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byline: Courtney Mabeus-Brown

ONE School of Public Health names inaugural dean

The proposed ONE has named its inaugural dean: Li-Wu Chen, a health sciences professor from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a background in rural health.

Chen was selected following a national search and will start his new job March 10, 2023, said in a news release Monday. Chen will guide the school — a joint venture between ODU, and — through the accreditation process with the . That accreditation process is a precursor to receiving approval from the State Council of for Virginia; an initial application for accreditation has been filed with the council and, once accepted, the school will have two years to achieve .

“The founding dean needed to be a respected leader in public health policy and research, but also a coalition builder with a clear vision for leveraging our combined strengths to assist in addressing health disparities across our community and the commonwealth,” ODU President said in a statement. “In Dr. Chen, we have found a proven leader who will be fully dedicated to building a solid foundation for this important initiative.”

“It is my great honor to be selected as the founding dean of the joint school of public health, a tremendous opportunity to apply my academic leadership and scholarship to significantly improve public health outcomes,” said Chen, who earned a Ph.D. in health policy and administration from Pennsylvania State University and a master of health services administration degree from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. “I look forward to collaborating with the talented faculty at ODU, and to create a center for training, research and community engagement that will fulfill the public health workforce needs of the community and secure a healthier future for the region.”

ODU, NSU and EVMS signed a memorandum of understanding to establish the school in August, aiming for it to address regional public health needs and inequalities. The General Assembly and former Gov. Ralph Northam allocated $5 million to the project, splitting the amount evenly between ODU and NSU. Sentara Healthcare provided $4 million in grants to ODU and NSU to support the accreditation process.

“The proposed joint school of public health initiative positions NSU, ODU and EVMS to go beyond a focus on health care to eliminate health disparities and promote conditions that enable our communities to thrive,” NSU President Javaune Adams-Gaston said in a statement. “With Dr. Chen’s leadership of this ongoing partnership, we anticipate unprecedented strides in disease prevention, health promotion, public health scholarship and community engagement for the benefit of this region.”

Chen will oversee the new school, which will offer collaborative degree programs, develop research to address public health challenges, and create and enhance partnerships. The school will offer a master of public health degree and a Ph.D. in health services research.

Chen has more than 20 years of academic leadership in the public health field and since 2020 has served as a professor in the Department of Health Sciences in the School of Health Professions at the University of Missouri-Columbia. He is a member of the board of directors for the Missouri Institute for Community Health, an editorial board member of the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice and a former member of AcademyHealth’s Education Council. Chen also works with members from global health organizations, including the United Nations and the World Health Organization, as a member of the steering committee for the Health Inclusivity Index project, which aims to develop a comprehensive heath inclusivity and equity index for 40 countries.

Chen joined the University of Missouri-Columbia from the University of Nebraska Medical Center, where he chaired the Health Services Research and Administration department within the College of Public Health. He oversaw the UNMC Center for Health Policy Analysis and Rural Health Research, served as deputy director of the Rural Policy Research Institute Center for Rural Health Policy Analysis and was a founding co-director of the Nebraska Public Health Practice Based Research Network. Chen was also the founding director for UNMC’s Ph.D. program in health services and policy research and led development of a master of health administration program.

EVMS President Dr. Alfred Abuhamad called Chen’s selection “an important next step in an exciting and necessary effort to expand the local healthcare workforce pipeline and create a healthier future for the communities we proudly serve.”

Earlier this month, George Mason University renamed its College of Health and Human Services as the College of Public Health, establishing what it said is the first and only such college in the state.

 

Rocket Lab announces December Va. launch window

Rocket Lab USA Inc. will launch the first U.S. mission for its rocket from a launch pad on ‘s Wallops Flight Facility in during a 13-day window that opens Dec. 7.

The company announced the Wallops launch Thursday. The mission, called “Virginia is for Launch Lovers,” will deploy for Herndon-based HawkEye 360 and will be Rocket Lab’s first liftoff from the company’s Launch Complex 2 at ‘s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport within the NASA facility. The launch pad was built for the company’s Electron rocket and is the company’s first launch site in the United States.

California-based Rocket Lab announced in February that it selected Wallops Island as the location for its launch site and a new manufacturing and assembly complex for its new Neutron rocket. The Electron rocket launch from Virginia will supplement its Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand, from which 31 Electron missions have previously taken off. Combined, the two pads can support more than 130 launch opportunities every year, Rocket Lab said in a news release.

The Electron is a small, two-stage, partially recoverable orbital launch rocket that stands about 60 feet high and measures about four feet in diameter. Rocket Lab has flown 32 Electron missions, including three failed missions, since the first Electron flight in 2017.

The December launch window has been set following progress by NASA in certifying its Autonomous Flight Termination Unit software, which is required to enable Electron launches from Virginia.

“We are honored and excited to bring a new launch capability to Virginia’s Eastern Shore,” Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck said in a statement. “Electron is well established as the leader in small launch, reliably serving the responsive space needs of the commercial, civil, DoD (Department of Defense), and national security markets alike. With our inaugural mission from Launch Complex 2, we are immensely proud to expand on this strong launch heritage by enabling a new capability for the nation from Virginian soil. We look forward to making history this December with our dedicated mission partners , NASA and Virginia Space.”

The Electron launch in December is the first of three will undertake for HawkEye 360 in a contact to deliver 15 satellites to low Earth orbit between 2022 and 2024. Rocket Lab will also provide HawkEye 360 with separation systems produced by Planetary Systems Corporation, a Maryland-based space hardware company acquired by Rocket Lab in December 2021.

“We’re proud to be a Virginia-based company, with Virginia-developed , launching out of the Virginia spaceport,” HawkEye 360 CEO John Serafini said in a statement. “We selected Rocket Lab because of the flexibility it enables for us to place the satellites into an orbit tailored to benefit our customers. Deploying our satellites on Rocket Lab’s inaugural launch is a giant leap in Virginia’s flourishing space .”

HawkEye opened a new, 19,000-square-foot facility in Herndon in July to boost production of its satellites.

With the December launch of the satellites, its sixth cluster of three, HawkEye will have placed 15 next-generation satellites into orbit within two years. A seventh cluster is anticipated to launch in February, followed by clusters 8 and 9 mid-2023. Once its latest cluster is commissioned, HawkEye will be able to collect radio frequency as frequently as every hour anywhere in the world, the company said in a news release.

NASA’s Wallops visitor center will be open for the launch.  A live webcast will also be available at www.rocketlabusa.com/live-stream from around T-40 minutes.

Fed’s Barkin asks, ‘What’s ‘normal’ anymore?’

The question is asked the most these days is when the will return to normal. The president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of has a caution for those who may be wishing for the perceived stability of the pre-pandemic economy.

“After two-and-a-half years of instability, we’re all ready to get back to normal,” Barkin said Wednesday. “But what’s normal? I’d say normal is not going back to where we were.”

Barkin’s comments came during his keynote speech to the ‘s 2022 Economic Summit at Shenandoah in , held a week after the approved the fourth 0.75-point rate hike this year, taking rates to a target range of 3.75% to 4% — their highest since 2008 — as the central bank attempts to rein in . As of Oct. 13, the inflation rate is 8.2%; the next U.S. inflation update is set to be released Thursday.

Today’s economy is still “somewhat artificial” as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Barkin said. Americans have about $1.4 trillion more in savings than they did before the pandemic, money that continues to support consumer demand. Consumers have also increased debt that they paid down during the pandemic, and fiscal stimulus has decreased, though ‘s continuing in the form of the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill signed into law last November, student debt relief, tax reductions in some states and the release of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Supply chain reliability is slowly improving, though businesses are still vulnerable to labor shortages and geopolitical risks, like Russia’s February invasion of Ukraine and OPEC’s cuts to oil production, which have distorted commodity prices. The roller coaster housing market, affected by higher mortgage rates and soaring prices, and automobile supply instability also remain significant issues, Barkin added, calling them “the pandemic economy’s poster children.”

Getting to something approaching normal will continue to take time and will involve challenges, Barkin said, and while those solutions could trigger economic downturn, high inflation will not become normal. Barkin said he sees the economy getting into “better balance” in coming months, though he expects it to be a lengthy process.

The Fed is “doing what we need to do” about inflation, Barking said, adding that he thinks the economy is on the back end of inflation, which began rising quickly in the second half of 2021. Last week, Barkin told CNBC that the Fed is likely to continue rate hikes, but less aggressively.

“If there’s one thing we learned in the ’70s is that the Fed cannot let inflation fester and expectations rise,” he said Wednesday. “If we back off for fear of a downturn, inflation comes back even stronger and requires even more restraint.”

On the possibility of , Barkin noted that the debate over whether the nation has already entered a recession has become so popular that Wikipedia suspended edits on its “recession” entry. But he couldn’t rule a recession out in 2023, saying it’s an “open-ended question.” In June, during a speech in Henrico County, Barkin said he didn’t expect a “significant financial crisis” like the 2008 Great Recession in the current economy.

Barkin noted that growth is slowing, though the country is continuing to add jobs at three times the level of workforce growth, and consumer spending remains around 4%. While most recessions are caused by outside events, Barkin said, referencing events like the 2008 housing crisis and the oil embargo during the 1970s, he said one could occur from the Fed’s efforts to control inflation.

“I think the answer to whether Fed efforts are going to be implicated in that is highly related to how malleable … you think inflation is going to be to supply chains healing and to commodity prices coming down and to labor markets normalizing and the like,” he said. “And I think that is the question we’re trying to figure out.”

Everybody’s talking about the question of recession, he said, and while many companies have “opened up Page 1 of the recession playbook” by installing hiring freezes, cutting advertising and discretionary spending, he doesn’t “hear anybody turning to page four,” which would mean more draconian measures, like layoffs.

“Why would I lay people off now, if I don’t have to? Am I going to be able to get them on the other side of this? So, I think there’s some caution in people’s minds about turning the pages of the playbook,” he said. “But, you know, if something happens from outside, if everyone starts to move at once, you know how it is, people will turn it.”

ODU announces $500M capital campaign

Old Dominion University on Thursday announced the formal launch of a five-year, $500 million campaign to raise money for , research, campus improvements and , with the university saying ‘s already more than halfway to meeting its goal.

President announced the campaign, Forward Focused: For Dreams and Beyond, Oct. 20 during an alumni dinner. The university raised $275 million during a quiet phase that began July 1, 2016, and concluded in September, prior to the campaign’s rollout. That included lead gifts, including the university’s Barry Art Museum.

“As we embark on this campaign, Monarch nation is stepping boldly forward to declare our dreams possible,” Hemphill said in a statement.  “We will focus our investment and efforts in the areas where ODU is poised to innovate and lead – social mobility, research and workforce development.”

ODU was designated last year as an R1 research university, which recognizes it under the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of as a doctoral university with a great amount of research activity. The designation creates a pathway to recruiting high-quality faculty and students, obtaining large research grants, and attracting industry and government agency partners, and the new campaign capitalizes on that momentum, ODU said. 

The campaign will focus on the following areas:

  • Student scholarships: $100 million in new scholarship support and $8 million for more student-led research opportunities and the expansion of internships and experiential learning;
  • Academics: $85 million to recruit faculty, add department chairs and professorships, and fund new technology and equipment;
  • Research: $81 million to support ODU’s recent designation, with a focus on coastal resilience, cybersecurity and sciences, maritime and autonomous systems;
  • : $70 million in philanthropic investment in public health, including mental health initiatives, a library for the proposed ONE School of Public Health, a professorship in substance abuse nursing and a chair in mental health nursing. In addition, ODU plans to establish a Center for Movement Health and Disability;
  • Campus upgrades: Adding a data science facility and alumni center, improving the Perry Library and modernizing engineering lab technology;
  • Athletics: $120 million to add athletic scholarships and facility improvements, including expansions and upgrades to the university’s baseball stadium.

FyberX to invest $17.5M in Mecklenburg HQ

FyberX Holdings, a regenerative agriculture company, will invest $17.5 million to establish its U.S. and production operations in , creating 45 jobs, Gov. announced Wednesday.

The company will be located in the formerly vacant Kinderton Distribution Center in , where will process and other agricultural products and produce fibers for the textiles industry, Youngkin’s office said in a news release.

“This industry is an emerging market in the United States, and I welcome the opening of the headquarters of , which will unlock its growth potential in the commonwealth,”  Youngkin said in a statement. “This industry provides a sustainable alternative for industrial and consumer products that will also bring economic benefits to Virginia communities and farmers, and we look forward to a successful partnership with FyberX.”

FyberX was founded in 2019 to build the infrastructure necessary to process raw agricultural biomass into refined natural fibers, while creating environmentally friendly solutions. The company focuses on industrial hemp sources in the U.S. and will use its to process hemp for use as replacements for the textile, packaging and construction industries.

“ is strategically positioned to play a vital role in unlocking the economic potential of industrial hemp fiber in a variety of markets including textiles, construction, packaging, automotive, and bioplastics,” FyberX CEO Ben Young said in a statement. “We are excited to work with the local community to implement socially responsible best practices, including a zero-waste production model that minimizes emissions, a transparent supply chain, fair wages, and safe and state-of-the-art processing facilities, all of which will define a new global standard for natural-fiber production facilities”

Young hinted that the company anticipates growth in the Southeastern U.S. FyberX plans to build a green supply chain by working with industrial hemp and other domestic nontree sources of fiber and establishing centralized, large-scale processing centers throughout the nation.

“Every business that comes to our region is a positive,” state Sen. Frank Ruff, R-Clarksville, said. “We are delighted that they will employ over 40 direct jobs. As an additional positive, they will also provide a benefit to our farm community, which will now have another crop for their land. The reason I offered the hemp legislation several years ago was for exactly this type of use.”

The Virginia Economic Development Partnership and Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services worked with Mecklenburg County to secure the project for Virginia. Youngkin approved a $150,000 grant from the Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund to assist Mecklenburg County with the project. FyberX is eligible to receive state benefits from the Virginia Enterprise Zone Program, administered by the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development. Money and services to support employee training activities will be provided through VEDP’s Virginia Jobs Investment Program.

GMU launches College of Public Health

George Mason has rebranded its College of Health and Human Services as the in a move to address a critical need for skilled health professionals and research across the state.

GMU announced the renaming Tuesday, following approval in late October by the State Council of for Virginia and now becomes the first and only college in the state. The rebranding more accurately reflects the school’s academic and research missions and reflects the role it plays in the community; it is also expected to bring more opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration and expanded funding opportunities, College of Public Health Dean said through a university spokesperson.

Perry, an epidemiologist, started at GMU in August as dean of the former College of Health and Human Services. The college has outlined key initiatives including community engagement, workforce development, research, as well as education. It includes more than 1,900 undergraduates and 1,300 graduate students, six undergraduate degrees, eight master’s degrees, five doctoral degrees and six professional certificate programs and is comprised of the School of Nursing, as well as the departments of Global and Community Health, Health Administration and Policy, Nutrition and Food Studies, and Social Work.

“Mason’s College of Public Health graduates will bring new and diverse talent to Virginia’s health workforce, addressing critical shortages and building a strong talent pipeline for the long-term health of the region,” George Mason President Gregory Washington said in a statement. “Individuals, families and communities will benefit from discoveries, clinical care and public health practice initiatives generated by this multidisciplinary and multisector college.”

The newly renamed college will focus on an inclusive approach to public health education, research and practice. More than 60% of its student body is from historically underrepresented groups and 38% of its undergraduates are first-generation college students. Given its location in Fairfax County, the college will also draw on its proximity to federal health-related agencies, health systems, policymaking institutions, nonprofit community service organizations and global health consulting management firms, according to a news release.

“As the first and only college of public health in Virginia, this launch reflects our academic and research mission and the pivotal leadership role we play in population health and well-being,” Perry said in a statement.  “Our distinctive set of degree offerings, our inclusive approach to research and education, and commitment to experiential learning opportunities prepares students to thrive in multicultural environments.”

In Hampton Roads, , and are currently working in partnership to develop the ONE , the universities announced in January 2021. In August 2021, the presidents of the three institutions signed a memorandum of understanding. Under the MOU, ODU will serve as the lead institution and house the school. An institutional operations committee and a curriculum committee will have representatives from each institution.

Leidos completes acquisition of Aussie special missions biz

Reston-based has completed its of -based ‘ special mission subsidiary from British manufacturer Cobham Ltd., the announced Monday.

The $215 million deal was first announced in August. The acquisition adds airborne surveillance and search and rescue missions to Leidos’ Australia portfolio and marks its entry into the country’s aviation market. The business will be integrated into and operate as part of Leidos Australia, the company said in a news release.

“We are excited and eager to formally welcome Cobham’s Special Mission team to the Leidos family,” Leidos Chairman and CEO said in a statement. “Bringing in the special mission business will build on our global airborne ISR capabilities while providing new opportunities for growth. Together with Leidos Australia leadership, I look forward to working with this talented team.”

The business owns and operates 14 modified aircraft that deliver critical services to the Australian government, including contracting with its Border Force, a part of the Department of Home Affairs, to patrol the country’s 8.2 million square kilometer exclusive economic zone. also provides fixed-wing search and rescue operations for the Australian Maritime Safety Authority and operates a specialized mission training system for more than 30 mission aircrew annually.

“It’s a milestone day for all of us at Cobham Special Mission and the beginning of a new and exciting chapter as we become Leidos,” said Leidos Australia Vice President of Airborne Solutions James Woodhams, who previously served as managing. director for Cobham Special Mission. “Leidos is a recognized employer of choice and I’m really excited about what being part of Leidos means for our people.”

Leidos Australia works with the Australian government to provide services across information technology projects and services, intelligence and defense missions systems. Leidos Australia has 2,000 employees and is headquartered in Melbourne.

 

Richmond wellness space gets shot from Jack Daniel’s

On his 33rd birthday, Brelan Hillman learned that BareSOUL Yoga and Wellness was selected as one of six finalists to compete for $10,000 in a for Black-owned businesses in .

With just a weekend to prepare, Hillman, a business partner and board member for BareSOUL, crafted his three-minute appeal to connect Richmond’s history in the slave trade to how owners now are transforming the city, and the roles that BareSOUL and its brick-and-mortar space, The Well Collective, play in that.

“We thought was important to kind of ground everyone in that reality,” says Hillman.

BareSOUL walked away with the top prize in Jack Daniel’s “New Beginnings: Make it Count” contest, held Sept. 26 at The Len event space in Shockoe Bottom. Local judges included Melody Short, co-founder of The Jackson Ward Collective; Shane Roberts-Thomas, owner and chef of Southern Kitchen in Jackson Ward; and Metropolitan Business League CEO Floyd E. Miller II.

Jack Daniel’s launched the “New Beginnings” contest in 2020 to support Black businesses and this year expanded it to Richmond, which LendingTree ranked No. 3 on its list of the 50 U.S. metropolitan areas with the most Black-owned businesses. Jack Daniel Distillery notes that its namesake founder learned to make whiskey from Nathan “Nearest” Green, who was  born into slavery and emancipated before becoming the company’s master distiller.

Another of this year’s finalists, Taryn Wynn, opened her ice cream-making workshop business, Sweet Wynns, in a shared kitchen in Midlothian in May. She had hoped the contest would provide money for equipment and furnishings as she prepares to move to a new location in Shockoe Slip in November. Even though she didn’t win, she says, “we’re just still gonna chug along and figure it all out.”

BareSOUL owner Ashley Williams started her business in 2015 and opened The Well Collective in Shockoe Bottom in November 2021 to expand her wellness offerings and provide space for other businesses. With three part-time employees, Williams plans to spend BareSOUL’s pitch contest winnings on training a general manager, website redesign, business strategy and building out space.

“Wellness is foundational to how we do everything — our mental, physical, social and even our financial state is vital to our being,” says Williams. “Wellness isn’t a luxury but a birthright for everyone. I look forward to growing a culturally relevant and inclusive wellness space in Richmond.”

Artificial intelligence gets real

being developed in a nondescript office building in Reston could change how Army soldiers train for and operate in combat thousands of miles away.

The Army’s Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) runs on a pair of Microsoft goggles and links to a microsized drone that flies autonomously and collects video analyzed in real time by algorithms trained to identify threats, like an enemy combatant with an assault rifle coming around a corner, or a vehicle of interest. Detections are sent to a heads-up display within the goggles and are shared across a squad.

“It can all be done at the tactical edge out on the battlefield, using new-edge computing technologies, which basically puts the power of a supercomputer in the soldiers’ hands,” says Rob Albritton, a vice president at Reston-based Octo who heads up the AI Center of Excellence at the ‘s oLabs tech accelerator. Octo has been working on developing AI technology for IVAS since 2020 and is currently working with about 20 government agencies on a variety of other AI projects.

In 2011, IBM’s Watson supercomputer wowed the world, demonstrating the power of artificial intelligence by beating “Jeopardy!” champ Ken Jennings, who still holds the television quiz show’s record for the longest streak of victories. Bowing to defeat, in his response to the match’s final question, Jennings added a “Simpsons”-inspired quip: “I for one welcome our new computer overlords.”

While that sort of doomsday scenario hasn’t occurred, artificial intelligence has matured into a routine — and often unseen — part of our daily lives, moving in recent years from the realm of science fiction to the mundane. From mapping apps on smartphones to technology that helps secure the United States’ borders, AI is performing everything from rote business tasks like scanning health records to helping the Navy search for underwater mines from unmanned surface ships.

And several Virginia-based companies, running the gamut from small tech with a few clients to massive federal contractors, are at the leading edge of AI work.

“AI will enable how … systems navigate, perform their mission, sense the environment and communicate strategic information to stakeholders, which are both people and other systems,” says Duane Fotheringham, president of unmanned systems for Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc.’s mission technologies division. “On the side, humans alone cannot manage the volumes of time-sensitive data that will be collected and shared by autonomous systems.”

Reston-based Octo develops AI tech for the Army’s IVAS goggles, which receive sensor data from various sources including drones (pictured) and other communications devices to give soldiers greater situational awareness. Photo courtesy Octo

From small to large

Using its cloud-based EarthAI platform and free data from the European Space Agency, Charlottesville-based Astraea Inc. mapped out every rooftop with a white membrane — a waterproof, reflective covering preferred by the solar industry for installation — and matched each with an address and owner or landlord across six counties in Virginia after Astraea was approached by a solar company client for help pinpointing customers.

Though it took Astraea time to build its algorithm, it took EarthAI just five hours to complete the scan. A job that might have taken nearly two dozen employees a year to research was completed in a fraction of the time with up-to-date data, using artificial intelligence, says Astraea co-founder and CEO Brendan Richardson.

Founded in 2016, Astraea has a few dozen enterprise customers, including The Nature Conservancy, which uses EarthAI across multiple areas, including land preservation and carbon sequestration, tracking forest changes in remote areas from logging, road construction, clear-cutting, tree disease and replanting. Astraea expects to double in size to about two dozen employees by the end of the year, with revenue in the “low millions,” Richardson says.

At the other end of the spectrum, Chantilly-based federal contractor Peraton Inc. has a portfolio of about $150 million in contract work related to employing advanced data analytics and AI for customers such as the Department of and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, says Mark Adams, Peraton’s vice president of technology and engineering. Because of the ubiquity of AI, however, Adams says that $150 million represents only a portion of the company’s AI projects.

“There are a lot of jobs where we’re doing large-scale, enterprise IT and even mission-critical, large-scale cyber and intelligence networks where we’re actually building the underlying infrastructure and secure data management system” using AI, Adams says. And the company is looking into other ways of expanding the use of AI to support its customers.

Adams and others say they expect the use of AI to continue growing, and Virginia companies can expect to grow with it.

In June, Reston-based federal contractor NCI Information Systems Inc. rebranded as Empower AI Inc., taking the name of the AI platform it launched in 2020. Depending on the level of automation desired and the complexity of the task, the platform is adaptable and can be customized to a client’s needs, says Empower AI Chief Technology Officer Allen Badeau.

During a nine-month period this year, Empower AI’s automations saved one federal client, which he declined to name, as much as 13 man-years worth of work by completing up to 7,000 automations a day, including verifying information found in health records.

“When you’ve got health records potentially that are hundreds and, in some cases, even thousands of pages long, to move that kind of information between those systems takes a long time,” Badeau says. “When you can automate that process and automate some of the validation around that, it’s a significant time-saver from a human perspective.”

More than 75% of Empower AI’s revenue now comes from its AI platform, which the company says accounts for more than $1.5 billion worth of work. Empower AI has more than 20 federal customers, a figure Badeau expects will double in the next year.

‘Never get tired, bored or distracted’

Recent developments in the AI field helped pave the way for Falls Church-based General Dynamics Information Technologies Inc., a subsidiary of Reston-based Fortune 500 and General Dynamics Corp., to develop an algorithm that can classify skin lesions, helping medical personnel diagnose skin cancer.

GDIT’s Skin Lesion Classifier prototype won third place and $10,000 in a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs competition that ran from 2020 to 2021. GDIT has pitched the idea to the VA as a pilot project.

“The ability to take a picture of a skin lesion and quickly help an oncologist decide if it’s a particular kind of a disease, and then whether it’s malignant or benign, really speeds the workflow so that veterans are seen faster and their appointments are escalated if they have dread diseases,” says Dave Vennergrund, GDIT’s vice president of AI and data insights.

Streamlining systems for veterans is also an area that Tifani O’Brien is addressing in her work leading an AI and machine-learning accelerator at Reston-based federal contractor Holdings Inc. 

As part of two Veterans Benefits Administration contracts awarded this year to a Leidos subsidiary to provide medical disability exam services for veterans and separating service members, Leidos is incorporating AI to screen intake questionnaires for disability claims, using the tech to route patients to the correct physicians with greater speed and accuracy. For the other contract, Leidos is using AI to screen thousands of pages of handwritten medical records, freeing up doctors to focus on the relevant pages they need to make health care decisions for their patients.

The contracts, both of which have six-month base periods and six one-year options, are worth up to $1.7 billion if all options are executed.

“We’re making it faster and more cost-effective to make decisions on what’s the next step in a veteran’s access to services and what they need to do next,” says O’Brien, a Leidos vice president. “Hopefully, that frees up more time to actually spend talking to the veteran and servicing the veteran and interacting with them, as opposed to going through the documentation and bureaucracy and deciding what to do next.”

While Leidos’ medical AI work is more behind the scenes, the company’s AI tech is showcased in a considerably more visible way at airports across the nation. If you’ve gone through an airport security checkpoint recently, chances are you’ve encountered Leidos’ screening machines, including ProVision2, a body scanner, and ClearScan, a luggage scanner. Both products use AI to determine quickly if a passenger or their bags contain prohibited items that checkpoint workers might not be able to identify in a cluttered space.

The AI can pick out objects based on characteristics that a human might not see, explains Ron Keesing, Leidos’ senior vice president for technology integration. “Also, computer-vision algorithms never get tired, bored or distracted,” Keesing says. “In this way, Leidos AI works as a partner to humans, helping them do their jobs more effectively and efficiently.”

Unmanned future

When it comes to AI development, the Pentagon is a focal point for many of Virginia’s largest federal contractors and tech companies. In the race to keep up with adversaries like China and Russia, the Pentagon in 2018 established the Joint AI Center — now known as the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office — to accelerate delivery of AI national security operations.

In 2020, McLean-based Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. received an $800 million, five-year task order to integrate and develop AI for the warfighter. Booz Allen’s work on that contract, called the Alliant 2 Joint Warfighter Task Order, runs the gamut from data labeling, management and conditioning to AI product development and incorporating the tech into new and existing programs and systems across the Department of Defense.

Booz Allen is the prime contractor on more than 150 AI projects for the federal government, says Eric Syphard, a vice president in Booz Allen’s artificial intelligence engineering practice.

The Fortune 500 company also started a venture capital fund this year to invest in AI companies, helping sharpen its focus on emerging capabilities. In April, Booz Allen announced an investment in San Francisco-based Reveal Technology Inc., which developed a platform, Farsight, for military special operators and squads operating in austere environments. The platform relies on autonomous drones to develop maps, line-of-sight analysis and route planning without the need for network connectivity.

“Imagine being a troop deployed to an area that you’re brand-new in that geography, you want to get a handle on some potential threats, the infrastructure and roads and you want AI to help you plan and recommend which path to take,” Syphard says, adding that the capability is similar to a civilian using a GPS traffic app to determine the fastest route to take during rush hour.

The individual military branches, too, have noted the importance of AI.

In April, HII’s  mission technologies division, based in McLean, announced the launch of Odyssey, an open-architecture platform that can turn any ship or vehicle on land or in the air into an intelligent, autonomous system. While it’s got a range of possibilities, Odyssey can use sensors to autonomously navigate, and it can be used to automate mechanical or electrical systems and diagnose problems when issues may arise.

“Sometimes we talk about the ‘AI captain’ steering the ship, but there also has to be an ‘AI engineer’ that’s controlling all of the engine-room operation,” says Fotheringham. “Then we also have to make sure that the systems are both reliable and resilient because we all know that things are going to break.”

The technology is already being incorporated into an unmanned, surface-traveling maritime vessel that will be used by the Navy to hunt and sweep for mines. Louisiana-based Bollinger Shipyards in April received a contract worth up to as much as $122 million to build as many as 30 unmanned vessels that will rely on Odyssey during the next five years. HII is also part of a team contracted for work on initial concept design for the Navy’s large, unmanned surface-ship vehicle program.

Fotheringham notes that the Navy has projected that up to 30% of its force structure could be unmanned in the future, and AI will be “the fundamental enabler” of that.

In September, the Army accepted delivery of its first 5,000 IVAS goggles, Bloomberg reported. The service spent $373 million on that order and could pay out as much as $21.9 billion on as many as 121,000 of the devices during the next decade.

While an Octo spokesperson declined to comment on whether that order incorporates the company’s technology, Albritton says the program has far-reaching potential.

“If this program is successful, there’s no doubt in my mind that we’re gonna save lives,” Albritton says. “And being able to bring more soldiers home to their families is really why we do what we do.” 

Noblis promotes exec to chief growth officer

Reston-based Inc. has. promoted Matt Salter to .

In the newly created role, Salter will be responsible for implementing the company’s corporate growth strategy, including business development, capture, competitive analysis and marketing and branding, while also focusing on long-term initiatives such as and corporate ventures.

“Establishing the CGO role is critical to maturing our growth engine and emphasis on long-term strategic growth of the corporation,” Noblis CEO Mile Corrigan said in a statement. “We’re thrilled to elevate Matt to this role. He is a proven leader with a disciplined approach and strong track record of delivering exceptional results for our business. We know he’ll continue [to] excel in this new role.”

Salter previously served as Noblis’ vice president of business development and has also served as business development director for its federal civilian solutions sector. In addition to business development roles, he has directed technical teams to advance modernization efforts in cloud, high-performance computing, enterprise information management and risk-based decision making.

“I’m excited for the opportunity to drive Noblis’ growth strategy,” said Salter. “For the past 26 years, our teams have solved some of the biggest challenges for our federal customers with a lab-to-mission approach. I’m looking forward to pursuing and investing in initiatives that build on that legacy and enable us to further expand our mission impact today and in the future.”

Salter has a bachelor’s degree from George Mason and is certified as a project management professional and as an Agile practitioner.

Noblis is a not-for-profit corporation that delivers technical and advisory strategies and solutions to federal government clients. In February, Noblis announced former CEO and President Amr ElSawy would leave in October, after 15 years leading the company. He was replaced by Corrigan, a senior vice president from its federal civilian solutions division. Earlier this week, Noblis named Lisa Gardner as vice president of its federal civilian solutions sector as well as to Noblis’ executive council.