Deltek Introduces New GovWin IQ Small Business Resource Center; Kevin Plexico Quoted
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Deltek Introduces New GovWin IQ Small Business Resource Center; Kevin Plexico Quoted

Deltek has launched the new GovWin IQ Small Business Resource Center, a compilation of content geared toward small businesses seeking government contracting opportunities.

The website aims to boost small business representation among federal contractors by providing these companies with materials to help them navigate the complete government contracting lifecycle, Deltek announced from its Herndon, Virginia headquarters on Wednesday.

“We’re proud of our continued commitment to supporting small businesses with their goals of finding and winning more business with government agencies,” said Kevin Plexico, senior vice president of information solutions at Deltek and GovCon Expert.

Offerings available in the Resource Center include contract opportunities, guides on agency buying behavior, guidance on determining potential teaming partners, government contact lists, market research and analysis and other educational resources.

Though small businesses are a current priority in government contracting as the public sector follows the White House’s push for a more diverse federal marketplace, there are still many setbacks these companies may encounter.

According to findings from Deltek’s Clarity Government Contracting industry study, the steps involved in securing contract opportunities can limit growth for small businesses. The study found that only 37 percent of self-identified small businesses — organizations with below $20 million in revenue — reported growth in government contracts last year as opposed to 56 percent of large companies and 49 percent overall.

Plexico, a four-time Wash100 Award winner, acknowledged the challenges small businesses face with time, resources and market understanding that may hinder their ability to compete with large businesses in the industry.

“We want to level the playing field and enable their success with educational content and tools for finding and winning more business,” Plexico said.

The majority of the Resource Center’s offerings are reserved for Deltek GovWin IQ subscribers, but there are some free resources available.

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House Subcommittee Requests GSA Briefing on Login.gov Program
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House Subcommittee Requests GSA Briefing on Login.gov Program

The House Oversight and Accountability Committee’s government operations and federal workforce subpanel has asked the General Services Administration for a staff-level briefing on the Login.gov program, particularly the platform’s compliance with the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s security standards.

In a June 21 letter to GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan, the subcommittee urged GSA to provide details on an internal review, disciplinary proceedings, actions taken to ensure transparency and structural reforms implemented related to the program.

The briefing should be performed no later than July 10, according to the letter.

The House subpanel also called on GSA to submit documents and communications related to audits and assessments of Login.gov conducted by Kantara Initiative and those prepared by or for individuals cited in the GSA office of the inspector general’s report regarding the platform and related technologies, among others.

These documents are due for submission no later than July 6.

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NSF Invests $162M in 9 Institutions Added to Materials Research Science & Engineering Center Program
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NSF Invests $162M in 9 Institutions Added to Materials Research Science & Engineering Center Program

The National Science Foundation is granting a total of $162 million to nine materials research science and engineering centers that are working on technologies that could benefit U.S. manufacturing.

The research facilities will each receive $18 million over a six-year period for projects done in collaboration with minority-serving and emerging-research institutions, NSF announced Monday.

The awardees serve as this year’s addition to NSF’s MRSEC program. Since the 1970s, the foundation has supported 20 centers that have produced technological breakthroughs with commercial applications.

The 2023 class will specialize in areas such as artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, biotechnology, quantum computing and sensing, sustainable energy sources and storage and semiconductors.

The investment will also enable the facilities to conduct training among undergraduate and graduate students in the field of science, technology, engineering and mathematics and other programs.

The awardees are:

  • Center for Advanced Materials & Manufacturing, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
  • Center for Dynamics and Control of Materials, University of Texas at Austin
  • Center for Materials Innovations at Michigan, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
  • Illinois Materials Research Science and Engineering Center, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
  • Laboratory for Research on the Structure of Matter, University of Pennsylvania
  • Materials Research Laboratory at the University of California, Santa Barbara
  • Northwestern University Materials Research Science and Engineering Center
  • University of Washington Molecular Engineering Materials Center
  • Wisconsin Materials Research Science and Engineering Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison
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DARPA Taps MIT Lincoln Laboratory to Test AR Assistant Prototypes
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DARPA Taps MIT Lincoln Laboratory to Test AR Assistant Prototypes

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Laboratory will provide test and evaluation services to a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency program that aims to develop artificial intelligence and augmented reality systems designed to help warfighters perform complex physical tasks.

Lincoln Laboratory—a federally funded research and development center MIT operates for the Department of Defense—is expected to evaluate virtual “task guidance” assistant prototypes being developed under the Perceptually-Enabled Task Guidance project, according to a post on DARPA’s website.

“Our job is to evaluate each of these prototypes, construct the evaluation scenarios and the right metrics, and guide the program to ensure that the technology is both useful and relevant to the missions,” said Marianne DeAngelus, a senior staff member in the Homeland Sensors and Analytics Group.

Participants in the project include Northrop Grumman, RedShred, Raytheon BBN and Kitware.

Each team uses multiple types of AR hardware, including the Microsoft HoloLens 2 AR headset, to build its prototype system and laboratory evaluators will assess each system based on user experience, functionality and ability to detect human errors.

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University of Alaska Books $70M Contract to Continue Services for NASA’s Radar Archive Center
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University of Alaska Books $70M Contract to Continue Services for NASA’s Radar Archive Center

The University of Alaska at Fairbanks received a potential five-year, $70 million contract to continue the development and maintenance of the Synthetic Aperture Radar Distributed Active Archive Center.

The university has been performing operations and maintenance, systems engineering and data management for the facility in support of NASA’s Earth Observing System Data and Information System, the space agency said Friday.

The University of Alaska Satellite Facility operates the SAR data archive and provides its contents to a variety of users, including research teams involved in Earth science and instruments.

Aside from O&M and engineering, the new cost-no-fee completion contract also extends services such as product generation and distribution of space-borne and airborne radar data.

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Frank Kendall: Congress Should Back DOD Tech Program Acceleration Measure
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Frank Kendall: Congress Should Back DOD Tech Program Acceleration Measure

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall called on Congress to support a legislative proposal that would authorize the Department of Defense to begin work on “new start” programs before securing congressional approval in order to rapidly deploy capabilities, maintain the country’s competitive advantage and help strengthen deterrence.

“This proposal represents low-hanging fruit that would eliminate one to two years from critically needed programs without any risk,” Kendall, a 2023 Wash100 awardee, wrote in an op-ed published Monday on Breaking Defense.

Under the proposal, he said the department would be able to outline a requirements definition and conduct systems engineering and preliminary design, among other activities, without any budgetary or contractual commitments.

DOD requested $300 million in funds per year to support a number of pilot programs meant to test the concept.

Kendall noted that the proposed measure would require service secretaries to secure approval from the secretary of Defense and inform Congress within 15 days.

“When we discover innovative applications of technology that will give us a significant military advantage, we need to act,” he noted.

Senate Bill to Ensure Clean Audit of DOD in FY 2024
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Senate Bill to Ensure Clean Audit of DOD in FY 2024

A bipartisan group of Senate lawmakers has introduced a bill that would require the Department of Defense to pass a clean audit in fiscal year 2024.

The Audit the Pentagon Act of 2023 mandates that any DOD agency that fails to conduct a clean audit return 1 percent of its budget to the Department of the Treasury for deficit reduction, the office of Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., announced Monday.

“If the Department of Defense cannot conduct a clean audit, as required by law, Congress should impose tough financial consequences to hold the Pentagon accountable for mismanaging taxpayer money,” Wyden said.

“We can’t effectively rein in wasteful defense spending without a full and complete audit of the Pentagon,” said Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore.

The legislation is also backed by Sens Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.; Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa; Mike Lee, R-Utah; Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.; Mike Braun, R-Ind.; Rand Paul, R-Ky.; Ed Markey, D-Mass.; and Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis.

In May, Wyden, Sanders, Grassley, Warren and Braun sent a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to conduct an investigation into alleged overpricing by some U.S. defense contractors.

The request followed a report from CBS News that found that DOD’s fixed-price contracts would often generate 12 to 15 percent for private profits.

Johns Hopkins APL & University of Colorado Boulder Collaborate on Thermal Protection Systems Research
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Johns Hopkins APL & University of Colorado Boulder Collaborate on Thermal Protection Systems Research

Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory has collaborated with the University of Colorado Boulder on an independent research and development project that aims to predict wear and damage of thermal protection systems used on spacecraft and hypersonic vehicles.

Kerri Phillips, chief scientist in APL’s Air and Missile Defense Sector, shared that the research team is using computational modeling techniques to determine how damage evolves in a TPS exposed to a hypersonic flow.

“Ultimately, this will inform future TPS studies and tests to build an understanding of how TPS damage evolves under various flight conditions,” Phillips said.

CU Boulder and APL are part of the University Consortium for Applied Hypersonics, a collaborative network of universities that support the development of advanced hypersonic flight systems for national defense.

2023 Hypersonics Forum

ExecutiveBiz is set to host the 2023 Hypersonics Forum on Aug. 15 to discuss with military leaders and industry experts the challenges, priorities, strategies and successes of hypersonic technology in the U.S. Click here to register for the event.

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SandboxAQ Awarded DISA OTA for Quantum Capabilities; Jen Sovada Quoted
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SandboxAQ Awarded DISA OTA for Quantum Capabilities; Jen Sovada Quoted

SandboxAQ, Alphabet’s artificial intelligence and quantum-focused spin-off, has won an other transaction authority agreement from the U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency.

Under the Prototype Quantum Resistant Cryptography Public Key Infrastructure OTA, SandboxAQ will work with subcontractors Microsoft and Deloitte to implement its Security Suite, the Palo Alto, California-based company announced on Tuesday.

“As part of the prototype OTA agreement, SandboxAQ’s unique focus on cryptographic agility could enable U.S. government customers to automatically and seamlessly protect their IT infrastructures from both current cyber threats as well as future threats such as those posed by quantum computers,” said Jen Sovada, president of public sector at SandboxAQ.

“This first-of-its-kind program offers a pathway to protect DISA networks and data through follow-on deployments to wider architectures,” she added.

SandboxAQ’s Security Suite allows agile cryptography to defend sensitive data from present and future cyberattacks using methods such as applying cryptographic protocols that are resistant to decryption by quantum computers. Its features include cryptographic inventory, policy enforcement and remediation.

“We are excited to provide capabilities that can assist in a more secure national defense. SandboxAQ and our subcontractors will implement an approach that can be applied across the U.S. Government,” said Jack Hidary, CEO of SandboxAQ.

As subcontractors, Microsoft will deliver the DevSecOps platform and Deloitte will provide its software and service offerings, which include broad cryptographic integration and implementation. Both enterprises have previous experience working with DISA.

All three contractors have participated heavily in public sector efforts to adopt quantum technologies. In 2022, both SandboxAQ and Microsoft were chosen by the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Cybersecurity Center of Excellence to deliver approaches for migrating to post-quantum cryptography.

Video Interview: Aaron Weis Urges Government Leaders to Shift From ‘Legacy View’ of Cybersecurity
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Video Interview: Aaron Weis Urges Government Leaders to Shift From ‘Legacy View’ of Cybersecurity

Modernization within the federal government is not an easily outlined set of instructions or a checklist that can be neatly completed. Rather, modernization is a mindset, says Google Public Sector’s Managing Director of Technology Aaron Weis, and government leaders must shift their perspectives in order to achieve it.

“I think up until now the government has been looking at cloud as an enabler in cloud capability. They viewed the cloud capability, though, through their legacy lens,” said Weis, a four-time Wash100 Award winner, in an exclusive video interview with Executive Mosaic.

“And what I mean when I say that is, the government asked for GovCloud, which is an air-gapped, separate cloud capability that different cloud service providers would stand up to give the government equivalent cloud capability, but not have it touch their commercial capability,” Weis explained.

“That’s a way of thinking about it that is sort of rooted in that legacy view, which is a way of thinking that says computing power is in data centers on servers and racks and computers and hard drives. That is, over the long term, a limiter for the government,” he added.

Zero trust has emerged in the last decade as a new way of thinking about cybersecurity that goes beyond the traditional model and provides better real-time security of devices, systems and networks. Weis noted that zero trust is giving the government an opportunity to rethink the way it secures data, applications and networks in the face of growing cyber threats.

“It no longer implies that they need to sort of live in a castle behind a moat of GovCloud, and now they get the advantage of using all of the massive compute and capability that exists commercially for cloud providers,” Weis said. “It’s a shift for the government in terms of the way that they think about that. It will be an enabler for the government in order to realize that zero trust dream.”

For more insights from Aaron Weis, watch his full video interview here. Want to know why Aaron is a Potomac Officers Club member? Watch what he has to say about his POC membership experience here.

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