Ever since the dawn of the internet, its value lies in the data it handles, whether moving it, storing it, or calculating with it. As a result, just as Willie Horton once said he robbed banks because “that’s where the money is,” many of today’s cyber bad actors target agencies’ data because they can monetize it. Even hostile nation-states such as North Korea seek U.S. and state agencies’ data because they ne...

We all now live in a data-driven world. And the federal government may be the single largest generator – and user – of data in the world. According to Digital.gov, “Every day, thousands of federal workers collect, create, analyze, and distribute massive amounts of data from weather forecasts to economic indicators to health statistics. Federal government data is a major driver of the American economy as businesses use the dat...

AI will revolutionize how the government delivers on its mission. With AI, Government organizations can enhance decision-making, speed up service delivery, and improve operational efficiencies. Notably, proposing AI projects as part of modernizing operations are likely to get favorable consideration from the Technology Modernization Fund, especially those that look to improve the customer experience. Learning Objectives: Understand steps agenc...

The federal government has a complex hiring process, governed by a host of regulations and policies. Difficulties in hiring young people and individuals with valuable skills such as cybersecurity, and the impact of the pandemic on all employers, has modernizing HR is at the forefront of many agency leaders’ minds. Data and AI-driven tools can increase visibility into, and lessons learned from hiring, onboarding, and turnover, but underst...

Artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly useful in applications throughout the federal government. Officials such as Federal CIO Clare Martorana and Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks speak about its significance in improving customer experiences and rapid returns on investment within DoD. Virtually every federal agency is actively engaged in AI projects. For instance, the departments of Justice and State, as well as the Center...

Seeing changes in the physical features of the earth historically has taken eons – sometimes literally, as in identifying the shifting of Earth’s tectonic plates and the drift that created the continents as we know them. But the advent of satellites, drones, sensors and other technologies provides a constant flow of data that accurately reflects the conditions that societies encounter today. In 2017, the Department of Defense creat...

As artificial intelligence (AI) applications proliferate across the internet ecosystem, other changes are being triggered, from the commitment to R&D funding to workforce development to new initiatives in higher education. The federal government’s spending on IT R&D and AI in fiscal year 2023 is estimated at $9.6 billion. Meanwhile, the University of Florida, for instance, declares it is “building an AI university,” a...

The universe of artificial intelligence applications is going through its own Big Bang right now. As artificial intelligence (AI) applications proliferate across the internet ecosystem, other changes are being triggered, from the commitment to R&D funding to workforce development to new initiatives in higher education. As public awareness grows of AI’s potential and how it may affect them, there still are issues to be resolved. For i...

The advent of the pandemic in early 2020 demonstrates the truth of the old saying, “necessity is the mother of invention.” State and local governments that had been hesitant to adopt artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) in their IT suddenly had to cope with huge citizen demand for services such as unemployment assistance, while simultaneously providing the capability for their own employees to work remotely. A sur...

Many federal agencies, especially – but not limited to – the Department of Defense rely on warehousing as an essential part of their logistics operations and asset management strategies. The pandemic highlighted how quickly supply chain issues, especially with regard to IT, can snarl the availability of parts and finished products. Agencies dependent on the smooth flow of parts and finished products suffered in meeting their missio...