Jose Arrieta, chief information officer of the Department of Health and Human Services, announced plans to increase the agency’s partnerships within the government to boost innovation, Nextgov reported Wednesday.

Arrieta took office as HHS’ permanent CIO on May 28 after serving as the agency’s associate deputy assistant secretary for acquisition. He said that his initial priorities will focus on changing the functions of the CIO and utilizing emerging technologies.

His office is working to launch pilot programs to bring new tools to HHS. Arietta said he is in talks with the Defense Information Systems Agency to develop a wearable or mobile device as a new way of authentication. The Army and Air Force are also working with the CIO to integrate an HHS infrastructure accelerator into their operations. Another area on Arietta’s priority list is the internet of things.

“It’s all about building relationships at a level where you can actually partner with federal organizations that want to make change,” he said. “I think the innovation will occur in private industry, but government taking the first step is a big thing.”

The Defense Threat Reduction Agency, Atala and the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine are teaming to create a tool to build interconnected organoids within the body, DVIDS reported Tuesday. The Integrated Organoid Testing System utilizes 3D printed bio-structures, microfluidic devices and human organ cells to try to develop organs with regenerative capacities.

DTRA intends to use the technology to manufacture miniaturized organoid systems that may forecast a drug candidate’s tolerance prior to clinical trials. The agency has also started to build organoid systems from animal models at WFIRM to assist researchers in the development of countermeasures against biological and chemical warfare.

A top U.S. Army official announced that the service plans to bring hypersonic and directed energy weapons to the field in less than four years to support combat operations, Defense News reported Tuesday. The recently reorganized Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office is leading the project.

RCCTO aims to deliver combat-capable Stryker combat vehicles equipped with 50-kilowatt lasers in late fiscal year 2022, followed by new Long-Range Hypersonic Weapons in 2023. The Army started seeking a contractor for the LRHW missile in March and plans to name a company in August.

The service will integrate the weapon with the existing Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System and MH70 trailers for mobility and faster fielding. Meanwhile, the service is working on four laser-equipped Stryker vehicles. In 2018, the service tested its first laser on the vehicle in Germany. 

Lt. Gen. L. Neil Thurgood, director of RCCTO, said the Army is also considering to put the 50-kilowatt lasers on a new Stryker-based short-range air defense platform over the next five years. The RCCTO stood as the Rapid Capabilities Office before its transformation in March. Thurgood said the office’s first priority is to build hypersonics and directed energy weapons for the Army.

The Department of Homeland Security partnered with industry to develop a new app to improve how first responders navigate areas during deployment. DHS said Tuesday its Science and Technology Directorate is working with technology firm Azimuth1 to create the QuickRoute app, which uses more data sources than commercial navigation apps to provide responders with more flexibility. 

The tool sets the route based on the type of vehicle and uses its size, capabilities and roadway protocols to find the appropriate roads leading to the incident. S&T and Azimuth1 brought QuickRoute to Maryland for field tests in April along with first responders and transportation stakeholders.

The agency intends to make modifications to the app based on feedback gathered during the test. Meanwhile, the QuickRoute team is refining its back-end system, which enables users to record and assess routing data for future operations. S&T intends to release the app in the second quarter of 2020.

The Department of Energy has awarded 66 spots on a $77 million funding grant to support university research efforts in high-energy physics. The funding opportunity will help scientists from 51 academic institutions carry out theoretical and experimental studies in the areas of particle physics, detector technologies, dark matter and dark energies, DOE said Tuesday.

The awardees were chosen through a competitive peer review process facilitated by the agency’s office of high energy physics. Selected projects include the analysis of observatory data on dark matter, assessment of Higgs boson particles from the Large Hadron Collider and an experimental search for dark matter at South Dakota.

“These research efforts, at dozens of universities across the nation, will not only yield fresh insights into such problems as dark matter and dark energy, but also help build and sustain the nation’s science and technology workforce,” said Paul Dabbar, under secretary at DOE.