On August 9, 2022, President Biden signed the CHIPS Act of 2022 (the "Act"), legislation to fund domestic semiconductor manufacturing and boost federal scientific research and development (see our previous alert for additional background). As part of its science-backed provisions, the Act includes many of the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act's (USICA) original priorities, such as promoting standards and research and development in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) and supporting existing AI initiatives. The Act directs the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Director to continue supporting the development of AI and data science and to carry out the National AI Initiative Act of 2020 (previous alert for additional background), which created a coordinated program across the federal government to accelerate AI research and application to support economic prosperity, national security, and advance AI leadership in the United States. Furthermore, the Act provides that the Director may establish testbeds, including in virtual environments, in collaboration with other federal agencies, the private sector and colleges and universities, to support the development of robust and trustworthy AI and machine learning systems. A new National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (the "Directorate") is established under the Act to address societal, national and geostrategic challenges for the betterment of all Americans through research and development, technology development and related solutions.

The cyber industry has a long history of dealing with data and information in both paper and in digital formats. The information in our DNA is different. When compromised, it is not something we can change like a lost password or username or even a Social Security Number (SSN). We cannot even conceive of its value. There is no practical way of quantifying the financial impact of its loss.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security opened industry applications for its 2022 Biometric Technology Rally. The department's Science and Technology directorate is emphasizing discerning people in groups and their level of consent to face biometric scanning. Competitors are to address the challenge of reliably screening small groups of people opting in to facial recognition from among bystanders who have not consented. The competition will be an unattended "high throughput" scenario where group-processing systems must rapidly capture biometrics from multiple subjects. Companies will have to match photographs and identify faces, acquire only needed biometric images and meet performance benchmarks for demographic groups.

In a move that aims to benefit 65,600 students and 540 teachers from government and government-aided schools in Goa, the State government in March this year implemented its novel and first of its kind in India – Coding and Robotics Education in Schools Scheme from the academic year 2021-22. The scheme aims to incorporate computational and design thinking abilities, as well as programming, into the Goa state board curriculum to prepare students to the needs of the digital world in the 21st century. It was introduced by Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant, who is also the Minister of Education. The State government is looking to make this sort of skill education (coding and problem solving skills) accessible to school-going children from all sections of society. This scheme is a collaborative effort of the Directorate of Technical Education (DTE), Directorate of Education, State Council Educational Research and Training (SCERT) and industry experts.

GovCon Expert Chuck Brooks has published his latest article as a member of Executive Mosaic's GovCon Expert program on Wednesday. Brooks discussed the development and procurement of emerging technologies as they influence every sector of the federal marketplace, including the Department of Defense (DoD), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), academia and the intelligence community. You can read Chuck Brooks' latest GovCon Expert article below: The development and procurement of emerging technologies is being institutionalized throughout government, particularly in national security areas. There are a variety of new initiatives and programs that have been created to ensure that the United States is prepared for a new era of technology leadership. If you are interested in transformative technologies, it is an exciting time to follow what is happening both in industry and in government.

TORONTO, July 31, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Datametrex AI Limited (the "Company" or "Datametrex") (TSXV: DM, FSE: D4G) is pleased to announce that it has been successfully awarded a second contract in the United States defense industry, United States Air Force via Wright State Applied Research Corp. ("WSARC") on July 29, 2020. WSARC is provides contracting, security and research administration services for Wright State Research Institute, the University and the state of Ohio, and will head the U.S. Air Force Academic Partnership and Engagement Experiment (APEX) program. "This is a great example of renewable business for Datametrex. Getting a one-year contract extension shows that our technology is valued by the client, and marks progress in our plan to expand our mandate with the organization. Datametrex will continue to solidify our position as a trusted solution provider within the U.S. military departments."

Unbeknownst to the CEO of a company who was interviewed on TV last year, a hacking group that was trailing the CEO taped the interview and then taught a computer to perfectly imitate the CEO's voice -- so it could then give credible instructions for a wire transfer of funds to a third party. This "voice phishing" hack brought to light the growing abilities of artificial intelligence-based technologies to perpetuate cyber-attacks and cyber-crime. Using new AI-based software, hackers have imitated the voices of a number of senior company officials around the world and thereby given out instructions to perform transactions for them, such as money transfers. The software can learn how to perfectly imitate a voice after just 20 minutes of listening to it and can then speak with that voice and say things that the hacker types into the software. Get The Start-Up Israel's Daily Start-Up by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up Some of these attempts were foiled, but other hackers were successful in getting their hands on money.

A two-person team from the UNICEF's Office of Innovation in New York recently joined DSTI in Sierra Leone to collaborate on a Machine Learning "Hackathon" As part of efforts to develop the technology and innovation ecosystem to support development of Sierra Leone, UNICEF is collaborating with the Directorate of Science, Technology and Innovation (DSTI) in the Office of the President, on a knowledge exchange partnership, around innovative Machine Learning techniques which, it is hoped, will add value to Government's work around data for decision making in the country. A two-person team from the UNICEF's Office of Innovation in New York recently joined DSTI in Sierra Leone to collaborate on a Machine Learning "Hackathon" to work on data from the education sector in support of the Government's Free Quality School Education initiative. Officials from different Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies joined the team to enhance their knowledge of Machine Learning and advanced data analysis techniques, for use in their own areas of government. Shane O'Connor, Technology for Development Specialist at UNICEF Sierra Leone, stated that the opportunity afforded by this collaboration is huge. "With the President's establishment of the DSTI and with UNICEF's collaboration, there really is great potential for a step change in how Technology and Innovation can be leveraged to deliver for Sierra Leone," he said.

We provide a machine learning solution that replaces the traditional methods for deciding the pesticide application time of Sunn Pest. We correlate climate data with phases of Sunn Pest in its life-cycle and decide whether the fields should be sprayed. Our solution includes two groups of prediction models. The first group contains decision trees that predict migration time of Sunn Pest from winter quarters to wheat fields. The second group contains random forest models that predict the nymphal stage percentages of Sunn Pest which is a criterion for pesticide application. We trained our models on four years of climate data which was collected from Kir\c{s}ehir and Aksaray. The experiments show that our promised solution make correct predictions with high accuracies.

Building on the success of its 2017 Transdisciplinary Research in Principles of Data Science (TRIPODS) awards, the National Science Foundation (NSF) is awarding $8.5 million in TRIPODS X grants to expand the scope of the cross-disciplinary TRIPODS institutes into broader areas of science, engineering and mathematics. In total, NSF will support 19 collaborative projects at 23 universities. The supported teams will bring new perspectives to bear on complex and entrenched data science problems. "The multidisciplinary approach for addressing the increasing volume and complexity of data enabled through the TRIPODS X projects will have a profound impact on the field of data science and its use," said Jim Kurose, NSF assistant director for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE). "This impact will be sure to grow as data continues to drive scientific discovery and innovation."