Systecon North America will continue working with the Survivable Airborne Operations Center, or SAOC, to produce predictive models and data analytic services.
In the new partnership phase, Systecon North America aims to enhance software models, including the company’s Open Suite system, that uncover data gaps and support operational preparedness, the company told ExecutiveGov.
Justin Woulfe, co-founder and chief technology officer of Systecon North America, said, “Our partnership with SAOC is a testament to Systecon’s expertise in predictive logistics and operational readiness.”
Systecon North America and SAOC will look to expand on the work done during the first stage of the partnership in 2022 and 2023. An example of this prior work is a pre-acquisition reliability, availability, maintainability and cost, or RAM-C, analysis model, which improved mission readiness, built operational resilience and instilled defense re-optimization.
“We are excited to build upon the foundational work we’ve done and continue to provide innovative solutions that enhance mission readiness and operational efficiency,” Woulfe stated.
Together, Systecon North America and SAOC will further develop the notional/analogous models created by Systecon and continue working under a collaboration endorsed by the Secretary of Defense and flight training programs.
With just three weeks left to avert a federal government shutdown on Oct. 1, lawmakers and the White House remain deadlocked over the terms–and length–of a short-term deal to fund federal agencies.
The GOP-controlled House last weekend unveiled its proposal for a stopgap continuing resolution, which would keep federal agencies funded at fiscal 2024 levels for six months, as well as enact unrelated an unrelated bill requiring Americans provide proof of citizenship to register to vote, a nonstarter for Democrats in part because, they have said, it is already illegal for noncitizens to vote.
The Biden administration and Democratic leadership in the Senate have already rejected the plan. In addition to the voter ID provisions, they objected to the long length of the measure—Biden and his allies prefer a two-month deal—as well as the House’s failure to include proposed budget anomalies that would increase funding at the Veterans Affairs Department and Social Security Administration.
In a fact sheet sent to reporters Sunday, the Office of Management and Budget warned that absent an anomaly to cover a projected funding shortfall for VA, the department likely would be forced to lay off employees.
“Absent fully addressing a shortfall in funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs’ health care, VA would be forced to make difficult tradeoffs in its efforts to preserve quality veteran care,” OMB wrote. “VA would need to undertake reductions in overall staffing levels that may impact access to care for veterans across clinical programs. Veteran experience may be impacted across many different functional areas, including medical care scheduling and coordination, connecting homeless veterans to permanent housing, caregiver support and other programs.”
And for the second time in as many weeks, the administration said that unless Congress adopts the president’s full budget request for the Social Security Administration, the agency’s workforce will fall to a 50-year low, exacerbating the embattled agency’s customer service crisis.
And Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer sent a “Dear Colleague” letter Sunday suggesting that his chamber will summarily reject the House’s plan.
“Democrats support a CR to keep the government open. As I have said before, the only way to get things done is in a bipartisan way,” Schumer wrote. “Despite Republican bluster, that is how we’ve handled every funding bill in the past, and this time should be no exception.”
Prior to this weekend, lawmakers and observers had speculated that the odds of a shutdown were relatively low this year, in no small part due to the impending 2024 election in November.
Although many initially suspected that the House’s plan amounted to a “messaging bill,” in an effort to force Democrats in vulnerable districts to vote on the GOP’s voter ID legislation, House Speaker Mike Johnson reportedly unnerved some of his caucus in comments on a conference call Monday, according to Politico.
“There is no fallback position,” Johnson told reporters Monday. “This is a righteous fight.”
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence — the star around which the U.S. Intelligence Community orbits — has released the figure for its budget request in the fiscal year 2025 National Intelligence Program, a.k.a. NIP. But with the target budget comes many questions.
ODNI said the agency is asking for $73.4 billion in appropriations, nearly $2.5 billion more than the sum it asked for in the previous year. Without any accompanying details, those in the government contracting industry are waiting with bated breath to know the breakdown in terms of how the agency plans to spend the money.
Many of these questions will be answered at the Potomac Officers Club’s 2024 Intel Summit on Sept. 19. For a decade now, the event has solidified as the must-attend IC-focused GovCon hub for networking, deal-making and education. The IC is famously tight-lipped, but the Intel Summit is one place they feel comfortable disclosing details and hard-to-find information. Don’t miss out — register now!
One possible usage of the budget could apply to ODNI’s collaboration with the Defense Innovation Unit, which reflects a commitment to up and coming technologies and embracing cutting edge tools.
At the Intel Summit, multiple panels will train their eye on the most prominent of all of the emerging technologies: artificial intelligence. One panel early in the day will discuss how data — and the AI it feeds — crucially plays a role in furthering the IC’s mission and another, a little later on, will explore the intersection of open-source intelligence collection and AI.
The day will conclude with remarks from Dana Madsen, deputy director of ODNI’s Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center. He will break down the cyber defense aspects of ODNI’s outlook and may have insights on the agency’s budget and how much of it he can share with the industrial base.
The General Services Administration’s Office of Professional Services and Human Capital Categories has made GSA eBuy the required tool for task order solicitation for the One Acquisition Solution for Integrated Services Plus program, also known as OASIS+, as part of efforts to improve acquisition transparency and efficiency.
The agency said Tuesday GSA eBuy will provide OASIS+ customers with the capability to review awarded vendors, submit requests for information through GSA’s Market Research As a Service program, manage task orders from solicitation to task order award and provide a secure environment to issue information only to OASIS+ contract holders.
For OASIS+ industry partners, GSA eBuy will enable them to view and respond to RFIs and solicitations, directly submit proposals to the buying agency and receive automated notifications, among other functions.
According to GSA, awards and notices to proceed will be issued to OASIS+ vendors through the first or second quarter of fiscal year 2025, and contracting officers with the Delegation of Procurement Authority can begin placing orders about seven to 10 days after the NTPs or awards are issued for each contract.
The agency noted that the move does not impact the OASIS program and that customers can still use the Symphony task order management platform for all OASIS task orders. Customers also have the flexibility to use GSA ASSIST, GSA eBuy or Symphony to collect responses for OASIS task order RFIs and requests for proposals.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Space Commerce has selected 17 space industry professionals to serve on a federal advisory committee that will provide NOAA with independent recommendations on matters related to commercial space policy and regulations. NOAA said Friday the inaugural Advisory Committee on Excellence in Space, or ACES, will look at key issues associated with the leadership, sustainability and growth of U.S. commercial space activities. ACES is set to hold its first public meeting in Washington, D.C., over the next two months, allowing the members to set priorities and develop strategies to address the issues facing
In order for artificial intelligence to be successfully integrated into the nuclear industry, the data upon which such systems depend must be meticulously curated, validated and governed throughout its lifecycle, according to a document jointly developed by nuclear regulatory organizations from Canada, the United Kingdom and the U.S. The recently-released document, titled “Considerations for Developing Artificial Intelligence Systems in Nuclear Applications,” notes that because “reliability, safety, and security are paramount” within the nuclear industry, ensuring the adequacy of AI systems by guaranteeing the quality and integrity of data is equally crucial. “Deficiencies in data, such as incompleteness, bias, or inaccuracies,
Last week, Executive Mosaic’s GovCon Index declined by 4.08%, closing with an average of $5,312.73 on Friday. These losses represent the highest weekly decline since GovCon Index launched in December 2023. GovCon Index is an aggregate index that collects and presents stock market data from 30 key government contracting organizations in real time. Users can leverage this information to assess the financial performance of each tracked company and gain insights into the broad trends shaping today’s GovCon marketplace. Only one company, Palantir, recorded growth on Friday. GovCon Index achieved slight gains on Wednesday, but was unable to turn the tide before
The Office of Inspector General of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said the FDIC’s security controls in its cloud computing environment are not effectively implemented in five areas: identity and access management, cloud secret protection, patch management, flaw remediation and audit logging. The audit, conducted in partnership with Sikich, found six common themes of security weaknesses in the FDIC cloud platform, the OIG said Thursday. According to Sikich, the cloud platform teams did not consistently implement secure coding practices, configure cloud platform security settings per cloud service providers and industry best practices, or provision access to its cloud-based systems in
Even though debates have been some of the most eagerly anticipated events in presidential campaigns, audiences and candidates have long wondered whether they matter.
The political history collections at the National Museum of American History, where I am a curator specializing in the history of presidential campaigns and campaign rhetoric, include several objects that can help explore that question, as the first debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris approaches.
Where do the candidates meet?
Although voters have come to expect debates in the weeks leading up to an election, they are a relatively new part of the campaign cycle, beginning only in 1960. The presence of televisions in 90% of American homes at the time and a federal law making it easier to air live political discussions enabled television networks to host four debates that year between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. Held in TV network studios with no audience, the debates produced the largest television audiences of the time.
These chairs were used in the first presidential debate, held in the CBS studio in 1960. Plaques on the back identify who sat in each chair.Smithsonian National Museum of American History
The League of Women Voters, a nonpartisan organization that promotes voting rights, sponsored the debates from 1976 to 1988. Most of the league debates were held with an audience in large public venues such as convention centers. However, the League and the campaigns often disagreed on exactly how debates should be structured or whether they should happen at all.
After two studies recommended a bipartisan organization be established to sponsor the debates and ensure their permanence, the Commission on Presidential Debates was created. It sponsored every debate between 1988 and 2020.
Longwood University presented its mascot Elwood as a bobblehead debater to commemorate the university’s hosting of the 2016 vice presidential debate.Smithsonian National Museum of American History
In 2004, Case Western Reserve University produced a Magic 8 Ball to commemorate the vice presidential debate held on its campus. Possible answers include ‘Consult Me Later,’ ‘Cannot Foretell Now’ and ‘You Can Count On It.’Smithsonian National Museum of American History
While a Magic 8 Ball may not be the best way to predict how candidates will answer questions, scholarly research, including my own, shows there are some predictable messages viewers can listen for during debates.
First, because candidates, including Harris and Trump, may be given just a few minutes to answer a dozen or more questions, they will often develop an overall theme. For example, in 1976, Carter tied many of his answers to national unity. In 2016, Trump repeated the word “great” in answers on trade, crime and the economy.
Second, candidates try to show what kind of president they will be by highlighting their experience and leadership traits. This can include discussion of their previous military or government positions or descriptions of themselves as strong or compassionate leaders.
Finally, candidates want to show that they share the values and hopes of the audience. For example, in the 1980 debate, former California Gov. Ronald Reagan asked viewers, “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” as a way of connecting with regular Americans.
What might audiences remember?
Sometimes the best-chosen words do not yield the most memorable moments. In the first debate in 1976, audio equipment broke down, cutting off the audio feed to the broadcast. For 27 minutes, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter stood silently – and awkwardly – in place while America watched and waited.
This podium clock helped enforce the rules in the 1976 debates: three-minute answers, followed by two-minute rebuttals.Smithsonian National Museum of American History
Both men later said they wished they had been less ill at ease and had not only communicated their discomfort, but had also taken a moment to show viewers the respect they had for their opponent.
During the 1992 town hall debate, President George H.W. Bush looked at his watch. He later claimed he was trying to see how much time was left, but some thought it communicated boredom or that he was uncaring.
In 2000, Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore rolled his eyes and sighed deeply while his opponent, President George W. Bush, was speaking. Viewers in the auditorium later said they didn’t really notice his actions, but television viewers, watching both candidates on a split-screen feed, received a message of arrogance or disrespect.
Do debates matter?
The Commission on Presidential Debates produced this poster to encourage watching the debates and voting.Smithsonian National Museum of American History
Although recent elections brought renewed doubt that debates still matter, this year’s campaign has made them relevant again. Most notably, the first debate in the 2024 cycle, between Trump and President Joe Biden, was unprecedented in that it happened before the nominating conventions and led to a change of nominee for the Democratic Party.
For years, however, large numbers of voters, particularly undecided ones, said debates mattered because the events helped them decide how to vote. But even without statistical proof of an immediate effect, there may be a larger sense in which debates matter.
Everything about how NASA does business has changed significantly over the years and large driver of that is the commercialization of space.
The agency has always leaned on the private sector to build things for them, but the shift in recent years is toward commercial companies operating flights and launches.
Casey Swails, NASA’s deputy associate administrator, told attendees of Washington Technology’s Doing Business with NASA Power Breakfast last Friday about how the commercialization of space touches all of aspects of NASA operations. This includes aeronautics, space exploration and scientific discovery.
“Where we are going, we need everyone,” she said in describing the collaborative nature of how NASA works.
The big initiative at NASA is Artemis, which will return astronauts to the moon for the first time since the Apollo program ended in the 1970s.
By the way: In Greek mythology, Artemis was Apollo’s twin.
The Artemis mission will be very different than that of the Apollo.
“The first time we went, I described it as a short duration camping trip of going and picking up some rocks coming home,” Swails said. “This time we’re going back to stay, and I’d probably be overselling it by saying it’s like a city on the moon, but it is kind of like a one-horse buggy town, but with lunar rovers and cool technology.”
The goal is to have a sustainable presence on the moon to learn how to work, how to live, how to practice as preparation for going to Mars, she said.
While Artemis captures the imagination, NASA is also hard at work on initiatives closer the Earth. One of those areas is aeronautics, where NASA is conducting research to make airliners more efficient and working to bring back commercial supersonic flights by reducing the sonic boom.
In keeping with NASA’s strategy to collaborate with commercial companies, Swails described how NASA is working with more than 100 companies and the Federal Aviation Administration to develop electric air taxis and drones.
“Right now, you can’t fly a drone outside of the visual line of sight,” she said. “We’re transforming the future of the airspace to allow for that in the very near future. There is super exciting stuff happening in our aeronautics community.”
Those kinds of initiatives are part of NASA’s mission to foster a strong and growing space economy, Swails said.
Collecting data is a critical component of NASA’s earth science mission.
“We have partnerships with a dozen other agencies on to utilize the data, so think of NOAA, the National Weather Service, EPA and USDA,” she said. “It really gets to the application of science. We are helping farmers think about when to plant crops with the irrigation data NASA provides.”
On the horizon is NASA’s 2040 initiative, which is focused on long-term investments in the technologies NASA needs to meet its objectives.
“This is really about making some tough decisions today to propel us into the future and making some investments today to propel us into the future,” Swails said. “It isn’t just about mission technologies but the technology we need to do our jobs.”
One example she gave involved a a scientist working with a wind tunnel hundreds of miles away and managing robots to do the hands-on work.
“That doesn’t seem so far away but it also isn’t easy to implement, particularly when you have a lot of old stuff,” Swails said.
The plan to implement this vision is in the works and NASA will be asking for industry input. The investments will begin in the government’s 2026 fiscal year.
“You are going to see a lot of work coming out of the agency, because we know we have got to have a plan and we welcome your feedback,” she said.
