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DHS S&T Solicits Proposals for Synthetic Data Generator Technologies
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DHS S&T Solicits Proposals for Synthetic Data Generator Technologies

The Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate is soliciting technology proposals designed to generate synthetic data that replicates authentic data patterns while maintaining the privacy and security of information.

DHS S&T said Friday that synthetic data generator technologies will enable the department to train machine learning models and artificial intelligence applications when real-world data is unavailable or when using real data would pose privacy and security risks.

The topic call is being issued under the Silicon Valley Innovation Program other transaction solicitation and is seeking technologies that could support structured and unstructured data types, artificially generate synthetic data, replicate data sets with desired statistical attributes, verify data fidelity and remove bias in synthetic data.

“The ability to generate synthetic data at scale is necessary to protect and preserve data privacy, as well as safeguard civil rights and liberties,” said Melissa Oh, managing director of S&T’s SVIP initiative.

Applications to the solicitation are due April 10.

DOE Introduces $70M All-Hazards Energy Resilience R&D Funding Opportunity; Jennifer Granholm Quoted
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DOE Introduces $70M All-Hazards Energy Resilience R&D Funding Opportunity; Jennifer Granholm Quoted

The Department of Energy has launched a potential $70 million competitive funding opportunity for projects that could help boost energy resilience and combat risks to energy infrastructure in the United States.

The All-Hazards Energy Resilience program will be supervised by DOE’s Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security and Emergency Response and is open to teams from the department’s national laboratories, government and industry organizations, tribal nations and academic institutions, DOE said on Thursday.

“As we build our clean energy future, these investments will help save money in the long run by identifying and developing innovative solutions that ensure our nation’s energy infrastructure can withstand emerging threats and the challenges of a changing world,” said Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.

CESER aims to choose a maximum of 25 research, development and demonstration projects for the program. Potential topics range from cybersecurity, climate change and wildfire mitigation, the physical security of power stations and university-based research and development.

Congress Reaches Bipartisan Topline Appropriations Deal
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Congress Reaches Bipartisan Topline Appropriations Deal

Congressional leaders have taken a major step toward preventing a government shutdown by reaching a bipartisan topline appropriations agreement on Sunday, NBC News reported.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., announced the deal, which would set a total spending level of $1.59 trillion for fiscal year 2024.

Johnson said the funding agreement includes $886 billion for the military and $704 billion for nondefense spending and that there will be “key modifications” to the deal to reduce nonmilitary spending with an “offset” of $16 billion.

President Joe Biden welcomed the bipartisan funding deal and called on congressional representatives to fund critical domestic and national security priorities.

The bipartisan funding framework “reflects the funding levels that I negotiated with both parties and signed into law last spring. It rejects deep cuts to programs hardworking families count on, and provides a path to passing full-year funding bills that deliver for the American people and are free of any extreme policies,” the president said in a statement published Sunday.

The federal government is operating under a continuing resolution. Funding for continuing federal projects and activities is set to expire on Jan. 19, and funding for defense and all other government operations will run through Feb. 2.

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USMC Maj. Gen. Lorna Mahlock Appointed CNMF Commander; Gen. Paul Nakasone Quoted
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USMC Maj. Gen. Lorna Mahlock Appointed CNMF Commander; Gen. Paul Nakasone Quoted

U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Lorna Mahlock has been appointed commander of the Cyber National Mission Force, succeeding U.S. Army Maj. Gen. William Hartman.

The U.S. Cyber Command announced Friday that Mahlock will lead six task forces with more than 2,000 military and civilian personnel and contractors in defending national security against malicious online actors and adversaries.

Mahlock was the first black female Marine to earn the rank of major general in the service branch. She was part of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Southern Watch, which also took place in Iraq from 1992 to 2003.

Her career includes posts as director of the Marine Corps Instructional Management School, director of Marine Air Command and Control System Experimental and division executive officer for the European Command headquarters.

“CNMF has always been the ‘go-to’ force when our Nation has a challenge in the cyber domain,” said Gen. Paul Nakasone, CYBERCOM commander who presided over the change of command ceremony. “These joint cyber operators are a powerhouse that punch above their weight against some of the world’s most reckless and determined foreign malicious cyber actors,” added Nakasone, a seven-time inductee into the Wash100.

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Adm. James Kilby Becomes 43rd Vice Chief of Naval Operations
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Adm. James Kilby Becomes 43rd Vice Chief of Naval Operations

Adm. James Kilby has stepped into his new role as the 43rd vice chief of Naval operations.

The transition was made during a ceremony at the Pentagon on Jan. 5, the Navy said on Friday.

“Adm. Kilby is an exceptional leader who is truly committed to our Sailors and meeting the needs of the Fleet,” said Adm. Lisa Franchetti, chief of Naval operations, who welcomed him into the position.

She highlighted Kilby’s “extensive operational experience” and “deep requirements and force development expertise,” which she said will “help accelerate change across the force.”

Kilby’s career with the Navy includes sea tours on the USS Sampson and USS Philippine Sea as well as two tours on the USS San Jacinto. He also commanded the USS Russell and received the Vice Adm. James B. Stockdale Award for his leadership. His major command was aboard the USS Monterey, including its 2011 maiden Ballistic Missile Defense deployment.

He also participated in shore tours at the Naval Postgraduate School; Chief of Naval Operations Surface Warfare Directorate, N96; Navy Personnel Command’s Surface Warfare Division, PERS-41; and the Missile Defense Agency’s Aegis BMD Program Office.

Prior to assuming his new position, Kilby served as deputy commander of the U.S. Fleet Forces Command in Norfolk, Virginia.

“I am honored and humbled to assume this position at such a critical time for our Navy and our nation,” Kilby said. “I am excited at the opportunity to support our CNO to ensure the Navy remains the most capable and powerful maritime force in the world.”

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NIST Aims to Inform AI Developers on Attack Types, Mitigation Strategies With New Report
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NIST Aims to Inform AI Developers on Attack Types, Mitigation Strategies With New Report

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has released a report providing artificial intelligence developers and users an overview of potential attacks on AI tools and detailing the current approaches they could use to mitigate these risks.

Titled Adversarial Machine Learning: A Taxonomy and Terminology of Attacks and Mitigations, the report describes evasion, poisoning, privacy and abuse attacks that could impact AI systems and sorts them into multiple criteria, including the attacker’s knowledge, goals and objectives and capabilities, NIST said Thursday.

“Most of these attacks are fairly easy to mount and require minimum knowledge of the AI system and limited adversarial capabilities,” said Alina Oprea, one of the report’s co-authors and a professor at Northeastern University.

“Poisoning attacks, for example, can be mounted by controlling a few dozen training samples, which would be a very small percentage of the entire training set,” she added.

Mitigation approaches for poisoning attacks include sanitization data, modifying the machine learning training algorithm and conducting robust training instead of regular training.

The report is part of NIST’s work to advance the development of trustworthy AI.

POC - 5th Annual Artificial Intelligence Summit

Register here to attend the Potomac Officers Club’s 5th Annual Artificial Intelligence Summit on March 21 and hear federal leaders and industry experts discuss the latest developments in the field.

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Spacecraft Swarm, Mars VTOL Aircraft Among Projects to be Funded by NASA Concept Technology Program
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Spacecraft Swarm, Mars VTOL Aircraft Among Projects to be Funded by NASA Concept Technology Program

The awardees under Phase I of the 2024 edition of the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts program have been announced.

The NIAC program will provide grants worth up to $175,000 in total to financially support researchers in carrying out concept studies of early-stage technologies that, if brought to life, could be commercialized and even support future space missions, NASA said Thursday.

The 13 projects selected for NIAC 2024 Phase I include the development of a fixed-wing vertical takeoff and landing aircraft for use in Mars exploration; the sending of a spacecraft swarm to the Proxima Centauri star system — the nearest to our own — that would send back data using laser communications; and the development of a spacecraft that will retrieve a sample of the surface of Venus.

NIAC Program Executive Mike LaPointe highlighted the diversity of the projects under Phase I, saying, “The NIAC awards highlight NASA’s commitment to continue pushing the boundaries of what’s possible.”

For his part, NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free said NIAC has helped inspire many of the ideas that eventually became part of the space agency’s missions.

“The Ingenuity helicopter flying on Mars and instruments on the MarCO deep space CubeSats can trace their lineage back to NIAC, proving there is a path from creative idea to mission success,” Free noted.

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Federal CDO Council Solicits Public Input on Synthetic Data Generation
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Federal CDO Council Solicits Public Input on Synthetic Data Generation

The Federal Chief Data Officers Council has issued a request for information regarding synthetic data generation, the act of creating a new synthetic or artificial dataset using computational methods, as it works to establish best practices for the process.

Questions for responders have been divided into five sections, with the first two focused on defining and applying synthetic data generation, according to a notice published by the General Services Administration in the Federal Register on Friday.

The three other sections deal with the challenges and limitations in synthetic data generation, ethics and equity considerations and evidence-building.

Interested stakeholders are encouraged to provide answers to a number of questions. Topics to discuss include approaches CDOs can leverage to address challenges associated with synthetic data generation, available techniques to increase transparency around synthetic data and the intersection of synthetic data generation and open government data.

Responses to the RFI are due Feb. 5.

Commerce Department Enters 2nd Preliminary MoT for CHIPS Funding With Microchip Technology; Laurie Locascio Quoted
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Commerce Department Enters 2nd Preliminary MoT for CHIPS Funding With Microchip Technology; Laurie Locascio Quoted

The Biden administration has agreed to set aside $162 million in CHIPS Act funding for Microchip Technology to promote the onshoring of semiconductor manufacturing and construction jobs.

On Thursday, the Department of Commerce entered into a non-binding preliminary memorandum of terms to enable the company to ramp up production of specialty semiconductors such as microcontroller units, according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

“This proposed investment and others like it will help ensure that U.S. companies have a stable supply of the critical chip components they need to keep their factories running,” said Laurie Locascio, NIST director and undersecretary of commerce for standards and technology.

Under the terms of the agreement, Microchip Technology will utilize the funds to expand and modernize its facilities in Colorado Springs, Colorado and Gresham, Oregon. The Colorado Springs fabrication site will receive an estimated $90 million, while the Gresham installation will be granted approximately $72 million.

The federal incentives are expected to triple the company’s output of semiconductors produced at these facilities, which are critical to the defense, automotive, aerospace and commerce sectors.

Last month, the White House announced its first PMT through a $35 million agreement with BAE Systems.

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DARPA Issues RFI for Human-Machine Teaming Research Opportunity
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DARPA Issues RFI for Human-Machine Teaming Research Opportunity

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is accepting proposals for exploratory human-artificial intelligence teaming models as part of its new AI Exploration research program.

This presolicitation is for DARPA’s “third wave” of AI investments, which focuses on theory and applications to refine statistical learning-based technologies, according to a notice on SAM.gov.

DARPA is seeking technologies that can support quantitative modeling and the evaluation of human-machine teams in real-world scenarios. The study will be divided into two phases, one for a feasibility study and the other for proof of concept.

Respondents have until Feb. 2. to submit their proposals. The agency may grant multiple awards in the form of other transaction agreements for the chosen prototype projects.

POC - 5th Annual Artificial Intelligence Summit

Human-machine teaming is one topic that may be highlighted at the Potomac Officers Club’s 5th Annual Artificial Intelligence Summit on March 21. Register now to take part in the event.

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