The Department of Homeland’s Science and Technology Directorate (DHS S&T) has tested AT&T FirstNet‘s Push-to-Talk standards-based and mission-critical application for first responders in two real-world emergency scenarios across the U.S.

The tests are part of S&T’s effort to introduce interoperable PTT software across homeland security agencies for voice, video and data communications during crises involving various disciplines and jurisdictions, DHS said Tuesday.

During the first scenario at the Port of Oakland in California, Customs and Border Protection agents used FNPTT to coordinate with the U.S. Coast Guard and Homeland Security Security Investigations in catching a runaway narcotics suspect at sea.

CBP units also tapped the application to establish communications and exchange information with the Oakland Fire Department regarding a simulated fire at the port.

Meanwhile, during the second scenario off the California coast, USCG Cutter crew worked with CBP and HSI through the software in responding to a dive boat fire and medical emergency.

Test participants left positive comments regarding their experience with the application, some noted that FNPTT’s reliance on the differing signal strength of AT&T’s first repsonder-focused broadband coverage slowed down video transmission.

Following FNPTT’s testing, S&T plans to evaluate other PTT applications that offer off-network and device-to-device communication and land mobile radio-to-LTE interworking.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is investing $75 million in five institutes that will deliver expertise in multiple areas of data science. NSF said Tuesday that its new Harnessing the Data Revolution Institutes will support research on foundations, applications, systems and cyberinfrastructure of data science.

"They will harness diverse data sources and develop new methodologies, technologies and infrastructure for data management and analysis,” said Manish Parashar, office director at NSF's Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure. 

Ohio State University will lead the NSF Institute for a New Frontier of Biological Information Powered by Knowledge-Guided Machine Learning. The institute will use machine learning to analyze publicly available image data in support of biological sciences.

The University of Washington will lead the NSF Institute for Accelerated AI Algorithms for Data-Driven Discovery, which seeks to build artificial intelligence applications for systems neuroscience, high-energy physics and multi-messenger astrophysics.

The NSF Institute for Harnessing Data and Model Revolution in the Polar Regions will house data science research on Arctic and Antarctic topics under the leadership of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

The Colorado School of Mines will lead the NSF Institute for Data-Driven Dynamical Design, which will attempt to predict the ionic, molecular and other dynamical processes taking place in materials.

Lastly, the NSF Institute for Geospatial Understanding through an Integrative Discovery Environment or I-GUIDE will use geospatial data to examine interactions within socioeconomic-environmental systems. The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign will lead this institute.

Gregory Kausner, acting undersecretary of acquisition and sustainment at the Department of Defense, said that the growing defense acquisition demands an integrated suite of capabilities guided by mission engineering to reach the desired warfighting goals, DOD News reported Wednesday.

Kausner enumerated scoped requirements, guided development and informed investment as essential factors to develop the agency’s capabilities and link the programs to their intended missions.

“Put simply, the mission architecture is the business model for the conduct of operations,” he said in an event speech, adding that the DOD can determine vital threads when an “overarching mission architecture” is highlighted.

The agency recently developed the adaptive acquisition framework aimed at providing suitable and sustainable solutions to end-users. Kausner said the framework allows program teams to plan and manage their strategies according to specific capabilities.

The DOD official also noted that they are working on improving their talent management and developing a data-centric enterprise that leverages data for improved efficiency and operational advantage.

For better synchronization of warfighting efforts, the agency is adopting integrated acquisition portfolio reviews. “We are in the midst of a rebalance from a program-centric approach to a portfolio-based perspective,” Kausner said.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) now holds the findings of a NASA project that demonstrated various tools for air traffic management.

FAA will nationally implement six years' worth of findings from NASA’s Airspace Technology Demonstration 2 projects, which tested integrated arrival, departure and surface (IADS) technologies at various airports, the space agency said Wednesday.

The IADS tools demonstrated fuel savings, carbon reduction and information sharing at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, Dallas Fort Worth International Airport and Dallas Love Field Airport.

“I’m excited the software NASA developed for air traffic controllers and airlines will be soon rolled out at airports across the country and know the results will continue to be extraordinary," said Bill Nelson, NASA administrator.

ATD-2 is part of NASA's larger Airspace Technology Demonstration portfolio, which also includes ATD-1 and ATD-3. ATD-1 tackled fuel-efficient ground-based and flight deck technologies, and ATD-3 tested ways to adjust flight paths based on weather and air traffic data.