improving USACE partnerships through innovation > Kansas City District > Kansas City District News Stories

improving USACE partnerships through innovation > Kansas City District > Kansas City District News Stories

Picture if you were advised that a new software package system could help save you 40{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} of the time you currently shell out on administrative duties at function. What could you do with that further time? That is the exciting question that a lot of inside the U.S. Military Corps of Engineers may well be asking them selves when a new building management platform is unveiled to the enterprise.

The Know-how Administration Office environment, or TMO, a branch of the Design Management Innovation Workplace within USACE Headquarters, is doing work difficult to establish and supply a new design management system. The new platform will be created to foster a much more economical, collaborative doing the job environment by streamlining and modernizing present-day building administration processes.

The new construction administration platform will switch the Resident Administration Program, or RMS for shorter, which is the platform at present being applied by USACE and its contractor associates. RMS is the system by which USACE and contractor companions converse with each and every other all over the program of a development undertaking.

By replacing RMS with a new, more modern day system, the TMO hopes to streamline how USACE assignments are finished by increasing collaboration among the complete venture team like external associates. This would, in convert, boost workflow performance associated to the complete building administration procedure.

“To me, one of the genuinely great areas of this undertaking is that it will not just be innovating the items we’re providing, but the approach by which we produce tasks,” said Alexandra Henderson Connors, building management technologies modernization supervisor, who operates out of the Kansas City District in Kansas Town, Missouri.

A fairly new branch of the Construction Administration Innovation Office environment, the TMO is nevertheless in the early stages of style and design and improvement for the new design administration platform. The replacement platform has a projected launch day to the USACE enterprise of 2025. The perform currently being performed by the TMO found in the Kansas Town District will have prolonged-long lasting advantages for the full organization and our mission.

But replacing RMS is just the suggestion of the iceberg for the TMO. The crew will keep on to take care of projects and oversee initiatives focused on escalating construction quality and effectiveness.

“The system is seriously the floor amount that will allow us to deliver in all of these other improvements … it is that 1st move to be equipped to continue on to innovate … and then we can start to do all of these other really cool items,” claimed Henderson Connors.

Extensive-phrase, the Construction Management Innovation Office environment and the TMO have a plan to continue on to innovate by focusing on construction management technological know-how, study and growth. Innovating now and into the potential, USACE aims to continue to be aggressive with the personal design business.

The TMO hopes its improvements will strengthen USACE partnerships across the nation and all over the entire world, keeping its status as a reliable federal partner. With a emphasis on the intersection of folks, method and technological know-how, modernizing the method by which USACE completes its mission will provide to improve latest partnerships and build new, long lasting partnerships in the potential.

“These devices will showcase USACE’s determination to holding up with technological innovation that operates for task shipping workers, not towards them,” claimed Darrick Godfrey, USACE Headquarters senior development engineer.

Whilst the prospect of strengthening and developing new external partnerships is an extra bonus, USACE leadership acknowledges that enhancing building management processes is critical to the mission and hopes its determination to market excellence will draw in new talent and retain current talent.

“If we are open to new ideas, discovering strategies of finding new procedures and engineering that will increase tried and correct USACE processes … there is no restrict to exactly where our electronic transformation journey will direct,” stated Godfrey, “and we could possibly just have pleasurable executing it.”

For additional information about a profession with the TMO or USACE, pay a visit to Professions and Work with the Kansas City District (military.mil).

What is the latest family history technology and innovation?

What is the latest family history technology and innovation?

Using terms like augmented reality, artificial intelligence, the cloud, blockchain, social media and 5G, the RootsTech 2023 Innovation and Tech Forum highlighted some of the latest innovations, technology and platforms available in the world of family history. 

The services and products go beyond the screen to connect families and friends to each other in the present and into the past — fitting into this year’s conference theme of “Uniting.”

Moderated by Dr. Nick Barratt, an author, broadcaster and historian best known for his work on BBC’s “Who Do You Think You Are?”, the event on March 2 allowed representatives from nine companies to take to the main stage and have a few minutes to highlight their latest offerings.

Marco Polo

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Vlada Bortnik, co-founder and CEO of Marco Polo, speaks to the audience of the RootsTech Innovation and Tech Forum at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City on March 2, 2023.

Screenshot from RootsTech.org broadcast

The forum’s featured speaker was Vlada Bortnik, co-founder and CEO of Marco Polo — a popular video messenger app which allows users to have face-to-face connections with their family members and friends on their own schedule.

Bortnik said in founding the company, she and her husband asked themselves, “What do we want for our kids?” The answer was more happiness. In her research on happiness, she found an 80-year Harvard study that concluded, “relationships are the only things that matter in life,” Bortnik said. Close relationships in particular made for happier and healthier people.

The company’s purpose was born from that idea: to help people feel close. When sending a “polo” or video to someone else, the app’s users have privacy, no ads, no algorithms, likes or followers. 

“Investing in your relationships is really important,” Bortnik said. “It’s important to you and to happiness. Take the time to invest. Take the time to prioritize using technologies that you trust.”

FamilySearch

Andy Gold from FamilySearch talked about how his team has worked hard to build technology to bring families closer together and be united. 

He explained Computer-Generated Trees (CGT) — “They’re family trees, built in specific locales around the world for richly indexed historical records.”

FamilySearch processes these in the cloud, using machine learning, AI tools and clustering. Then they layer audits on top of that to make sure the trees are accurate.

“CGTs build the necessary scaffolding to house all the data necessary in tree form,” Gold said. 

Complex connections are done in a matter of hours rather than thousands of hours of manual labor. 

“This quickly brings family structures into focus for people that are trying to discover their families, and these are from entire populations of people, they come from millions of different types of records,” he said.

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Andy Gold from FamilySearch presents during the RootsTech Innovation and Tech Forum at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City on March 2, 2023.

Mary Richards, Church News

Gold showed images of birth, marriage and death records from several countries, and explained that the technology needed to be one system — like a pipeline — to process all that complex information, while following principles of the genealogical proof standard.

FamilySearch now has five new computer-generated collections online at familysearch.org/search/cgt — in Tasmania, Australia; Santa Catarina, Brazil; Pangasinan, Philippines; Nuevo Leon, Mexico; and Abruzzo, Italy. 

“At the end of the day, our goal is to build software that emulates expert thinking at scale to assist both experts and non-experts discover relationships more efficiently,” Gold said.

Storied

Finn Larson and Cody Mortensen presented from Storied, a company that helps people start a tree from scratch or upload their family tree from another site. 

They showed how to write stories on the site, by inputting a few details and then using AI to generate a draft. 

“From there I can edit anything, delete anything, add my own voice and really make it my own. Sometimes staring at a blank page can be intimidating. But ‘story assist’ is here to help you get the ball rolling,” said Mortensen.

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Cody Mortensen, left, and Finn Larson, right, from the company Storied, share examples of adding different connections on the family history platform during the RootsTech Innovation and Tech Forum at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City on March 2, 2023.

Screenshot from RootsTech.org broadcast

Larson said the relationship tab of the website allows people to add any relationships to their tree, even enemies, teammates, friends or pets. 

“Think about the characters in the stories in your lives. When we built a story-oriented family history service from the ground up, we knew we needed to support many types of relationships,” Larson said.

He said collaborative storytelling and relationships outside of the family tree will change the way that family history is both consumed and conducted. 

Bank of Memories

Iryna Savytska, the CEO of Bank of Memories, a pay service allowing people to keep their private family network on blockchain, said data is lost every day while data keeps growing. 

Between all the different apps and social media platforms, “there is no single place, for example, [where] my child can enter in 10 years from now and see something about my life,” Savytska said, while wearing a Ukrainian dress during her presentation to show how her country and family traditions are important to her. 

“When you analyze where data is stored, you understand it’s everywhere and nowhere at the same time,” she said. Therefore decentralization and blockchain technology can give power over data back to people in a secure and reliable way.

By uploading an existing family tree to blockchain, she said, people can access that tree many years into the future. 

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Iryna Savytska, the CEO of Bank of Memories, speaks on the stage while wearing a Ukrainian dress for the RootsTech Innovation and Tech Forum at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City on March 2, 2023.

Screenshot from RootsTech.org broadcast

KinSame

KinSame is a startup company that uses computer vision technology to identify family relationships or kinships from images. 

Looking at two photos, the software uses algorithms and machine learning to match and compare facial features, thus establishing familial connections — and the degree of kinship. 

The software can also identify people in family portraits and older pictures and see who is who in the picture. Using meta data from genealogy companies, KinSame identifies who the people are and fills in age and gender.

“We can structure the database and galleries in a way that a person who’s previously unidentified will find their way to the family,” said CEO Warren Stein. 

GENXT

Stas Nikolskiy with GENXT spoke about how his company uses a confidential computing network to search across databases without genetic data disclosure. 

The service allows companies to find relatives for their customers in each other’s databases without data disclosure.

“There are only five leading databases of which exceed 1 million individuals,” he said, “Databases of [an] average company range from 1,000 to 100,000 individuals, which is not enough for a reasonable number of matches.”

He said personal genomics companies can not access genetic data of others, but his company can communicate matches to its customers in their preferred format.

Ericsson

Oscar Johnson from Ericsson demonstrated the use of augmented reality and virtual reality in storytelling. 

“5G is the combinatorial effect to bring immersive content off the computer, out of the building, out of your home, off your Wi Fi network, and deliver that immersive content anywhere,” Johnson said.

Ericsson’s new platform is called, “Every Place Has a Story,” or EPHAS. Johnson showed a video of how the platform used maps, graphics, audio and visual features with augmented reality to tell the story of a battle in the former Soviet Union.

“When the limitations of technology disappear, the only thing that remains is your imagination,” Johnson said.

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Oscar Johnson with Ericsson takes a selfie with the audience at the RootsTech Innovation and Tech Forum at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City on March 2, 2023.

Screenshot from RootsTech.org broadcast

Synium Software

Benjamin Günther, the CEO of Synium Software, demonstrated the company’s MacFamilyTree app, which can be purchased for Macs, iPhones and iPads. 

“It has always been our core belief that family history is so much more than just a list of names,” Günther said. He said their app allows an immersive, engaging and innovative way to discover family history. 

It has built-in FamilySearch integration, and the user can scan for relatives or look for photos of families or people and then with one click, download the information. 

The app allows people to colorize black and white photos or enhance the quality of legibility on older documents with machine learning and artificial intelligence. Users also can sync with different devices, create visual family trees, family books, charts and visuals. 

MyHeritage

The company MyHeritage has had a lot of attention recently as people share the results of its “AI Time Machine” on social media. The senior vice president of product, Maya Lerner, showed on the screen a picture of herself depicted as a woman in many different historical periods. 

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Maya Lerner with MyHeritage shows the results of running her photo through the company’s “AI Time Machine,” which pictured her in various historical settings, during the RootsTech Innovation and Tech Forum at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City on March 2, 2023.

Mary Richards, Church News

The technology uses the photos of one person to construct a model of that person in a variety of poses. Then, using a series of predefined historical themes, it synthesizes the model with motifs from the themes to create images from the past — casting that person as a historical figure.

As the AI Time Machine has gone viral on social media, Lerner said it has drawn new audiences into genealogy. 

“People are saying that it shows them how much they resemble their ancestors,” she said. “All of a sudden they see themselves in these historical things, and they feel like they look very much alike. This got them to pay tribute to their ancestors and post on social media all these beautiful stories about them.”

Lerner said the company noticed that the AI images actually also empowered women to feel good about themselves.  “Who knew the past could make you feel so good about the present?” she said.

More about RootsTech 2023

RootsTech is an annual family history and technology conference sponsored by FamilySearch, which is a nonprofit genealogical organization operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

RootsTech 2023 kicked off on March 2 and goes through March 4 in Salt Lake City. After two consecutive years of being held completely online, this year’s conference has events both in-person and online.

The first day’s events also included the 2023 Temple and Family History Leadership Instruction, and a keynote address from singer Jordin Sparks.

Feb. 28- March 6, 2023 Innovation & Tech Today

Feb. 28- March 6, 2023 Innovation & Tech Today

Every day we wake up, consume some espresso, get all set for do the job and check out on the newest tech information. Here’s a handful of stories from around the tech earth condensed to suit into your initial cup. These are some points you have to have to know ahead of you phase foot out of your door (or in front of a webcam) and into the tech world this morning.

Supreme Court Hears Arguments on Area 230 Go well with

The U.S. Supreme Court read oral arguments in a landmark scenario to determine whether web businesses can be held liable for directing end users to incitement to violence on their platforms. The situation could decide regardless of whether the liability protections contained in Section 230 of Communications Decency Act of 1996 are constitutional. 

The case was brought by the relatives of Nohemi Gonzalez, an American university scholar who was murdered during the 2015 terrorist assault in Paris, in opposition to Google and its YouTube movie support. Islamic Point out terrorists claimed duty for the assault that killed more than 130 individuals, including 90 at the Bataclan theater. A further 100 have been critically hurt. 

Gonzalez’s household asserts that Google not only hosted violent content material on YouTube, but that its algorithm, and the thumbnails it designed, actively radicalized users by encouraging them to look at additional and additional of that violent information.

Gonzalez’s legal professional, Eric Schnapper, argued that YouTube, by disregarding recurring complaints about the algorithm serving violent ISIS video clips, aided and abetted the attack that killed Nohemi Gonzalez. Questioning by the Justices appeared to indicate their worry that a ruling in favor of the Gonzalez relatives would spark a wave of litigation.

AI Produced Art Loses US Copyright Protections 

The U.S. Copyright Office dominated that graphics made by AI-run graphic turbines are not eligible for copyright defense.

In a letter resolved to the lawful counsel of writer Kris Kashtanova, the place of work revoked a past copyright issued to an graphic produced by Midjourney technologies for her comedian reserve Zarya of the Dawn. In the unique software, Kashtanova failed to disclose that AI generated the impression. 

“We conclude that Ms. Kashtanova is the creator of the Work’s textual content as nicely as the range, coordination, and arrangement of the Work’s published and visual factors,” reads the copyright letter. 

“That authorship is protected by copyright. Even so, as discussed underneath, the images in the Perform that have been generated by the Midjourney technological know-how are not the products of human authorship. Dependent on the report prior to it, the Workplace concludes that the visuals created by Midjourney contained in the Operate are not primary functions of authorship safeguarded by copyright.

Motorola Launches $5 Month-to-month Satellite Information Support

A new fob by Motorola, dubbed the Defy Satellite Connection, will empower smartphones to mail and obtain satellite texts in regions with no mobile signal. The unit will link to the Bullitt Satellite Messenger App on each Android and iOS telephones and is able of location sharing, crisis help and two-way messaging. The Motorola fob will retail for $99, which is significantly less costly than upgrading to a satellite-enabled smartphone. 

Bullitt support strategies start off at about $5 for 30 satellite texts per thirty day period, with a totally free 12-month selection for SOS support. The prepare will go over North The us and Europe at launch, increasing to Central and South The usa, Africa and Australia by mid-2023, in accordance to CNBC.

Iphone 14 and afterwards arrive with one particular-way satellite texting, SOS, and place sharing, with two a long time of no cost services.

SpaceX Start Scrubbed After Last-Minute Ignition Problem

With only two minutes remaining till liftoff, the SpaceX Crew-6 mission to the Intercontinental House Station controllers it termed off. The start initially scheduled for 1:48 a.m. from Florida’s Kennedy Space Middle is expected to be rescheduled to 12:34 a.m. on Thursday, March 2.

SpaceX officials claimed there was a issue with the Falcon 9 rocket motor ignition program. Floor equipment could not verify there was a full load of ignition gasoline. 

The mission is scheduled to supply a 4-astronaut crew, like two NASA astronauts, 1 Russian cosmonaut and the initial ever house traveler from the United Arab Emirates. They will reduce the 4-individual crew who have staffed the ISS considering that October. 

SpaceX has a deal to produce the following eight missions to the ISS with its reusable Dragon 2 spacecraft. The craft has traveled to the ISS 33 situations, with 16 of these staying reflights. 

https://www.youtube.com/observe?v=Ba7rrEHotXM

The Ameswell Hotel Embraces Technology Innovation to Improve Efficiency and the Guest Experience |

The Ameswell Hotel Embraces Technology Innovation to Improve Efficiency and the Guest Experience |
The hotel’s determination to know-how and innovation is a vital factor of its success and sets it apart from other hotels in the area.


By HTN Staff – 1.23.2023

The Ameswell Lodge, a luxury lodge in Mountain See, California, that opened in July 2021, stands out for its progressive technological innovation, which improves the visitor practical experience and encourages sustainability. Developed by Broadreach Money Companions and Rockwood Funds, and managed by Storey Lodge Management Team, the resort sits on 10 acres and offers 225 rooms and suites, a few eating selections, a pool, spa, and fitness centre.

Just one of the most notable technological advancements at the Ameswell Lodge is the deployment of Bear Robotic’s Servi, a self-driving indoor supply robot at Roger, the hotel’s main cafe. These robots, named Wall-E and Eve, supply friends the convenience of buying and having to pay for their foodstuff employing their mobile phones, which not only increases the guest working experience but also enables for extra effective company. This technological know-how is important as it allows the hotel to preserve up with the developing desire for contactless solutions and make the ordering method more economical and hassle-free for attendees.

In recent many years, Bear Robotics has experienced sizeable progress in its business enterprise. Considering that its institution in 2017, the enterprise has found a threefold improve in its functions. Today, a lot more than 5,000 of its robots are in use in different eating places and motels across the United States. The company’s most important product is its self-driving indoor delivery robot, which is intended to make improvements to the performance and usefulness of food items shipping in lodges and restaurants. In addition to the deployment of Bear Robotics’ Servi robots, the places to eat at the Ameswell Resort are geared up with point out-of-the-artwork equipment that contains exact temperature programming for top quality regulate and technologies to reduce food waste.

Another crucial technologies characteristic at the Ameswell Lodge is the use of photo voltaic panels, which offer electric power to the hotel’s LED bulbs. This not only reduces the hotel’s environmental affect but also will allow the lodge to preserve on energy fees, which can be beneficial for the hotel’s bottom line. The Ameswell is also utilizing biodegradable cleaning solutions and a Dedicated Outside Air Technique (DOAS) which operates 24/7, these are all actions that aid the resort to be more sustainable.

Much more recently, in November, The Ameswell Lodge selected Optii Options, a foremost cloud-based mostly hotel functions application, as its housekeeping administration system. The option is presently currently being applied to assist strengthen conversation concerning its entrance and back-of-residence staff members. Optii Chat will help the teams to eliminate radio chatter and increase synergy among the departments. The resort is searching for real-time visibility throughout its operations as a result of Optii and to have a status of residing assets and jobs so that the group can streamline their working day-to-working day and regular inner jobs can be automated and updated seamlessly.

Optii’s sector-first know-how is built to optimize hotel operations so that scheduling and housekeeping sequences can be carried out successfully and properly. Products and solutions these as Preventative Upkeep will supply insights across the full house and diverse departments, so the group can strengthen job allocation. This partnership is Optii’s initial leveraging the new Stayntouch integration, and is element of Ameswell’s wider strategy to go on to be a technological know-how-ahead resort.

News: NATO Approves 2023 Strategic Direction for New Innovation Accelerator, 12-Dec.-2022

News: NATO Approves 2023 Strategic Direction for New Innovation Accelerator, 12-Dec.-2022

On 12 December 2022, the Board of Administrators of NATO’s Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA) agreed that electrical power resilience, safe information sharing and sensing and surveillance will be the precedence parts of target for DIANA’s function on Rising and Disrupting Systems (EDTs) in 2023.

The a few parts make up the spine of DIANA’s Strategic Course for 2023. The Strategic Direction will generate the identification of DIANA’s initial defence and protection difficulties, for which dual-use technological alternatives have to be identified. “This strategic way presents the DIANA Government crystal clear direction on the development of pilot programmes that we will start in Spring 2023. These programmes will benefit both of those civilian and military services communities” commented David Van Weel, DIANA’s interim controlling director. 

Power Resilience will seek out to guarantee that vitality is at all instances offered and adequate to sustain NATO’s missions and functions. Technological remedies in this area should assist Allies improved put together for, minimize, adapt to, and get well from anticipated and unanticipated electrical power disruptions. Protected Info Sharing addresses the need to have for guarded, responsible assortment-by-dissemination of suitable info and guarantees that the resultant information-derived information and facts can be dependable. Sensing and Surveillance broadly applies to the detection and systematic observation of bodily and digital domains, in buy to permit, for example, situational awareness and forecasting.

At the very same assembly, the Board of Administrators elected its very first Chair, Barbara K. McQuiston, Deputy Chief Technological know-how Officer for Science and Technological innovation, US Division of Protection, as very well as a Vice Chair, Imre Porkoláb, Ministerial Commissioner for Defence Innovation, Hungarian Ministry of Defence.

NATO Allies agreed to build DIANA at the 2021 Summit in Brussels. DIANA will offer deep tech, twin-use innovators in NATO countries with funding and a speedy keep track of to adapt their technological options to defence and stability demands. This will also assist make certain that the Alliance retains its technological edge in precedence locations, such as big-data processing, synthetic intelligence (AI), autonomy, quantum, biotechnologies and human enhancement, strength and propulsion, novel elements and innovative production, hypersonics and house. DIANA’s Constitution was accredited at NATO’s 2022 Summit in Madrid.   The Board of Directors, which held its very first conference in October 2022, is responsible for the organisational governance of DIANA and is comprised of a single member from every single NATO country.