The Naval Research Laboratory devised an approach that will address potential gaps in optical materials to boost their quality.

The lab said Monday its scientists created a laser processing methodology that works to reinforce the optical properties of monolayer molybdenum disulphide and diminish the size of light emitting diodes. The process could boost the materials’ optical emission efficiency particularly in the areas traced with laser beams.

“From a general perspective, this work enables the integration of high quality, optically active, atomically thin material in a variety of applications, such as electronics, electro-catalysts, memory, and quantum computing applications,” said Sauhan Sivaram, the project’s lead author.

President Trump and Ajit Pai, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, announced several efforts to advance 5G adoption and expand broadband access in the U.S.

Trump said in his speech at the White House on Friday that the country will have 92 5G deployments by the end of 2019 and his administration will eliminate regulatory hurdles to facilitate network build-out projects.

After the president’s speech, Pai unveiled the FCC’s 5G FAST Plan and discussed the strategy’s three components: free up more spectrum, promote 5G wireless infrastructure and update regulations. He said the commission will offer 3,400 megahertz of spectrum in three different bands at its third 5G spectrum auction beginning Dec. 10.

The FCC also formed the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund to invest $20.4 billion in high-speed broadband networks in the next 10 years to provide up to 4 million rural households and small businesses access to such networks.

The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps concluded the exercise ANTX West 2019 exploring how both services could integrate new information warfare technologies into operations in the field, USNI News reported Friday.

The 10-day event at the Navy’s offshore San Clemente Island ranges and in San Diego laboratories and facilities involved nearly 60 defense contractors, tech companies, military laboratories and members of the academia. During the exercise, Navy and Marine Corps officials assessed matured technologies, including communications, sensors, countermeasures, command-and-control, strikes, non-kinetic fires, counter-intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting systems.

“We’re out there testing ideas, seeing what works, what’s possible. This is innovation,” said Rear Adm. Donald Gabrielson, commander of Carrier Strike Group 11. “This is exciting because it’s going to produce results.” 

Service officials attending ANTX West sought new command-and-control and surveillance technologies to give Navy and Marine forces new capabilities in highly-contested, high-tech environments.

Sanjay Gupta, chief technology officer at the Small Business Administration, said agencies should assess options when moving to the cloud, especially when considering either a single or multi-cloud enterprise to save time and cut migration costs, GovernmentCIO Media & Research reported Friday. 

He said at the recent FCW 2019 Cloud Summit that agency leaders should focus on technology, people and process as the traditional three domains in enterprise cloud migration. In the area of technology, either a single cloud or multi-cloud environment requires focus on connectivity, tool assessment from providers and data management to cut costs when moving between clouds. 

Gupta also cited the advantages and disadvantages of vendor lock-in. He said working with a single cloud service provider offers an easier and cheaper process to manage and leverage commercial services. However, he noted having a multi-cloud environment provides the extra “room” missing in a single-cloud environment with one provider. The SBA is using cloud services from Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure along with software-as-a-service tools from Salesforce and Adobe to manage its data. 

“Get to a cloud, doesn’t matter which cloud it is. Make the decision quick because cloud is not your destination,” Gupta said. “Pick one, move on and try to leverage the value that the cloud brings to you.”