A team of Stanford University graduate students from multiple disciplines have won a Department of Defense-led competition for military-applied technologies. The team entered a training support app, originally designed to accelerate and streamline athletic training, to the Hacking4Defense competition in San Francisco, Calif., Stanford said Thursday.

“Pilots often lacked accessible, effective tools for staying up-to-date on the mechanical and engineering details of their aircraft or for learning new emerging topics,” said Andrew Powell, a member of the team. He stated that the app would work to address this gap.

Powell worked with co-members Phil Stiefel, Sasha Seymore and Sasha Lisbonne to tailor an existing app in response to U.S. Air Force pilot training needs. Powell and Seymore previously created the Learn to Win platform aid athletes in learning game plans. Seymore and Stiefel, who are U.S. Navy reservists, thought about developing the app for use in the military.

The team visited Beale and Tinker Air Force Bases to gather input on military training and found that current training methods need modernization for streamlining and cost reduction. The submitted app builds on gathered input.

Industry senior leaders recommend government entities promote the use of next-generation identity, credential and access management capabilities instead of traditional password-based authenticators, Fedscoop reported Thursday. Matt Lira, special assistant to the president at the White House Office of American Innovation, told audiences at a Business Roundtable event in Washintgon, D.C. that the government has “a major role to play” in rolling out advanced ICAM technologies to modernize digital identity procedures.

Recently, the industry group of executives released a white paper calling on the government to implement technologies such as biometric sensors and mobile-based tools and transition away from knowledge-based authenticators like social security numbers.

The white paper also recommends removing government barriers to implement new technologies, foster public-private partnerships on digital identity tech development, expand users’ control of data to enhance privacy and invest in related education programs.

The Transportation Department is seeking to preserve the spectrum allocated for autonomous vehicles to develop the nation’s connected-vehicle infrastructure, FCW reported Thursday.

Finch Fulton, deputy assistant secretary for policy at DOT, told the publication that the spectrum should be able to accommodate Dedicated Short Range Communications crucial to ensure traffic safety in vehicle-to-vehicle technology. He added that preserving a dedicated spectrum for such operations will aid the DOT in establishing rules for autonomous vehicle transport.

Fulton’s comments come after Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced that he is willing to open a spectrum for unlicensed applications last month.

The U.S. Marine Corps has recorded 1 million flight hours for its CH-53E Super Stallion fleet since the heavy-lift helicopter platform, manufactured by Lockheed Martin‘s Sikorsky subsidiary, entered service in 1981. Marines have used the aircraft to transport personnel, vehicles and equipment during amphibious assault and long-range insertion missions. Naval Air Systems Command said Wednesday.

USMC maintains 142 units of the CH-53E, which undergoes a “RESET” phase to receive updates and extend service life for another 13 years. Matthew Baumann, co-lead of H-53 In-Service in the NAVAIR’s Heavy Lift Helicopter program office, said 25 helicopters have cleared the rolling period, enabling commanders to organize training, maintenance and operational efforts.

Sikorsky landed a $1.13 billion contract modification in May to produce 12 CH-53K King Stallion helicopters.