Gen. Paul Nakasone, director of the National Security Agency and a 2019 Wash100 Award winner, said one of the first tasks of the new cybersecurity directorate at NSA is to help ensure the security of the defense industrial base and weapons systems amid the increasing threats facing critical infrastructure, Fifth Domain reported Wednesday.

“We must better protect our nation’s advantage and the defense sector from intellectual property theft,” he said Wednesday at the FireEye Cyber Defense Summit in Washington. “This means working closely with the defense industries and those who provide cybersecurity solutions to them.”

Nakasone said the agency can provide assistance in cryptographic materials and codes to protect sensitive government information from cyber threats.

“The new cybersecurity directorate will improve this aspect of NSA’s unique mission with a threat-driven, forward-looking mindset. We’ll be able to harden our defenses, resolve vulnerabilities,” he added.

Jose Arrieta, chief information officer at the Department of Health and Human Services, told Federal Times in an interview published Wednesday about the pilot programs HHS has focused on since he joined the agency and one of those is the HHS Accelerate acquisition portal.

HHS Accelerate aims to use artificial intelligence and blockchain technology to facilitate the contracting process and achieve savings. He said the department wants HHS Accelerate to help reduce the administrative burden on industry partners, empower program managers and create value for contracting professionals.

When asked about his priorities over the next 18 months, Arrieta said he wants to test the integration of the acquisition portal with the financial system and move it to the deployment phase as well as test behavioral-based identity.

“We want to actually test behavioral-based identity at the edge of the network,” Arrieta said. “We’re brainstorming at this moment to figure out how to do that. But I want to be able to use 240 behavioral characteristics about you as an individual in terms of how you use your wireless device or data that’s taken off a wearable and I want to be able to use that to give you access to the network.”

He also mentioned the department’s work on a recurrent neural network focused on processing unstructured text and another one on structured data.

The Air Force Research Laboratory Aerospace Systems Directorate partnered with Wright Cycle Company and small business firm Energective to demonstrate the potential applications of virtual and augmented reality in future aircraft maintenance procedures.

AFRL showcased during the recent Air Vehicles Technology Symposium in Dayton, Ohio, a mixed reality display tool designed to provide step-by-step instructions on how to change tires of a Wright Cycle Company bicycle, the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base said Tuesday. 

The headset tool, equipped with an Energective software application, guides crews throughout the process by laying out real time visual aids over the actual bicycle wheel, which they can view through smartglasses. 

In addition to streamlining the aircraft maintenance process, Air Force officials said the tool could also help train technicians on new aircraft or procedures, eliminating the need for physical training hardware systems. 

It could also be used to direct digital workflows, capture and record maintenance data and simplify the sharing of data across the user community.

The National Science Foundation has announced an initiative to pursue artificial intelligence research projects with partnering institutes.

NSF said it will work with the departments of Agriculture, Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs and Transportation through the National AI Research Institutes program.

The joint program would engage with research institutes on two tracks. The first, known as the planning track, would cover study areas that involve applications needed by NSF and its partners. The second, known as the institute track, would focus on projects that tackle AI trustworthiness, machine learning foundations and AI applications in agriculture, food, education, molecular synthesis, manufacturing and physics.

Interested parties may submit theme-specific proposals through Jan. 28 and planning proposals through Jan. 30.