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OSTP Policy Statement on the 2022 Omnibus Appropriations Bill

WASHINGTON (White House) — “The passage of the bipartisan appropriations bill that is now headed to the President’s desk gives fresh momentum to the urgent science and technology priorities of the Biden-Harris Administration,” said Dr. Alondra Nelson, who is performing the duties of Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). “From the creation of Advanced Research Projects Agency-Health (ARPA-H), a new agency to kindle bold research and innovation on cancer and other deadly diseases, to new funding for science at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that advances actionable information on climate change, this spending bill charts a hopeful course to the future.”

***Since 1978, BDPA co-hosts regional career fairs and national technology conferences.*** — BDPA photo

“As our nation emerges from a pandemic that illustrated the life-saving importance of investment in biomedical and public health innovation, we are grateful to see a strong commitment to build on that success,” said OSTP Deputy Director for Health and Life Sciences Dr. Carrie Wolinetz. “Not only does the omnibus include $1 billion in funding and related authorities to stand up President Biden’s proposed ARPA-H, but it provides significant investments in public health infrastructure and workforce, readying us to meet the social and scientific challenges of emerging variants and future biological threats. In addition, as we move forward with our Community Connected Health initiative, which marries telemedicine technology with community-based health delivery, we are delighted to see the critical extension of telehealth flexibilities included in the bill.”

“We are grateful to Congress for providing increases for the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Department of Energy, the U.S. Geological Survey, the US Department of Agriculture, and other science and technology agencies,” said OSTP Principal Deputy Director for Policy Kei Koizumi. “It is especially heartening to see NSF receive resources to establish a new directorate to support research for breakthrough technologies, for solutions to our challenges, for strengthening our global economic competitiveness, and to support a diverse and equitable STEM ecosystem across all of America.”

“With increases to the budgets of NOAA, NASA, and NSF, this omnibus will strengthen our efforts to confront the climate crisis with strong funding for climate research and mitigation,” said OSTP Deputy Director for Climate and Environment Dr. Jane Lubchenco. “The science that this bill will support will strengthen our resilience and better enable us to preserve the natural world so heavily impacted by the climate crisis.”

“Increases in funding for the Department of Energy’s game-changing research in clean energy technologies will increase the technology options for meeting our climate goals and increase our energy security” said OSTP Deputy Director for Energy Dr. Sally Benson. “The bill also marks a turning point, accelerating the development of fusion power by providing funding for the Milestone-Based Development Program that supports public-private partnerships to develop practical approaches for making electricity from fusion, the same process that powers the Sun.”

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Virtual Earth Day Tech Summit 2022
April 22-23, 2022

Visium Technologies Announces The Hiring of VP-Worldwide Sales

FAIRFAX, VA — Visium Technologies announced the appointment of Keith Scott as its Vice President of Sales and Client Success. Mr. Scott, brings with him more than 20 years’ experience at some of the world’s leading technology and cybersecurity enterprises, and will be responsible for all global direct sales and reseller functions. Keith’s responsibilities will encompass sales team leadership, accelerating Visium’s revenue through expanding Visium’s presence in new geographies, development of new channels, and contributing to the company’s marketing and business strategies.

“I’m pleased to have Keith coming aboard and am looking forward to seeing him make an immediate impact on sales and help us achieve significant growth,” said Mark Lucky, CEO of Visium Technologies.

“Keith has led winning sales operations teams for 20 years and he brings a strong track record of building global sales teams that are focused on delivering customer value and maximizing revenue opportunities.”

Mr. Scott brings a broad range of experience to his new position including executive sales and business development roles at both startups and large enterprise organizations, including with AppDynamics, FireEye, CA Technologies, Concord Communications, Getronics and J.G. Van Dyke & Associates. Three of these companies were acquired and two had successful IPOs. Moving quickly, Mr. Scott has already started an initiative to double Visium’s North American sales team by assembling the necessary regional and inside sales infrastructure including technical, channel and additional sales resources that will play an essential role in Visium’s revenue growth.

Keith Scott, (far right), is a U.S. Air Force veteran and Lifetime Member of BDPA. He brings with him more than 20 years’ experience at some of the world’s leading technology and cybersecurity enterprises supporting the Department of Defense and Intelligence Community (DOD/IC). Mr. Scott oversees regional Cyber Programs for National BDPA’s Greater Washington, D.C. Chapter (BDPA-DC). Above, Mr. Scott is participating in *CyberEarth17*, his region’s inaugural Earth Day Tech Summit with BDPA-DC and In3DC Incubator at Howard University. — Photo credit: Lynn Dunigan, © 2017 bdpatoday

“I’m honored to join the Visium team and help to build on the solid foundation of our context-based TruContext^TM platform ensuring the best possible customer experience and enhancing the capabilities of existing cyber tools and technologies. Visium is perfectly positioned to help its clients improve business outcomes with visualizations and analytics. Exciting times!”

^{Source and top photo: Visium/ACCESSWIRE
Photos: bdpatoday}

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NOAA’s Global Systems Laboratory Welcomes Dr. DaNa Carlis As New Deputy Director

BOULDER, CO — DaNa L. Carlis, Ph.D., joined GSL as the Deputy Director in September 2020. He comes to GSL from the NOAA Weather Program Office (WPO), where he established the Earth Prediction Innovation Center (EPIC) Program. DaNa enjoys working between science, policy, and society to ensure better products and services for the American people. He is also passionate about leadership, diversity, and inclusion, and mentoring the next generation of scientists.

“I couldn’t be more grateful and excited to join GSL because of its focus on applied research and development, advanced technologies, and transitioning and improving research-to-operations with the National Weather Service (NWS). GSL aligns perfectly with my desire to provide better products and services to the American people. I’ve always wanted to do research that impacts people’s lives, and GSL is a premier NOAA research laboratory that provides innovative tools and services that lead to better decisions and ultimately save lives,” said Carlis. “As the GSL’s Deputy Director, I am committed to bringing strong leadership and listening skills along with a creative mind to continue to advance the GSL mission. In addition, I plan to continue to uphold GSL’s scientific prowess, which is displayed in our cutting-edge research portfolio that is widely recognized by the Weather Enterprise.”

DaNa attended Howard University in Washington, DC, and earned his B.S. degree in Chemistry (1999), and an M.S. (2002) and Ph.D. in Atmospheric Science (2007) as a graduate student of the NOAA Center for Atmospheric Science and Meteorology (NCAS-M). In 2002, DaNa accepted a fellowship from the NOAA Office of Education Educational Partnership Program (EPP) as a member of the Graduate Sciences Program and completed his M.S thesis research at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) conducting an analysis of SO2 cross-sections for the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) satellite. He completed his Ph.D. dissertation on the beautiful island of Oahu, Hawaii, titled “Numerical Simulations of Island-Scale Airflow and the Maui Vortex Under Summer Trade-wind Conditions.” DaNa was the second male to receive a Ph.D. in Atmospheric Sciences since Howard’s inception in 1867.

DaNa credits NCAS-M and NOAA’s Educational Partnership Program/Minority-Serving Institution EPP/MSI Program for allowing him to pursue what he loves and providing a pathway to federal employment. DaNa has held positions at the NWS National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Environmental Modeling Center (EMC) as a research meteorologist working on NOAA’s Global Forecast System (GFS) Model (2007-2014), and as a policy advisor to NOAA’s Chief Scientist and NOAA’s Assistant Secretary of Environmental Observations and Prediction (2014-2016). DaNa is a graduate of NOAA’s Leadership Competency Development Program (LCDP) Class IX where he learned a great leadership lesson that’s been his mantra for the last few years and that’s to work in an environment where he’s comfortably uncomfortable.

DaNa is originally from Tulsa, OK. In his spare time, he enjoys cheering for his favorite sports team, the Oklahoma Sooners, mentoring boys from underrepresented communities that come from single-parent households, and traveling the world with his family. In 2016, he wrote a children’s book titled “MIT: Meteorologist in Training” and he’s published peer-reviewed papers. DaNa is married to Dr. Lydia Carlis, and they have a daughter, Dia Dannielle, who is a senior at Georgia State University. — bt

^{— Source and photo: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)}
^{Cover photo (above): Dr. DaNa Carlis keynotes BDPA’s 2019 annual Regional Earth Day Tech Summit}
^{with Jr. Devs (coders and developers) and Regional High School Coding Competition (HSCC) finalists}

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**Tablets For Teens** | tabletsforteens.org

Coders discuss models and forecasts with NOAA during annual Earth Day Tech Summit

WASHINGTON—BDPA’s annual Earth Day Tech Summit, #CyberEarth19, was presented in Washington, D.C. to Industry, BDPA Members, Student Members, parents, and regional high school coding competition (HSCC) team leaders (cover photo) during Earth Day weekend.

This year’s tech summit special guest was Dr. DaNa L. Carlis from the Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Dr. Carlis is a meteorologist and mathematician serving as a Program Manager at NOAA’s Office of Weather and Air Quality (OWAQ). During one of the event’s Industry Day sessions, Dr. Carlis highlighted missions of NOAA’s “Hurricane Hunter” aircraft with footage from recent flights. He also discussed the roles of drones and new Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) systems to support meteorological research, capture weather forecasting data, and how supercomputers are used to advance weather modeling and simulations.

At OWAQ, Dr. Carlis manages the Forecasting a Continuum of Environmental Threats (FACETs) and Next Generation Global Prediction System (NGGPS) programs. Dr. Carlis enjoys the fact that he’s able to work between science, policy, and society to ensure better products and services to the American people.

During the event’s training sessions, Dr. Carlis met with BDPA Student Members, gamers, and graphic designers from the Host Chapter’s bdpatoday and PTTV multimedia teams. National BDPA’s HSCC was launched in 1986. Local BDPA Chapters conduct training programs designed to share industry trends with parents and expose youth to emerging concepts of computers and technology to provide expertise for software and application development. BDPA Chapters also participate in regional coding and cyber competitions throughout the country to further prepare participating students. BDPA Chapters send one (1) team of 3 to 5 students to annual National BDPA Technology Conferences to compete against teams from other BDPA Chapters for scholarships and internships.

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Event/Photo gallery: https://bdpadc.org
Earth Day summit archives: https://www.pinterest.com/bdpatoday/boards/

-— Source: BDPADC

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STEM ‘Cheerleader’ finalists selected for NASA’s OPSPARC Challenge

WASHINGTON—Three students from Benjamin Banneker Academic High School in Washington, D.C. have been selected as one of eight national high school Glog selection finalists in the NASA Goddard OPSARC Challenge making them the only team on the East Coast to place.

Students were asked to use their imagination and creativity to identify NASA spin-off technologies and increase awareness of the benefits NASA technologies contribute to our everyday lives by participating in NASA’s OPTIMUS PRIME Spinoff Promotion and Research Challenge (OPSPARC). Items such as memory foam, invisible braces, firefighting equipment, artificial limbs, scratch-resistant lenses, aircraft anti-icing systems, shoe insoles, water filters/purification, cochlear implants, satellite television, and long-distance telecommunications were first developed for a NASA mission and then, re-worked to make everyday life easier.

These student finalists, Bria Snell, India Skinner, and Mikayla Sharrieff, also known as “S3“, are 11th grade scholars and varsity cheerleaders from the District’s Benjamin Banneker Academic High School who volunteer at the Inclusive Innovation Incubator (In3) in Washington, D.C. Their participation with In3 is an integral part of their high school’s program and mission to help cultivate globally aware students through active community service. In3 is a new technology incubator corporation located in the Shaw Community near Howard University and supported by Mayor Muriel Bowser’s technology inclusion initiative.

Aaron Saunders, CEO of In3 and In3’s Community Manager, Marissa Jennings founder of Socialgrlz‘ Teen Mobile App, and Travis Bolden of Hales Government Solutions, provided facilities, equipment, materials, and weekly coaching to assist the young innovators with implementation of their “H₂NO” to “H₂O” Glog entry project.

Public voting begins Monday, April 23, 2018 through April 30, 2018.

NASA Finalists and Voting → https://opsparc.gsfc.nasa.gov/finalists-grades-9-12/

Voting is open to anyone in the 50 U.S. states and territories. Winning teams are invited to NASA Goddard Space Flight Center for two days of in-depth, behind the scene, hands-on workshops with scientists and astronauts. Additionally, each winning team receives an award stipend of $4,000, generously provided by the Foundation for Technology and Privacy Outreach to help offset expenses.

— Sources and photos: In3 and NASA

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Tech Association announces Earth Day Summit

WASHINGTON, D.C. (bdpatoday.com) — BDPA of Greater Washington, D.C. (BDPA-DC), an information and communications technology (ICT) local trade association, announces an Earth Day themed technology and cyber career summit for College, Community College, Vocational Technology, and High School students to partner with Industry.

Participating industry and government executives, information technology (IT) experts, and cybersecurity professionals serving as mentors or presenters are invited to present round-table workshops with regional mission-partners to new members, transitioning veterans, students, and general audiences to discuss emerging technologies, the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), and “Planet Earth.”

Now in its tenth successful year, BDPA-DC’s Advance Planning Briefing for Interns (APBi) series continues into 2017 with a Spring APBI, CyberEarth17, at the Washington Marriott Wardman Park followed by a Summer APBI, 2017 Regional Innovation Summit, at Bowie State University. Regional Innovation summits are presented on campus every June with participating Historically Black Colleges and Universities or Minority Serving Institutions (HBCU/MSIs.)

Chartered in 1978, BDPA-DC continues ICT and cybersecurity awareness campaigns with Industry, Academia, and Government. #CyberEarth17, an all-in-one science, cyber, and technology career summit with young adults. Onsite registration and check-in begin April 21-22, 2017 at the Washington Marriott Wardman Park. Online registration is open for members and the general public by visiting BDPADC.org.

About BDPA, Washington, D.C.
BDPA’s mission in the District of Columbia and the National Capital Region (NCR) is to bridge cybersecurity (CS), information technology (IT) and telecommunications competency gaps in urban, under-represented, and underserved communities. Local chapter goals in the National Capital Region (NCR) include, but are not limited to, providing IT and CS educational programs, industry publications, and community outreach services for professionals, young adults, and youth in direct support of software development initiatives, cyberspace workforce development, and government relations. Visit BDPADC.org for strategic partnerships, programs, and new membership information.