Georgia Tech | The Contracting Education Academy

June 6, 2018 By cs

Plan now to attend contract cost and price analysis course in July

Georgia Tech’s course on the Fundamentals of Cost and Price Analysis (CON 170) features an in-depth review of the market research process. By attending, students gain fundamental quantitative pricing skills.

The 10-day course is being offered on July 9 – 20, 2018 on the Tech campus in the Global Learning Center in Midtown Atlanta. Registration details can be seen here.

Attendees will learn how to accomplish Cost-Volume-Profit analysis, calculate Contribution Margin Estimates, and develop Cost Estimating Relationships to achieve effective price analysis pursuant to FAR Subpart 15.4. These are the skills needed to negotiate pricing of contracts, subcontracts, and contract modifications.

Georgia Tech’s course includes an examination of the regulations and processes governing the use of cost analysis and requiring certified cost and pricing data.

After learning the basic elements of price and cost analysis, students receive instruction on how to build and defend a pre-negotiation objective, including a minimum and maximum pricing objective with a Weighted Guidelines Assessment. Students also learn how to defend pricing objectives by practicing face-to-face negotiations.

By attending, you’ll learn how to:

Identify the Government’s Pricing Objective
Review an Independent Government Cost Estimate
Apply Price-Related Factors
Review General Cost Principles on Allowability
Evaluate Direct and Indirect Costs
Determine the Applicability of Cost and Price Analysis
Practice Cost and Price Analysis Techniques
Conduct Cost Realism Analysis

Attendees receive expert instruction, a printed guide to be used back on the job, valuable handouts, and exclusive web-based resources. A complimentary breakfast is provided each morning, along with snacks throughout each class day.

This is a federal core course, required for FAC-C and DAWIA certification. Register here.

The Contracting Education Academy at Georgia Tech is an official Defense Acquisition University (DAU) equivalency training provider. Georgia Tech’s coursework also is recognized by the Federal Acquisition Institute (FAI).

May 23, 2018 By cs

Helping the Air Force search for actionable intelligence worldwide

Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, analysts huddle around computer screens in U.S. Air Force facilities around the world scanning for information that might require immediate action.

These analysts are part of the Air Force Distributed Common Ground System (AF DCGS), which is designed to sift through vast amounts of information for “needles in the haystack” that are critical to national security.

Researchers at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) are supporting the mission of AF DCGS in a broad range of ways. GTRI is providing expertise from subject matter experts in an array of sensing areas in which GTRI researchers have extensive experience supporting the development and prototyping of new services needed by the Air Force, conducting training and technology transfer activities for DCGS personnel, and providing advice on the information technology that underlies the DCGS to the programmers who maintain and enhance the system.

By modeling the flow of information through the DCGS, GTRI is helping the Air Force continuously improve the system, boosting efficiency and enhancing its ability to bring together the massive data sets that quickly provide critical information.

“For the Air Force analysts sitting at these workstations around the clock, we want to make sure they get the information they need as quickly, accurately, and efficiently as possible,” said Molly Gary, a GTRI principal research scientist who has led the project for nearly five years. “We want to help the Air Force improve the fusion of data so the analysts can more quickly get an understanding of what it all means and provide actionable intelligence to the commanders.”

The DCGS is the primary intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) platform for the U.S. Air Force. As part of its operation, more than a thousand analysts sift through a broad range of information, including real-time video, geospatial intelligence, intelligence collected by humans in the field, electronic signals, and other sources to create regular reports on what is happening in global trouble spots.

The Air Force system provides globally-integrated ISR capabilities and feeds into subsystems operated by the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and other agencies that provide information at the unit level.

The system is complex, dating back to the 1960s and involving more than two dozen facilities around the world. DCGS has been built by a number of different vendors, contributing to a “stovepipe” system in which analysts on one part of the system do not necessarily have visibility into what analysts in other parts of the system are doing. Other challenges include disparate hardware and software systems, duplicated applications, differing operating systems, redundant software solutions, network security requirements, and a variety of information technology (IT) procedures.

To address these challenges, the Air Force is adopting an open architecture strategy in which systems are more standardized and the connections between specialized areas are more transparent – with a goal of making the system modular, more efficient and less expensive to operate. As an independent not-for-profit university-based organization, GTRI is helping map out the full system and how it is connected to the flow of data from one part to another – and ultimately provides information useful to warfighters.

“By going to an open architecture system, the goal is to break down the barriers between different stovepipes to realize more efficiencies,” said Louis Tirino, a GTRI senior research engineer who’s also supporting the project. “We can help leverage a lot of existing and new technologies that are available to break down those barriers to bringing data together. Ultimately, this will help reduce costs for the Air Force and ease the management burden.”

Regents Researcher Bill Melvin and Principal Research Engineer Alan Nussbaum teamed together and initiated the partnership with AF DCGS. The program is also supported by GEOINT Specialist and Senior Research Engineer Kyle L. Davis, and SIGINT Specialist and Senior Research Associate Clayton Besse. Several of GTRI’s eight laboratories are involved in different portions of the program.

Over the past six years, GTRI has been engaged in multiple DCGS tasks. Among them was Project Liberty, which developed and deployed a Forward Processing, Exploitation, and Dissemination (FPED) system to analyze real-time, full-motion video, signals intelligence, and other information to provide critical information to field commanders. The system was delivered just eight months after it was proposed.

GTRI’s support to DCGS builds on earlier work done to improve the capabilities of the Nation’s Multi-Disciplinary Intelligence (Multi-INT) system, which monitors incoming data. GTRI’s work in that effort, known as the Multi-INT (MINT) Data Fusion System, helped automate and rapidly transform functions within the intelligence process to maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of analysts working on this task.

MINT also addressed issues of improving network bandwidth and information processing power to help human analysts stay on top of incoming data by focusing on the most significant information. It used the STINGER Graph tool, developed by GTRI, to assist in identifying relations between data.

For the GTRI researchers, the DCGS work is rewarding because it supports the people who risk their lives in the field.

“Ultimately, the entire weapons system is to help the analyst and warfighter do their jobs,” said Tirino. “By breaking down these barriers across the different lanes of incoming information, we can help make the information more readily accessible to the analyst. All of this is here to support the warfighters.”

Source: http://www.news.gatech.edu/2018/05/08/helping-air-force-search-actionable-intelligence-worldwide

May 17, 2018 By cs

Georgia Tech innovations receive national awards

A total of 20 technologies developed by Georgia Tech researchers are featured at the TechConnect World Conference in Anaheim, California, on May 14 – 16, 2018. Of these, three received the National Innovation Award and will be recognized at the event.

TechConnect is the world’s largest showcase and accelerator for industry-vetted emerging technologies ready for commercialization. It provides opportunities for potential corporate, government, and investment partners to learn more about these emerging technologies.

The three Georgia Tech-developed projects that received special recognition include:

Improved Natural Sorbents for Toxic Substance Remediation

This invention devised an approach involving surface modification of natural sorbents to improve performance and environmental viability for toxic substance remediation. The commercial applications for this technology involve contamination recovery for environmental emergencies such as oil spills.

Inventor: Mark Losego, assistant professor, School of Materials Science and Engineering

Stretchable Electronic Materials and Devices

This project integrates stretchable components through solution processing, resulting in fabricated semiconducting films with significantly improved mechanical elasticity. The commercial applications for this technology include stretchable devices, wearable devices, and biomedical sensors.

Inventor: Elsa Reichmanis, professor and Pete Silas Chair in Chemical Engineering, School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

3D-printed Meta-material Tissue-Mimicking Phantoms

This technology involves the fabrication of patient tissue-mimicking phantoms with geometrical and mechanical accuracies using 3D-printed metamaterials. Commercial applications for this technology include surgery planning, model evaluation, and medical education using the 3D-printed model.

Inventors:

Kan Wang, research engineer, Georgia Tech Manufacturing Institute
Ben Wang, Gwaltney Chair in Manufacturing Systems; professor in Materials Science and Engineering; executive director of the Georgia Tech Manufacturing Institute; Georgia Tech Chief Manufacturing Officer
Chun Zhang, professor in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering

To learn more about the event or these technologies, visit techconnectworld.com/World2018.

Source: http://www.news.gatech.edu/2018/05/11/georgia-tech-innovations-receive-national-innovation-awards#more_photos

May 15, 2018 By cs

This is what Georgia Tech thinks college will look like in 2040

The Georgia Institute of Technology has a fondness for bold experiments.

It created the nation’s largest online master’s program in computer science, which won praise for its quality and low cost. It is home to the Center for 21st Century Universities, a “living laboratory” for educational innovation. It introduced artificially intelligent tutors in the classrooms. And it is reimagining the campus library to focus less on books and more on teaching, research, and collaboration.

Three years ago, the university took this experimentation a step further when it established the Commission on Creating the Next in Education, asking it to imagine the public research university of 2040 and beyond. Which business and funding models will become outdated? How will Georgia Tech best serve the next generations of learners?

The commission’s report, recently released, contains a number of provocative ideas. Among them: new credentials that recognize continuous learning, a subscription fee model instead of tuition, “education stations” that bring services and experiences to students, and worldwide networks of advisers and coaches for life.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.chronicle.com/article/This-Is-What-Georgia-Tech/243400

Read the report prepared by Georgia Tech’s Commission on Creating the Next in Education at: http://www.provost.gatech.edu/cne-home

April 24, 2018 By cs

Two popular classes scheduled for June

Need to know the role of a Contracting Officer Representative? And how about contract formation — exactly how does the government put together its contracts?

Whether you are a member of the government’s acquisition team — or a contractor navigating the government’s acquisition process — you need to know the answers to these questions.

**Students attending Georgia Tech’s classes work in teams to tackle real-life contracting problems.**

Fortunately, The Contracting Education Academy at Georgia Tech provides all the answers — in two popular classes in June.

The Contracting Officer’s Representative course (COR 222), coupled with the Contingency Contracting Environment class (COR 206), provides a comprehensive review and detailed instruction on the role, responsibilities, authority, and limitations of authority of the federal government’s Contracting Officer Representative (COR). Students learn the fundamentals of contracting regulations, types, phases, and other elements of contract administration. Students are also coached on the ethical and legal factors that impact COR responsibilities in the normal course of business and in the Contingency Contracting Environment. This course is scheduled to be held June 11 – 15, 2018 on the Georgia Tech campus in Atlanta.

The Contract Formation in the FAR course (CON 090-3) is the third of four modules from CON 090 – Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Fundamentals. It explores the simplified acquisition process, the sealed bidding process, contracts entered into on the basis of both competitive and noncompetitive negotiated arrangements, the required and preferred sources of supplies and services, what must be done to ensure competition, the policies for policies and procedures for pricing negotiated contracts and contract modifications, as well as the policies and procedures for filing bid protests. This course is scheduled to be held June 18 – 22, 2018 on the Georgia Tech campus in Atlanta.

Both courses consist of limited lecture, and are heavily exercise-based. Students get the opportunity to learn the Federal Acquisition Regulation by working through many real-life scenarios. Students also are given access to many exclusive on-line resources.

The Contracting Education Academy at Georgia Tech is an approved equivalency training provider to the Defense Acquisition University (DAU) and provides continuing education training to Acquisition and Government Contracting professionals as well as to business professionals working for government contractors or pursuing opportunities in the federal contracting arena.

For more information on the Contracting Officer Representative course (CON 206/222) and to register, please visit: http://www.pe.gatech.edu/courses/cor-206-222-contracting-officer-representative-course-and-contingency-contracting-environment.

For more information on the Contract Formation in the FAR course (CON 090-3) and to register, please visit: http://www.pe.gatech.edu/courses/con-090-3-contract-formation-far.