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Texas A&M Research Station Gets $96M Army Contract to Study Hypersonic, Autonomous Platforms
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Texas A&M Research Station Gets $96M Army Contract to Study Hypersonic, Autonomous Platforms

The U.S. Army has awarded Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) a $96 million cost-no-fee contract to conduct research on hypersonic systems.

The research organization under the Texas A&M University System will also study networked autonomous vehicles as part of the five-year cost-no-fee contract, the Department of Defense said Thursday.

Army Contracting Command received one bid for the project through an online-based solicitation and estimates work to conclude by Sept. 28, 2026.

TEES is chartered by the State of Texas to advance innovations in education, technology and research that will help the industry and economic development of the region.

The institution collaborates with the Texas A&M University College of Engineering to integrate basic and applied research capabilities.

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GovExec Acquires Professional Development Academy; CEO Tim Hartman Quoted
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GovExec Acquires Professional Development Academy; CEO Tim Hartman Quoted

GovExec announced on Thursday that the leading information services and insights company has acquired Professional Development Academy (PDA), a development and training platform for state, local and federal leaders. 

The transaction marks the company’s tenth acquisition since its inception in March 2020. GovExec’s ninth and most recent previous deal was the acquisition of Market Connections earlier this month.

“GovExec believes in providing public sector leaders with the full suite of tools they need to advance their careers and fulfill their government mission,” said GovExec CEO Tim Hartman, noting that the strategic acquisition of PDA will enhance the company’s professional development offerings.

Hartman continued, explaining that PDA’s knowledge-based platform and deep enrollee engagement gives GovExec “additional insights that fuel our rich business intelligence tools, expand the opportunities to provide knowledge-based training to state and local, federal and defense leaders, and build custom content that helps the entire public sector ecosystem level up and operate more efficiently.” 

Founded in 2014, PDA leverages their dynamic learning management platform to foster collaboration and engagement between frontline and mid-level leaders, resulting in improved performance and higher organizational value for their customers.

The academy’s digital platform has served over 7,000 users to date, and PDA will leverage the transaction with GovExec to scale its capabilities and expand into new public sector markets. PDA will serve as a companion offering to Government Marketing University, which GovExec acquired in July.

PDA co-founder, Dr. Tim Rahschulte will serve as PDA’s executive vice president, and co-founder Bob Dethlefs will serve as a senior advisor.

The transaction was completed with financial support from Growth Catalyst Partners, and financial terms have not been disclosed.

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NASA’s Roman Space Telescope Completes Design Review; Enters Flight Hardware Assembly, Testing Phase
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NASA’s Roman Space Telescope Completes Design Review; Enters Flight Hardware Assembly, Testing Phase

NASA’s ​​Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, a next-generation observatory intended to shed light on the dark energy and dark matter cosmic puzzles, has concluded its developmental engineering stage after passing the critical design review.

According to Julie McEnergy, the Roman Space Telescope senior project scientist, the team will move forward to building and testing the observatory after completing the groundwork, NASA said Wednesday. 

The next phase will entail the assembly and testing of flight hardware through 2024 and after which, the team at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center will conduct the system integration review and merge the Roman observatory. 

“Finally, we’ll test the whole observatory in environments that simulate launch and our orbit to make sure Roman will work as designed,” said Jackie Townsend, deputy project manager for the Roman Space Telescope.

The space agency indicated that astronomers are prospecting Roman to navigate the vast space, explore the infrared universe and unveil rocky worlds in and beyond the regions that have liquid water. 

NASA is eyeing to launch the mission no later than May 2027. 

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Maj. Gen. David Miller: Space Command Needs New Tech to Detect Malicious Space Activity
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Maj. Gen. David Miller: Space Command Needs New Tech to Detect Malicious Space Activity

Maj. Gen. David Miller, director of operations, training and force development at U.S. Space Command, said the military needs industry's help to attain new technologies that monitor the space activities of adversaries, Space News reported Wednesday.

Miller said at the Space Sector Market Conference in Massachusetts that Space Command currently relies on outdated ground system that were not designed based on modern needs.

The command now requires systems that allow forces to detect hostile actions in space and tell them apart from normal activities. The major general said he is giving the defense industry a two-year window to develop the needed technologies.

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State Department Commissions Council to Lead Data Strategy Implementation; Brian Mckeon Quoted
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State Department Commissions Council to Lead Data Strategy Implementation; Brian Mckeon Quoted

The State Department's Enterprise Data Council will oversee the implementation of a newly released enterprise data strategy, which aims to expand the department's use of data analytics across operations.

The department said its chief data officer, a post currently held by Matthew Graviss, will chair the council, which is composed by bureau leaders. The council will operate over a three-year timeline as the department seeks to integrate data into diplomatic activities.

“The goals and objectives of the enterprise data strategy call for the development of a data culture in the department; the promotion of training for increased data fluency; greater data access, in part through new technology; and better data governance to ensure data is used ethically and securely,” said Brian P. Mckeon, deputy secretary of state for management and resources.

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GSA’s Technology Modernization Fund Awards Seven Projects to Advance Cybersecurity In Federal Agencies; Clare Martorana, Chris DeRusha Quoted
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GSA’s Technology Modernization Fund Awards Seven Projects to Advance Cybersecurity In Federal Agencies; Clare Martorana, Chris DeRusha Quoted

The Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) Board has announced seven new awards totaling $311 million to help federal agencies bolster cybersecurity capabilities and accelerate IT modernization efforts.

This is the seventh round of awards given since TMF’s establishment under the Modernizing Government Technology Act of 2017. The projects will be funded by the American Rescue Plan's emergency legislation that provided $1 billion in funds to TMF, the board said Thursday. 

“The administration is maximizing the flexibility of the TMF to modernize high-priority systems, elevate the foundational security of federal agencies, accelerate the growth of public-facing digital services, and scale cross-government collaboration and shared services,” said Clare Martorana, Federal CIO.

Martorana highlighted that the ARP-provided funds are essential in the administration’s COVID-19 response and will have a significant impact in the improvement of national cybersecurity and modernization across three critical agencies in the executive branch.

Funds will be distributed incrementally based on each project’s achievement of performance targets and delivery milestones.

2021 Wash100 Award winner Chris DeRusha, Federal CISO, noted that the GSA and TMF Board will track the progress of the projects to ensure that each is successful.

The new awards are a direct response to President Biden’s Executive Order to improve national cybersecurity earlier this year.

The Department of Education, the Office of Personnel Management, and the GSA will all utilize the awards to improve and advance Zero Trust architecture and networking within the agencies.

Additionally, two of the awarded projects will transform multi-factor authentication for federal employees through MAX.gov and Login.gov. 

The Department of Homeland Security’s awarded project will improve technology and data processing at the Southwest Border. No details are provided for the final project, which is classified.

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Former GSA Administrator Emily Murphy Joins CEO Coaching International as Partner, Coach
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Former GSA Administrator Emily Murphy Joins CEO Coaching International as Partner, Coach

Former General Services Administration Administrator, Emily Murphy, has been tapped as CEO Coaching International’s newest partner and coach.

Murphy, a three-time Wash100 Award recipient, will utilize her experience in government contracting and federal agency leadership to coach growth-focused CEOs in optimizing their organizations’ performance, the company said.

"Emily brings to the table extraordinary experience from her many years of serving as an attorney and high-ranking government official," said CEO and Founding Partner of CEO Coaching International, Mark Moses, explaining that Murphy will be an asset to the company’s coaching services.

Throughout her tenure with the GSA, Murphy notably oversaw a budget of $37.3 billion and increased the agency’s contract sales by over 36 percent in three years. Murphy also helped the GSA re-engineer their leasing process and modernize their contracting program, which reduced lease carryovers by 40 percent and saved the agency over $3.4 billion.

Prior to her role with GSA, Murphy served as general counsel and vice president of operations at TerreStar National Services, where she implemented a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with the DoD that allowed the company to develop their satellite technology and advance growth trajectories.

Murphy shared, "I've spent my career focused on delivering tangible results across a variety of industries, with a record of significantly increasing revenues, decreasing costs, and improving customer satisfaction.”

She added that her passion for helping organizations realize their full potential will position her to deliver innovative services in her new role with CEO Coaching.

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CFO Council Seeks to Transform Federal Finance Management via Workforce Training Marketplace
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CFO Council Seeks to Transform Federal Finance Management via Workforce Training Marketplace

The Chief Financial Officers Council has issued a request for information to identify potential industry partners for a new initiative to create a federal marketplace for financial management training and educational tools, Federal News Network reported Wednesday.

Evan Farley, who co-leads a workforce modernization effort at the CFO Council, said the marketplace will be built to help 140,000 government finance leaders access approved courseware from the commercial and academic sectors.

He noted that the group is looking to partner with content providers that have virtual delivery experience and are capable of demonstrating a feasible platform in a short period of time.

“The one thing that makes us a little different than other efforts is we are not building a learning management system. We’ve got a set of core competencies from the financial management committee about 54 knowledge, skills and abilities that we’re looking to have content on the site.” he told Federal News Network.

Farley added that the council aims to find qualified vendors and launch the marketplace within the first quarter of 2022.

Interested vendors can submit responses to the RFI notice through Dec. 16th.

CFO Council Seeks to Transform Federal Finance Management via Workforce Training Marketplace

The Potomac Officers Club will host a virtual event for government and GovCon executives to share their insights on hybrid work arrangements and the role of data analytics in workforce management. Click here to register for the Oct. 7 forum and learn more about other upcoming events.

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Commerce Department Taps Industry to Populate Space Object Database
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Commerce Department Taps Industry to Populate Space Object Database

The Department of Commerce is working with the space industry in an effort to populate a prototype database system designed to increase companies' situational awareness of satellites and debris orbiting Earth, FedScoop reported Wednesday.

DOC expects to begin testing its Open-Architecture Data Repository model in the fall and also collaborates with three other agencies to incorporate content into the cloud-based storage.

Tom Beach, the department's interim chief data officer, said at a recent industry event that the DOC Office of Space Commerce looks to apply artificial intelligence technology and sensors to space monitoring efforts and wants the private sector to build on OADR data to bring new services to the government.

The repository is being developed to also warn satellite operators when their space asset is in danger of coming into close contact with other objects, according to the report.

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Rob Joyce: Attributing Hacks Becomes More Difficult as Threat Actors Use Commercial Tools
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Rob Joyce: Attributing Hacks Becomes More Difficult as Threat Actors Use Commercial Tools

Rob Joyce, cybersecurity director at the National Security Agency and a previous Wash100 Award winner, said advanced persistent threat actors are using virtual private networks and other widely available commercial tools to evade detection, making it more challenging for the government to attribute cyberattacks, Nextgov reported Wednesday.

“We've seen whole APTs kind of go dark to some of the commercial entities who say 'yeah, I don't see those custom tools from name your favorite threat actor group,' when in reality they're just as active but what they're using now is, you know some of the commercial tools that get them to the same outcomes,” said Joyce. “So it's clouded that space.”

He also cited the challenge of distinguishing between state-sponsored hackers and independent criminal actors especially for countries like China.

“What we often see is there are the commercial elements who by day are supporting those government activities and then by night using some of the same tools, infrastructure and other activities. And I think it's really important China understands how much of a risk that is to them, that these uncontrolled actors are, you know, ambiguously combined with their activities, and that, that's a problem,” Joyce said.

NSA and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued on Tuesday an information sheet meant to help organizations understand the risks and considerations for selecting a virtual private network. The two agencies also advised organizations to request and verify a product’s software bill of materials and ensure that products use FIPS-validated cryptographic modules, among other recommendations.

Supply Chain Cybersecurity: Revelations and Innovations

ExecutiveBiz, sister site of GovConDaily and part of the Executive Mosaic digital media umbrella, will host a virtual event about securing the supply chain on Oct. 26. Visit ExecutiveBiz.com to sign up for the “Supply Chain Cybersecurity: Revelations and Innovations” event.

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