The Commerce Department has named 27 business, academic and nonprofit sector representatives who will serve on the National Artificial Intelligence Advisory Committee for up to three years.

NAIAC, established by the National AI Initiative Act of 2020, will recommend measures for the Biden administration to address workforce, science and competition matters associated with the adoption of technology, the department said Thursday.

Members of the new advisory group will also guide the government in balancing funds and activities under the initiative. Their inaugural meeting is scheduled for May 4.

The panel will form a subcommittee to explore AI-based law enforcement applications and help the White House understand potential bias, data security and legal aspects in the field.

“Their anticipated recommendations to the President and the National AI Initiative Office will serve as building blocks for U.S. AI policy for decades to come, and I am immensely grateful for their voluntary service,” said Don Graves, deputy secretary at the Department of Commerce.

If you’re interested in AI, then check out the Potomac Officers Club’s 4th Annual Artificial Intelligence Summit this spring. The summit aims to assemble leaders from the worlds of government and business to discuss advancements and outlooks in that area. Click here to see POC’s full calendar.

John Sherman, chief information officer at the Department of Defense and a 2022 Wash100 Award winner, said he considers cybersecurity as his “absolute top priority” and that DOD wants to be a leader in the federal space when it comes to the adoption of zero trust principles.

“Zero trust is built on principles that the enemy is already in your network and the way we deal with that is constricting lateral movement throughout the network through what we call fine-grained access and also looking at things like not signature-based analysis, but behavioral-based analysis on who’s on there and making sure we have identity, credential and access management or ICAM and an entire suite of capabilities that comes at it much differently than we’ve been doing,” Sherman told Government Matters in an interview posted Friday.

He added that zero trust is critical in protecting an enterprise from cybersecurity threats.

Sherman, who also serves as acting chief digital and artificial intelligence officer, noted that procurement is now underway for the Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability, which is DOD’s flagship effort.

JWCC will bring “enterprise cloud capability at all three security classification levels – unclassified, secret and top secret – from the continental United States all the way out to the tactical edge. This is a capability we don’t have right now and it’s going to be critical for things like Joint All Domain Command and Control, AI and the Data Acceleration initiative, among others,” he said.

Sherman also discussed how his office advances JADC2, the role of the chief digital and AI officer and how the Pentagon helps U.S. European Command through the AI and Data Acceleration initiative amid the crisis in Ukraine.

Sherman will keynote the Potomac Officers Club’s 3rd Annual CIO Summit, scheduled for April 26 at Hilton-McLean in Virginia. Visit the Potomac Officers Club site to learn more about this event and view POC’s full calendar.

Seven universities have secured grants from the Federal Aviation Administration to conduct studies on the cybersecurity, detect-and-avoid classification and electromagnetic compatibility of unmanned aircraft systems.

The awards have a total value of $4.4 million and represent the second round of FAA’s Alliance for System Safety of UAS through Research Excellence program, the agency said Friday.

University of Kansas, Oregon State University and Drexel University will carry out research work on oversight and risk management approaches for drones that could integrate into national space.

FAA assigned Ohio State University, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Mississippi State University and University of North Dakota to determine how false or misleading information will affect UAS technology designed to help the vehicle avoid a collision.

University of North Dakota, University of Kansas and Drexel University will perform drone design assessments and make recommendations to address potential electromagnetic interference.

Healthcare data and technology services company Ventech Solutions has received high-placement evaluations from the CMMI Institute and the International Organization for Standardization.

The company said Thursday it gained a version 2.0 maturity level 3 appraisal in the development and services category from the CMMI Institute’s Capability Maturity Model Integration program and a series of certifications validating its management systems from ISO.

“Achieving and maintaining the CMMI appraisals and ISO certifications ensure and reinforce that we are operating our business with practices that deliver a high level of efficiency, safety and security,” said Kathy Dass, senior vice president of delivery at Ventech Solutions.

Among the company’s pursuits recognized by ISO were its quality management systems, IT service management and information security management systems. The organization is widely viewed as the international judge of repute for high caliber management systems. Earning its approval instills faith in an enterprise’s ability to meet industry and customer needs.

CMMI is an assessment body that encourages continuous progress in the areas of quality, productivity, customer responsiveness and performance. It is utilized in order to gauge best practices in a given field.

Both ISO and CMMI take a close look at a company’s workflows and business behaviors in order to draw their conclusions. They weigh improvement over time and value a dedication to safety, giving preference to companies with consistent service delivery and secure information management.

“Our validated processes focus on quality, cost savings and compliance, key components that support our federal clients in moving their missions forward,” Dass added.