Copy of Copy of SBIR FY24 Questions and Answers publish.xlsx

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Attached to: DHS SMALL BUSINESS INNOVATION RESEARCH (SBIR) FY24 SOLICITATION
Solicitation number: 70RSAT24R00000006
Issued by: Department of Homeland Security Office of Procurement Operations

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Written by GovTribe AI · Jan 10, 2024

This document contains questions and answers regarding a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) solicitation from the Department of Homeland Security. The solicitation seeks innovative proposals to address homeland security-related topics in areas such as algorithms for coastal surveillance using visible and infrared cameras with a range of up to 15 nautical miles. Other topics include frameworks for processing and labeling image data from sensors such as millimeter wave and X-ray systems, and methods for collecting and utilizing data in the absence of any footage being provided by the agency. Eligible businesses must be small per the SBIR size standards and majority owned by U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents. The solicitation does not allow proposals from venture capital, hedge fund or private equity-owned firms. Questions covered technical requirements, data availability, proposal formatting and contractor eligibility.

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DHS SBIR FY24 Solicitation 12192023 final.pdf	PDF	Dec 19, 2023

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70RSAT24R00000006 Q&A

Question #	Reference	Area	Question	Government Response
1	Attachment 5	Attachment 5	Should ATTACHMENT 5: SOLICITATION PROVISIONS AND CONTRACT CLAUSES, also be included as a separate PDF?	No. Offerors shall submit documents in accordance with the Solicitation, Section 3.0, PROPOSAL PREPARATION INSTRUCTIONS AND REQUIREMENTS.
2	Appendix A	Topic Number DHS241-005	In the sentence "Algorithms developed shall be expected to provide capability using standard off the shelf cameras with a range up to 15 nm, including mid wave infrared and Visible Imaging Sensors. " Can you please clarify 15 nm? Also, clarify off the shelf cameras.	“15 nm” refers to 15 nautical miles. “Off the shelf” refers to commercially available security cameras operating in the infrared or visible bands.
3	Appendix A	Topic Number DHS241-002	The RFP calls out the ability to assess data complexity. Complexity can mean many different things based on what the data looks like. What specific complexity assessments are DHS looking for?	There is no public standard for complexity. However, an image of a suitcase packed only with clothes would be less complex than an image of a backpack packed with many different electronics.
4	Appendix A	Topic Number DHS241-002	What is the life cycle of the data between when it's read from sensors and when it's uploaded to a database? Does DHS want a tool that automatically reads in all data or only data specified by users?	It depends on the sensor, concept of operations, and use case.
	Appendix A	Topic Number DHS241-004	Regarding the modification to the following sentence: 'Consider where and what conditions the system must operate under; extreme heat and cold, moisture, ruggedized to support: impact from dropped/tossed, scrapped, or heavy weight.' Can you confirm if that wording is correct? It seems that scrape would make more sense than scrap. If the correct word is indeed scrap, would this be a key requirement?	It should be scraped not scrapped.
5	Attachment 5	Attachment 5	Does the Government require offerors to fill out and include Attachment 5 in their submitted proposal?	No. Offerors shall submit documents in accordance with the Solicitation, Section 3.0, PROPOSAL PREPARATION INSTRUCTIONS AND REQUIREMENTS.
6	Appendix A	Topic Number DHS241-005	Are there existing archives of video footage from the cameras? Do you know about how much in terms of gb? Is any of the video footage labeled/annotated with the situations you're interested in detecting? Is it easy for a lay person to see when something suspicious is occurring in the footage? For ship docking on shore detection, is any ship docking on shore problematic? Or will you need to differentiate by ship first? Is it possible to get a small sample of footage?	See responses below
6a	Appendix A	Topic Number DHS241-005	Are there existing archives of video footage from the cameras? Do you know about how much in terms of gb?	No. Proposals should include methods to collect data, utilize existing open and company owned data sources (as applicable), and should take into account safety considerations when collecting new data. In cases where safety is an issue, other approaches such as synthetically generated images/videos should be considered. The proposal should NOT assume that video data will be provided by the Coast Guard.
6b	Appendix A	Topic Number DHS241-005	Is any of the video footage labelled/annotated with the situations you're interested in detecting? Or alternatively, is it easy for a lay person to see when something suspicious is occurring in the footage?	N/A. We believe most of the use cases can be detected by a lay person.
6c	Appendix A	Topic Number DHS241-005	For ship docking on shore detection, is any ship docking on shore problematic? Or will you need to differentiate by ship first?	Ship docking / landings may require additional differentiators (time of day, geographic location, type of cargo, etc.), but the docking behavior is still of interest.
6d	Appendix A	Topic Number DHS241-005	Is it possible to get a small sample of footage, if it exists? Just to get a sense of resolution, camera angle, lighting etc	No. There may be 10 or more visible and/or IR streams to monitor at a given time. Cameras may be mounted on poles or at elevation. Fields of view for visible and IR imagers may or may not overlap with other imagers of the same or different type, and may or may not be from the same point of view. Operators may or may not have control of pan/tilt/zoom. No information on resolution is provided.
7	Appendix A	Topic Number DHS241-002	Would we be able to use the existing AI models developed by DHS or for DHS to incorporate them into the proposed framework?	The intention is to demonstrate feasibility in Phase 1. This is likely best achieved with demonstrable software, but the Offeror can choose the best format for the demonstration. In Phase 2, representative algorithms may be available for use, depending on the approach and requirements.
8	Appendix A	Topic Number DHS241-002	Are millimeter wave and X-ray Explosive Detection data the primary image content that our framework should ultimately process and label?	Millimeter Wave and Computed Tomography X-Ray will be the primary sensors for this effort but could support additional formats as the technology evolves.
9	Appendix A	Topic Number DHS241-002	Should the research solely focus on image data? And is imageNET a good representative of that data?	The specific approach is up to the offeror as long as it effectively determines feasibility.
10	Appendix A	Topic Number DHS241-002	The Phase 1 description states that offerors should develop a limited proof of concept using off the shelf datasets and pretrained algorithms. The example dataset named (ImageNET) is 2D data. Is it acceptable (and either encouraged or discouraged) to instead perform the proof of concept on 3D data that may have more representative formats and/or content?	3D data is acceptable in Phase 1 as long as it effectively determines feasibility.
11	Appendix A	Topic Number DHS241-002	Can DHS provide any relevant DICOS data for use in Phase 1? Or is there an existing repository of DICOS or closely related data?	For Phase 1 representative data may be provided.
12	Appendix A	Topic Number DHS241-005	Will video data be made available as government furnished information (GFI) for development and testing of algorithms? If so, how much data is available, and from what variety of coastal settings	No. Proposals should include methods to collect data, utilize existing open and company owned data sources (as applicable), and should take into account safety considerations when collecting new data. In cases where safety is an issue, other approaches such as synthetically generated images/videos should be considered. The proposal should NOT assume that video data will be provided by the Coast Guard.
13	Appendix A	Topic Number DHS241-002	Regarding the TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Millimeter-Wave (MMW) and X-ray Explosive Detection Systems, Screening at Speed, Open Architecture, Human-Machine Teaming - is it appropriate to select one or more of these (ie not ALL of them) and is there additional information available about DHS or related partner needs to help us inform our Phase 1 proposal?	We encourage Offerors to focus on the objectives and problem statements described in the topic when preparing their Phase 1 proposal.
14	Appendix A	Topic Number DHS241-002	Can we use our existing software platform to model or present the proof of concept resulting from the research we are proposing or do we need to make the output more of a written document, traditional research? For example, we would like to use our existing platform to show the way the massive amounts of data sets can be curated and shared.	The specific approach is up to the Offeror as long as it effectively determines feasibility. Any example that demonstrates feasibility for Phase 1 is sufficient. The more a proof of concept aligns with the described objectives, the more likely feasibility can be demonstrated.
15	Appendix A	Topic Number DHS241-002	Would it be appropriate to have a particular use case in mind, such as emergency management (ie relevant to FEMA) or military inventory management etc, in terms of the ingested sensor data sets, for the research?	Millimeter Wave and Computed Tomography X-ray sensor systems are primarily used for screening passengers and their belongings at airports.
16	Attachment 3	Attachment 3: Briefing Chart Template	Must we use the exact template as supplied in the solicitation, or can we produce a quad chart that has all the requested information and markings laid out in the same quadrants as the provided template?	Yes, you can produce a briefing chart that has all the requested information as the provided template. The briefing chart must adhere to section 3.6 and include all the required information listed in attachment 3.
17	Section 1.5	Section 1.5 Eligibility	Is it possible for a majority VC-owned company to receive an SBIR grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security?	Small businesses that are owned in majority part by multiple venture capitalist operating companies, hedge funds, or private equity firms, are not eligible to submit proposals to the DHS SBIR solicitation.

File details come from the government source that posted it. Updated Jan 10, 2024.