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NASA Eyes Solicitation for Capability Studies on Lunar Surface User Terminals, Network Orchestration & Management Tech
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NASA Eyes Solicitation for Capability Studies on Lunar Surface User Terminals, Network Orchestration & Management Tech

NASA plans to invite industry stakeholders to conduct capability studies in the areas of lunar surface user terminals and network orchestration and management systems through a solicitation under the Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships-2, or NextSTEP-2 broad agency announcement.

For the first study area, NASA is seeking industry studies on user terminals that could meet requirements to support moon exploration plans and ensure interoperability with developed standards, according to a presolicitation notice published Tuesday on SAM.gov.

Under the second study area, the space agency is interested in industry-led studies and demonstrations on systems that could help control and interface with a distributed network of satellite ground systems supporting the Near Space Network.

“The resulting studies will ensure advancement of NASA’s development of space communication and exploration technologies, capabilities, and concepts,” the notice reads.

NASA’s Commercialization, Innovation and Synergies Office will outline the detailed study requirements, participant eligibility, submission information, evaluation criteria and other information on the overall acquisition strategy in the forthcoming Appendix Q solicitation.

Through NextSTEP-2, the agency intends to facilitate industry studies to provide space mission users with a resilient infrastructure for space and ground communications and infrastructure.

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CDAO Seeks Industry Partner for AI Governance Mechanism Assessment & Implementation
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CDAO Seeks Industry Partner for AI Governance Mechanism Assessment & Implementation

The Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office’s Responsible Artificial Intelligence division seeks an industry partner that would help it map existing Department of Defense AI governance mechanisms, identify areas that require new governance mechanisms and develop a roadmap to guide DOD components in implementing them.

According to an open call posted Wednesday on Tradewinds AI, the industry partner would work to analyze the DOD’s existing AI governance mechanisms or those that might be applicable to it, develop the means to be used by CDAO in offering DOD components recommendations regarding AI governance processes and help implement those recommendations.

The open call may result in pilot project awards to be issued via the other transaction authority for prototype projects.

Interested parties have until June 17 to respond.

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VA Deploys Accenture Federal Services Healthcare Notification Tool; Ron Moody Quoted
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VA Deploys Accenture Federal Services Healthcare Notification Tool; Ron Moody Quoted

An Accenture Federal Services-developed automated text message service has launched at U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs health centers nationwide.

Dubbed “Annie,” the service can deliver notifications related to medication reminders, surgery preparation instructions and medical treatment plans and supports self-care health data monitoring, Accenture Federal Services announced from its Arlington, Virginia headquarters on Wednesday.

“The tool is a shining example of how a familiar technology, such as text messaging, has the ability to elevate the overall healthcare experience for those who have served in our nation’s military,” said Ron Moody, the company’s chief medical officer and clinical lead for Annie.

Findings from an eight-month study performed at the Minneapolis VA Health Care Center indicated that veterans who used Annie had a positive experience, most notably in the areas of patient education, symptom management, self-care and ease of use.

The study also recorded a 53 percent decrease in surgery cancellations driven by the tool’s ability to simplify the cancer care hospital preadmission process.

Annie was created by Accenture Federal Services under a subcontract with Iron Bow Technologies.

VA Deploys Accenture Federal Services Healthcare Notification Tool; Ron Moody Quoted

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Multi-Institution Collaboration Develops Model to Speed Up Nuclear Fusion Research
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Multi-Institution Collaboration Develops Model to Speed Up Nuclear Fusion Research

A new collaboration among researchers at the DIII-D National Fusion Facility, the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, or NERSC, and the Energy Sciences Network aims to accelerate research on nuclear fusion as a viable energy source.

The team has developed a multi-institution scientific environment called Superfacility that connects resources from DIII-D and NERSC via the ESnet6, the latest iteration of the Department of Energy’s high-speed data network ESnet, General Atomics, host of the DIII-D National Fusion Facility, said Monday.

The Superfacility model utilizes NERSC’s high-performance computing — a.k.a. HPC — and DIII-D’s diagnostic suite to send data from fusion experiments to the Perlmutter supercomputer, enabling high-fidelity reconstruction and large-scale automated analysis of plasma pulses.

“To achieve the goal of fusion, all available resources, including HPC, need to be applied to the analysis of present fusion experiments to be able to extrapolate to future fusion power plants,” said Sterling Smith, the project lead for the DIII-D team involved in the Superfacility effort.

“The use of HPC accelerates advanced analyses so that they can feed into the scientific understanding of fusion and point us toward the solutions needed to realize fusion energy production,” Smith added.

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Sivaram Ghorakavi Named EEOC Deputy CIO & Chief AI Officer
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Sivaram Ghorakavi Named EEOC Deputy CIO & Chief AI Officer

Sivaram Ghorakavi, formerly chief architect and chief data strategist at the National Labor and Relations Board, has been appointed deputy chief information officer and chief artificial intelligence officer of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

He will manage EEOC’s information technology operations and provide oversight of technology-focused projects and partnerships to drive the commission’s mission goals and strategic objectives, EEOC said Monday.

As CAIO, Ghorakavi will coordinate AI efforts across the agency, including its AI and Algorithmic Fairness initiative, which guides the use of AI in employment decisions.

“Siva’s appointment reflects our confidence in his demonstrated abilities and experience to help lead our agency in both digital transformation and adapting to emerging technologies, both for internal processes and in our law enforcement efforts,” said EEOC Chair Charlotte Burrows.

Ghorakavi’s 15-year government career also includes time as an information technology portfolio manager at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

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DOD Urged to Improve Guidance on Defense Agencies Initiative Transition
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DOD Urged to Improve Guidance on Defense Agencies Initiative Transition

The Government Accountability Office has revealed in a new report that the U.S. Marine Corps followed data migration and conversion and change management procedures for its transition to the Department of Defense’s Defense Agencies Initiative but found that these procedures did not fully incorporate leading practices.

GAO said Monday DOD needs to ensure that the Defense Agencies Initiative standard operating procedures fully incorporate leading practices to avoid scheduled delays, understated costs and systems and processing disruptions.

The Marine Corps transitioned to the Defense Agencies Initiative from a legacy accounting system in October 2021 but did not enter normal operations until February 2024 due to challenges in estimating cost and schedule.

To guide future transitions, GAO made 14 recommendations on schedule, cost, performance measures, change management and data migration, to which DOD concurred with 13.

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Catalyst Accelerator Seeks to Help Air Force Address Digital Transformation Challenge Through Fall 2024 Cohort
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Catalyst Accelerator Seeks to Help Air Force Address Digital Transformation Challenge Through Fall 2024 Cohort

The Catalyst Accelerator Ogden in Utah has opened the application process for its Fall 2024 cohort as it seeks commercial technology capabilities that could help the U.S. Air Force’s Digital Transformation Office modernize the service branch’s operations and strengthen cybersecurity defenses.

The Catalyst Accelerator said Monday companies that specialize in artificial intelligence and machine learning, cybersecurity, automation and data fusion and integration can apply and present their proposed tech platforms designed to reduce manual workload and generate actionable insights to improve the decision-making process, among other functions.

The Air Force is seeking platforms that could help address pivotal challenges, including the implementation of advanced cybersecurity measures, improved situational awareness through seamless data integration and predictive maintenance optimization.

The cohort will start on Aug. 19 or Aug. 26.

An in-person demo day will be held on Nov. 14 in Ogden, providing cohort companies an opportunity to present their technologies to industry, academia and government stakeholders.

In February, the Catalyst Accelerator announced a new cohort of seven companies offering innovative technology platforms designed to help the U.S. Space Force improve its space domain awareness.

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Gen. Randy George Outlines Desired Functionalities for Army’s Next Generation C2 Program
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Gen. Randy George Outlines Desired Functionalities for Army’s Next Generation C2 Program

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George laid out the new requirements for the Next Generation Command and Control program — dubbed NGC2 — and those include a consolidated network architecture, collaboration throughout the military branch and the use of Army-provided commercial mobile devices by service personnel, Breaking Defense reported Friday.

“I have been a customer of the network for most of my career. Nothing is more frustrating to me in doing this and going out as a brigade commander, as a division commander, or as a corps commander and seeing people struggling more with time to get the network to work than actually fighting the enemy,” George said Wednesday during a panel at a technical exchange meeting.

NGC2 is a joint effort between the Army and industry to establish a “data-centric” C2 platform facilitated through network transport and build a common data access layer, according to the report.

Under NGC2, the service branch seeks to revolutionize its operational software framework and enterprise data architecture.

With the new effort, George said the Army intends to build an open architecture that could enable service members to easily communicate through a single application using phones, computers, tablets and other technologies.

“So rather than having a truck or two trucks, and 10 people, you have an application and that’s where we have to go. This makes me more lethal, survivable on the battlefield and that tech exists,” the general added.

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Biden Administration Issues New Border Policies
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Biden Administration Issues New Border Policies

The Biden Administration has released a list of executive actions updating policies associated with the U.S.-Mexico border.

These policies target a variety of areas, including illegal immigration, asylum screening and drug detection, the White House said Tuesday.

The first of these actions will prevent individuals who cross the border unlawfully from receiving asylum. This policy is temporary and “will be discontinued when the number of migrants who cross the border between ports of entry is low enough for America’s system to safely and effectively manage border operations,” according to the White House.

Other actions aim to modify the asylum screening process, accelerate the speed at which immigration cases are resolved and address human smuggling. The Biden Administration will also revoke visas of CEOs and government officials who profit from illegal immigration.

Improving immigration enforcement is another goal of these actions, and to do so, the Department of Homeland Security has increased the number of agents at the border. The final action focuses on fentanyl and includes the deployment of 40 new drug detection machines at various points of entry.

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AUVSI, Defense Innovation Unit Release Secure UAS Procurement Guidance
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AUVSI, Defense Innovation Unit Release Secure UAS Procurement Guidance

The Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International and the Defense Innovation Unit have published a memo providing procurement guidance and recommendations for public safety and government agencies and industry that perform sensitive missions using drones.

In a statement published Monday, David Michelson, director of the autonomy portfolio at DIU, said the move behind the effort with AUVSI is to increase the availability of National Defense Authorization Act-verified unmanned aircraft system components to the uncrewed industry and streamline the process for Blue UAS consideration.

According to the memo, Blue UAS is DIU’s effort to maintain, curate and improve a roster of policy-approved commercial UAS platforms that comply with NDAA for fiscal years 2020 and 2023. The program is designed to meet the needs of Department of Defense users.

“As we look ahead to a refresh of vendors and platforms on the Blue UAS Cleared List later this year, DIU is prioritizing UAS that have already been vetted as meeting the highest levels of cybersecurity and NDAA supply chain requirements,” added Michelson.

The new memo follows the signing of a memorandum of understanding between AUVSI and DIU to establish a process for UAS component manufacturers holding Green UAS certification to directly share data with DIU.

Green UAS is designed to help secure drones for the rest of the non-DOD market and intends to address the gaps between the Blue UAS Cleared List and drones that meet non-defense needs.

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