Sarah Zabel, vice director of the Defense Information Systems Agency, believes the Defense Department should go beyond smartphones in its mobility programs, Fedscoop reported Thursday.

Greg Otto writes the Air Force major general also urged DoD to move more quickly in order to achieve “mobile ablement.”

“To have a mobile enable workforce, you need to want it, to demand it and to think mobile in order to bring all the different elements together,” Zabel told audience at an mobilityndjd-hosted forum Thursday.

She recommended that DoD facilitate a bring-your-own-device program that would allow agency employees to use any technology in work environments as long as their devices comply with security policies.

Otto reports DISA has also partnered with the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the National Security Agency to implement public key infrastructure-based derived credentials.

Zabel encouraged vendors to create technology for defense agencies to test the security profile of an application in the marketplace before they can download the apps on mobile devices.

Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz has said the Energy Department plans to award $50 million in funds to support the development of vehicle technologies that support efforts to achieve fuel efficiency and reduce carbon emissions.

DOE will focus on projects that deal with the development of electric drive vehicle motors, battery components, plug-in electric vehicles, lubricants, energy storage and combustion systems, Moniz said in a press release issued Thursday.

He also announced that DOE will award $3 million in funds to the National Association of Regional Councils and transportation consortium CALSTART to develop platforms that will work to consolidate the procurement of vehicles and related components.

“Our work refining cars that are efficient, affordable and can plug into the grid will also help propel us to even greater progress on reducing pollution and boosting energy security,” said Moniz.

DOE said in a report that its $8 billion Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing loan initiative has also helped create at least 35,000 jobs and produce more than 4 million fuel-efficient vehicles.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has kicked off a national simulation-based robotics competition in an effort to help further the development of agile robots.

The Agile Robotics for Industrial Automation Competition is a collaboration between NIST and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers to draw input from organizations and individuals to design the challenges, NIST said Wednesday.

NIST will announce the challenges at the IEEE Conference on Automation Science and Engineering on Aug. 21 through 24 in Fort Worth, Texas.

Craig Schlenoff, NIST’s cognition and collaboration systems group lead, said agility limitations can be overcome through failure identification, automated planning, fixtureless environment and plug-and-play robots.

“We want to make sure that the challenges in this competition are truly representative of those facing industry,” Schlenoff added.

NIST intends for the gains from ARIAC to establish standards for the measurement of robot agility and help manufacturers test the agility of robot systems.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection will begin the initial deployment of facial comparison technology at John F. Kennedy International Airport to verify the identity of some travelers entering the U.S.

CBP said Tuesday the deployment will apply to returning U.S. ePassport holders and first-time Visa Waiver Program travelers.

“This biometric capability will aid our officers in identifying legitimate travelers while protecting them from fraud and identity theft with little to no delay to the entry process,” said CBP Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske.

He added that the technology works to support homeland security efforts.

CBP conducted a pilot test of facial comparison technology at Washington Dulles International Airport last year.

The agency said it aims to build on existing digital fingerprint-based screening procedures and explore new biometric technologies this year.

The U.S. Army intends to evaluate a new suite of tactical network operations tools designed to help soldiers manage voice, data and video communications in the battlefield.

An updated NetOps toolset is scheduled to undergo operational tests as part of a Warfighter Information Network-Tactical Increment 3 follow-on demonstration this spring at the Army’s Network Integration Evaluation 16.2 event, the Army reported Tuesday.

NIE 16.2 will take place at Fort Bliss in Texas, and at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

The Army updated NetOps in an effort to help military personnel to configure, monitor, troubleshoot and secure the WIN-T infrastructure.

The military branch has assessed NetOps upgrades during a recent functional qualification test on WIN-T Increment 3 at a contractor facility in Massachusetts and plans to conduct a risk reduction test at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland ahead of the NIE event.

WIN-T works as the backbone for the Army’s other networked communication systems and mission command applications and is built to support warfighters at command posts or in tactical vehicles.