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U.S. Government Releases 2021 Action Plan for Federal Data Strategy
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U.S. Government Releases 2021 Action Plan for Federal Data Strategy

The U.S. federal government has issued a 2021 action plan outlining specific measures agencies should take in support of the Federal Data Strategy.

The current plan seeks to strengthen the foundational activities of data governance, planning and infrastructure and integrates the lessons learned from the previous year’s action plan.

The 2021 action plan calls for agencies to collect and assess data identified for priority agency questions; mature data governance; data and infrastructure maturity; increase staff data literacy skills; publish agency open data plans, and improve data inventories.

Other actions outlined in the document are interagency wildland fire fuels data management; data skills workforce management; governmentwide dashboards and infrastructure and artificial intelligence and automation.

For AI and automation, milestones include making the algorithmic assessment tool publicly available for agency use and preparing an inventory of nonclassified AI use cases. These two milestones should be completed by Dec. 31st.

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Heidi Shyu Highlights Need for Database of DOD’s Innovation Activities
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Heidi Shyu Highlights Need for Database of DOD’s Innovation Activities

Heidi Shyu, undersecretary for research and engineering at the Department of Defense and a previous Wash100 Award winner, said her office plans to build a database that would provide R&E with a comprehensive view of technology capabilities being developed by service branches and other innovation organizations within DOD, Federal News Network reported Monday.

“R&E looks across every service. We’ve already gone to the Air Force, the Navy, the Marines, the Army, the [Defense Innovation Unit] and the [Strategic Capabilities Office] to try to understand what process they utilize and what companies they have gone out to,” Shyu told the publication in an interview. 

“So all of those things will be pulled together. We’d like to create a database we can tap into so that I can basically Google for a specific capability or product,” she added.

Shyu discussed the challenge that small businesses face when it comes to working with the Pentagon and how cataloging DOD’s innovation initiatives and capability gaps could help address that problem.

“But once we get all of that information together, we can go the next step. Figuring out what we already have — pulling a database together to share across the board will speak volumes,” she said. “Then, we need to figure out if there is a specific entry point we need to highlight even more to the small businesses. It’s a stepwise process we’re going through.”

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Navy Launches New Program Office for Boats, Craft; Capt. Eric Felder Quoted
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Navy Launches New Program Office for Boats, Craft; Capt. Eric Felder Quoted

The U.S. Navy’s program executive office for ships has established an office dedicated to boats and craft procured by the service branch and foreign military sales customers.

The PMS 300 office, which stood up on Oct. 21st, will manage programmatic resources for boats and craft following the significant portfolio expansion of PMS 325, the current program office for support ships, boats and craft, Naval Sea Systems Command said Thursday.

The newly established office will oversee the government’s commercial boat and craft procurements across three divisions: boats and combatant craft, FMS and service craft and seaborne targets. PMS 300’s responsibilities encompass budgeting, planning, procurement and life cycle management.

Support divisions for financial management and integrated logistics will also serve under the new office.

“I’m looking forward to working alongside this talented team of acquisition professionals as we navigate the growth of this new program to ensure collaboration and readiness with our domestic and allied partners remains strong,” said Capt. Eric Felder, program manager of PMS 300.

The Navy will also rename PMS 325 to the Auxiliary and Special Mission Shipbuilding Program Office with a renewed focus.

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Sandia National Laboratories Supports DOD Hypersonic Testing
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Sandia National Laboratories Supports DOD Hypersonic Testing

Sandia National Laboratories designed, produced and test-launched three rockets within the span of a year to support hypersonic technology development for the Department of Defense.

Three sounding rockets flew consecutively on Wednesday to support projects including the U.S. Army’s Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon and the U.S. Navy’s Conventional Prompt Strike programs, Sandia said Friday.

The rockets briefly observed speeds of Mach 5 and beyond in a 260-mile ascent and the corresponding reentry.

“Our purpose is to generate a rapid testbed tempo at a reduced cost to the taxpayer for future hypersonic weapons systems development and upgrades,” said Ben English, program manager for Sandia.

Sandia intends to perform another hypersonic launch in 2022 with an increased duration of hypersonic flight. 

Honeywell International owns the company that operates Sandia National Laboratories for the Department of Energy. Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory also supported the test.

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DLA Discovers Benefit of 3D Imaging for Additive Manufacturing Following Scanner Tests
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DLA Discovers Benefit of 3D Imaging for Additive Manufacturing Following Scanner Tests

The Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) has completed tests on a three-dimensional scanner that showed the benefits of such an imaging technology in driving its additive manufacturing goals.

The agency said Friday that the imaging capability will enable defense users to share models across the Department of Defense through the Joint Additive Manufacturing Model Exchange web-based platform for 3D printing.

Craig Gravitz, DLA’s information operations technology accelerator team lead, explained that the technology would help match manufacturing parts to a catalog model to figure out their national stock number.

DLA officials agree that a scanner would help improve how its Troop Support Product Test Center and contracting personnel, vendors and customers discuss platforms in development.

“Being able to send a 3D-model embedded in a PDF that users can spin around… you can actually see it, and it’s more meaningful to you rather than just a bunch of [technical] words on a page,” added Gravitz.

Another benefit of 3D imaging includes the ability to gather information on a hard-to-manufacture part through reverse engineering, added Jamie Hieber, laboratory manager for DLA’s test center.

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SREL Receives 5-Year DOE Contract Extension for SRS Environmental Studies
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SREL Receives 5-Year DOE Contract Extension for SRS Environmental Studies

The University of Georgia’s Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (SREL) has secured an estimated $34 million contract extending its environmental evaluation work with the Department of Energy at the Savannah River Site in North Carolina.

SREL, a seven-decade DOE onsite partner at SRS, said its scientists will continue assessing the environmental effects of the agency’s activities at the nuclear reservation for five more years.

Olin Rhodes Jr., the laboratory director, noted that his organization has provided the agency with scientific expertise in explaining the link between legacy contaminants and ecosystem and wildlife sustainability at the site.

“SREL has been a consistently valuable partner over the past 70 years, and the return on investment to DOE and the nation has been exceptional,” noted Mike Budney, DOE’s Savannah River operations manager.

UGA, the laboratory’s parent organization, is a member of the Battelle Savannah River Alliance, a Battelle-led consortium managing SRS.

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NASA Announces 5-Year Funding for Research Infrastructure Development at 28 Jurisdictions
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NASA Announces 5-Year Funding for Research Infrastructure Development at 28 Jurisdictions

NASA has pledged $28 million to fund the development of research infrastructure across 28 U.S. jurisdictions across five years as part of the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).

The EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Development awards are aimed at increasing and diversifying technology and research, higher education and economic initiatives in the beneficiary regions at the state and national levels, NASA said Friday.

EPSCoR is a nearly 30-year-old program that aims to close the gap in funding across all states and territories and maintain a competitive market for aerospace research and development activities.

The NASA awardees include:

  • Alabama
  • Arkansas
  • Delaware
  • Hawaii
  • Idaho
  • Iowa
  • Kansas
  • Louisiana
  • Mississippi
  • Nevada
  • North Dakota
  • Puerto Rico
  • the U.S. Virgin Islands
  • West Virginia
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DOJ to Support Whistleblowers Exposing Cybersecurity Fraud of Contractors; Lisa Monaco Quoted
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DOJ to Support Whistleblowers Exposing Cybersecurity Fraud of Contractors; Lisa Monaco Quoted

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has made a commitment to protect whistleblowers who report cybersecurity issues of federal contractors. 

Lisa Monaco, deputy attorney general, said DOJ will use all available resources to protect whistleblowers in alignment with the False Claims Act.

DOJ seeks to address federal contractors that are guilty of cybersecurity failures or have misled the government about their cyber capabilities.

The U.S. government first made FCA a law in 1863 to address fraud from defense contractors. The law would penalize false record perpetrators to compensate triple the damages caused by fraud and up to $10,000 in civil penalty charges.

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Dewberry Promotes Griffin Brumbaugh to Senior Web Content Specialist
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Dewberry Promotes Griffin Brumbaugh to Senior Web Content Specialist

Dewberry, an engineering, architecture and consulting firm, has promoted Griffin Brumbaugh, who has been a part of the company’s web content team for over three years, to senior web content specialist.

In his role, Brumbaugh drives corporate growth initiatives through developing written and video content, providing social media training and managing and analyzing Dewberry’s website and all social media accounts, the Fairfax, Virginia-based company said Monday.

Molly Johnson, Dewberry’s chief communications officer noted that Brumbaugh has been “integral to several large-scale projects over the last few years” at the firm.

“His creativity, ambition, and commitment to telling our story have made him a great asset to our team and the firm,” she added.

The projects Brumbaugh has spearheaded at Dewberry notably include the implementation of a firm-wide standardized email signature software, development of the firm’s award-winning “Our Project Stories” video series, and the launch of a new external corporate website created in-house.

Throughout his time at Dewberry, Brumbaugh has been recognized with three awards, based on the firm’s Dewberry At Work values, in the areas of honesty, passion and individualism.

Prior to joining Dewberry in 2018, Brumbaugh served as communications coordinator and social media specialist for the American Society of Civil Engineers. The senior web content specialist received his bachelor’s degree in communications from Wake Forest University.

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Guidehouse Names Ted Adair, Julia Gibbons, Chris Choby, Phillip Hall to Defense Segment Leadership Team; Ed Meehan Quoted
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Guidehouse Names Ted Adair, Julia Gibbons, Chris Choby, Phillip Hall to Defense Segment Leadership Team; Ed Meehan Quoted

Ted Adair, Julia Gibbons, Chris Choby and Phillip Hall join Guidehouse’s defense segment leadership team, and Ryan McKeon has been promoted to defense segment growth leader.

Following Guidehouse’s recently finalized acquisition of Dovel Technologies, these executive additions and shifts align with the company’s expansion efforts in key priority areas, including defense, and the newly appointed leadership team will enhance the company’s offerings to Department of Defense customers, Guidehouse said Monday.

“We are excited to welcome this group of exceptional professionals to Guidehouse and look forward to supporting the growing demand through our expanding defense capabilities, solutions, and implementation strategies,” said Wash100 Award recipient Ed Meehan, partner and defense segment leader of Guidehouse.

Ted Adair will serve as Guidehouse’s Army client relationship executive. Adair previously served as business development director for Accenture and also served over five years as a U.S. Army officer. His experience notably includes leading technology, digital modernization, DevSecOps and cloud operations across a range of organizations with key focus areas of national security, homeland security, defense and law enforcement. In his new role with Guidehouse, Adair will lead business unit pipeline management and marketing, foster new business relationships in the defense sector and oversee strategic capture efforts.

Julia Gibbons, former director of capture management at Engility, joins Guidehouse as the Air Force/Space Force client relationship leader. Gibbons served 21 years as an officer in the U.S. Air Force, and her private sector experience includes senior business development roles at SAIC, Booz Allen Hamilton and Deloitte. In her new role, Gibbons will leverage her deep Air Force expertise and industry experience across risk management and program management areas to drive growth in Guidehouse’s expanded defense segment.

20-year U.S. Navy and Marine Corps consultant Chris Choby joins Guidehouse to manage the company’s Navy and Marine Corps client relationships. Previously, Choby served as U.S. Navy/USMC account leader for IBM Global Business Service, where he was responsible for identifying and winning Navy opportunities, managing won programs, driving growth and fostering and maintaining key business relationships. He also notably served as general manager of DXC Technology’s aerospace, defense and manufacturing segment.

Lastly, Phillip Hall has been tapped to lead Guidehouse’s Office of the Secretary of Defense and defense agencies client relationships. Prior to joining Guidehouse, Hall managed the systems integrators Azure Cloud accounts at Microsoft. His previous experience also includes multiple senior business development positions for companies including SAIC, BAE Systems, Verizon and ManTech. An Air Force veteran, Hall’s areas of expertise span IT, cybersecurity and cloud computing services in support of Department of Defense, private sector and intelligence community customers.

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