/
DARPA Seeks to Advance Navigation Sensor Development Via LeviTAS Program
Published on
DARPA Seeks to Advance Navigation Sensor Development Via LeviTAS Program

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has released a disruption opportunity, or DO, to solicit research concepts related to micromechanical oscillators for positioning and navigation applications.

DARPA seeks to demonstrate an anchor-less microsystem that can simultaneously reach heavy mass and high sensing bandwidth in a compact form factor under the Levitated and Trapped Accurate microSystems, or LeviTAS, DO, according to a presolicitation notice published Tuesday.

The LeviTAS program has a total award value of up to $1.2 million and is composed of two phases: feasibility study and proof of concept.

The initiative will use advances in microelectromechanical systems transducers and materials to address the mass x trap-frequency limitation in existing platforms as part of efforts to advance the development of a small-scale navigation sensor.

DARPA will support prototype projects by awarding other transaction agreements.

Responses are due Feb. 15.

/
GSA Technology Transformation Services Names Eric Mill Its Executive Director of Cloud Strategy
Published on
GSA Technology Transformation Services Names Eric Mill Its Executive Director of Cloud Strategy

The General Services Administration has appointed Eric Mill executive director of cloud strategy for its Technology Transformation Services division.

Mill joins the agency from the Office of Management and Budget, where he was senior adviser to Federal Chief Information Officer and Wash100 awardee Clare Martorana, GSA said Tuesday.

Mill earned his bachelor’s degree in computer science at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He previously worked at GSA TTS in 2004 as senior adviser.

In 2019, he served as senior technology adviser to Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., when she was part of the U.S. Senate Committee on Rules and Administration. Before his two-year term at OMB, he became part of Google’s team in 2020 as lead product manager of Chrome security.

HelioCon Launches New Funding Opportunity for Heliostat Technology Research
Published on
HelioCon Launches New Funding Opportunity for Heliostat Technology Research

The Department of Energy’s Heliostat Consortium is offering up to $3 million in funding for projects that would lower the cost of heliostat technologies, a component of concentrating solar-thermal power systems.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory said Tuesday that a request for proposals was issued in December for the effort, soliciting projects that support any of the following six topical areas of research: advanced manufacturing; metrology and standards; components and controls; field deployment; techno-economic analysis; and resources, training and education.

The topical areas of research were outlined in a roadmap published by HelioCon in 2022, which was accompanied by an RFP for an initial batch of research projects that also sought to advance heliostat technology. That solicitation resulted in the award in 2023 of $3.5 million for seven projects.

The current solicitation will remain open until Feb. 16.

“The projects that result from this RFP will enable widespread deployment of concentrating solar-thermal power (CSP) to decarbonize the electricity grid and energy systems,” HelioCon Executive Director and NREL Senior Researcher Guangdong Zhu said. He added that the resulting projects will help the U.S. achieve its 2050 decarbonization targets and expand the workforce required by the heliostat industry.

HelioCon is led by the DOE and NREL and is supported by partners at Sandia National Laboratories and the Australian Solar Thermal Research Institute.

/
Deltek Broadens Product Portfolio With ProPricer Acquisition; Mike Corkery Quoted
Published on
Deltek Broadens Product Portfolio With ProPricer Acquisition; Mike Corkery Quoted

Deltek has acquired ProPricer, a provider of proposal pricing technologies for government contractors and federal agencies.

The purchase will broaden Deltek’s portfolio and support the expansion of its client base, the Herndon, Virginia-based enterprise announced on Wednesday.

“Deltek has long been considered the gold standard in government contracting – and we are continually looking at ways to add more value for our customers,” said Mike Corkery, president and CEO of Deltek.

ProPricer’s software is designed to make the development, submission, evaluation, negotiation and auditing of proposal pricing more efficient and accurate. It is able to store historical proposal data and produce a variety of reports that can help government contractors create original proposals, conduct predictive analyses and integrate proposal data.

The company was established in 1984 and currently works with a number of U.S. defense contractors and firms that use Deltek’s offerings. Corkery said Deltek is “committed to continuing the partnerships ProPricer has cultivated the last 40 years.”

ProPricer entered the Deltek Marketplace in 2022 to make its platform more accessible to its Costpoint and Cobra customers, and the company has since added a Costpoint integration to improve user experience for Deltek clients. This acquisition will enable the two organizations to work collaboratively to improve the speed and accuracy of the estimating cycle, enhance bid quality and accuracy and maintain proposal consistency to support growth.

“We are extremely excited for the new opportunities this acquisition brings to Deltek Project Nation, including those with ProPricer customers, partners and other ERP providers,” said Corkery.

Joe Shurance, CEO and founder of ProPricer, called the acquisition “the next evolution of ProPricer’s partnership with Deltek.” He said it will speed up the company’s momentum and streamline the process for customers to access ProPricer and “the combined benefits of our collective solutions.”

The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

DHS’ Dana Chisnell Pushes for Usability Testing to Improve Federal Customer Service
Published on
DHS’ Dana Chisnell Pushes for Usability Testing to Improve Federal Customer Service

Usability testing of government websites, applications and products helped the Department of Homeland Security meet its goal of cutting 20 million work hours spent on paperwork in the past year, according to Dana Chisnell, executive director of customer experience at DHS.

Under her leadership, the agency launched a usability testing kit on its website in the hopes of encouraging other federal agencies adopt the approach and improve their customer service.

Usability testing involves observing actual users to evaluate the efficacy of apps, websites and other services, before their wider release to the public. Chisnell has been designing and implementing such tests in organizations she has worked with since the 1980s.

She took on her current role in 2022 and found the agency’s components to be in serious need of usability tests for their public services. She pointed out the importance of customer experience teams to get “as many stakeholders in the room” for cross-functional support and attention to usability tests in order to maximize its effectiveness.

“We talk about errors or mistakes, even if the participant corrects them. The point here, though, is not that they’re making the mistake. The point is that the design did not support them in their task or their knowledge. And so you want to track that,” Chisnell said.

On Jan. 25, the Potomac Officers Club will host the CX Imperative Forum to provide a venue for addressing challenges in government customer service. Join the event by registering here.

POC - The CX Imperative Forum
/
Army Prepares for Rapid Fielding of Altius 700 Launched Effects Prototype
Published on
Army Prepares for Rapid Fielding of Altius 700 Launched Effects Prototype

U.S. Army officials are exploring rapid deployment approaches for a “launched effects” prototype based around the Air-Launched, Tube-Integrated Unmanned System 700, or Altius 700, design by Area-I, an Anduril company, Breaking Defense reported Tuesday.

The service branch expects to make a rapid fielding decision in 2025 to finalize the deployment of such launched effect capabilities after years of working on a prototype.

The announcement comes after the Army launched a prototype based around Altius 700 from a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter that served as a “significant risk reduction event” for the air vehicle’s future test flights.

According to the Army, the recently concluded two-flight demonstration validated Altius 700’s launch, flight, landing and recovery capabilities.

The Army plans to conduct the first test flight of the fully integrated launched effects prototype in early 2024 and conclude the final operational demonstration in fiscal year 2024.

/
GDIT Lands Air Force Distributed Common Ground System Support Contract Modification
Published on
GDIT Lands Air Force Distributed Common Ground System Support Contract Modification

General Dynamics‘ information technology division has secured a $17.8 million contract modification to help the U.S. Air Force manage the Distributed Common Ground System network weapon system.

GDIT will support the 480th Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Wing in developing, maintaining and troubleshooting information technology systems that collect and analyze network and enterprise-level ISR data, the Department of Defense said Thursday.

The modification brings the original contract‘s total value to $233.6 million.

Work will primarily occur at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia, Beale Air Force Base in California and other Air Force bases within the U.S. and overseas.

The Air Force’s Acquisition Management and Integration Center will fund the award using the service branch’s fiscal 2024 operation and maintenance budget.

DCGS connects multiple intelligence platforms and sensors to support the processing, exploitation analysis and dissemination of ISR data across the Air Force.

/
Christopher Cleary Returns to Industry in VP Role at ManTech
Published on
Christopher Cleary Returns to Industry in VP Role at ManTech

Christopher Cleary, who has garnered deep experience in the public and private sectors and the military, has been appointed vice president of the global cyber practice at ManTech.

Following an over four-year stint in the Department of the Navy as chief information security officer and principal cyber advisor, successively, he is now positioned to oversee and execute the technical strategy at ManTech in order to augment and strengthen its cyber innovation and capabilities wing, the Herndon, Virginia-based company told ExecutiveGov on Wednesday.

Cleary continues an established tradition of U.S. Navy veterans at ManTech. His blend of defense and intelligence knowledge and technical and business bona fides is seen as a considerable asset for the organization.

At large-scale operations like Leidos, Verizon and Sparta (now a part of Parsons), Cleary reportedly help achieve revenue growth and significant technological developments. Meanwhile, on the government side, he has administered cyber initiatives for not only the Navy, but also U.S. Cyber Command, the intelligence community and other federal branches.

/
GSA Releases Memo on Verifying Company’s Status as Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business
Published on
GSA Releases Memo on Verifying Company’s Status as Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business

The General Services Administration has issued a memorandum requiring GSA contracting officers to verify whether a company is eligible for consideration for a set-aside or sole-source award under the Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business program.

Starting in 2024, GSA contracting officers should confirm that an entity is certified by the Small Business Administration as an SDVOSB within SBA’s Veteran Small Business Certification system or that a company represented its status as an SDVOSB in SAM.gov and submitted to SBA a complete application for SDVOSB certification on or before the end of December 2023, according to the Dec. 22 memo.

“SDVOSBs that are not certified by SBA, and do not have a pending complete application for certification with SBA on or before December 31, 2023, are not eligible to receive SDVOSB set-asides or sole-source awards under the SDVOSB Program,” the document reads.

The memo was signed and issued by Jeffrey Koses, senior procurement executive at GSA’s Office of Acquisition Policy.

//
New National Science Foundation Program Seeks to Support Researchers in Designing Integrated Circuits
Published on
New National Science Foundation Program Seeks to Support Researchers in Designing Integrated Circuits

The National Science Foundation is calling for proposals for the Enabling Access to the Semiconductor Chip Ecosystem for Design, Fabrication and Training program, which seeks to establish infrastructure that would support the entire process of designing integrated micro/nano-electronic circuits, or ICs. The tools are seen as a key element of U.S. national security and an enabler of various emerging technologies like artificial intelligence.

The Chips Design Hub program is open to institutions of higher education and non-profit, non-academic organizations and envisions infrastructure that would, among other things, provide students and academic researchers with various tools, design kits and educational materials that would facilitate IC design, according to the solicitation posted by the NSF.

The solicitation is expected to result in two cooperative agreement awards to be issued within fiscal year 2024. Each award will be worth up to $8 million and have a performance period of up to five years, depending on the scope of the proposal.

Interested parties have until April 4 to submit proposals.

1 … 371 372 373 374 375 … 2,597