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NSF, Simons Foundation Funding 2 New AI Research Institutes for Astronomy
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NSF, Simons Foundation Funding 2 New AI Research Institutes for Astronomy

Two new National Artificial Intelligence Research Institutes for astronomical sciences are being established and are to be funded by the National Science Foundation and the Simons Foundation.

The NSF-Simons AI Institute for Cosmic Origins seeks to accelerate historically time-consuming processes in astronomical research like data analysis or simulations, the while the NSF-Simons AI Institute for the Sky seeks to tackle complex problems in astrophysics and astronomy, the NSF said Wednesday.

NSF-Simons CosmicAI will be overseen by a team led by the University of Texas at Austin while NSF-Simons SkAI will be overseen by a team led by Northwestern University.

The institutes will each receive $20 million in total over five years. The NSF will contribute $10 million while the Simons Foundation will contribute the other $10 million.

NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan commented on the benefits AI will bring to astronomical sciences, saying, “With reliable and trustworthy AI in their toolbox, everyone from students to senior researchers will have exciting new ways to gain valuable insights leading to amazing discoveries that might otherwise remain hidden in the data.”

For his part, Simons Foundation President David Spergel said, “Astronomy has incredibly rich and open data sets and is poised for more deep and profound inquiry.”

“AI offers novel tools that can use this data both to produce transformative results and to develop tools that can have impact in other fields,” Spergel added.

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Latest Navigation Plan for America’s Warfighting Navy Includes Drone Integration
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Latest Navigation Plan for America’s Warfighting Navy Includes Drone Integration

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti has unveiled the “Project 33” initiative, which involves addressing delays in ship maintenance, integrating robotic and autonomous systems into the force, and recruiting and retaining sailors, to ensure the U.S. Navy’s readiness in case of a conflict with China.

Project 33 is part of the 2024 Navigation Plan for America’s Warfighting Navy recently announced at the Naval War College, the U.S. Navy said Wednesday.

According to Franchetti, the navigation plan serves as guidance to enhance the Navy’s long-term warfighting advantage and its capability to face Chinese military forces in a potential conflict by 2027.

“The NAVPLAN continues where my predecessor’s Navigation Plan left off and sets our course to raise our Fleet’s baseline level of readiness and put more ready Players on the Field – platforms that are ready with the requisite capabilities, weapons, and sustainment and people that are ready with the right mindset, skills, tools, and training,” she added.

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USAF Maj. Gen. Jason Armagost Provides B-21 Delivery Update
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USAF Maj. Gen. Jason Armagost Provides B-21 Delivery Update

Preparations are now being made for the delivery of the B-21 Raider, the successor to the B-1 Lancer and B-2 Spirit bombers, to Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota, which will be the first main operating base of the new aircraft and location of its formal training unit, according to Maj. Gen. Jason Armagost, commander of the Eighth Air Force and the Joint-Global Strike Operations Center.

Armagost delivered the update regarding the B-21 program at the Air and Space Force Association’s Air, Space and Cyber Conference, where he attended as part of a panel featuring leaders from industry and the Department of the Air Force, according to a news article posted Wednesday on the U.S. Air Force website.

Ongoing preparations include ensuring that Air Force Global Strike Command squadrons are sufficiently equipped, trained and certified for the delivery of the aircraft, Armagost said.

The B-21 recently completed a test that evaluated its structural integrity and is now undergoing a fatigue testing campaign.

A minimum of 100 units of the aircraft, which will serve as the “air leg” of the U.S. nuclear triad, are set to be produced.

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DARPA Awards Aeluma Contract for Nano-Scale Semiconductor Development
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DARPA Awards Aeluma Contract for Nano-Scale Semiconductor Development

Goleta, California-based semiconductor firm Aeluma has secured a potential $11.7 million contract under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Material Synthesis Technologies for Universal and Diverse Integration Opportunities, or M-STUDIO, program. 

The award calls for the development of heterogeneous integration technology attuned with current and future advanced-node semiconductors for potential use in artificial intelligence, mobile devices and 5G/6G wireless communication, Aeluma said Wednesday.

The contract provides $5.9 million in funding over 18 months, with the $5.7 million balance released over the next 18 months as the company achieves certain program milestones.

Teledyne’s central research laboratory is a proposed M-STUDIO award subcontractor to help identify materials and develop demonstration strategies for program metrics. Another proposed subcontractor, the University of California Santa Barbara, will assist in calibrating test devices.

Matthew Dummer, Aeluma’s technology director, called the DARPA contract a vote of confidence in the company’s potential to improve emerging technologies. “We believe this contract, along with the multiple other contract investments we have received, will accelerate Aeluma’s business traction,” he said.

Aeluma has previously secured contracts from the U.S. Navy, the Office of Secretary of Defense and the Department of Energy. 

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ClearPro Partners Books DHS Contract for Case Management Solution
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ClearPro Partners Books DHS Contract for Case Management Solution

ClearPro Partners, a joint venture between cybersecurity company ClearFocus Technologies and information technology services provider Procentrix, has won a $6.26 million contract from the Department of Homeland Security to deliver a cloud-hosted case management solution, or CMS, to the Office of Inspector General.

ClearFocus said Monday the CMS is meant to boost the OIG’s efficiency by streamlining case management operations.

Under the agreement, ClearPro will utilize Microsoft’s low-code Power platform to develop and implement the CMS in a secure cloud environment. Aside from making its operations more efficient, this new system will also use data across the DHS OIG more effectively.

ClearPro’s bid won the competitive General Services Administration multiple award schedule over 18 other proposals.

Kevin Cassidy, ClearPro managing director and president of ClearFocus Technologies, said, “ClearPro is positioned to carry on the successful track record of partnership, collaboration and delivery excellence established by our JV members to deliver a scalable, interoperable and secure solution for DHS OIG.”

Gregg Hawrylko, vice president of DHS programs at Procentrix, said, “Using our pre-configured ProCase framework, which is the result of years of investment and built on the Power Platform, our team will rapidly deliver a secure CMS tailored to meet the unique operational and mission needs of the Inspector General team.”

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NGA Releases RFI for Foundation GEOINT System Support Services
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NGA Releases RFI for Foundation GEOINT System Support Services

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency has issued a request for information from potential contractors regarding the Foundation Geospatial-Intelligence system.

According to the notice posted on SAM.gov Tuesday, the Mapping, Charting and Geodesy Integrated Program Office, or MC&G IPO, intends to acquire support services needed to sustain the Foundation GEOINT system.

The RFI is seeking input on possible Foundation GEOINT sustainment, support, software and integration, or FS3i, services. The services will potentially cover support for the current FG system baseline as well as future integrated capabilities or enhancements.

Interested contractors may send their responses to the RFI until 11:00 a.m. Eastern on Oct. 18.

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CDAO Unveils Plans for Advana Recompete at Industry Day
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CDAO Unveils Plans for Advana Recompete at Industry Day

The Department of Defense’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office hosted an industry day Wednesday to discuss its plans for a recompete contract as part of efforts to scale Advana — DOD’s big data platform for advanced analytics — and work with additional vendors, particularly small businesses and nontraditional contractors.

DOD said Wednesday CDAO expects the recompete to integrate new industry tools into the Advana ecosystem, drive interoperability and bolster vendor competition.

Advana provides DOD users with data derived from the department’s over 400 business systems to facilitate data-driven decision-making.

“The Advana Industry Day is an unprecedented opportunity for industry to get involved in the largest acquisition of digital and AI enabling capabilities in the history of the Department of Defense. This acquisition will support development and scaling of cutting-edge software and AI capabilities from the boardroom to the battlefield,” said CDAO Radha Plumb.

Breaking Defense reported the Advana recompete will be a 10-year, $15 billion multivendor contract.

“One thing we want people to take away is you don’t have to do everything,” Bonnie Evangelista, the deputy CDAO for acquisition, told reporters Wednesday. “You don’t have to do every part of the tech stack … if you do a single piece and you do it really well, you can have a contract.”

“We are planning for on-ramping and off-ramping [vendors] over the ten years, because technology change,” Evangelista added.

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HHS Selects Universities to Improve Data Quality for AI Tools
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HHS Selects Universities to Improve Data Quality for AI Tools

The Department of Health and Human Services has awarded contracts worth $2 million to two universities under the Leading Edge Acceleration Projects in Health Information Technology program, which aims to create methods and tools to improve care delivery, advance research capabilities and address emerging challenges related to interoperable health IT.

The LEAP in Health IT awardees, namely the trustees of Columbia University in New York and Oregon Health and Science University, will develop innovative ways to evaluate and improve the quality of healthcare data used by artificial intelligence tools in healthcare and accelerate the adoption of health IT in behavioral health settings, respectively, the HHS said Tuesday.

Under the contract, the trustees of Columbia University will test and validate different computational methods within a healthcare process modeling, or HPM, framework applied to AI-based use cases, generate and validate a set of applicable knowledge graphs related to HPMs, and build an open source pipeline to share and reuse the HPM-informed scalable computational processes combined with knowledge graphs, among other objectives.

OHSU’s work will focus on adapting an open-source SMART on Fast Health Interoperability Resources application based on the HL7 Multiple Chronic Condition care plan effort for three behavioral health use cases and testing the application in behavioral health clinics with challenges in exchanging health information.

HHS Selects Universities to Improve Data Quality for AI Tools

Join the Potomac Officers Club’s 2024 Healthcare Summit on Dec. 11 and hear about the rise of artificial intelligence in health care, among other critical issues. Register here.

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AFLCMC’s Cloud One Boosts DAF Cloud Migration Efforts
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AFLCMC’s Cloud One Boosts DAF Cloud Migration Efforts

Cloud One, a cloud computing platform launched by the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, has allowed the Department of the Air Force to make significant developments to its cloud computing capabilities.

The Air Force Material Command said Thursday the multi-cloud, multi-vendor system enables Department of Defense mission application owners to access fast, secure and reliable cloud computing technologies and other offerings.

The cloud service, which meets defense security requirements and zero-trust compliance, offers secure computing environments, standardized platforms, application migration and data management capabilities.

Cloud One also provides the following features:

  • Data transport services
  • Secure cloud computing architecture
  • Compute and store monitoring
  • Global content delivery service
  • Mobile connect
  • Inheritable risk management framework controls for operational authority
  • Platform operations and sustainment

Cloud One works on Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. Applications migrating to Cloud One are analyzed to determine which cloud service provider is suitable for their needs. 

According to Lt. Col. Beau Brantley, Cloud One lead engineer, 100% of applications managed to migrate to the cloud due to the guardrails that protect them from possible threats.

“We do more than host,” said Brantley. “We also facilitate migrations to ensure applications are set up in the cloud. Cloud One was established for affordability and security, that saves rework by only setting up the platform once.”

Cloud One currently migrates an average of 25 to 30 applications each year. According to Joseph Thorp, Cloud One program manager, there are plans to double that figure and possibly increase to around 150 new systems annually “as the U.S. Air Force optimizes for Great Power Competition.”

In June 2021, former Air Force Chief Information Officer Lauren Knausenberger mandated the use of Cloud One. Current DAF CIO Venice Goodwine, a 2024 Wash100 Award winner, prioritized this effort paving the way for Cloud One to lead cloud migration efforts.

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2024 Microelectronics Commons Projects to Receive $269M in Total Funding
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2024 Microelectronics Commons Projects to Receive $269M in Total Funding

Multiple projects under the CHIPS and Science Act-financed Microelectronics Commons program are set to receive a total of $269 million in funding, according to the Department of Defense.

The ME Commons program is a research and development initiative that seeks to advance U.S. microelectronics technology by accelerating domestic microelectronics hardware prototyping and workforce development, the DOD said Tuesday.

The program was established in 2023 and encompasses eight regional hubs that will receive $2 billion in total funding from fiscal years 2023 through 2027. Just under $240 million was awarded last year to establish those hubs.

For 2024, the funding awards will cover 33 projects spread across six technical areas, namely quantum, secure edge computing, 5G/6G, electromagnetic warfare, commercial leap-ahead technologies and artificial intelligence. A Cross-Hub Enablement Solution award is also being funded.

Commenting on the awards, Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Arati Prabhakar, a past Wash100 Award winner, said, “These CHIPS and Science Act investments through the Microelectronics Commons will advance innovation for components that enable the most sophisticated defense systems, strengthening our national security.”

Dr. Dev Shenoy, who serves as principal director for microelectronics in the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering and executive director of the Microelectronics Commons, said, “These awards will also upskill America’s workforce, thus helping keep America both secure and prosperous.”

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