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Akima Selects Maria Karisik as GM of Cloud Lake Technology Subsidiary
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Akima Selects Maria Karisik as GM of Cloud Lake Technology Subsidiary

Maria Karisik has been appointed as general manager of Akima subsidiary Cloud Lake Technology, bringing more than 25 years of leadership experience to the company.

In her new role, Karisik will drive the delivery of information and operational technology offerings to steer Cloud Lake Technology’s public sector customers toward mission success, the Herndon, Virginia-based organization announced on Wednesday.

“Maria has vast technology expertise and proven experience leading teams that solve complex problems for a wide-range of government customers. Our mission-critical IT business is well-positioned for future growth under her leadership,” said Akima Emerging Markets Group President Barry Smallwood.

Throughout her career, Karisik has assisted a variety of federal clients with high-level technology projects. In her most recent position as vice president of solutions and service delivery at Foxhole Technology, she oversaw cybersecurity and agile software development contracts for both federal civilian and defense customers and led organic and new business growth initiatives.

Previously, Karisik served as director of federal civilian cyber operations at Jacobs, where she was responsible for a portfolio of cybersecurity contracts worth over $100 million.

Earlier, she was a partner for Blue Canopy Group, a woman-owned small business. She joined the company in 2003 as one of its first employees and stayed until it was acquired by Jacobs in 2017.

Alongside her role at Cloud Lake Technology, Karisik will take up the general manager post at fellow Akima subsidiary North Edge Technology.

Akima has recently made multiple executive leadership changes. In February, the organization selected Ross Berkoff as general manager of its RiverTech subsidiary, and a month earlier, Robin Dewar joined Akima as vice president of business development.

White House Launches Website for Biden’s Invest in America Agenda
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White House Launches Website for Biden’s Invest in America Agenda

The White House has launched a new website that shows how the Biden administration is attempting to mobilize public and private sector investments across U.S. states and territories sparked by the Investing in America Agenda.

Invest.gov maps ongoing infrastructure projects funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and private sector investments in areas of batteries and electric vehicles, clean energy, semiconductors and biotechnology and biomanufacturing.

The website provides the public access to information about the approximate level of investments in their communities.

According to the site, private companies have so far committed $479 billion in total investments since President Biden took office.

The semiconductors and electronics sector secured the most private contributions with $214 billion in total investments, followed by the EV and batteries market with $137 billion, the clean energy technology manufacturing industry with $84 billion and the biomanufacturing space with $19 billion.

NOAA Data & Environmental Satellite Unit to Receive $80M Funding from Inflation Reduction Act
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NOAA Data & Environmental Satellite Unit to Receive $80M Funding from Inflation Reduction Act

The National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service, a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, will receive a total of $80.5 million in funding for climate research and resilience.

NESDIS announced Tuesday that it will use the grant under the Inflation Reduction Act to foster collaborations with industrial sectors as well as state and local governments.

The agency plans to allocate $74.1 million to engage with industry representatives, understand their data needs and develop new collaborative strategies to address climate change. The funds will also be used to design climate risk models for different sectors and expand their access to climate information.

The remaining $6.4 million will be invested in projects to solve climate data gaps faced by underserved communities, as well as bolstering the expertise of regional agencies tasked with providing local climate information. It will also be spent on artificial intelligence tools to improve data assimilation at NOAA.

The funding is part of the IRA’s five-year, $3.3 billion pledge to NOAA to accelerate climate research, modeling, and information dissemination.

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IARPA Sets Proposers’ Day for Anonymous Real-Time Speech Program
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IARPA Sets Proposers’ Day for Anonymous Real-Time Speech Program

The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity is set to host a proposers’ day on June 27 to discuss with industry its new program to develop novel methods and systems to anonymize conversational speech recorded by electronic devices.

A SAM.gov notice posted Monday states that the Anonymous Real-Time Speech program aims to prevent smartphones and other appliances and gadgets that have microphones to listen for speech signals from invading an individual’s privacy by modifying spontaneous speech in real-time.

ARTS has been designed to develop new software-based systems that can transform recorded speech in a format that sounds natural and understandable.

According to the notice, IARPA seeks to create new capabilities to counter threats to users’ privacy, such as automated classification of dynamic traits and speaker identification software.

Interested parties may register for the proposers’ day by June 22.

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Purdue Applied Research Institute Unveils Facility for Hypersonic Flight Research
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Purdue Applied Research Institute Unveils Facility for Hypersonic Flight Research

Purdue University’s applied research arm has unveiled a new facility that will house the university’s hypersonic aircraft evaluation and testing efforts.

The Purdue Applied Research Institute has invested $41 million in the development of the 65,000-square-foot Hypersonics and Applied Research Facility that contains the only Mach 8 quiet wind tunnel and a hypersonic pulse reflected shock/expansion tunnel, Purdue said Tuesday.

Both tunnels will offer controlled environments for recreating different scenarios and replicating unique engine conditions for extremely high-speed propulsion.

In addition to the tunnels, the new facility also includes the Hypersonics Advanced Manufacturing Technology Center, which will focus on the development of new materials and manufacturing processes.

“Through facilities such as HARF, we will help solve some of the most challenging and relevant problems in the field of high-speed flight while also building the future workforce,” said Mark Lewis, CEO of PARI.

2023 Hypersonics Forum

ExecutiveBiz will host its 2023 Hypersonics Forum on August 15 to discuss with military leaders and industry experts on challenges, strategies and priorities steering hypersonic weapon development in the U.S. Click here to register and hear from keynote speaker James Weber, principal director for hypersonics in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering.

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GAO: Congress Should Establish Long-Term Plan to Address Fiscal Sustainability
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GAO: Congress Should Establish Long-Term Plan to Address Fiscal Sustainability

The Government Accountability Office has called on Congress to develop a long-term fiscal plan that incorporates fiscal targets and rules and consider alternative approaches that better connect decisions about the debt ceiling to decisions related to revenue and spending to help address the federal government’s unsustainable fiscal future.

Debt held by the public is expected to increase from approximately 97 percent of gross domestic product in fiscal year 2022 to 106 percent of GDP within a decade and continue to climb at an increasing pace, GAO said in a report published Tuesday.

“We project that this ratio could reach more than 219 percent of GDP by 2051, absent any changes in revenue and spending policies,” the GAO report reads.

The congressional watchdog noted that delays in suspending or increasing the borrowing limit pose additional risks to the fiscal outlook.

President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a bipartisan measure to suspend the debt ceiling through January 2025, preventing a default on U.S. obligations.

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US, Israel Agencies Issue Joint Guide to Prevent Remote Access Software Exploitation
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US, Israel Agencies Issue Joint Guide to Prevent Remote Access Software Exploitation

The National Security Agency and several other government entities in the U.S. and Israel issued a cybersecurity information sheet to warn the public about the exploitation of remote access software by cyber actors.

NSA on Tuesday released the guidance, which lists best practices to prevent or mitigate the often-undetectable attacks.

The information sheet, entitled “Guide to Securing Remote Access Software,” was co-authored by the FBI, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center and the Israel National Cyber Directorate.

Cyber actors are using legitimate remote access systems as a threat vector to hack and even control organizations’ systems and resources, the agencies stated. After accessing victims’ systems, the actors manage to go undetected in regular network activities.

To prepare for such malicious schemes, the guide urges network administrators and defenders to set up a security baseline of their normal software and network activities. They should also consider the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Cybersecurity Framework in establishing a risk management strategy.

The document makes other recommendations specific to managed service providers, software-as-a-service customers, IT administrators and developers of remote access technologies.

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Deltek Analysis Reports Navy Spent $8.4M on Cybersecurity OTAs in Past 3 Fiscal Years
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Deltek Analysis Reports Navy Spent $8.4M on Cybersecurity OTAs in Past 3 Fiscal Years

A new Deltek report shows that the Department of the Navy’s spending on other transaction agreements for cybersecurity-related capabilities totaled $8.4 million between fiscal year 2020 and FY 2022.

The Navy’s spending on cybersecurity platforms and services using OTAs dropped by nearly 60 percent from $5.8 million in FY 2021 to $2.5 million in FY 2022, John Slye, senior advisory research analyst at Deltek, wrote in the market analysis report published Tuesday.

Naval Network Warfare Command and Naval Information Warfare Systems Command account for 70 percent of cyber OTA spending over the three-year period.

NAVNETWARCOM was the top cybersecurity-related OTA spender in the past three fiscal years, reporting $3.8 million in spending. NAVWAR came in second, posting $2 million in OTA spending for cyber capabilities.

“While the Navy’s use of OTA contracts for cybersecurity-related efforts is dwarfed by comparison among the other DoD components, their use at the Navy still underscores the utility of these acquisition methods for targeted technology development, prototyping and other needs,” Slye noted.

POC - 2023 Cyber Summit

Join the Potomac Officers Club’s 2023 Cyber Summit on June 8, Thursday, to hear cybersecurity experts and thought leaders as they discuss the evolving role of cyber across the public sector in the digital age. Register here.

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MITRE Partners With Intel to Integrate Chip Tech Into Wideband RF Spectrum System
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MITRE Partners With Intel to Integrate Chip Tech Into Wideband RF Spectrum System

MITRE has integrated Intel’s Direct RF chip technology into the Extremely Wideband RF Spectrum Operations system as part of efforts to enable multiple wideband platforms.

The McLean, Virginia-based company said Tuesday the integration of the chip technology into EWO was carried out through its partnership with Intel, CAES and the U.S. Air Force.

EWO is a reference implementation system designed to deliver spectrum capabilities for radar, communications, signals intelligence and other applications and has become a standard for developing multifunction wideband technologies.

“EWO is very flexible,” said Wajih Elsallal, FUSE’s creator and EWO co-lead at MITRE. “It provides a foundation previously unavailable that allows government, industry, and academia to develop and assess next-generation technologies.”

In addition to Direct RF, EWO also includes MITRE’s Frequency-scaled Ultra-wide Spectrum Element antenna. The not-for-profit organization also plans to integrate its signal processing capability, dubbed Photon, with the system.

Jose Torres, EWO development co-lead at MITRE, said the organization intends to continue its collaboration with Intel as the latter builds more microelectronics technologies.

“We also look forward to engaging with other third-party vendors, integrating their technology to make it more practical for different use cases – especially for our multiple government sponsors,” Torres added.

In February, CAES was selected to continue providing advanced electronics for the EWO system through its partnership with the Air Force and MITRE.

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NIST Reveals 5 New Leaders of CHIPS R&D Office
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NIST Reveals 5 New Leaders of CHIPS R&D Office

The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s CHIPS Research and Development Office appointed five new leaders to advance the execution of the CHIPS for America Act.

The new executives are Lora Weiss, Eric Lin, Neil Alderoty, Richard-Duane Chambers and Marla Dowell, NIST announced Tuesday.

Weiss, former senior vice president for research at Pennsylvania State University, was named director of the CHIPS R&D Office. She currently serves as president of the Penn State Research Foundation, and has more than 30 years of higher education experience under her belt. Her expertise is in robotics as well as uncrewed systems and human-machine teaming in multi-domain vehicles.

Lin had been working as interim director of CHIPS R&D since September before his official designation as deputy director. He has served in various roles at NIST, starting out as a postdoctoral associate, and then acting associate director for laboratory programs, and later director of the NIST Material Measurement Laboratory.

Alderoty was transferred from his role as executive administrator of the Material Measurement Lab to executive officer of CHIPS R&D. In his over 30-year career in the institute, he has been chief financial officer as well as acting chief of the Grants and Agreements Management Division.

Chambers will become the associate director for integration and policy. He most recently worked as a senior professional staff member in the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, which advises the group on policies affecting agencies such as NIST. He contributed to the drafting and negotiation for the CHIPS Act.

Dowell, former director of the NIST Communications Technology Laboratory, was appointed as director of the CHIPS R&D metrology program. She has been with the institute since 1993, and was part of divisions including the sources and detectors group, pulse laser metrology project, and applied physics unit.

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