2016, which covers eight schedules and related special item numbers.

TDR is an acquisition regulation that requires monthly reporting of transactional sales data from Multiple Award Schedules and other governmentwide contracts to boost transparency and reduce burden. GSA said that it will reassess the TDR pilot by the end of FY 2020 and decide whether to cancel, expand or continue the program.

The Department of Defense has tested a ground-launched cruise missile to gather data for future intermediate-range weapons development. The missile flew 500 kilometers from a site in San Nicolas Island, Calif., before striking a target, DoD said Monday.

U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Robert Carver, a DoD spokesperson, said the tested weapon is a variant of the existing Tomahawk missile, Military.com reported Monday. The test follows the end of an old treaty that restricted the U.S. from performing intermediate-range tests. The severed agreement was known as the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.

Mark Esper, secretary of defense and 2019 Wash100 Award winner, earlier this month announced the country’s departure from the treaty due to Russia’s continuous violation of the agreement.

Travis Air Force Base has fielded an industrial-sized 3D printer to manufacture nonstructural aircraft components. Accredited by the Air Force Advanced Technology and Training Center as well as the Federal Aviation Administration, the Stratasys F900 3D printer uses Ultem materials to produce plastic parts, the U.S. Air Force said Monday.

USAF selected three members from the 60th Maintenance Squadron to be trained and certified by an instructor from the University of Dayton Research Institute as technicians. The service branch noted it took eight months before the printer was deployed.

“There were facility requirements that had to be met, and then installation and certification processes to complete,” said Master Sgt. John Higgs, aircraft metals technology section chief at the 60th MXS. “After, we needed to decide who could operate the printer, then have a UDRI instructor certify them,” added Higgs.

Higgs said other organizations and Air Force bases have sent requests for the production of supplies. In addition, 60th MXS intends to utilize the printer to yield other products aside from aircraft parts.

China has outpaced the U.S. in regards to producing patents for quantum technology over the past decade and some scientists say the Trump administration has voiced its concern about the number of Chinese students in the U.S. involved in quantum science studies and other sensitive scientific areas, The Washington Post reported Sunday.

“We’ve always encouraged the best and brightest to come from overseas, and it’s always served our nation well,” said John Preskill, the Richard P. Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics at the California Institute of Technology. “But there is concern in government about how we are training all these people, and a lot of them are going back to China and competing in technologies that have implications for national security. And we’re talking about what to do about it,” he added.

According to the report, some U.S. agencies have moved to limit collaboration with China. One of the agencies supporting research on quantum science and physics is the Department of Energy, which prohibited its contractors and personnel from responding to China’s Thousand Talents and other talent recruitment initiatives of foreign countries in June.

Driven by China’s strides in the field, Congress passed in 2018 the National Quantum Initiative Act to allocate additional research funds worth $1.2B. DOE is expected to get a large share of the funding and plans to use it to establish research centers focused on quantum science.