Data Science and Informatics Group (DSIG) Deep Learning Support

Added: Jul 05, 2017 2:29 pm MSFC intends to enter into a sole-source contract with New Rights Group, Inc., doing business as (DBA) Development Seed (hereinafter "Development Seed"). This sole-source contract will be in support of MSFC's Data Science and Informatics Group's (DSIG) research in Artificial Intelligence (specifically Deep Learning applied to tropical cyclones).

This decision is made pursuant to FAR 6.302-1, only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements, which implements the authority for 10 U.S.C. § 2304 (c)(1). Competition is impractical for the following reasons:

Development Seed is highly specialized in cloud automation of Earth Science data. Development Seed has worked with a wide range of Earth data providers--from Silicon Valley space startups to NASA--and has built data pipelines entirely on cloud infrastructure. Development Seed has built scaleable, secure, and sustainable data pipelines on the latest cloud technology. Since cloud infrastructure is a rapidly changing field, Development Seed has established partnerships with Earth Data teams at Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google that give them insight into upcoming offerings. This allows Development Seed to better "future-proof" their system designs.

Development Seed has built and improved the open-source (nonproprietary) tools for Machine Learning across Earth Science data. This includes tools that make it easier to scale Machine Learning on the cloud and to distribute the results on the web. Development Seed's Skynet tool is required to meet the needs of this work. Skynet builds on the core Convolution Neural Network library and adds tools for preparing the imagery and training data, managing large Earth Science imagery files, and cleaning and publishing the results online. The Skynet suite is modular and can be combined with other Machine Learning approaches to deploy and scale ML-based imagery analysis on the cloud.

The Government will not pay for any information provided under this announcement. Contractors must have a current registration with the System for Award Management (SAM) http://www.sam.gov.

Interested organizations may submit their capabilities and qualifications to perform the effort in writing to the identified point of contact not later than the identified response date. Such capabilities/qualifications will be evaluated solely for the purposes of determining whether or not to conduct this procurement on a competitive basis. A determination by the Government not to compete this proposed effort on a full and open competition basis, based upon responses to this notice, is solely within the discretion of the Government.

Oral communications are not acceptable in response to this notice.