Speaking at a FedScoop and General Dynamics Information Technology event, DOE Chief Information Officer Ann Dunkin shared that the agency is working on the securing of quantum technology as research and development progresses. 

Currently, DOE is working on fundamental research within the national labs to develop quantum capabilities, with five research centers dedicated specifically to quantum computing. These efforts also involve supporting commercial research and development within universities and with industry leaders. 

“The impact of quantum or encryption, that’s an area where we really need to be thinking very hard right now,” Dunkin said. “As soon as we can find some algorithms that will work, we’ll be attacking that problem. More importantly, the ability to accelerate our computing technology, especially to build better models and simulations, will allow us to advance a lot of technologies beyond what we can do today.”

Dunkin offered the example of how the department can build battery models to identify better materials. That would then lead to increased sustainability and better operational efficiencies, where storage systems and vehicles are concerned. 

“We’re going to buy products off the shelf, [and] we’re also developing new capabilities ourselves,” Dunkin said. “So there are times when we’re leading and we’re building and we’re not buying. Then there are times when we’re consuming those commodities.”

The next steps for DOE in harnessing emerging technologies and quantum is to identify the best opportunities that would fund new capabilities, Dunkin said. This means “broad bets” within the department’s research agenda, she said, and collaborating with partners in universities and investing in companies where DOE can assist in identifying the next technology. 

“It’s investments in quantum, it’s investments in AI and machine learning. You name it, we are going to look to make broad bets,” Dunkin said. “We have to remember that not every one of those bets will be successful. Every research project that fails is a learning opportunity.”

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Miller takes up the private sector role after working at the State for more than 30 years, and he will be tasked with advising the company’s federal customers across areas including cloud, digital modernization and cybersecurity.

Miller left the State Department last August after stepping into the IT leadership role following the departure of former CIO Keith Jones in May. Details of his departure were first reported by FedScoop.

In that acting role, he was responsible for all State IT programs and initiatives around the world, and previously served as principal deputy chief information officer (CIO) at the department. His previous technology leadership roles included deputy CIO for the agency’s operations and foreign operations directorates.

Commenting on his appointment, GDIT Vice President for Diplomacy Nisa Moore said: “Glenn is an accomplished Foreign Service executive with a proven track record in creating innovative strategies, optimizing operations, driving change and delivering results.” 

“His leadership and technical skills will be a tremendous asset in strengthening our customers’ IT modernization goals and mission needs,” Moore added.

Miller said: “The company has exceptional depth, expertise, knowledge and understanding of the technology landscape. I am looking forward to working with this talented group and advancing our customers’ cybersecurity and digital modernization initiatives.”

According to SEC filings, the GDIT’s largest customer is the Department of Defense, but it also works with civilian agencies including the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

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The result is beginning to translate into dramatic time and cost savings as officials develop joint command and control systems designed to share intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance data, according to a new special report released by FedScoop, underwritten by GDIT.

Digitally engineering and model-based systems engineering (MBSE) have largely replaced traditional visual representation models of all kinds of operating systems. Those visual representations “created some beautiful wall charts for everyone but were obsolete as soon as you started building the system,” says Ed Farler, vice president within the chief technology office of General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT). “Digital engineering is about connecting all of the data in your environment [in real time] to the model so that the model can be a ‘living thing’ throughout the program’s lifecycle,” says Farler.

MBSE is also emerging as a fundamental approach to managing complex IT systems — helping organizations of all sizes accomplish what-if scenarios, adds Tom Rock, senior program director at GDIT, in the report. The rise of “digital twin” technology provides a high-fidelity virtual replica of existing systems that have yielded dramatic advances in aerospace, heavy machinery, manufacturing and industrial facility design, according to Rock, a former U.S. Air Force engineering and program manager who joined GDIT two and half years ago.

“Model-based systems engineering isn’t just a discipline for engineers,” Rock insists. “It also provides senior program leaders, chief financial and operations officials, and acquisition and risk management executives with a greater understanding of what’s happening across their organization’s systems and how various design and upgrade options might impact them.”

The report highlights how model-based systems engineering enables access to a wide range of real-time system attribute data within a single, standardized virtual modeling environment. That, in turn, allows engineers of various disciplines to simulate and assess the impact of different potential design changes.  

The report also explains how digital twins of today differ from the past because of their ability to connect to a broader range of system data and artifacts — effectively looking at a system of systems — to create various models. This ensures that authoritative data is discoverable by all program stakeholders, not just engineers.

And the report points to a widening array of use cases where MBSE can help agencies, including:

• Continuous ATO
• Requirements Traceability
• Network Modernization
• Zero Trust Compliance
• Digital Twinning
• Evaluating alternative system designs

Read the full report and learn more about how model-based system engineering and GDIT are helping the Department of Defense accelerate IT system modernization.

This article was produced by Scoop News Group for FedScoop and sponsored by GDIT.

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Yee retired from the Army in April as a two-star with his most recent assignment as assistant to the director of the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), which manages a $13 billion IT and cybersecurity portfolio for the Pentagon.

Previous roles he held while serving in the military also included military deputy and chief information security officer for what was then the Army’s CIO/G-6 office. It has since split into two separate offices with the former led by a civilian and the latter billet a three-star.

In his new role at GDIT, Yee will be tasked with “driving growth and innovation” while also meeting customer needs to include providing specialized technology solutions and services in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, 5G and high-performance computing, the company said in a press release.

“Garrett brings a wealth of expertise and experience from a distinguished military career to our team,” Brian Sheridan, GDIT’s senior vice president for the defense division, said. “His extensive knowledge and background in global communications and IT systems will be a tremendous asset in supporting our customers’ missions.”

GDIT’s work for the Army includes modernization and sustainment as well as simulation-based training and logistics and supply chain management.

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Dogwood in Manassas, Virginia, and Cactus in Phoenix are configured identically: operating three times faster than their predecessors at 12.1 petaflops and boasting double the storage at 26 petabytes each.

NOAA awarded General Dynamics IT the first, $150 million task order on the $505.2 million Weather and Climate Operational Supercomputing System (WCOSS) contract in February 2020 with the goal of improving models guiding forecasts.

“As forecasts become more accurate, and weather and climate events become more extreme, the public needs more detailed forecast information further in advance,” Ken Graham, director of the National Weather Service, said on a press call Tuesday. “And this takes more advanced computing.”

The twin Hewlett Packard Enterprise Cray supercomputers, ranked 49th and 50th fastest in the world by the TOP500 project, will provide NOAA’s NWS with:

• high-resolution models that better capture small-scale features like severe thunderstorms,
• more realistic model physics that better represent the formation of clouds and precipitation,
• a larger number of individual model simulations to better quantify confidence in results, and
• improved use of billions of weather observations to better forecast.

Dogwood and Cactus will further pave the way for fall upgrades to the Global Forecast System (GFS), air quality models, and ocean-going and Great Lakes wave prediction systems.

NOAA is moving from deterministic models to ensemble-based systems that couple atmosphere and oceans, giving forecasters the ability to assess the probability something might happen.

“Being able to provide probabilistic information to the public, through the use of ensemble-based modeling systems, is going to be a very exciting change coming up,” said Brian Gross, director of NOAA’s Environmental Modeling Center.

NOAA further plans to launch a new hurricane forecast model, the Hurricane Analysis and Forecast System (HAFS), ahead of the 2023 hurricane season — pending tests and evaluations. HAFS replaces two legacy systems, and will predict the track and intensity of tropical cyclones.

NWS will be able to extend hurricane forecasts to seven days, Graham said. 

Dogwood and Cactus’ predecessors were located in Reston, Virginia, and Orlando, Florida — a problem if a catastrophic weather event hit the East Coast downing both. That’s why the new supercomputers are hosted on opposite sides of the country.

WCOSS is an eight-year base contract with a two-year renewal. While its predecessor included performance enhancements on the front end — requiring IBM to guarantee price performance 10 years out — NOAA only required GDIT to propose the first task order award for this contract.

“I’m actually really excited about that because it leaves us open to be able to look at what are experiences on the existing system, where we need to make improvements in balance in the computing system, or as different technologies evolve we can take advantage of those and not be strapped to that initial price performance guess,” said Dave Michaud, director of NWS’s Office of Central Processing.

NOAA anticipates the second phase task order, covering the last five years of the contract, will be awarded in the 2024-25 timeframe.

The agency will work with GDIT to identify industry trends and incorporate those, along with any new computing requirements, into the next phase of WCOSS.

“We’ve actually left that wide open,” Michaud said.

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