Several technology companies and universities are helping the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity explore artificial intelligence and machine learning applications for microelectronic devices.

IARPA said Thursday MicroE4AI program aims to demonstrate materials and processes for the development of small electronics that can host AI/ML algorithms to support intelligence community and national security missions.

Intel’s federal business, Chip Scan, General Electric and GenXComm are among the participants in the two-year program that kicked off in September last year with 12 seedling efforts.

The agency cited unmanned autonomous vehicle navigation, hybrid computing and tamper detection as some of the potential use cases under the effort.

“When fully realized, the advances the MicroE4AI program will bring to AI and ML will be closer to the edges of the IC cloud, automating and enhancing the effectiveness of the IC’s mission,” said Noel Wheeler, an IARPA program manager.

“This means the IC will have the ability to more quickly sift out high-quality information, while minimizing the need for human oversight.”

ExecutiveBiz, sister publication of GovConDaily, will assemble leaders from the government and GovCon community on June 14 to offer insight into the role of microelectronics in the Pentagon’s National Defense Science and Technology Strategy. Learn more about the upcoming event at ExecutiveBiz.com.

The Government Accountability Office has recommended that the National Nuclear Security Administration come up and document its process for assessing the performance of its research and development projects under the Advanced Manufacturing Development program.

GAO said in a report published Friday NNSA should establish measures for evaluating the progress on long-term R&D priorities and goals for its AMD program.

The congressional watchdog found that NNSA’s AMD program fully or substantially followed five of six leading practices for overseeing a federal R&D portfolio, including the development and alignment of short- and long-term R&D goals and priorities; identification and coordination with stakeholders to develop the R&D portfolio; and use of a portfolio-wide system to monitor the progress of R&D.

However, NNSA has not fully established a process for reviewing the performance of the R&D portfolio within the AMD program.

“As a result, NNSA may be using inconsistent measures across individual projects to evaluate performance,” the GAO report reads.

According to the report, NNSA production and laboratory sites had approximately 600 manufacturing-related R&D projects and spent about $300 million on such initiatives in fiscal year 2021.

The Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program has received from a cloud service provider the first system security plan in a machine-readable format called Open Security Controls Assessment Language.

FedRAMP expects the adoption of the OSCAL format to help automate reviews of security packages and accelerate authorizations, the program said in a blog post published Thursday.

In June 2021, the National Institute of Standards and Technology and FedRAMP introduced the initial version of OSCAL.

In August 2021, FedRAMP unveiled the first set of OSCAL validation rules to enable CSPs and third-party assessment organizations to perform self-testing to see whether all the required data is included in their security packages prior to submission to the government.

The program also expects the validation rules to enable FedRAMP reviewers to offer feedback with structured markup and focus on the review’s more complex aspects.

The public sector-serving CentralSquare Technologies has entered an agreement with First Due to combine their resources and bring public safety agencies a streamlined records management and emergency response software.

CentralSquare and First Due’s collaboration looks to assist fire and EMS squads with pre-incident preparation, fire prevention, asset and inventory management, as well as personnel management and community engagement, the Lake Mary, Florida-headquartered company said Wednesday.

“Our partnership with First Due expands CentralSquare’s integrated Fire and EMS solutions, improving day-to-day operations for agencies, saving valuable time and reducing risks for first responders and their communities,” said Dave Zolet, CEO of CentralSquare and a four-time Wash100 Award recipient.

The united platform that CentralSquare and First Due are offering also aims to boost EMS and fire rescue personnel with their community protection goals by giving responders access to a larger repository of information and diminishing response times.

Additionally, the new joint software endeavor is aimed to meet the needs of public safety agencies looking for a single login system for their daily operations systems. By combining First Due and CentralSquare’s products, users will be able to mobilize data across platforms, as well as render dispatch response and incident reporting more accurate, in effect emphasizing cross-agency sharing of responsibilities.

According to FirstDue CEO Andreas Huber, using a surplus of applications for emergency response leads to “unnecessary cost, wasted time, and a lack of operational visibility,” problems that their new partnership with CentralSquare aims to solve.

The companies’ venture is timed to celebrate National EMS Week (May 15-21).

In October, CentralSquare was tapped by Grundy County, Illinois to install the company’s Public Safety Suite Pro as the county’s official public safety apparatus, including CAD, 9-1-1, RMS and Jail.