NOTICE OF INTENT TO AWARD A SOLE SOURCE CONTRACT, “Further Refinement and Enhanced Capabilities of AI-TrackRisk”

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) intends to award a sole source contract to Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey for ““Further Refinement and Enhanced Capabilities of AI-TrackRisk”.”

The objective of this project is the continued development, refinement, and validation of the algorithms and interfaces in order to enhance the applicability and predictive capability of the current AI-TrackRisk prototype, previously developed by Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, for FRA’s Office of Research, Development and Technology under Contract No. 693JJ6-18-C-000011. The algorithms used by AI-TrackRisk are based on Deep Learning architectures that were trained on data collected over multiple years by a Class I freight railroad. Although the results have been encouraging, additional data is required to (1) further refine the algorithms for the accurate prediction of track-related derailment risk for freight rail operations, and (2) enhance the tool’s applicability by accounting for the divergent conditions associated with passenger rail operations. By building upon this prior work conducted by Rutgers, this will significantly expedite the research by alleviating the need for additional funding and time to re-develop the tool itself.

The proposed contract action, for which the Government intends to solicit and negotiate with only one source, is under the authority of FAR 6.302-1 and 41 U.S.C. 253(c)(1).   

This notice of intent is not a request for competitive proposals; however, interested parties may identify their interest and capability to respond to the requirement. Interested parties with the capability of meeting the proposed requirements are requested to provide an email to the FRA point of contact, Devona Jackson at devona.jackson@dot.gov no later than 1:00 p.m. ET, Friday, August 13, 2020, expressing interest and outlining their capabilities and qualifications to perform the effort.  Such capabilities/qualifications will be evaluated solely for the purpose 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.