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Argonne Researchers Mark Thousand-Fold Increase in Coherence Time of Newly-Developed Quantum Bit
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Argonne Researchers Mark Thousand-Fold Increase in Coherence Time of Newly-Developed Quantum Bit

A research team under the leadership of the Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory has extended the coherence time of the quantum bit it has developed from 0.1 microseconds to 0.1 milliseconds, marking a near-thousand-fold increase.

Coherence time refers to the amount of time a qubit — the building block of quantum computers — can exist as 0 and 1, a mixed state that needs to be maintained in order for a qubit to work, Argonne said Thursday.

The qubit the team developed features an electron trapped on a neon platform within a vacuum. Neon is an element that does not react with other elements, thereby providing resistance to disturbances from the surrounding environment. Protection from disturbances extends a qubit’s coherence time.

The team’s qubit works by encoding quantum information into the electron’s charge states. This type of qubit, called an electron charge qubit, is simpler to fabricate and operate and is compatible with the infrastructure for classical computers, according to University of Notre Dame professor Dafei Jin, who leads the project at Argonne.

“This simplicity should translate into low cost in building and running large-scale quantum computers,” Jin added.

CISA Requests Comments on Software Identification Ecosystem Analysis White Paper
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CISA Requests Comments on Software Identification Ecosystem Analysis White Paper

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is requesting industry comments on its new white paper outlining six paths forward for a software identification ecosystem.

The white paper, titled “Software Identification Ecosystem Option Analysis,” enumerates the benefits and challenges associated with the outlined approaches and explores the authority structure necessary to develop and sustain the identifier format ecosystem, CISA said Thursday.

In the document, CISA also outlines two key requirements to achieve effective software identification ecosystem, which are the timely availability of software identifiers across all software items and software identifiers that support both precision and grouping.

“A more robust software identifier ecosystem must be established for a harmonized software identification ecosystem that facilitates greater automation, inventory visibility, and the multifaceted value proposition of SBOM’s broad adoption,” said Sandy Radesky, associate director for vulnerability management.

Interested parties have until Dec. 11 to submit written comments on the white paper.

POC - 2023 Homeland Security Summit

Join the Potomac Officers Club’s 2023 Homeland Security Summit on Nov. 15 to learn about the U.S. government’s national security priorities and initiatives. Click here to register for the highly anticipated event.

FAA, AFWERX Prime to Collaborate on Safe Advanced Aircraft Mobility Integration
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FAA, AFWERX Prime to Collaborate on Safe Advanced Aircraft Mobility Integration

The Federal Aviation Administration has agreed to share flight-test data with AFWERX Prime, the Department of the Air Force’s accelerator program, to safely integrate advanced aircraft mobility, or AAM, into the national airspace system.

Under the memorandum of understanding, the FAA and AFWERX Prime will exchange data and share capabilities and expertise needed to test AAM aircraft, the Air Force Research Laboratory said Wednesday.

The FAA will use data from the MOU to inform its certification efforts and future airspace integration requirements.

“With this MOU and the ongoing AAM Interagency Working Group, we are accelerating a breakthrough in electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft,” said Col. Elliott Leigh, director of AFWERX and chief commercialization officer for the DAF.

The agreement comes three months after the FAA issued an implementation plan, dubbed Innovate28, to enable AAM operations at scale at multiple sites by 2028.

OMB Replaces Memo on Buy America Preference in Federal Financial Assistance Programs for Infrastructure
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OMB Replaces Memo on Buy America Preference in Federal Financial Assistance Programs for Infrastructure

The Office of Management and Budget replaced its memorandum on the conditions for applying or getting exempted for the Buy America preference among federal agencies with financial assistance programs for infrastructure.

The new guidance comes more than a year after OMB issued Memorandum M-22-11, which was formulated in compliance with the 2021 Build America, Buy America Act, the agency said Wednesday.

In the latest memo, OMB specified a Buy America preference to articles, materials and supplies that are incorporated, affixed or consumed in an infrastructure project. It excludes tools and equipment temporarily used during construction, as well as equipment and furnishings that are not considered an integral or final component of the project.

The agency also defined the Buy America parameters for-profit organizations in the running for infrastructure financial assistance. It emphasizes the terms stated in title 2 of the Code of Regulations part 184, which sets the scope of infrastructure as government projects, facilities, systems and utilities that will serve a public versus a private or personal function.

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OSTP Looks to Strengthen Clinical Trials Infrastructure With New Initiatives
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OSTP Looks to Strengthen Clinical Trials Infrastructure With New Initiatives

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy will work with the clinical research community and federal partners in the next six months to advance measures meant to strengthen the country’s clinical trials infrastructure to help enhance health outcomes.

Actions include introducing plans to facilitate pragmatic clinical trials across diverse communities and sites, exploring opportunities to establish trust to back clinical research and public health and conducting pilots to demonstrate more efficient data capture, the White House said Thursday.

OSTP also released summaries of responses from two requests for information issued in October 2022 to gain insights on building up the clinical trials infrastructure and optimizing data capture for clinical trials.

The responses call for the development of a coordinated federal approach to outbreak response, the launch of initiatives to vet and pilot data capture for clinical trials and the need to shift to more streamlined trial designs.

OSTP also announced that it has worked with the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health to deploy a national health innovation network, dubbed ARPANET-H, to accelerate clinical trials for cancer and other diseases.

POC - 2023 Healthcare Summit

Find out the latest health care technology trends at the Potomac Officers Club’s 2023 Healthcare Summit on Dec. 6. Register here to attend this important event.

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CDAO Gathering Info on Commercial Capabilities for CJADC2 Data Integration Layer
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CDAO Gathering Info on Commercial Capabilities for CJADC2 Data Integration Layer

The Department of Defense’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer has started soliciting information from industry on commercial technologies that could be used to help develop a data integration layer, or DIL, in support of DOD’s Combined Joint All Domain Command and Control initiative.

CDAO expects the DIL to provide U.S. warfighters and their partners the capability to conduct trusted data exchanges to support command and control and situational awareness and deliver data, insights and intelligence across a joint force to facilitate the execution of missions, according to a notice posted Tuesday on Tradewinds AI.

The DIL should also support the rapid development and deployment of artificial intelligence tools and other applications designed to operate across various data streams and provide access-based identity management and controls that could operate at all domains.

Interested stakeholders should provide a description of their platforms that can be used to build a data mesh platform, state their approach for developing fault-tolerant distributed software architectures and describe their solutions approach for data synchronization between cloud regions, cloud geographies, cloud providers and on-prem resources in connected and denied, disconnected, intermittent and limited environments.

Responses to the call for information are due Nov. 29.

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Sen. Chuck Schumer: Federal Involvement Needed in Development of AI Guardrails
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Sen. Chuck Schumer: Federal Involvement Needed in Development of AI Guardrails

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the federal government should encourage innovation in the field of artificial intelligence, allocate resources and play a role in the development of guardrails to ensure that the U.S. maintains its leadership in AI.

At a summit on Thursday, Schumer highlighted the importance of “explainability” in AI.

“In other words, when you use AI, when you ask a system to spit back something, they should explain where it came from,” he said.

“If we can really discover, figure out how explainability can be accessible to the average user, you can have major success in creating guardrails and giving the consumer great information as to what they need,” the senator added.

The lawmaker also talked about his AI Insight Forums, which look to address the potential impact of AI adoption on the workforce, finance, health care sectors, among others.

“So our forums are not to replace the committees but to augment the committees, to give them the information and the ask— and have them ask the right questions when they do the legislation, but we intend the actual legislation to be in the different committees,” Schumer noted.

Army Works on New Policies for Software Development, Acquisition
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Army Works on New Policies for Software Development, Acquisition

The U.S. Army is working to develop policies to accelerate the delivery of software capabilities developed from its nearly a dozen software pathway pilots, Federal News Network reported Thursday.

Young Bang, principal deputy assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology, said during the recent AUSA conference that the service branch is working with cyber colleagues on “processes that enable us to get to releases faster.”

“That set us on a journey beyond just going to agile and to get to continue integration, continuous delivery,” Bang said.

Gabe Camarillo, undersecretary of the Army, said the service branch is set to release new policies in 2024 that will “fundamentally reshape” how it acquires and creates software platforms.

“There’s a couple of things that we’re looking at in that space. One of which is making sure that we formalized and standardize the way that we do those requirements for software development programs,” Camarillo said.

Army Acquisition Priorities: Balancing Readiness and Modernization Forum

Bang will discuss the Army’s acquisition efforts at ExecutiveBiz’s Army Acquisition Priorities: Balancing Readiness and Modernization Forum on Nov. 8. Click here to register.

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CACI’s Derick Trask Offers Insights on Leadership, Highlights Career Inspirations
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CACI’s Derick Trask Offers Insights on Leadership, Highlights Career Inspirations

Derick Trask, chief financial officer of CACI’s operations and support sector, began his career at Northrop Grumman, where he served in a number of senior leadership positions within the company’s intelligence and Department of Defense business units. Prior to assuming his current post, he held executive roles at Hexagon and Freedom Consulting Group.

Trask recently participated in an interview with the Potomac Officers Club, in which he discussed his leadership approach, highlighted his core values and shared his career inspirations.

In this excerpt from the interview, Trask offers his insights on what he sees as some of the most important elements of ensuring team success:

“Consistent success doesn’t happen by accident – it is imperative to execute deliberately and with intention and communicate frequently with candor. Effective communication occurs with timely direct feedback and transparency horizontally and vertically across the organization. I view one of my key responsibilities as a leader to be an enabler, clearing my team’s major obstacles.”

For more on Trask’s leadership strategy, read the full Executive Spotlight interview on the Potomac Officers Club website.

Interested in participating in your own Executive Spotlight interview? Potomac Officers Club members have exclusive access to this brand-building opportunity and many additional benefits. To explore our membership options and discover which one is right for you, click here.

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US Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro Highlights Defense Industrial Base Priorities in Strategic Guidance
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US Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro Highlights Defense Industrial Base Priorities in Strategic Guidance

U.S. Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro has revised his strategic guidance on the long-term transformation and modernization of the service branch.

The Navy on Wednesday published the updated guidance, entitled “One Navy-Marine Corps Team: Advancing Department of the Navy Priorities,” which includes details on enhancing partnerships in the Indo-Pacific and other strategic regions.

According to Del Toro, one of the branch’s top priorities is to strengthen its ties with the Defense Industrial Base. Since 2020, it has trained and onboarded over 4,500 personnel into the industrial base, created dedicated defense manufacturing pipelines and trade centers and bolstered labor recruitment in submarine shipbuilding.

The branch is also continuing activities with allies and partners to secure supply chains and jointly develop technologies to gain mutual military advantage.

“As we look forward, we will continue to advance our three enduring priorities: Strengthening Maritime Dominance, Building a Culture of Warfighting Excellence, and Enhancing Strategic Partnerships,” said Del Toro, a Wash100 awardee. “Our objective is clear: we will continue to provide a Navy and Marine Corps that can deter high-end conflict with a rapidly improving peer competitor while simultaneously protecting and advancing the global maritime interests of the Nation.”

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