DOE Selects Projects to Bridge Gap Between Technology Discovery and Commercialization
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DOE Selects Projects to Bridge Gap Between Technology Discovery and Commercialization

The Department of Energy has selected 11 research projects led by DOE national laboratories to receive a total of $73 million in funding to study new ways to help transition new technologies from discovery to commercialization.

DOE said Monday the teams will focus on discovery and use-inspired research to address gaps that limit the maturation of early-stage discoveries to deployable technologies.

“This research will integrate novel concepts and approaches in use-inspired basic research to address gaps or challenges that limit the ultimate transition to applied research for further development and demonstration,” said Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, director of the DOE Office of Science.

Among the approved projects is an Argonne National Laboratory-led initiative to develop tools that combine artificial intelligence, robotics, human interfaces and digital twins to replace legacy technologies that produce isotopes for various applications.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory will also lead a project to study and model the behavior of microbes in bioreactors to determine why biomanufacturing processes that work well in the laboratory often fail during mass production.

DOE chose the projects through a competitive peer review.

University of Southern Mississippi Secures NOAA Funding for UxS Data Assembly Hub
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University of Southern Mississippi Secures NOAA Funding for UxS Data Assembly Hub

The University of Southern Mississippi has secured funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to develop a data assembly hub for NOAA’s uncrewed system operations.

NOAA said Friday the pilot project will collect and aggregate environmental data and observations for analysis in support of the agency’s future data management strategy for using and managing commercial cloud computing infrastructure.

“The Data Assembly Hub will support businesses, policy makers and researchers into the future and enable the latest artificial intelligence techniques,” said Henry Jones, director of research development and scientific entrepreneurship at USM.

The program is also meant to support the growth of the U.S. blue economy by improving the collection, analysis and dissemination of ocean and coastal-derived data to address societal challenges and support economic growth.

The data assembly hub initiative is worth $2.5 million over two years.

In February 2021, NOAA entered a 10-year agreement with USM to conduct UxS testing and evaluation to enable enhanced operation of the systems for better environmental data collection.

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Google Seeks to Advance Responsible AI Development With New Initiative, Fund
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Google Seeks to Advance Responsible AI Development With New Initiative, Fund

Google has begun an initiative that seeks to promote responsible development of artificial intelligence tools by supporting researchers, facilitating debates on public policies and organizing events.

Brigitte Hoyer Gosselink, director of Google.org, wrote in a blog post published Monday that the Digital Futures Project will focus on addressing the challenges and opportunities that AI offers.

Google.org will offer grants to academic institutions and think tanks to further explore AI through a $20 million fund.

The Digital Futures Fund is built to support institutions as they work to understand the potential impact of AI on global security, labor and economy and identify governance structures that could help advance responsible AI development, among other issues.

The fund’s inaugural grantees include the Aspen Institute, Brookings Institution, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Institute for Security and Technology, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Center for a New American Security, R Street Institute, Leadership Conference Education Fund, MIT Work of the Future and SeedAI.

Kelly Dalton: Air Force Research Lab Supercomputer Has Potential to Shorten R&D & Acquisition Project Timelines
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Kelly Dalton: Air Force Research Lab Supercomputer Has Potential to Shorten R&D & Acquisition Project Timelines

The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory installed a new supercomputer that can calculate 12 petaflops per second, reportedly reducing the simulation and data processing time from years to days.

AFRL said Monday the Raider supercomputer is a product of the Department of Defense High Performance Computing Modernization Program, and is also accessible to the U.S. Navy and Army.

The system, which is located at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, has 189,000 processors. Its computing speed can condense a five-year research or acquisition timeline into approximately 200 days, according to Kelly Dalton, technical director at AFRL’s DOD Supercomputer Resource Center.

AFRL’s Digital Capabilities Directorate has already ordered the next two supercomputers to be delivered in 2024, as the laboratory and DOD implement a continuous upgrade strategy to stay abreast of the latest technology.

“We’re trying to help the scientists and engineers do the work faster and with higher fidelity so they can produce superior capabilities for the warfighter,” Dalton said. “In terms of AFRL, we are trying to advance the research being done here.”

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Ian Richardson, Christian Nauvel Assume Corporate Enforcement Leadership Roles at DOJ National Security Division
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Ian Richardson, Christian Nauvel Assume Corporate Enforcement Leadership Roles at DOJ National Security Division

The Department of Justice’s National Security Division has named Ian Richardson as chief counsel of its corporate enforcement program and appointed Christian Nauvel as deputy chief counsel.

DOJ said Monday both lawyers will coordinate and oversee national security investigations to uncover and prosecute corporate crime and misconduct.

Richardson served for over eight years as assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York and led corporate enforcement and national security prosecutions, including the DOJ’s first conviction of a corporation for providing material support to designated foreign terrorist organizations.

Before joining the division, Nauvel was senior counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division and trial attorney in the DOJ Criminal Division’s money laundering and asset recovery section and with the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team.

“Enforcing the laws that deny our adversaries the benefits of America’s innovation economy and protect technologies that will define the future is core to the National Security Division’s mission,” said Matthew Olsen, assistant attorney general of the National Security Division.

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Navy Hosts Ceremony Seating Rear Adm. Philip Sobeck as Military Sealift Commander
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Navy Hosts Ceremony Seating Rear Adm. Philip Sobeck as Military Sealift Commander

U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Philip Sobeck formally assumed leadership of the Military Sealift Command during a ceremony aboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier at Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia.

He succeeds retiring Rear Adm. Michael Wettlaufer, who became the 28th MSC commander in June 2019, the service branch announced Friday.

Sobeck most recently served as director of strategy, policy, programs and logistics at the U.S. Transportation Command at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois. As a surface warfare officer, he was assigned to at least six Naval vessels including the USS Harry S. Truman, Destroyer Squadron 50 and the First Combined United States and United Kingdom Destroyer Squadron.

He also commanded DESRON 50/Task Force 55, as well as the USS Avenger, USS Ardent and USS Farragut.

He took on various onshore roles, including as director of future fleet design and architecture at the Office of Chief of Naval Operations, special assistant to the Navy Digital Warfare Office and military assistant to the 76th Secretary of the Navy.

“I am compassionate about our important mission and vow to build upon the many successes of Wett and his team, and continue to push forward to keep MSC the premier logistics organization in the world,” Sobeck commented.

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Video Interview: Jennifer Ewbank Shares How Digital Trends Are Shaping the Future of US Intel
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Video Interview: Jennifer Ewbank Shares How Digital Trends Are Shaping the Future of US Intel

Advancements in artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies are redefining what it means to work in the Intelligence Community. 

2023 Wash100 Award winner Jennifer Ewbank, deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency for digital innovation, spoke on the monumental changes happening within the IC, the technologies driving this transformation and what it means for intelligence agencies going forward during a new video interview with Executive Mosaic.

Video Interview: Jennifer Ewbank Shares How Digital Trends Are Shaping the Future of US Intel

Catch Jennifer Ewbank’s keynote address at the Potomac Officers Club’s 9th Annual Intel Summit next week! Ewbank — along with leaders from ODNI, NGA, DIA and other IC agencies — will be taking the stage to share her insights and priorities on Sep. 21. Click here to register.

“We live in this environment of ubiquitous sensing — something is always recording what we do, where we go, who we meet, what we say. You’ve got commercial satellites, telemetry and facial recognition cameras, and let’s not forget, everyone’s carrying around this multi-functional sensor in their pocket in the form of a really powerful cell phone. And so I think you get the picture [of] how challenging that can be to remain unseen, unknown, undetected in conducting a really dangerous mission,” Ewbank explained.

In this ever-expanding digital landscape, not only have secret intelligence missions become more difficult, but cyber threats have also become more and more prevalent. Technologies like AI are being used to strengthen what Ewbank calls “digital autocracies” and perpetuate a rise in cyber crimes, ransomware attacks and misinformation campaigns.

“We have to adapt and we have to embrace these things. We can’t just pretend that they don’t happen and they don’t exist,” Ewbank warned. “We have to embrace these new technologies for our mission, we have to protect ourselves against them being used by our adversaries at the same time.”

But as the U.S. looks to embrace AI technologies more widely, Ewbank urged leaders to keep America’s values at the forefront. 

“We can’t just dive headfirst blindly into the future without thinking deeply about things like our values, our policies, our law, ethics. All of that has to be at the core of everything we’re doing in the AI world,” said Ewbank.

Hear Jennifer Ewbank and other top IC decision-makers speak at the Potomac Officers Club’s 9th Annual Intel Summit on Sep. 21. Register here while seats are still available!

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DecisionPoint Books Task Order to Modernize TRANSCOM System; Brian Flood Quoted
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DecisionPoint Books Task Order to Modernize TRANSCOM System; Brian Flood Quoted

DecisionPoint Corporation, a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business, has received a $17 million task order from the U.S. Transportation Command for cloud modernization support.

Under the award, DecisionPoint will provide software engineering services to secure, sustain and improve the Transportation Geospatial Information System and broaden its range of capabilities, the Gaithersburg, Maryland-based company announced on Tuesday.

“TGIS expands DecisionPoint’s support of the USTRANSCOM global mission providing air, land and sea transportation through delivery of essential geospatial data services to the warfighter,” said DecisionPoint Founder and CEO Brian Flood.

He added that the company will hold itself to a standard of excellence in delivering upgraded capabilities “while increasing the velocity, security and impact of USTRANSCOM’s essential national security mission.”

This award follows DecisionPoint’s win of a five-year, $60 million Department of Veterans Affairs contract last month, under which it is responsible for enhancing the department’s Enterprise Customer Experience Suite in collaboration with partner Medallia.

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Senators Query White House on Its Efforts to Prevent AI-Enabled Cyberattacks
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Senators Query White House on Its Efforts to Prevent AI-Enabled Cyberattacks

Sens. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., have called on the White House to offer updates on initiatives to prevent and mitigate potential cyberthreats from artificial intelligence platforms to the country’s critical infrastructure.

In a Sept. 7 letter addressed to Acting National Cyber Director Kemba Walden, the senators highlighted the cybersecurity opportunities that generative AI-related advancements offer for defenders and attackers.

“Our country will benefit enormously from broadening the technical skills across our workforce by making software development more accessible and secure. However, bad actors can also leverage generative AI technology to accelerate their attempts to undermine established cybersecurity protections,” Hickenlooper and Tillis wrote in the letter.

The lawmakers asked the White House to respond to several questions regarding AI implementation and cybersecurity, including how critical infrastructure defenders can use AI to ensure the security of their systems and recommendations for private and public industries that may fall victim to cyberattacks enabled by AI.

They also want to know how the National Cybersecurity Strategy helps address risks posed by generative AI models and if the federal government is establishing partnerships with industry, academia and local government agencies to facilitate coordination on resilient cyber defenses amid generative AI adoption.

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DARPA Collecting Abstracts for Rapid Experimental Missionized Autonomy Program
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DARPA Collecting Abstracts for Rapid Experimental Missionized Autonomy Program

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is now soliciting abstracts from potential offerors for a program that aims to improve stock military and commercial drones by advancing the development of an autonomy capability without being tied to specific drone hardware.

The Rapid Experimental Missionized Autonomy program intends to build a subsystem to facilitate autonomous operations of various drones, according to a presolicitation notice published Monday.

The subsystem will be composed of a drone autonomy adapter, or DA2, and mission-specific autonomy software, or MAS, and could be delivered through rapid development spirals.

DA2 will work to detect the drone type on its own and serve as the interface to the physical drone, while MAS will use the DA2 interface to upgrade the unmanned system from remotely piloted operation to autonomous mission execution.

DARPA expects the program to result in the award of an other transaction agreement for prototype projects.

The agency will accept questions regarding the funding opportunity through Sept. 19 and abstracts until Oct. 3.

Offerors selected for oral presentations will be notified by Oct. 10 and are expected to present their proposals by the end of October.

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