70RWMD22R000000080001 and Attachment 1 QandAs.pdf

AMENDMENT OF SOLICITATION/MODIFICATION OF CONTRACT 1. CONTRACT ID CODE

2. AMENDMENT/MODIFICATION NO. 3. EFFECTIVE DATE 4. REQUISITION/PURCHASE REQ. NO. 5. PROJECT NO. (If applicable)

7. ADMINISTERED BY (If other than Item 6) CODE

STANDARD FORM 30 (REV. 10-83)

Prescribed by GSA FAR (48 CFR) 53.243

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9A. AMENDMENT OF SOLICITATION NO.

9B. DATED (SEE ITEM 11)

10A. MODIFICATION OF CONTRACT/ORDER NO.

10B. DATED (SEE ITEM 13)

11. THIS ITEM ONLY APPLIES TO AMENDMENTS OF SOLICITATIONS

The above numbered solicitation is amended as set forth in Item 14. The hour and date specified for receipt of Offers is extended, 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:

(a)By completing items 8 and 15, and returning copies of the amendment; (b) By acknowledging receipt of this amendment on each copy of the offer submitted;

or (c) By separate letter or telegram which includes a reference to the solicitation and amendment numbers. FAILURE OF YOUR ACKNOWLEDGMENT 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 your 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.

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Previous edition unusable

Soliciation Amendment 70RWMD22R00000080001- Attachment 1

Questions for CWMD OBAA Topic Solicitation No. 12: 70RWMD22R00000008 – Multi-Sensor, Multi-Data Analysis

# Reference Question Response 1 General Would it be possible to submit a classified pitch paper?

Yes; however, Offerors are advised that projects that would result from this Topic Solicitation are not well suited to classified development as the development environment the Offerors will use is not planned to support classified information. Classified pitch papers must clearly lay out how a classified concept could be meaningfully implemented as an unclassified R&D project. If an Offeror elects to submit a classified pitch paper, please send an email to CWMDOBAA@hq.dhs.gov for instructions on how to submit.

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Are classified, proprietary or third-party vendor data sources of interest as part of this research effort?

Classified data sources are not compatible with the chosen Government development environment and are discouraged. Proprietary and third-party data sources are acceptable, provided the Offeror can obtain these data for the research and development project. Furthermore, the Offeror should make clear the benefit of using proprietary or third-party data in their pitch paper, full proposal, and through the course of any resulting research project.

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Is this system intended to work with data from sources at different classification levels from different agencies? Is this a challenge and if so is it in scope?

These challenges are beyond the intended scope of the solicitation.

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Do offerings that leverage capabilities developed at private expense and available commercially qualify as “generally available”?

Yes, this is acceptable. Assuming this research program is successful in meeting its objective, and assuming the Government seeks to transition the technology into operations, the Government will need to understand what value comes from commercial mailto:CWMDOBAA@hq.dhs.gov tools or data not developed herein and what alternatives are available.

However, the principal objective at this stage is to use whatever tools and data sources are best suited to accomplish the research objective.

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Does CWMD have a data fusion capability in place for the envisioned data streams such that the contractor would improve on existing algorithms or does CWMD envision the contractor starting from scratch?

To promote innovative research, Offerors should not consider responses as constrained by existing data fusion capabilities.

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If existing software or data fusion algorithms are in place, does CWMD envision a hand-off period from the incumbent?

A hand-off of current capabilities is not applicable for the envisioned research.

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With respect to Threshold and Objective Performance, are there specific metrics that should be used to demonstrate the enhancement from the fusion approaches (e.g. detection range, minimum detectable activity, areal coverage, identification accuracy)?

The considerations noted (detection range, minimum detectable activity, areal coverage, and identification accuracy) are relevant to the research topic area. Although the Fusion Enhancement Factor threshold and objective is not defined specifically for these areas, Offerors are encouraged to consider these aspects.

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Does the government have a formal definition of Performance Enhancement Factor? How is it quantified, calculated?

The Performance Enhancement Factor is not tightly defined. Offerors should consider performance with respect to operational factors in radiological search.

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Please confirm the type of baseline that the Fusion Enhancement Factor will be graded against. We assume it is spectroscopic gamma detector alarm data such as would be provided by an RSI-700, PSI PERM, or similar.

Alarms produced by a current suite of spectroscopic handheld, backpack and mobile systems will provide a baseline.

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Can information be provided on the structuring and orchestration of data from the fielded entities?

The full body of data will be divided into deployment events, which will include detectors associated with a certain geographic area and time range.

Rather than true data streams, time-stamped data elements will be accessible from the entire deployment event at once. Offerors are encouraged to show sequential processing of data as if it were streamed. There are two data types that the research most revolves around. The first type is gamma-ray spectra and neutron counts measured and recorded once per second on a range of equipment from handheld to vehicle-borne detectors.

The second data type is the alarms generated from the individual devices.

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Will the government be providing raw sensor data or processed data feeds only?

The data were processed to a limited extent by the fielded devices before being aggregated. The once-per-second gamma spectra are relatively unprocessed. These are histograms without calibration factors applied.

Alarm data usually bundles spectral data with derived findings such as isotope identification.

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Is government providing contextual data or just radiological data? If so what contextual data will be provided by the government e.g.

background radiation levels over time?

While contextual data may be included as the project evolves, it is currently limited. Location (GPS) is the only consistent contextual data to accompany radiological data. Radiation background levels over time may be indirectly provided because certain deployment events are recurring (e.g., annual) in the same geographic location.

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What detection modalities are included in the data sets that DHS will provide under this effort?

Time-stamped, location-stamped, once-per-second gamma ray spectra and neutron counts along with detector alarms.

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Is government working with / open to working with an open architecture for data sources, Meaning a Microservice architecture for efficiencies and capability in orchestration?

For this low Technology Readiness Level research project, the threshold and objective goals are the primary scientific focus. Offerors are encouraged to use software architecture that will enable their demonstration of these goals, particularly using tools that are compatible with the Amazon Web Services development environment.

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Is the government interested in service-based business model solutions such as SaaS, PaaS, etc. for technology transition?

The architecture that could ultimately be used for technology transition to operations is a secondary concern, eclipsed by the primary research objective.

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Does the government envision utilizing data from the existing fleet of portal monitors as a data source?

No. The data and the project focus will generally be on mobile radiation detectors such as handheld, backpack, or vehicle-mounted.

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Is there a role / scope for hardware to improve the quality of data collected?

No. Hardware development or deployment is beyond the intended scope.

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Can foreign performers participate as subcontractors?

Yes, though they cannot receive access to the DHS data. Involvement by foreign partners must be explicitly described.

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The call states DHS will provide a combination on non-operational and operational data, can you provide more information on the specific data elements this would include?

Does the data sets include associated meta data, (e.g.

environmental, geographical, etc) correlated to the sensor data?

Operational data is meant to imply radiological data collected through the CWMD MDDU program, whereas non-operational data includes radiological data taken during previous scientific or development endeavors.

The baseline data elements are time-stamped, spectroscopic gamma-ray data, neutron counts, and location (GPS). The radiation sensors themselves have very limited meta data such as internal temperature. The Government may provide brief descriptions of the deployment as part of the catalog of data. There are not generally extensive metadata collected such as meteorological conditions or terrain and building layouts, though these data may be found externally.

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Does the operational data include the employment strategies for each sensor (e.g.

vehicle choke point, pedestrian choke point, mobile screening, venue pre sweep, etc)

This information will be provided in some cases.

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Please clarify “false alarms”.

Does this refer only to true false alarms (I.e. alarms without a radiation increase) or does it also include nuisance alarms (I.e.

alarms due to NORM)?

False alarms will generally include NORM nuisance alarms. The Offeror should address operational considerations such as the cost of benign sources miscategorization as Special Nuclear Material or oversensitivity to natural background.

See Attachment 1 - Soliciation Amendment 70RWMD22R00000080001 - QandAs (4 Pages) Q&As

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