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Report: Charles Kupperman to Serve as Acting National Security Adviser
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Report: Charles Kupperman to Serve as Acting National Security Adviser


Jeff Brody

Charles Kupperman, deputy national security adviser, has been named interim national security adviser to President Trump, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. A spokeswoman for the White House said Kupperman will succeed John Bolton, who resigned from the national security adviser post due to disagreements with the president over foreign policies, including peace talks in Afghanistan.

Trump said in a tweet Tuesday he will appoint a new national security adviser next week. Kupperman assumed his current role in January.

He has over four decades of national security experience and held various advisory and executive positions during the Reagan administration. Previously, he served as vice president of business development at Boeing and Washington space operations VP at Lockheed Martin.

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Accenture Acquires Pragsis Bidoop to Boost AI, Big Data Portfolio; Athina Kanioura Quoted
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Accenture Acquires Pragsis Bidoop to Boost AI, Big Data Portfolio; Athina Kanioura Quoted

Jeff Brody

Accenture announced on Tuesday that Pragsis Bidoop, a Spanish company with strong expertise in big data, artificial intelligence and advanced analytics, has been acquired by Accenture for an undisclosed price to boost the company’s portfolio and capabilities in those areas.

The acquisition will add more than 200 employees with deep machine learning, AI and big data engineering experience, along with its portfolio of end-to-end solutions to Accenture’s Applied Intelligence business.

“Accenture Applied Intelligence is experiencing strong demand and we are laser-focused on equipping our teams with the right blend of talent and technical skills to guide clients on their AI journey,” said Athina Kanioura, chief analytics officer and global lead for Applied Intelligence at Accenture. “As we continue to grow the business, the Pragsis Bidoop team will play a critical role in the European market and beyond.”

Accenture Applied Intelligence employs more than 20,000 professionals, working to help clients scale AI, including 6,000 data scientists, data engineers and AI professionals worldwide. It has received several recognition from leading industry analyst firms in the past six months, including being named a worldwide leader in AI vendor services by IDC and ranking first in Google AI services by HfS.

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 482,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries, Accenture drives innovation to improve the way the world works and lives.

 

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MHS Rolls Out New Electronic Health Record at Four Sites
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MHS Rolls Out New Electronic Health Record at Four Sites


Jeff Brody

The Military Health System deployed its new electronic health care record at four medical sites belonging to the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Army. The system said Saturday that it activated its MHS GENESIS record at David Grant USAF Medical Center, Naval Health Clinic Lemoore, U.S. Army Health Clinic Presidio of Monterey and Mountain Home Air Force Base’s 366th Medical Group.

MHS Genesis is designed to standardize electronic health recording across the Department of Defense’s more than 9.5M beneficiaries and allow for the delivery of integrated health care. MHS also seeks to streamline activities and boost patient safety via the new electronic health record.

The Department of Veterans Affairs’ and MHS’ respective electronic health records use the same software and will allow for interoperability with one another when fully functional. MHS will continue to roll GENESIS out in successive waves with three-month intervals beginning spring 2020, with full deployment scheduled for the end of 2023.

The implementation’s next three waves of medical centers will include sites in California, Nevada and Alaska.

NIST Issues Preliminary Draft of Privacy Framework
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NIST Issues Preliminary Draft of Privacy Framework


Jeff Brody

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has released an initial draft of a framework meant to help organizations improve individuals’ privacy through enterprise risk management.

NIST said Friday that the Privacy Framework seeks to help organizations secure individuals’ privacy through three efforts: establish customer trust by supporting ethical decision-making in service and product design; meet compliance obligations; and facilitate communications with clients and regulators about privacy practices.

The agency noted that the policy follows the structure of the Cybersecurity Framework and is composed of core, profiles and implementation tiers. The core component seeks to facilitate a dialogue about privacy protection operations and desired outcomes, while the profiles part advances the prioritization of activities and outcomes that meet organizational missions and privacy values.

The implementation tiers support communication and decision-making about the organizational processes’ sufficiency to handle privacy risks.

NIST wants stakeholders to assess whether the initial draft defines outcomes that strengthen an individual’s privacy protection or cover existing practices; integrates privacy risk into organizational risk; and allows organizations to adapt to privacy risks arising from the use of artificial intelligence, internet of things and other emerging technologies.

Public comments are due Oct. 24.

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SDA’s Warfighter Council Plans Quarterly Meetings to Inform Space Program Dev’t
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SDA’s Warfighter Council Plans Quarterly Meetings to Inform Space Program Dev’t


Jeff Brody

The Space Development Agency’s Warfighter Council has begun facilitating meetings to discuss national defense needs to support the development of SDA programs, Air Force Magazine reported Monday. The council was created along with SDA’s establishment in March.

“It provides expertise and recommendations on current and emerging operational challenges, and the adversarial threat environment to inform the SDA’s architectural development, prototyping, and experimentation plans,” explained Jennifer Elzea, a spokeswoman for the Department of Defense.

The Warfighter Council’s 20 member organizations also “demonstrate a clear connection” to potential threats that warfighters might face in relation to space, she added. The group intends to conduct meetings every quarter, with another meeting slated for the end of the year.

Council members include representatives from entities like the Joint Chiefs of Staff and intelligence community as well as the combatant commands.

FAA, NASA Demo Low-Altitude Drone Operations Under Pilot Program
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FAA, NASA Demo Low-Altitude Drone Operations Under Pilot Program


Jeff Brody

The Federal Aviation Administration has collaborated with NASA and unmanned aircraft system testing partners to conduct three safety demonstrations of drone operations at an altitude of below 400 feet. FAA said Wednesday that the field tests demonstrated the possibility of conducting UAS flights beyond visual line-of-sight in airspace without air traffic services.

The Virginia Tech Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership, Northern Plains UAS Test Site in North Dakota and the Nevada Institute for Autonomous Systems in Las Vegas hosted the low-altitude drone tests during the past three months as part of the UAS Traffic Management Pilot Program.

Data from the program will help the government develop a UTM proof of concept and lay the groundwork for technology deployment efforts, FAA noted. The agency introduced UPP in April 2017 as part of efforts to define operational safety requirements for commercial drones.

Education Dept Seeks Input on Plans to Recognize US Cybersecurity Educators
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Education Dept Seeks Input on Plans to Recognize US Cybersecurity Educators


Jeff Brody

The Department of Education is planning to recognize two U.S. educators for the Presidential Cybersecurity Education Award in May 2020. ED said in a document dated Sept. 5 that it plans to announce the award during National Cybersecurity Awareness Month in October and recognize the winners as part of Teacher Appreciation Week in May.

According to the notice, ED intends to award one elementary and one secondary school educator who “best instill skills, knowledge, and passion with respect to cybersecurity and cybersecurity-related subjects.” The department plans to accept nominations until Jan. 31, 2020 ahead of an evaluation period that will run from February through April of that year.

Feedback on ED’s proposal must be submitted by Sept. 25.

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Steve Rosenberg Named FCC Acting Chief Data, Analytics Officer
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Steve Rosenberg Named FCC Acting Chief Data, Analytics Officer


Jeff Brody

Steve Rosenberg, chief data officer of the Federal Communications Commission’s Wireline Competition Bureau, has been named acting chief data and analytics officer at the FCC. He will also serve as chief of the data division in the FCC Office of Economics and Analytics and lead OPEN Data Government Act implementation efforts, the commission said Monday. Rosenberg joined the agency in 2009 as a National Broadband Plan team member who helped identify gaps in broadband internet access throughout the U.S.

In the same announcement, FCC said Michael Janson will return to the commission to be director of a task force that conducts auctions designed to distribute Universal Service Fund support for broadband network services in unserved areas of the country.

Janson will lead the Rural Broadband Auctions Task Force and concurrently serve as acting assistant chief of OEA after his teaching stint at the University of Pennsylvannia Law School. He first joined the agency in 2013 and previously served as its open internet ombudsman. He will replace Chelsea Fallon, who will transition from heading the task force to leading the implementation of FCC’s Digital Opportunity Data Collection program.

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Clayton Turner Named Director of NASA’s Langley Research Center
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Clayton Turner Named Director of NASA’s Langley Research Center


Clayton Turner Named Director of NASA's Langley Research Center
Clayton Turner

Clayton Turner, deputy center director of NASA’s Langley Research Center, has been named the site’s next director. He will oversee a 3,400-person workforce of scientists, engineers, researchers and support personnel, succeeding David Bowles who will retire on Sept. 30 after 39 years with NASA, the agency said Tuesday.

Turner joined NASA in 1990 as an engineer to lead the development of the laser aligning, bore-sight limit system under the Lidar In-Space Technology Experiment. The engineering professional held various roles throughout his NASA tenure, with contributions to multiple spaceflight projects. He has been functioning as Langley Research Center’s deputy director since 2015 and prior to that, served as an associate director with responsibilities on the center’s daily operations.

“Clayton’s wide range of engineering and leadership experience will serve Langley and the agency well as our Artemis program works to send astronauts to the Moon by 2024 to prepare to go to Mars,” said Jim Bridenstine, NASA administrator.

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VA Opens Health Care Innovation Center in California; Robert Wilkie Quoted
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VA Opens Health Care Innovation Center in California; Robert Wilkie Quoted


VA Opens Health Care Innovation Center in California; Robert Wilkie Quoted
Robert Wilkie

The Department of Veterans Affairs has established a new California-based center that would focus on the technological innovation of health care services. VA said Monday that it stood up the National Center for Collaborative Healthcare Innovation under a partnership with the Veterans Health Administration Innovation Ecosystem. NCCHI operates as part of the department’s Palo Alto Health Care System.

“The center is particularly exciting because it is uniquely designed as a catalyst to combine strengths from non-health care fields,” said Robert Wilkie, VA secretary and 2019 Wash100 Award recipient.

NCCHI will focus its efforts on artificial intelligence, workflow efficiencies and clinical decision support. The center’s location in Silicon Valley allows for collaboration with technology industry partners and other government entities.

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