UNITED STATES SPECIAL OPERATIONS COMMAND
18.B Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR)
Proposal Submission Instructions
Introduction:
The United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) seeks small businesses with strong research and development capabilities to pursue and commercialize technologies needed by Special Operations Forces (SOF). The USSOCOM Program Executive Officers (PEOs) submitted the topics to the USSOCOM STTR Program Manager (PM) as topics that may transition to an acquisition Program of Record or Concept of Operation. In turn, the USSOCOM STTR PM submitted the topics to the Department of Defense (DoD) for inclusion in the DoD 18.BSTTR announcement.
A thorough reading of the “U.S. Department of Defense Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Program: Program Announcement FY 18.B” prior to reading these USSOCOM instructions is highly recommended. These USSOCOM instructions explain certain unique aspects of the USSOCOM STTR Program that differ from the DoD announcement and its instructions.
Technical Inquiries:
During the Pre-release Period of the DoD 18.BSTTR Broad Agency Announcement (BAA), any questions should be limited to specific information that improves the understanding of a particular topic's requirements. All questions must be submitted in writing either by email to (if the question(s) includes company sensitive information not to be released to the general public) or to the online STTR/STTR Interactive Topic Information System (questions and answers will be released to the general public). USSOCOM does not allow inquirers to talk directly or communicate in any other manner to the topic authors (differs from Section 4.15.c. of the DoD 18.BSTTR Program Announcement instructions). All inquiries must include the topic number in the subject line of the e-mail.
During the Open Period, follow the instructions in section 4.15.d of the DoD 18.BSTTR BAA instructions.
Site visits will not be permitted during the Pre-release and Open Periods of the DoD 18.BSTTR BAA.
Phase I Proposal Submission:
Potential Offerors shall submit Phase I proposals in accordance with the DoD 18.BSTTR BAA.
Companies submitting a Phase I proposal under this BAA must complete the Cost Volume using the on-line form, within a total cost not to exceed $150,000 over a period of up to six months.
Phase I proposals shall NOT include:
1)Travel expenses to USSOCOM. Phase I Kick-Off and Phase I Out-Brief Meetings will be conducted via electronic media only.
2)Priced or Unpriced Options.
3)Discretionary Technical Assistance.
4)A Technical Volume exceeding 20 pages. USSOCOM will only evaluate the first 20 pages of the Technical Volume. Additional pages will not be considered or evaluated.
Phase II Proposal Submission:
Small business concerns awarded a Phase I contract may choose to submit a Phase II proposal no later than thirty (30) calendar days following the end of the Phase I contract. Submission of a Phase II proposal is not included as part of the Phase I contract.
Potential Offerors shall submit Phase II proposals in accordance with Section 5.0, specifically the format and content instructions located in Section 5.4, of the DoD 18.BSTTR BAA via the following link must also complete the cost volume using the Cost Proposal Form posted on the USSOCOM section of the submission site. Offerors can contact the STTR Help Desk at r 1-800-348-0787 for assistance in obtaining the Cost Proposal Form. The Cost Proposal information (PDF format) shall be appended to and submitted with the Phase II Technical Volume. The Excel format of the Cost Proposal shall be submitted to . The Technical Volume shall not exceed 20 pages. USSOCOM will only evaluate the first 20 pages of the Technical Volume. Additional pages will not be considered or evaluated. The appended Cost Proposal does not count toward the 20-page Technical Volume limit, nor does the Company Commercialization Report.
USSOCOM does not provide Discretionary Technical Assistance in its Phase II awards.
Phase I and II Evaluations:
USSOCOM evaluates Phase I and II proposals using the evaluation criteria specified in Sections 6.0 and 8.0 of the DoD 18.BSTTR BAA. USSOCOM does NOT consider Volume 5 information in the evaluation of the Technical Volume. The Technical evaluation is only based on the 20 page Technical Volume.
For Phase I only, USSOCOM will evaluate price as follows:
1)Proposals priced in excess of $150,000.00 will not be considered for award.
2)The appropriateness and reasonableness of the proposed price will only be evaluated on those proposals recommended for award based on the non-price evaluation criteria identified in Section 6.0 of the DoD 18.BSTTR BAA.
Additionally, input on technical aspects of the proposals may be solicited by USSOCOM from non-Government consultants and advisors who are bound by appropriate non-disclosure requirements. Non-Government personnel will not establish final assessments of risk, rate, or rank Offeror’s proposals. These advisors are expressly prohibited from competing for USSOCOM STTR awards. All administrative support contractors, consultants, and advisors having access to any proprietary data will certify that they will not disclose any information pertaining to this announcement, including any submission, the identity of any submitters, or any other information relative to this announcement; and shall certify that they have no financial interest in any submission. Submissions and information received in response to this announcement constitutes the Offeror’s permission to disclose that information to administrative support contractors and non-Government consultants and advisors.
Selection Notifications:
E-mail will be used by the Government Contracting Officer to notify the Offeror if they have or have not been selected for award. The e-mail notification will only be sent to the Corporate Official (Business) identified by the Offeror.
Informal Feedback:
A non-selected Offeror can make a written request, within 30 calendar days of receipt of notification of non-selection, for informal feedback. USSOCOM will provide informal feedback within 30 calendar days of an Offeror’s written request rather than a debriefing as specified in paragraph 4.10, entitled "Debriefing," of the DoD 18.BSTTR announcement.
Foreign Nationals (Foreign Citizens):
The definition of a foreign national is included in Section 3.5 of the DoD 18.BSTTR Program Announcement. Consistent with Section 5.4.c. (8) of the DoD 18.B Program Announcement, the Offeror shall identify all foreign nationals expected to be involved with the USSOCOM Phase I or Phase II effort to include each foreign national’s country of origin and level of involvement (identify specific tasks). The Offeror shall identify all foreign nationals in the appropriate section of the proposal. The USSOCOM STTR Program oftentimes pursues technologies that require companies to complete the DoD Contract Security Classification Specification (DD Form 254) to protect sensitive Government Furnished Property and Government Furnished Information during the Phase II period of performance.
The identification of foreign national involvement in a USSOCOM STTR topic is needed to determine if a firm is ineligible for award on a USSOCOM topic that falls within the parameters of the United States Munitions List, Part 121 of the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR). A firm employing a foreign national(s) (as defined in paragraph 3.5 entitled “Foreign Nationals” of the DoD 18.BSTTR Announcement to work on a USSOCOM ITAR topic must possess an export license to receive a STTR Phase I or Phase II contract.
USSOCOM STTR Program Point of Contact:
Inquiries concerning the USSOCOM STTR Program should be addressed to .
USSOCOM STTR 18.B Topic Index
SOCOM18B-001 / Human-Machine Teaming with Machine Learning AlgorithmsUSSOCOM - 1
USSOCOM STTR 18.B Topic Descriptions
SOCOM18B-001 / TITLE: Human-Machine Teaming with Machine Learning AlgorithmsTECHNOLOGY AREA(S): Human Systems, Information Systems, Sensors
ACQUISITION PROGRAM: Rapid Capability Insertion
OBJECTIVE: The objective of this topic is to develop an innovative human-machine teaming (HMT) methods in conjunction with machine learning algorithms.
DESCRIPTION: Significant research and development has been applied to machine learning algorithms to perform tasks such as target detect, track, identification, and characterization. Characterization could include activities or intent of the target. The hypothesis is that automating these processes will improve the efficiency of human intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) analysts that were previously performing these tasks through manual processes. A critical capability need is to develop innovative HMT methods and a test bed capable of analyzing the HMT aspects for this problem. Studies should include trust based analysis. This effort is not aimed at the advancement of the machine learning algorithms unless these advancements directly impact the HMT capability.
In the case of ISR analysts, automation could assist in both real-time and forensic workflows. While the automation of repeatable human tasks has been demonstrated to improve efficiency in many practical applications, there are several challenges that must be overcome before trust in the automation is accepted. Simply replicating the task as performed by the human may not ensure improvement in efficiency. Algorithms often fail to provide the same accuracy and precision obtained by a human, but can provide a less accurate solution at a faster rate; leading to the need for innovative approaches to the HMT aspect. The development of these approaches requires interaction with a fully functional form of the algorithms. Furthermore, the algorithms must be tested at a wide range of accuracy and precision to capture variations in operating conditions that occur in operational environments.
PHASE I: Conduct a feasibility study to assess what is in the art of the possible that satisfies the requirements specified in the above paragraph entitled “Description.”
The objective of this USSOCOM Phase I SBIR effort is to design protocols for executing HMT studies and develop a prototype test bed. These protocols should include salient metrics for both quantitative and subjective analysis of the HMT studies. The primary deliverable will be a final report that will include hardware and software designs as appropriate. The funds obligated on the resulting Phase I SBIR contracts are to be used for the sole purpose of conducting a thorough study using scientific experiments and laboratory studies as necessary. Operational prototypes will not be developed with USSOCOM SBIR funds during Phase I feasibility studies. Operational prototypes developed with other than SBIR funds that are provided at the end of Phase I feasibility studies will not be considered in deciding what firm(s) will be selected for Phase II.
PHASE II: Further develop, install, and demonstrate an enhanced prototype test bed determined to be the most feasible solution during the Phase I feasibility study. The prototype test bed will demonstrate novel HMT approaches. Labeled target Full Motion Video (FMV) data will be provided by the Government. While the initial prototype test bed is expected to work with FMV data, the capability being developed must be extensible to a broad range ISR data types. The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Analyst Test Bed (ATB) is a hardware/software environment that enables assessment of tools and processes specific to ISR analysts and located at Wright Patterson Air Force Base. This AFRL facility may be utilized to support this research effort.
PHASE III DUAL USE APPLICATIONS: In Phase III, the prototype system will be matured and finalized. A technology transition plan will be developed for consideration by USSOCOM program managers. Commercialization applications include other Government agencies and commercial sectors relying on automation of analysts processes.
REFERENCES:
1. Redmon, Joseph, and Ali Farhadi. "YOLO9000: better, faster, stronger." arXiv preprint arXiv:1612.08242 (2016) and Girshick, Ross. "Fast r-cnn." In Proceedings of the IEEE international conference on computer vision, pp. 1440-1448. 2015
2. Kosiorek, Adam R., Alex Bewley, and Ingmar Posner. "Hierarchical Attentive Recurrent Tracking." arXiv preprint arXiv:1706.09262 (2017)
3. Li, Wei, Rui Zhao, Tong Xiao, and Xiaogang Wang. "Deepreid: Deep filter pairing neural network for person re-identification." In Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, pp. 152-159. 2014
4. Ahmed, Ejaz, Michael Jones, and Tim K. Marks. "An improved deep learning architecture for person re-identification." In Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, pp. 3908-3916. 2015
KEYWORDS: human-machine teaming, machine learning, analyst workflows, Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance, ISR
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