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Ingrid Peterson Joins Intelligent Waves as VP of Client Delivery
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Ingrid Peterson Joins Intelligent Waves as VP of Client Delivery

Ingrid Peterson, a U.S. Navy veteran, has joined Intelligent Waves as the company’s new vice president of client delivery.

In her new position, Peterson will leverage her vast experience in program and project management to spearhead IW’s cybersecurity and national security-tailored programs, the information technology company announced Thursday.

Tony Crescenzo, CEO of Intelligent Waves, said the company is excited to add Peterson to the executive management team.

“Her proven track record supporting the DoD and National Security will add significant value to our growth,” Crescenzo added.

Prior to joining IW, Peterson held leadership positions at Guidehouse and PwC. In these roles, she handled strategic planning and outreach for executive-level customers throughout the Department of Defense. Additionally, Peterson served eight years as a naval flight officer, fulfilling intelligence operations with Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron Two and overseeing intelligence analysts at the Office of Naval Intelligence.

Peterson currently chairs the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation Advisory Committee and is a member of the United States Naval Academy Alumni Association Greater Washington Chapter board.

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New Digital Service Component Propels HHS Transformation
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New Digital Service Component Propels HHS Transformation

The Department of Health and Human Services is set to form a new digital service component as part of its ongoing reorganization push.

New Digital Service Component Propels HHS Transformation

The new unit, which will fall under the Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy and Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, or ASTP/ONC, will offer “on demand” digital and technical expertise to support HHS agencies’ technology modernization efforts, according to ASTP Micky Tripathy.

Find out more about the ways in which HHS is modernizing to elevate federal healthcare services at the Potomac Officers Club’s 2024 Healthcare Summit on Dec. 11. Secure your spot at the Healthcare Summit today before tickets sell out.

Tripathy, who also serves as the department’s acting chief artificial intelligence officer, said during a health IT event in September that the new division will minimize the need for individual HHS agencies to seek out and hire new teams, allowing them to lean on the digital service organization’s staff for technology consulting and enablement, GovCIO reported

How Is HHS Reorganizing?

HHS established ASTP/ONC as part of a major reorganization endeavor launched in late July. Formerly known as the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, ASTP/ONC now oversees department-wide and interagency technology, data and AI strategy and policy. It also manages the newly created Office of the Chief Technology Officer, which reintroduced the CTO role to HHS, as well as the Offices of the Chief AI Officer and Chief Data Officer.

HHS Makes Strategic Moves for Tech Modernization

In September, HHS finalized its 2024-2030 Federal Health IT Strategic Plan, which is built on four pillars:

  • Promoting health and wellness
  • Enhancing the delivery and experience of care
  • Accelerating research and innovation
  • Connecting the health system with health data

Tripathy described the plan as “a culmination of partnership across the federal government to examine the forces shaping the healthcare ecosystem today” and a way to “craft a set of strategies to guide how to prioritize resources, align and coordinate federal health IT initiatives and activities, signal priorities to industry and benchmark and assess progress over time.”

Get exclusive insights into HHS’ future vision at the 2024 Healthcare Summit. The event will bring together public and private sector experts to discuss federal healthcare priorities and pave a pathway for HHS’ continued transformation. Join the conversation at 2024 Healthcare Summit.

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CHIPS for America Seeks to Advance AI Use in Semiconductor Materials Development
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CHIPS for America Seeks to Advance AI Use in Semiconductor Materials Development

The CHIPS for America program within the Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology expects to award up to $100 million in funding to advance the use of artificial intelligence in the development of sustainable semiconductor materials and processes that could be adopted within five years.

NIST said Wednesday CHIPS for America announced plans to launch an open competition through a notice of intent and fund industry-informed, university-led collaborations about AI-powered autonomous experimentation—or AI/AE—associated with sustainable semiconductor production.

AI/AE could help expedite the research and development of materials by combining automated synthesis and characterization tools with an AI “planner” to determine the next phase of an experimental campaign.

“President Biden says our nation can be defined in a single word: Possibilities. Using AI to accelerate the extensive, intricate work of developing sustainable materials for this incredibly complicated product is a great example of American ingenuity,” said Arati Prabhakar, assistant to the president for science and technology and director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. 

“This is how CHIPS research and development will help manufacturers continue to succeed and thrive here at home,” added Prabhakar, a previous Wash100 awardee.

NIST said it expects the notice of funding opportunity for the competition to be issued later this year.

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DHS Publishes 2025 Homeland Threat Assessment
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DHS Publishes 2025 Homeland Threat Assessment

The Department of Homeland Security has released a report designed to inform the public and DHS partners about public safety and national security threats and describes a threat environment that is anticipated to “remain high” in 2025.

DHS said Wednesday the 2025 Homeland Threat Assessment, dubbed HTA, seeks to help federal, state, and local agency partners prevent, prepare and respond to an evolving threat environment.

Key findings include the domestic and foreign threats facing the U.S. critical infrastructure and the use of coercive economic tools and economic espionage and illicit purchase of technologies and intellectual property to undermine U.S. competitiveness.

The assessment also covers public safety and security, border and immigration security, influence operations and transnational repression and illegal drugs.

DHS said it has initiated several measures to combat such threats, including expanding information-sharing agreements with international partners to improve the ability to detect and investigate trafficking and other crimes and addressing illicit fentanyl both in the U.S. and abroad.

According to the department, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has performed over 1,000 physical security assessments and 700 cyber evaluations since the start of 2023.

Register now for the Potomac Officers Club’s 2024 Homeland Security Summit on Nov. 13 to learn more about technology initiatives to protect the country amid the evolving geopolitical landscape.

POC - 2024 Homeland Security Summit
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Army SBIR, xTech Programs Working With PM IS&A to Scale AI Tools
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Army SBIR, xTech Programs Working With PM IS&A to Scale AI Tools

The U.S. Army’s Small Business Innovation Research and xTech programs have partnered with Project Manager Intelligence Systems and Analytics, a.k.a. PM IS&A, to build trusted infrastructure, operational data and policies to facilitate the deployment of artificial intelligence applications through Project Linchpin, the service reported Wednesday.

“Through the Army SBIR and xTech Programs, Project Linchpin serves as a cornerstone for the Army’s efforts to harness AI at scale, ensuring that the solutions are secure, trusted and effectively integrated into military applications,” said Col. Chris Anderson, project manager, PM IS&A.

Project Linchpin builds on the capabilities of the two Army programs to speed up research and development work on new AI tools for defense applications.

In fiscal year 2024, Army SBIR invested nearly $10 million in five small businesses aligned with Project Linchpin’s thrust areas.

Among the xTechPrime winners for the Project Linchpin topic area are Latent AI and Enveil, which worked with their respective technology integrators Booz Allen Hamilton and RTX.

“Project Linchpin plays a pivotal role in the Army’s efforts to scale AI capabilities, particularly through the collaboration with the Army SBIR and xTech Programs,” Anderson added.

The military branch expects SBIR to make contract awards worth $45 million under Project Linchpin by FY 2025.

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USS Beloit Delivered to Navy
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USS Beloit Delivered to Navy

The U.S. Navy has accepted the delivery of the USS Beloit, or LCS 29, from Lockheed Martin at the Fincantieri Marinette Marine shipyard in Marinette, Wisconsin on Sept. 30.

The Naval Sea Systems Command said Tuesday the USS Beloit, named after the city of Beloit, Wisconsin, completed its acceptance trials in August, which involved testing its combat and electrical systems, main propulsion and auxiliaries.

The LCS 29 will undergo post-delivery certifications and qualifications to ensure its readiness in actual fleet operations. Commissioning will be conducted later this year and then homeported in Mayport, Florida.

The Beloit, the 15th Freedom-variant Littoral Combat Ship, is equipped with the Freedom-class combining gear correction, which addresses a class-wide issue and enables unrestricted operations.

Capt. Matthew Lehmann, program manager of the Littoral Combat Ship program office, commended the prompt delivery, saying, “Beloit is another shining example of what it means to finish strong. Our industry partners stood up to the challenge to deliver this ship on an aggressive schedule.”

The future USS Cleveland, or LCS 31, is nearing completion and is expected to be delivered in 2025.

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NIST Releases 3rd Entry in 5G Cybersecurity White Paper Series for Public Comment
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NIST Releases 3rd Entry in 5G Cybersecurity White Paper Series for Public Comment

The National Institute of Standards and Technology‘s National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence has released the initial public draft version of the third white paper in its “Applying 5G Cybersecurity and Privacy Capabilities” series and is calling for public comments on the document.

The white paper series is meant for professionals in technology, cybersecurity and privacy tasked with securing 5G even as its usage and deployment evolve, the NIST Computer Security Resource Center said Monday.

The third paper in the series is titled “Using Hardware-Enabled Security to Ensure 5G System Platform Integrity” and tackles the fostering of trust in a 5G server infrastructure through the use of hardware-enabled security capabilities. According to the initial public draft, the paper aims to address the problem arising from threat actors increasingly targeting a server’s firmware and hardware amid greater security focus on the system’s software layers.

Interested parties have until Oct. 30 to comment on the document.

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NASA Awards Contracts for Space Comms & Exploration Tech
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NASA Awards Contracts for Space Comms & Exploration Tech

Intuitive Machines and Aalyria Technologies have received contracts from NASA to conduct studies aimed at advancing space communications and exploration technologies. 

NASA said Tuesday the firm fixed-price, milestone-based contracts, under the Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships-2 Broad Agency Announcement Appendix Q, are intended to provide NASA insights into capabilities and technologies commercial communications and navigation providers can offer.

Intuitive Machines has been awarded $647,600 to conduct a study on lunar user terminals and network orchestration. This potential moon surface terminal will be used for exploration and to ensure compatibility with LunaNet service providers.

Aalyria received $393,004 to study the potential of a network orchestration and management system, which is intended to integrate commercial and government service providers into the Near Space Network.

Greg Heckler, new capability lead for the Space Communications and Navigation program, pointed out that the awards are part of NASA’s efforts to build commercial partnerships for high-demand space missions. “Seamless interoperability across networks, from here on Earth to cislunar space, is an essential element of SCaN’s emerging ‘one network’ approach. These awards will move us one step closer to realizing that future.”

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US Partners With Allies on Operational Technology Cybersecurity Guidebook
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US Partners With Allies on Operational Technology Cybersecurity Guidebook

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, National Security Agency, the FBI and the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center have collaborated with counterparts in Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea to establish guidelines on creating and maintaining a safe and secure environment for operational technology. 

The 14-page document titled “Principles of Operational Technology Cybersecurity” outlines six principles to help organizations pinpoint business decisions with potential adverse impact on OT cybersecurity, according to CISA, which announced the guidebook’s release on Monday.

One of the principles cited in the guidance covers the supply chain and suggests that it has to be subject to an assurance program encompassing large and small suppliers of equipment and software, vendors and managed service providers.

Another guidebook principle focuses on expanding the internal segmentation and segregation of OT networks from the internet and from IT networks to include connections with outside organizations. 

The Australian Signals Directorate’s Australian Cyber Security Centre authored the guidance, with the co-seals of the U.S. agencies and other partners from the six allied countries.

Join the Potomac Officers Club’s 2024 Homeland Security Summit on Nov. 13 to learn more about technology initiatives and advancements to protect the United States amid the evolving geopolitical landscape.

US Partners With Allies on Operational Technology Cybersecurity Guidebook
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BAE Systems Awarded DARPA Contract for Autonomous Software Communications
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BAE Systems Awarded DARPA Contract for Autonomous Software Communications

BAE Systems has received a $6 million contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to produce autonomous software capabilities for military communications.

Under Phase 2 of the Mission-Integrated Network Control, or MINC, program, BAE Systems’ Fast Labs research and development unit aims to improve algorithms and software that predict and align network services, the aerospace and security company announced Wednesday.

Brian Decleene, chief scientist at FAST Labs, said, “The technology we are maturing will act as the brains of this highly complex and mission-critical networked communications system.”

MINC is designed to create a system that fosters a secure communication apparatus to aid multi-domain operations. 

“This award allows us to continue our work to deliver the right information to the right user at the right time across multiple domains,” Decleene added. 

BAE Systems will perform the work in Burlington, Massachusetts, and Arlington, Virginia.

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