Government Partnership Offers Cash Prizes for AI Tools That Support Coronavirus Research

National Institutes of Health’s National Library of Medicine | March 16, 2020

Researchers across the globe are working to develop vaccines and cures for COVID-19, a respiratory disease caused by a new strain of the coronavirus. To assist in this effort, the White House and industry and academic partners announced Monday a new data repository offering open access to the nation’s best, cutting-edge research on the coronavirus family and a prize challenge to develop artificial intelligence tools to help. The COVID-19 Open Research Dataset, or CORD-19, was created through a collaboration between government, industry and academia, including the Allen Institute for AI, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology, Microsoft, Google Cloud’s Kaggle platform and the National Institutes of Health’s National Library of Medicine.

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Emerging Technology

Accrete Awarded a Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) contract by the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA)

PR Newswire | August 02, 2023

Accrete AI, a leading dual-use AI software company, announced today that it has been awarded a Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) contract by the General Services Administration (GSA), the centralized procurement arm of the federal government. The company will deliver a transformative enterprise solution powered byArgus™, Accrete's dual-use anomaly detection AI Agent. "We're happy to streamline and expand the procurement options for the defense and intelligence community in order to bring innovation in AI at the speed of light to the U.S. Government.," said Jim Gill, Chief Operating Officer, Accrete AI. "The AI arms race is moving quickly and the government needs to access innovative technologies, especially AI, faster and easier than ever before. The GSA MAS contract will help bring Argus into the right hands at the speed of relevance." Argus will ultimately reshape the U.S. Government's posture in the open-source information battlespace, facilitating cross-agency communication, eliminating redundant tasks, boosting the analytical efficiency of petabytes of internal and external data including social media, and reducing time to insight from weeks and months to seconds for tens of thousands of analysts. About Accrete AI Accrete AI, founded in 2017, delivers configurable, reliable, and accurate dual-use Analytical AI Agents to both government and commercial customers. Analytical AI agents are AI software that learn from domain specific human expertise, perform analytical work that would otherwise require an army of human experts, and generate predictive insight beyond human capacity, enabling enterprise customers to grow in previously unimaginable ways. Accrete is headquartered in Lower Manhattan with offices in Alexandria, Va., and Wellesley, Mass. For more information, visit www.accrete.ai.

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Emerging Technology

Hughes Awarded Space Force IDIQ Contract for Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Satellite Services

PR Newswire | August 23, 2023

Hughes Network Systems LLC, an EchoStar company, today announced that it has been awarded a five-year, Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract by the U.S. Space Force for proliferated Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite-based services. Under the IDIQ vehicle, valued at up to $900 million, U.S. Department of Defense, other federal agencies and international coalition partners can procure fully managed, low-latency LEO services from Hughes leveraging capacity on two constellations: OneWeb and EchoStar Lyra™. "As government and defense agencies explore the power and potential of LEO services in delivering capabilities to the warfighter faster and at lower cost, we're proud to offer not one, but two compelling solutions," said Leslie Blaker-Glass, vice president, Hughes. "Our OneWeb offering – with our low-power, light-weight, flat panel antenna – and our next-generation EchoStar Lyra S-band IoT system position us to deliver customers in the DoD and federal government robust and resilient low-latency connectivity at a competitive price." Hughes previously announced a distribution agreement with OneWeb Technologies Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of OneWeb, to deliver managed, wideband LEO services to the DoD; those services are now available under the IDIQ and the GSA Schedule. Also available under the IDIQ are narrowband services over the EchoStar Lyra constellation, the system that EchoStar, parent company of Hughes, is developing for Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity and ongoing market development that includes 5G non-terrestrial networks (NTN). "These important LEO capabilities will give the DoD cost-effective solutions and added reliability and resiliency in satellite communications across all domains and we look forward to addressing upcoming requirements for procurement of these services," added Rick Lober, vice president and general manager, Defense and Government Systems Division, Hughes. About Hughes Hughes Network Systems LLC, an EchoStar company, provides broadband equipment and services; managed services featuring smart, software-defined networking; and end-to-end network operation for millions of consumers, businesses, governments and communities worldwide. The Hughes flagship internet service, HughesNet®, connects millions of people across the Americas, and the Hughes JUPITER™ System powers internet access for tens of millions more worldwide. Hughes supplies more than half the global satellite terminal market to leading satellite operators, in-flight service providers, mobile network operators and military customers. A managed network services provider, Hughes supports approximately half a million enterprise sites with its HughesON™ portfolio of wired and wireless solutions.

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Emerging Technology

Umbra Selected by AFWERX for SBIR Phase II Contract

PR Newswire | August 24, 2023

Umbra, a leader in advanced space radar technology, announced it has been selected by AFWERX for a SBIR Phase II contract in the amount of $1.25 million focused on Space-Based Moving Target Indication (MTI) to address the most pressing challenges in the Department of the Air Force (DAF). Umbra will leverage its market leading wide-bandwidth, affordable space systems, uniquely operating in paired flight, to develop and demonstrate Maritime and Ground MTI (MMTI and GMTI) capabilities. The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and AFWERX have partnered to streamline the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) process by accelerating the small business experience through faster proposal to award timelines, changing the pool of potential applicants by expanding opportunities to small business and eliminating bureaucratic overhead by continually implementing process improvement changes in contract execution. The DAF began offering the Open Topic SBIR/STTR program in 2018 which expanded the range of innovations the DAF funded and as of August 9, 2023, Umbra accelerated its journey to create and provide innovative capabilities that will strengthen the national defense of the United States of America. "With the end of the JSTARS program, Umbra understands the national imperative to develop a multi-domain replacement capability with a strong space-based element," said Jason Mallare, Vice President of Government Programs and Strategy. "Commercial space systems which can be developed and rapidly deployed offer a differentiated and robust method to contribute to this critical mission need. Umbra is committed to partnering with AFWERX, the broader DAF, as well as other DoD and IC stakeholders. We intend to bring the best Umbra has to offer, including affordable spacecraft and ground infrastructure, and market leading SAR technology." The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Air Force, the Department of Defense, or the U.S. government. About Umbra Umbra is a technology company that offers intelligence data as a service to commercial and government customers. Our cutting-edge products help customers solve complex business and security challenges. Umbra is a U.S.-owned and operated company headquartered in Santa Barbara, California, and has a presence in Austin, Texas, and Washington, D.C. For more information, visit https://umbra.space. About Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Sole organization leading the planning and execution of U.S. Air Force & U.S. Space Force science & technology programs. Orchestrates a world-wide government, industry & academia coalition in the discovery, development & delivery of a wide range of revolutionary technology. Provides leading-edge warfighting capabilities keeping air, space and cyberspace forces the world's best. Employs 10,800 military, civilian and contractor personnel at 17 research sites executing an annual $4B budget. For more information, visit: www.afresearchlab.com. About AFWERX The innovation arm of the DAF and a directorate within the Air Force Research Laboratory brings cutting edge American ingenuity from small businesses and start-ups to address the most pressing challenges of the DAF. Employs approximately 325 military, civilian and contractor personnel at six hubs and sites executing an annual $1.4B budget. Since 2019, has executed 4,671 contracts worth more than $2B to strengthen the U.S. defense industrial base and drive faster technology transition to operational capability. For more information, visit: www.afwerx.com.

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Infrastructure, Cybersecurity

Palantir Selected by Department of Defense to Automate Spectrum Coordination Workflows

PR Newswire | August 01, 2023

Palantir Technologies Inc. (NYSE: PLTR) today announced that it was selected by the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) to support coordination between federal and commercial licensees of the 3450 - 3550 MHz spectrum band. Palantir will provide its software platform to enable end-to-end automation that will enhance coordination between the Department of Defense and commercial spectrum licensees for shared use of the 3450-3550 MHz band within cooperative planning area (CPA) and periodic use area (PUA) coordination zone boundaries. As part of an ongoing interagency effort to facilitate the shared usage of critically important mid-band spectrum, Palantir's software will enable DISA's Defense Spectrum Organization (DSO) to support formal and informal coordination processes between the Department of Defense and commercial licensees. Existing and future government activities in the spectrum band are vital to protect national security and ensure military readiness. Palantir software will be used to integrate multiple existing functions and capabilities into a single infrastructure that will result in more efficient workflows, reducing the timelines for licensee coordination with DoD to establish sharing agreements and enable deployment of 5G wireless services within CPA/PUA boundaries. Palantir software will also be used to demonstrate the ability to support more advanced spectrum sharing use cases. "We are proud to partner with DISA DSO to support the complex task of sharing limited spectrum resources between federal and commercial users," said Akash Jain, President, Palantir USG. "We are excited to rapidly deploy software that will accelerate and automate coordination workflows and enable the increasingly dynamic and efficient use of spectrum." "As military and commercial use of radio-frequency spectrum continues to grow, spectrum coordination will be increasingly necessary to preserve the effectiveness of critical national security capabilities while enabling U.S. commercial leadership in 5G and other critical technology areas. Palantir looks forward to working alongside the Department of Defense to deploy innovative software solutions that support advanced spectrum sharing workflows and processes," said Miriam Marwick, SVP, Emerging Technologies, Palantir USG. About Palantir Technologies Inc. At Palantir, we're helping the world's most important institutions use their data to solve their most urgent problems. Our software lets our customers integrate and analyze all of their data so they can answer questions that they couldn't before. From delivering disaster relief to building safer automobiles, we're honored to help make our partners better at their most important work.

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