ACT-IAC Announces Igniting Innovation 2015 Top 30 Finalists

The American Council for Technology and Industry Advisory Council’s (ACT-IAC) Institute for Innovation announced the Top 30 finalists of the 2015 Igniting Innovation Awards, a recognition program honoring the leading solutions, tools, services and programs developed by government and industry leaders to address government’s biggest IT challenges.

Winners will be announced 11 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 5, at the “Igniting Innovation 2015: Showcase and Awards” event at the Ronald Reagan Building, in Washington, D.C.

The Top 30 finalists are:

• API UX Program (Application Programming Interface User Experience Program), General Services Administration — GSA’s API UX Program makes APIs, a way to share data,  easier for the public to use.
• Army NETCOM Secure Passive Optical Network (SPON), U.S. Army and NIC Inc. — Compared with traditional networks, the secure passive optical network is more cost-effective, faster, consumes 80 percent less power, requires 90 percent less floor space and is more secure.
• BrainKit: TaskPlanner, The MITRE Corporation — BrainKit: TaskPlanner is an iPad app that allows survivors of traumatic brain injury suffering from prospective memory difficulties to better accomplish daily at-home tasks.
• Building Information Modeling (BIM) and the Central Facilities Repository (CFR), General Services Administration — The goal of the CFR initiative is to centralize all current building information, including BIM information so that building data can interoperate with other business applications and be leveraged across the enterprise.
• Department of Labor, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Administration and Management, Office of the Chief Information Officer – DOL Open Enforcement Data Initiative (Enforcement Initiative), Department of Labor and Acentia: The Enforcement Initiative pulls data from six disparate systems developed in complete isolation and makes it available for public search and download.
• Department of State, myServices, Department of State and Accenture Federal Services — After trying other software solutions to modernize its legacy system and implement an integrated tool for service management, the department successfully delivered myServices as a proof of concept using a cloud-based SaaS platform, ServiceNow, at a single post within eight weeks. Currently serving more than 250 customers from 13 federal agencies on the Internet, State is now focused on deploying this tool globally.
• DHS Management Cube, Department of Homeland Security and REI Systems, Inc. — The Management Cube brings management data from eight different DHS IT systems into a virtual platform so any authorized DHS employee can access data, build a dashboard and perform analysis without the need for programming or database management skills.
• Digital Analytics Program (DAP), General Services Administration — The Digital Analytics Program (DAP) is a one-of-a-kind shared service that provides meaningful digital analytics data to executive branch federal government agencies at no cost.
• DoD Electronic Fingerprint (eFP) Pilot, Department of the Army, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence and Defense Manpower Data Center, Department of Defense — DMDC integrated a commercial biometric enrollment application into the SWFT system. A light-weight web-based application enabled authorized Army users to capture biographic data and Type-4 fingerprint images via local fingerprint capture devices.
• eHealth Exchange, Spire Communications — The eHealth Exchange is a rapidly growing health information exchange network of partners who securely share clinical information over the Internet nationwide.
• Human Resources Line of Business (HR LOB): Provider Assessment Program — The Provider Assessment marks the first time that separate customer-focused government entities have been evaluated according to a standard set of criteria based on how they provide services to customers.
• Image Management Service, International Technology Services (ITS), U.S. Department of Agriculture — The “thin” image approach enables every USDA agency to customize the image to meet their requirements while sharing the same common core components.
• Infosys Marketplace-as-a-Service (MaaS) Platform, Infosys Public Services Inc. — Infosys “Marketplace-as-a-Service” (MaaS) is a CMS compliant health insurance marketplace delivered as-a-service. As a cloud-based platform, MaaS helps states meet today’s Affordable Care Act mandates quickly in months with a sustainable operating model and integrate different health and social programs, without the complexity and costs of IT.
• Initial Operating Capability Trust Network (IOCTN), Resilient Network Systems Inc. — The IOCTN provides a consistent means for identity verification and access control across applications and organizations, by leveraging authoritative sources from network participants to derive identities/credentials and to resolve access policies that include context and business policy.
• Innovative architecture exploits Big Data to prevent fraud and misuse, Social Security Administration and Lockheed Martin Corporation — SSA established a high performing, scalable architecture with a 36-node Hadoop secure cluster infrastructure built exclusively from cost effective commodity hardware and Big Data techniques.
• Liveness/Playback Detection for Voice Authentication, The MITRE Corporation — The project’s innovation of voice liveness detection mitigates the playback vulnerability of voice authentication to make it stronger.
• MITRE STRONGARM, The MITRE Corporation — STRONGARM delivers the first incident response solution that enables network defenders to identify victims, stop attacks and conduct deep adversary analysis.
• NASA WESTPrime (Web Enterprise Service Technologies) Contract, NASA and Merritt Group — Leading the way in government around an enterprise-wide cloud migration, NASA migrated more than one million pieces of content and 110 websites and applications to the cloud.
• NASA Personal Identity Verification (PIV) Derived Credentials, NASA — The NASA PIV Derived Credential provides an enterprise solution for the implementation, utilization and management of PIV derived credentials for mobile services utilizing NASA approved ICAM infrastructure and services.
• National Cancer Institute, Smokefree.gov Initiative, National Cancer Institute and ICF International — SmokefreeTXT is an evidence-informed smoking cessation text messaging intervention program developed by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) that helps people quit smoking.
• North Carolina Innovation Center, North Carolina Office of Information Technology Services — North Carolina’s Innovation Center was established in 2013 as a proving ground for information technology solutions. In its first year, the iCenter evaluated more than $6M worth of technology on demonstration from industry partners at no cost to the state.
• NYCStreets Permit Management System, New York City Department of Transportation — NYCStreets Permit Management System replaces a 30-year-old mainframe system. The new system provides more self-service options to stakeholders and brings better transparency and accountability to the permitting process.
• Open Data in Motion, General Services Administration — In 2014, Data.gov revamped how the government’s open data is gathered and presented, making it possible for users to get instant access to an up-to-date catalog of the entire federal government’s open data resources.
• PEAK Real Time Eligibility, State of Colorado Governor’s Office of Information Technology — On Oct. 1, 2013, Colorado’s updated public benefits self-service portal — PEAK (Program Eligibility and Application Kit) ‚ went live allowing Coloradans to submit an electronic application for Medical Assistance and receive a real time eligibility determination in most situations.
• Smart Phone Ad-Hoc Networking (SPAN), The MITRE Corporation — The SPAN project provides an alternate means for information dispersal by utilizing Mobile Ad-Hoc Network technology to create a framework for communication between individuals when infrastructure is unavailable, overloaded or untrusted.
• TSA Pre✓™, Transportation Security Administration, Department of Homeland Security and Accenture Federal Services — TSA Pre✓™ is a newly launched intelligence-driven, risk-based initiative helping TSA move away from a one-size-fits-all model to provide the most effective security in the most efficient way.
• “One USDA” program, U.S. Department of Agriculture and NGA.net— “One USDA” is a modern, cost effective, standardized and interoperable HR solution that delivers common-core functionality to support strategic management of human capital.
• U.S. Navy Bremerton Power Dreaming Program, U.S. Navy and ICF International — The Power Dreaming software was developed to help sufferers of PTSD deal with emotional stressors by creating a sense of control within a Virtual Reality (VR) setting.
• Watershed Index, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 4 — The Watershed Index (WSI) tool was developed by EPA Region 4 in collaboration with the EPA Office of Water to assist federal, state and local partners in prioritizing where to invest limited resources towards watershed restoration and protection.
• West Virginia Prosecuting Attorneys Institute/WV Help Mobile Application, West Virginia Interactive — WV Help changes the way first responders and other responsible personnel access government information vital to performing their duties and protecting children. This application is the first of its kind created as an electronic directory to help find resources for dealing with child maltreatment.