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Report: Michael Madsen Joins DIUx as Washington Operations Head
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Report: Michael Madsen Joins DIUx as Washington Operations Head


Report: Michael Madsen Joins DIUx as Washington Operations Head
Michael Madsen

Michael Madsen, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel, has joined the Defense Innovation Unit Experimental as head of operations in Washington, D.C., Defense News reported Monday.

Madsen told the publication in an interview that he will work to inform the Capitol Hill about the “return on investment” on DIUx’s projects and facilitate communications with military services and other agencies at the Defense Department such as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Strategic Capabilities Office.

DIUx’s Washington office would be in addition to the tech hub’s outposts in Austin, Boston and Silicon Valley.

Madsen previously served as a legislative liaison for the Air Force and worked at DoD’s cost assessment and program evaluation office.

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GSA Seeks Telecom Director for Federal Acquisition Service
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GSA Seeks Telecom Director for Federal Acquisition Service


GSA Seeks Telecom Director for Federal Acquisition ServiceThe General Services Administration is looking for a director to oversee policies, resources and procedures for telecommunications services programs at the agency’s Federal Acquisition Service.

A USAJobs notice published July 2 says the selected candidate will be responsible for planning studies of telecom and network service procurement practices across industry and agencies at the state and local levels.

GSA Seeks Telecom Director for Federal Acquisition ServiceThe incumbent will also represent the GSA’s Information Technology Category Assistant Commissioner and top FAS leaders at executive-level meetings with other agencies, companies, trade groups and congressional staff regarding telecom services.

The chosen candidate will also provide guidance, direction, oversight and policies for the regional delivery of such service to the federal customers.

GSA will accept applicants for the position through July 23.

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Report: Bo Berlas Named GSA Acting Chief Information Security Officer; Kurt Garbars Retires
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Report: Bo Berlas Named GSA Acting Chief Information Security Officer; Kurt Garbars Retires


Report: Bo Berlas Named GSA Acting Chief Information Security Officer; Kurt Garbars Retires
Bo Berlas

Officers at the General Services Administration told FedScoop in a report published Monday that Bo Berlas, recently GSA’s security engineering director, has been named acting chief information security officer after Kurt Garbars retired.

Berlas served GSA for 11 years as a senior specialist on information technology security after his roles as senior network security consultant at Guardent and senior associate at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Garbars, a 30-year veteran of federal service, announced his resignation from the GSA CISO position in June through a post published Saturday on LinkedIn.

Report: Bo Berlas Named GSA Acting Chief Information Security Officer; Kurt Garbars RetiresHis GSA career includes support for policy development for the authority to operate certification. He was also head of the Federal Cloud Computing Advisory Council’s Security Working Group for the Federal Chief Information Officers Council, the report said.

Garbars was with the Defense Department as a security officer on information systems before he joined GSA, the publication detailed.

“It has been an honor and a privilege to support DoD and GSA in cybersecurity and electronics engineering,” Garbars said in his LinkedIn post.

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BGov: Federal Spending on 8(a) Competitive Awards Hit $8.56B in Fiscal 2017
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BGov: Federal Spending on 8(a) Competitive Awards Hit $8.56B in Fiscal 2017


BGov: Federal Spending on 8(a) Competitive Awards Hit $8.56B in Fiscal 2017Federal agencies obligated $8.56 billion for competitively awarded contracts during fiscal 2017 through a program that is set aside for socially disadvantaged businesses, Bloomberg Government reported Monday.

The figure reflects a 24 percent increase in competitive awards under the 8(a) program since fiscal 2011, according to the report.

Contracts awarded through competition under the 8(a) program surpassed federal spending on sole-source contracts that reached $8.55 billion in fiscal 2017, which represents an 18 percent drop since fiscal 2011.

BGOV said the move from sole-source toward competitively awarded contracts is driven by congressional rules on large sole-source contracts and adoption of best-in-class and category management programs.

The report noted that federal obligations for competitive and sole-source awards through the 8(a) program reached $17.1 billion in the previous fiscal year.

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DHS, Canada’s Defense R&D Center to Evaluate Use of Artificial Intelligence in Emergency Response
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DHS, Canada’s Defense R&D Center to Evaluate Use of Artificial Intelligence in Emergency Response


DHS, Canada's Defense R&D Center to Evaluate Use of Artificial Intelligence in Emergency ResponseThe Department of Homeland Security’s science and technology directorate has partnered with the Canadian defense research and development center for security science to evaluate the use of artificial intelligence and situational awareness tools in critical situations.

Both parties agreed to conduct an AI field experiment to determine how the Assistant for Understanding Data through Reasoning, Extraction and sYnthesis system from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory can aid first responders as part of a two-year collaborative effort, DHS said Friday.

AUDREY is designed to function as a human-like reasoning technology and provide situational awareness data for paramedics to make decisions and manage care during an emergency response scenario.

The experiment is scheduled to commence in Hastings County, Ontario, early next year.

John Merrill, director of DHS S&T’s Next Generation First Responder Apex Program, said a joint effort to determine R&D priorities between the U.S. and Canada will help the two countries meet objectives.

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House Panel Launches Inquiry Into EPA’s Contractor Oversight
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House Panel Launches Inquiry Into EPA’s Contractor Oversight


House Panel Launches Inquiry Into EPA’s Contractor OversightThe House Energy and Commerce Committee has asked the Environmental Protection Agency whether it uses internal controls to oversee its contractor workforce.

The committee wrote in a Tuesday letter to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt that reports by the Government Accountability Office and the EPA’s inspector general office cited gaps in the agency’s management of accountability over contractors, such as overbilling issues and lack of awareness on the number of contractors with “significant” data security responsibilities.

Pruitt stepped down from his post on Thursday and was succeeded by deputy administrator Andrew Wheeler on an acting capacity.

The panel called on EPA to submit documents that offer information on the total amount of funds the agency obligated for fiscal 2016 and fiscal 2017 contracts and the number of roles currently held by contractors at the agency.

EPA should offer information on policies that deal with contractor oversight, management and engagement and state the number of contract positions that demand a security clearance.

The agency has until July 17 to respond to the committee’s request.

Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) co-wrote the letter with Reps. Gregg Harper (R-Miss.) and John Shimkus (R-Ill.).

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Army Seeks Commercial Warfighting Tech Under New Public-Private Teaming Challenge
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Army Seeks Commercial Warfighting Tech Under New Public-Private Teaming Challenge


Army Seeks Commercial Warfighting Tech Under New Public-Private Teaming ChallengeThe U.S. Army seeks proposals for advanced warfighting technologies from small and non-traditional defense entities as part of an effort that aims to encourage public-private teaming in developing new offerings for the service branch.

The Army said in a notice that the Army Expeditionary Technology Search or xTechSearch competition aims to boost innovations in long range precision fires; next generation combat vehicles; future vertical lift; network with hardware, software and infrastructure; air and missile defense and soldier lethality.

The service will select interested participants that operate in and maintain a business site in the U.S. and those acting outside the scope of their employment in the federal government.

The chosen contestants are required to present a white paper at the first phase of xTechSearch about their skills and plan for the challenge, then pitch their proposals to a panel of Army and Defense Department subject matter representatives in the second phase.

The third phase will involve the participants showcasing their innovations among DoD customers, industry partners and academia, while the fourth phase will feature the final demonstration of the proposed technologies.

The grand winner of xTechSearch will receive a total prize of $200,000.

Initial proposals will be accepted until July 11.

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Report: SSA Wants ‘Hybrid’ Cloud Environment for IT Modernization Initiative
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Report: SSA Wants ‘Hybrid’ Cloud Environment for IT Modernization Initiative


Report: SSA Wants 'Hybrid' Cloud Environment for IT Modernization InitiativeJohn Foertschbeck, a senior adviser at the Social Security Administration‘s Office of Systems Operations and Hardware Engineering, has said adopting a hybrid cloud computing infrastructure will help the agency manage its footprint on mainframe systems, FedScoop reported Friday.

SSA aims to migrate information technology applications to public and private cloud platforms as part of a five-year modernization effort.

The agency selected CGI‘s federal unit, Leidos and Northrop Grumman to provide IT support services under a potential 10-year, $7.8 billion contract.

Foertschbeck noted that SSA wants to expand the agency’s cloud portfolio and help customers manage tasks with the use of infrastructure, platform and software-as-a-service platforms.

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Mike Rogers: US Should Leverage Commercial Innovation to Build Resilient Space Architecture
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Mike Rogers: US Should Leverage Commercial Innovation to Build Resilient Space Architecture


Mike Rogers: US Should Leverage Commercial Innovation to Build Resilient Space Architecture
Mike Rogers

Mike Rogers, former congressman and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, has said the White House’s proposal to establish a new “space force” as the sixth military branch comes at a time when “conflict in space is already occurring.”

Rogers wrote in a Defense News article published Friday that the U.S. needs to leverage innovation in the commercial space sector and create a portfolio of launch capabilities and options in order to establish a space architecture that is resilient to threats posed by adversaries.

“It’s a fairly simple equation — innovation plus options equals resiliency,” he said.

He also cited issues with the way the U.S. Air Force and the National Reconnaissance Office purchase satellites and other space platforms in support of national security missions.

Rogers said Congress has initiated steps to increase the adoption of commercial space innovation and measures to advance the reusability of launch systems such a provision in the proposed National Defense Authorization Act to rename the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle initiative as the National Security Space Launch Program.

“Reusability promises to further reduce launch costs since all or a portion of a rocket is recovered and reused,” he added.

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Philip McAlister: Industry Collaboration Helps NASA to Focus More on Missions
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Philip McAlister: Industry Collaboration Helps NASA to Focus More on Missions


Philip McAlister: Industry Collaboration Helps NASA to Focus More on Missions
Philip McAlister

Philip McAlister, director of commercial spaceflight development at NASA’s headquarters, has said the space agency’s collaboration with the private sector has resulted in a cultural change, broadened the scope of ideas and allowed NASA to view how commercial techniques operate, Federal News Radio reported Friday.

“We’re giving more responsibility to the private sector for them to use their own kind of design techniques and use their own culture and bring some of their own business case assumptions into building their spacecraft,” McAlister told the Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

He said the collaboration with industry has helped NASA to focus more on missions and leave decisions on hardware, design, propulsion and other technical aspects to space companies.

McAlister noted that NASA has embedded its staff with engineers of SpaceX, Boeing and other space companies to have “an extensive insight” into space platforms.

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