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Cost Estimating NewsBrief: April 5, 2024
Government employees need hands-on, standardized AI training
(Route Fifty) Hiring a chief artificial intelligence officer may seem like a top priority for state and local leaders as they look to implement the technology across government, but training everyday employees on AI is perhaps a more pressing concern. Already, states and cities are experimenting with the technology, deploying generative AI to automate repetitive tasks, to power call centers and 311 lines, to reroute buses to where demand is greatest, to solve murders and other violent crimes, and to speed up the processing of housing vouchers, among other uses. Read More
DOD is looking to grow its marketplace for speedy acquisitions of innovative tech
(NextGov/FCW) The Department of Defense’s platform for fast-tracking the acquisition of innovative products and services is looking to scale up in 2024 and beyond, with officials working to sell the concept of the model across the department and with industry partners. Overseen by the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office — or CDAO — the Tradewinds Solutions Marketplace describes itself as “DOD’s digital environment of postcompetition, readily awardable, 5:00 minute technology solution pitch videos.” Read More
Randy Resnick: DOD CIO Office Intends to Automate Zero Trust Implementation Plan Review
(ExecutiveGov) Randy Resnick, director of the Zero Trust Portfolio Management Office within the Department of Defense’s Office of the Chief Information Officer, said the CIO office plans to automate its review of zero trust implementation plans, Federal News Network reported Tuesday. According to Resnick, the office took nearly four months and tapped 35 full-time personnel to evaluate 39 implementation plans that were received in November. Read More
The state of cloud computing in Europe: Increasing adoption, low returns, huge potential
(McKinsey Digital) On the surface, the cloud journey for many European companies is an impressive story. A stunning 95 percent of European companies in our recent survey say they’re capturing value from cloud, and more than one in three say they intend to have more than half of their workloads on cloud. But scratch below the surface, and the story is a little less rosy. The vast majority of the value companies have captured, for example, remains in isolated pockets and at subscale. Read More
DOJ Data Challenge 2024: Utilize DOJ data to better inform our nation’s public safety response to drug overdoses.
(Challenge.gov) The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) mission is to uphold the rule of law, to keep our country safe, and to protect civil rights. As a component of DOJ, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is focused on: Ensuring the safety and health of American communities; and Combating criminal drug networks bringing harm, violence, and overdoses to the United States. To further these missions, DOJ is launching a data insights challenge with a goal of deepening the understanding of the overlap between drug overdoses and public safety to save lives using publicly available DOJ data. This challenge focuses on the drug epidemic in the United States and seeks insights into the impacts of drug availability and the occurrence of drug overdoses. Read More
Senate bill aims to set more federal telework reporting requirements
(Federal News Network) Months of pressure from Congress on federal telework policies and return-to-office plans don’t appear to be anywhere near their end. A pair of bipartisan senators is now looking to up the ante with a new bill, calling on agencies to report more detailed, timely information on their federal telework policies. The Telework Transparency Act, which Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Gary Peters (D-Mich.) and Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) introduced Wednesday morning, aims to provide up-to-date information on federal telework, while also assessing factors like productivity, office space, and recruitment and retention. Read More
Mysterious object that crashed through Florida home was likely space junk from the International Space Station
(Space.com) A mysterious object that came crashing through a house in Florida is possibly debris from the International Space Station (ISS). The cylindrical tube was a few inches long and weighed nearly 2 pounds (0.9 kilograms). It crashed through the roof and both floors of Alejandro Otero’s home in Naples, Florida, at 2:34 p.m. local time on March 8, startling his son. The origins of the object have yet to be determined, but Otero thinks it’s likely one of nine drained batteries discarded from the ISS. Read More
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