SF-30 Amendment 0001.doc

AMENDMENT OF SOLICITATION/MODIFICATION OF CONTRACT

NOAA/Eastern Acquisition Division 200 Granby Street, Suite 815

Norfolk, VA 23510 See Block 6

9B. Date (See Item 11)

07/20/2020

10A. Modification of Contract/Order No.

10B. Date (See Item 13)

11. THIS ITEM ONLY APPLIES TO AMENDMENTS OF SOLICITATIONS

is not extended.

Offers must acknowledge receipt of this amendment prior to the hour and date specified in the solicitation or as amended, by one of the following methods:

submitted; or (c) By separate letter or telegram which includes a reference to the solicitation and amendment numbers. FAILURE OF YOUR ACKNOWLEDG-

MENT TO BE RECEIVED AT THE PLACE DESIGNATED FOR THE RECEIPT OF OFFERS PRIOR TO THE HOUR AND DATE SPECIFIED MAY RESULT

IN REJECTION OF YOUR OFFER. If by virtue of this amendment you desire to change an offer already submitted, such change may be made by telegram or letter, provided each telegram or letter makes reference to the solicitation and this amendment, and is received prior to the opening hour and date specified.

12. Accounting and Appropriation Data (if required)

1. THIS ITEM APPLIES ONLY TO MODIFICATIONS OF CONTRACT/ORDERS.

IT MODIFIES THE CONTRACT/ORDER NO. AS DESCRIBED IN ITEM 14.

Set fourth item 14, pursuant to the authority of FAR 43.103 (b)

14. Description of Amendment/Modification (Organized by UCF section headings, including solicitation/contract subject matter where feasible.)

Amend Soliciation and Answer Questions 1305M220QNFFM02770 as follows:

1. See Page 2-5 for questios and answers. Note that answers to questions specify and further define requirements.

2. The due date for receipt of quotes is changed from July 30, 2020 to August 3, 2020 at 4:00 p.m.

3. Except for the changes made herewith, all other terms, conditions, and provisions remain unchanged.

4. Page 18 of the Statement of Work (SOW) has a 2 month project setup period, then an 8 month development period, then a 2 month analysis and reporting period. Page 22 of the SOW states that the machine learning algorithms (and other algorithms) are due 8 months after the award. We wanted to confirm with you which timeline was correct.

Answer: NOAA expects a fully functional and vetted algorithm 10 months into the contract. The last two-month phase of the project is for reporting writing and additional analysis if required.

5. In order to interact with the observers who are taking the imagery, is there a desire to have a downloadable application which would directly interface with the software through smartphones? In this scenario, we could immediately tell observers which species is being predicted and show examples of the predicted species to help the observer verify.

Answer: The focal point of this project is to incorporate efficiencies into the post-processing process. A goal of this project is to produce software and model algorithms that will efficiently support confident identification of certain usually common species by using existing library of previously identified photo records to initially train models and produce algorithms that will permit improvement based upon future submissions. Any application that could operate at-sea with observers must be compatible with the Panasonic ToughPad A1 tablet.

6. Could you confirm our understanding of the process as seen below?

a. Observers gather data with HD cameras (not phones) Answer: Observers can use either the NMFS-issued camera or tablet. Phones are never allowed.

b. Observer submits data to an Oracle SQL database within 48 hours of disembarking (we're assuming this is via some kind of upload link, drop box, etc) Answer: Observers upload their photos with their trip data through the tablet application and they are automatically loaded into the Oracle database.

c. The data is organized and presented in a Fish House software where the information is manually viewed and verified (soon to be assisted with automation) Answer: Correct, please note Fish House is a web-based product.

7. Are any changes desired in the process aside from the integration of automated species identification?

Answer: NOAA is interested and open to additional efficiencies into the current SVP process. Most notably, efficiencies are necessary with post-processing, but additional efficiencies may be explored at the data collection point.

8. Is there an API for Fish House or any other site that needs to be integrated?

Answer: No, the Fish House is just a website that interacts with the database. It is on an internal server and can’t be accessed by outside applications.

Our original vision was to have a standalone application that would output a table of probabilities by species for each record. That table could then be accessed by Fish House or any other system we create. If the Contractor is going to develop a new front end for SVP processing, that’s going to require further discussion.

9. Are there general instructions regarding the proposal format?

Answer: No instructions on format. The Technical Proposal and Price Proposal should be separate.

10. Is there a page limit for the technical volume of the proposal?

Answer: Technical Volume is limited to 10 Pages.

11. In addition to existing publicly available data, will NOVA provide additional training and testing images as benchmark data?

Answer: NOAA will provide the SVP photos that we want the model trained on. The Contractor will be responsible for designing a trained and vetted algorithm suitable to meet NOAA’s needs as stated in the Statement of Work (see Section C.4.4).

12. Will the project be organized into phases?

Answer: The project phases are listed in Sections C.4.1 and C.5.0

13. What is the expectation at the end of the first year? Are there requirements for the processing speed and fish classification performance?

Answer: Expectations for this contract include a proven algorithm compatible with NOAA’s data bases and IT infrastructure structured to build efficiencies into the current SVP post-processing system. See Sections C.3.0, C.4.3, C 4.4., and C.4.5 for more information on algorithm requirements and expected performance.

14. In terms of software development, would it be preferred to package the software into a web service?

Answer: The end product must be compatible with NOAA’s current database and IT infrastructure systems.

15. Is it required to use a cloud service (for example AWS) or to build our own computation environment?

Answer: There are not requirements as it relates to the cloud or environments in which to build the application. The only requirement is NOAA compatibility and data security.

16. What is the form of the input to our ML software? Is it hard disk feed, or can it be download directly from Amazon S3?

Answer: NOAA stores all the images in an Oracle database. Data input may take the form of hard disk feed or some other data pull mechanism.

17. Logistics Requirements:

Anticipated Staffing Levels: In order to achieve the deliverables outlined in the SOW within 12 months, we would normally anticipate staffing 3 people on this project (though not necessarily each being full-time for the entire length of the project). However, we are happy to work with you within the scoping session to prioritize and simplify the approach so that we have a high likelihood of success with a lower staffing level as well. For us to be able to most accurately provide you a quote, could you clarify the anticipated staffing levels or other project constraints you expect to apply here?

Answer: NOAA will not prescribe the appropriate staffing levels, but rather defers to the Contractor to propose the number of staff required to meet the project objectives/deliverables within the stated timeline.

Alternative Approaches: In our private-sector proposals and quotes, we often present multiple options that express different preferences in terms of scope, cost, and approach. Would that be welcome here, or is it preferred that we present only one? If only one is preferable, can you help us to understand which factors are most important for this project, so that we may make the best recommendation?

Answer: NOAA supports providing options with trade-offs and costs as it relates to the prescribed work to get a better understanding of the requirements and Contractor constraints.

18. Technical Requirements:

Model Update Frequency: What is the ideal frequency anticipated for updates to the model with the latest set of captured images? While we are happy to build the infrastructure to provide for either quarterly, monthly or daily model updates, they require very different amounts of technology and automation to be sustainable.

Answer: Once the model is trained and performing with the required level of accuracy, a quarterly update would be sufficient.

Prior Work: In the SOW, promising results listed are from a preliminary machine learning model. Is that work (and are those results) published anywhere publicly?

Answer: The preliminary results included in the SOW are from an unpublished study that has not gone through internal or external peer review and are therefore not suitable for public dissemination. NOAA would be amendable to sharing more of those preliminary results in addition to other ML work with the Contractor once hired.

Existing Technology Stack: What is the technical stack used for Fish House? This information will allow us to accurately assess integration time and effort.

Answer: The Fish House is primarily written in PHP. It connects to the database using PDO (PHP Data Objects). HTML, JavaScript, JQuery, Ajax, and Datatables are used for displaying and interacting with the data.

Support and Maintenance: We understand and are happy to support the system for the specified duration (3 years) post contract award. Does the NOAA anticipate needing primarily software support (bugfixes, etc) or operational support (monitoring and maintaining servers)?

Answer: The only Contractor requirement outside of the initial year of development is the storage of the data in secured format. Once the contract is complete, the Contractor cannot invoice NOAA for additional expenses. All costs, including storage, must be accounted for in the initial price.

Cloud Readiness: Would there be any regulatory or infrastructure challenges to hosting this entire infrastructure in the cloud? We just want to make sure we allocate time to address those, or to integrate into on-premises infrastructure as necessary.

Answer: NOAA is in the process of adopting the cloud as an official data source for the agency. Cloud storage is a new initiate for the agency and one that has not been fully vetted or implemented. As a result, the requirements are not clear and have not been officially stated. That being said, because work performed under this contract is R&D related, we have the flexibility of using the Contractor suggested storage source as long as it meets data security requirements.

Except as provided herein, all terms and conditions of the document referenced in item 9A or 10A, as heretofore changed, remains unchanged and in full force and effect.

(Signature of Contracting Officer) 16C. Date Signed

_____________________________________________(Signature of person authorized to sign)

STANDARD FORM 30 (REV. 10-83)

PREVIOUS EDITIONS UNUSABLE

Prescribed by GSA FAR (48 CFR) 53.243