RFI-AFRL-RIK-20-16 Final.docx

1.0 INTRODUCTION

This publication constitutes a Request for Information (RFI) as defined in Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 15.201(e), "Exchanges with Industry before receipt of Proposals, Request for Information".

Respondents should note that no funding has been specifically reserved for this announcement. We are soliciting Requests for Information abstracts only. Do not submit a white paper or proposal at this time.

2.0 FEDERAL AGENCY NAME

Department of Air Force, Air Force Materiel Command, AFRL - Rome Research Site, AFRL/Information Directorate

AFRL/RISB

RFI-AFRL-RIK-20-16

26 Electronic Parkway Rome, NY, 13441-4514

3.0 REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI)

The Air Force is interested in novel methods to develop a work bench, work flow, or ecosystem that enables rapid integration of new data for use in Operations Centers (OCs) and brings it to bear on mission directives to improve the efficiency and accuracy of operations. This ecosystem would be used by future Data Scientists as the USAF transitions to Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2) and would provide commanders decision-advantage over our adversaries by making data and analytics accessible while the data is still operationally relevant.

To this end, AFRL seeks information on technical concepts, approaches, ideas, algorithms, research, prototypes and merits of the ideas of work pertaining to;

· Problems in the OODA Loop (Observe, Orient, Decide, Act) Cycle that data science could help solve

· Analytic use cases that would demonstrate the value of data science in the Air Operations Center (AOC)

· Techniques that help eliminate manual data wrangling

· Promoting/Casting mission relevant data/intelligence to machine readable formats

· Fusion/Integration/Alignment of disparate data sources

· Mapping data to the intended use (Analytics, Visualization) This RFI also seeks to obtain information about pricing, delivery, and other market information or capabilities for possible use in a future Broad Agency Announcement (BAA). This announcement is not a request for proposals; therefore, responses to the RFI are not considered offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. Refer to Section 6 of this announcement for instructions on submitting an RFI abstract. Unclassified submissions are preferred, but arrangements can be made to submit classified, contact Government technical point of contact (TPOC) listed in Section 7 of this announcement if this is required.

3.1 RFI ABSTRACTS

To help guide the RFI process, the following questions would be appropriate and should be considered when responding to this request.

1. What are you trying to do?

2. How is it done today?

3. What is new or innovative in your approach?

4. If you are successful, what difference will it make?

5. What are the risks and payoffs?

6. How much will it cost? How long will it take?

7. What are the midterm and final "exams" to check for success?

Abstracts should contain, in sufficient detail, information to enable the Government to determine whether the technical concept and/or capabilities should be reflected in a future BAA.

3.2 RFI SUBMISSIONS

Submission of an abstract is voluntary and is not required to propose to subsequent Broad Agency Announcements (if any) on this topic. Respondents are advised that AFRL is under no obligation to provide feedback with respect to any information submitted under this RFI.

RFI abstract due date is Monday 26 October 2020.

4.0 TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS:

The OODA Loop is the approach the USAF uses to process all available information and make Command & Control (C2) decisions related to combat planning at the operational level. Human operators process vast amounts of disparate data that is often not in machine readable formats. Additionally, data integration and data fusion are generally needed before data can be applied to analytics or situation awareness tools. Often the processing necessary to make data available in Operations Centers (OCs) takes so long that the operational relevance of the data expires. Expanding our ability to rapidly process and leverage new data while it’s still relevant is required in order to provide our Commanders with Decision-Advantage. Current OC data services push the burden of preprocessing, extracting, transforming, and loading (ETL) of data onto the data consumer, making commercial data science prohibitive.

Data Science (DS), and Business Intelligence (BI) are rapidly growing fields based on gaining insights from data and often requires computer programming, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to search for patterns in data. Data accessed may be real time, predictive, or from archives of historical data. The USAF is interested in positioning Data Scientists in OCs in support of Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2). This RFI is seeking information on the components necessary to develop an ecosystem that provides an ability for rapid integration of new data sources and the application of analytics to support command decisions. This effort would seek to minimize the need to develop new software during the time the data is still operationally relevant. While not limited to, this request is specifically interested in the following categories of information:

1) Problems in the OODA Loop Cycle that data science could help solve: How might data science functions be best utilized within the mission planning cycle to improve Ops Tempo, and what are compelling operationally-relevant use-cases.

2) Analytic use cases that would demonstrate the value of data science in the AOC: Examples of algorithms, or other analytic techniques, that are not currently employed in the AOC due to the inability to process data while it is operationally relevant.

3) Techniques that help eliminate manual data wrangling: Studies have shown that data scientists spend most of their time processing raw data. What tools/techniques exist today, or need to be developed, that can reduce the manual effort in promoting/casting mission relevant data/intelligence to machine readable formats. This may include fully automated, or guided techniques but must also be flexible enough to adapt to new formats and data structures. Ideally, approaches would also preserve data provenance.

4) Fusion/Integration/Alignment of desperate data sources: Often it is necessary to fuse data at different abstraction levels and rarely does a single new data source contain all the fields necessary to perform meaningful processing such as data analytics, or visualization. Additionally, differences in nomenclature & structure may require transformations or linkage before integration can occur. What tools/techniques exist today or need to be developed in order to support the nature of data found in OCs. This should be focused on specific examples of data that would be useful to data science functions in OCs.

5) Mapping data to the intended use (Analytics, Visualization): Every analytic and other piece of software has a specific content and structure required for data inputs. Single use data converters are often created to transform input data into the desired form are common, but ultimately, not reusable. This RFI seeks to identify what tools/techniques exist today, or need to be developed, that would help provide the ability for an OC data scientist to rapidly connect data to a desired end use case.

Bibliography

Kandel, Sean, et al. "Enterprise data analysis and visualization: An interview study." IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics 18.12 (2012): 2917-2926

Koehler, Martin, et al. "Data context informed data wrangling." 2017 IEEE International Conference on Big Data (Big Data). IEEE, 2017.

5.0 TECHNICAL CONSIDERATIONS:

There are several technical objectives that must be balanced to support data scientists in Operations Centers:

· Solutions must be applicable to various organizations and echelons

· The technology stack should have a path to accreditation in order to operate on approved military networks

· Address classification concerns related to aggregation of data Outside the scope of this RFI: The Air Force is currently not interested in service providers for this effort or replacement of any existing AOC tools or Systems of Record (SoRs). The intent of this RFI is to explore potential technologies and future concepts to achieve the AOC Data Scientist’s Ecosystem vision.

6.0 REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) ABSTRACTS

6.1 CONTENT

All abstracts shall state that they are submitted in response to this announcement.

RFI responses shall include the company name, address and the title, telephone number, mail, and e-mail addresses of the point of contact having the authority and knowledge to discuss the RFI submission.

The Government is assessing the current state-of-the-art and future data science and business intelligence capabilities. The RFI responses should describe the product solution proposed, addressed coverage of the requirements stated in this RFI by the proposed solution, explain the potential advantage to the Air Force, and provide a rough order of magnitude for the cost of the proposed solution.

6.2 SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS

Multiple abstracts within the purview of this RFI announcement may be submitted by each responder. Unclassified submissions are preferred, but arrangements can be made to submit classified, contact Government technical point of contact (TPOC) listed in Section 7 of this announcement if this is required.

6.3 FORMAT

The abstracts will be formatted as follows:

Section A: Title, Technical Area, Period of Performance (if applicable), Estimated Cost, Name/Address of Company, Technical and Contracting Points of Contact (phone, fax, and email) (This section is Not included in the page count.)

Section B: Technical Summary.

The abstracts shall be limited to 8 pages. All abstracts shall be double spaced in no smaller than 12 font size. All responses to this announcement must be addressed to the Government technical point of contact (TPOC) listed in Section 7 of this announcement. Unclassified submissions are preferred, but arrangements can be made to submit classified, contact TPOC if this is required.

Respondents are required to submit at least one electronic copy to the TPOC in Microsoft Office Word, or PDF. AFRL/RI is not responsible for undelivered emails. TPOC will confirm receipt of all submissions, contact TPOC if confirmation is not received within 3 busines days.

7.0 AGENCY CONTACTS

Verification of government receipt or questions of a technical nature can also be directed to the cognizant TPOCs.

Primary TPOC:

Aaron McVay Telephone: 315-330-4780 Email: aaron.mcvay.3@us.af.mil

Secondary TPOC:

Chad Salisbury Telephone: 315-330-7804 Email: chad.salisbury@us.af.mil Questions of a contractual/business nature shall be directed to the cognizant Contracting Officer, as specified below:

Amber Buckley Telephone: (315) 330-3605 Email: amber.buckley@us.af.mil