The Collier Report of U.S. Government Contracting

Sampling of Federal Government Funding Actions/Set Asides

In order by amount of set aside monies.

• $94,613 - Friday the 10th of July 2015
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  NASA SHARED SERVICES CENTER
  LIGHT DETECTION AND RANGING (LIDAR) SENSING OF THE EARTH AND ITS ATMOSPHERE IS BECOMING AN INCREASINGLY IMPORTANT TOOL FOR EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE. SEVERAL OF THE FUTURE SATELLITE MISSIONS RECOMMENDED BY THE NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCILS DECADAL SURVEY AND BEING PURSUED BY NASA WILL USE LIDAR TECHNOLOGY. IN PARTICULAR, ICESAT-2 HAS BEEN IDENTIFIED AS A TIER-1 MISSION AND IS CURRENTLY IN PHASE-A STUDY. THIS MISSION WILL CARRY ON THE SCIENCE OF THE SUCCESSFUL ICESAT SATELLITE TO MONITOR CHANGES IN ARCTIC ICE SHEETS, MEASURE SEA ICE THICKNESS AND ASSESS ABOVE GROUND BIOMASS THROUGH MAPPING OF VEGETATION CANOPY HEIGHT. WHILE MUCH OF THE BASIC SCIENCE OF LIDAR SENSING IS WELL UNDERSTOOD, THERE REMAINS A NEED FOR CONTINUED RESEARCH INTO THE IMPACT OF REAL WORLD PHYSICAL PROCESSES ON RETRIEVED GEOSCIENCE PRODUCTS. IN PARTICULAR, THE ACCURATE MONITORING OF ICE SHEETS WITH LIDAR HAS BEEN LIMITED TO DATE BY OUR UNDERSTANDING OF LASER PULSE PROPAGATION IN THE COMPLEX SURFACE GEOMETRIES OFTEN FOUND IN ICE SHEET ABLATION ZONES AND ON FAST FLOWING OUTLET GLACIERS, AS WELL AS IN THE PRESENCE OF SCATTERING ATMOSPHERES INCLUDING CLOUDS. ALSO, AS NEW TECHNOLOGY IS INTRODUCED INTO A MISSION, AS IN THE CASE OF THE POSSIBLE USE OF PHOTON COUNTING DETECTORS FOR ICESAT-2, THERE IS A NEED TO INVESTIGATE NEW GEOSCIENCE RETRIEVAL ALGORITHMS FOR THE OPTIMAL OPERATION OF THE INSTRUMENT AND PROCESSING OF THE DATA. SINCE THE PERFORMANCE OF THE ALGORITHMS DEPENDS ON THE INSTRUMENT CHARACTERISTICS COUPLED WITH THE ACTUAL SCENE PHENOMENOLOGY, THE BEST WAY TO PURSUE THESE STUDIES IS A COMPLETE END-TO-END SIMULATION AND MODELING APPROACH. WE PROPOSE SUCH A COMPREHENSIVE MODELING APPROACH AIMED AT THE ADVANCEMENT OF LIDAR SENSING SCIENCE TO BE PURSUED PRIMARILY IN THE CONTEXT OF THE UPCOMING HIGH PRIORITY ICESAT-2 MISSION. OUR UNIQUELY QUALIFIED INTERDISCIPLINARY TEAM IS COMPRISED OF REMOTE SENSING SYSTEM MODELING EXPERTS FROM THE ROCHESTER INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY (RIT) WORKING TOGETHER WITH GEOSCIENTISTS FROM THE UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO (UB) WITH EXPERTISE IN REMOTE SENSING PRODUCT RETRIEVAL AND ERROR MODELING. A NOVEL ELEMENT AND KEY COMPONENT TO OUR PROPOSED RESEARCH WILL BE THE USE OF RIT S THREE DIMENSIONAL, TEMPORALLY DYNAMIC, SCENE AND IMAGE SIMULATION MODELING ENVIRONMENT KNOWN AS DIRSIG (DIGITAL IMAGING AND REMOTE SENSING IMAGE GENERATION). DIRSIG IS A PHYSICS-BASED FIRST PRINCIPLES RADIOMETRIC MODELING SUITE FOR THE CREATION OF PHENOMENOLOGICALLY CORRECT IMAGES. IT IS CAPABLE OF SIMULATING MANY REMOTE SENSING MODALITIES INCLUDING LIDAR USING A UNIQUE PARTICLE-ORIENTED APPROACH TO BEAM PROPAGATION AND SURFACE INTERACTION. THIS APPROACH HAS BEEN SHOWN TO BE RADIOMETRICALLY ACCURATE AND IT CAN PREDICT A VARIETY OF IMPORTANT GEOMETRIC EFFECTS INCLUDING MULTIPLE BOUNCES. THE MODEL ALSO SUPPORTS DETAILED DETECTOR AND PLATFORM EFFECTS INCLUDING MODELS FOR GEIGER MODE AVALANCHE PHOTON DETECTORS AND PLATFORM JITTER. THE SIMULATED LIDAR DATA SETS FOR DYNAMIC COMPLEX ICE GEOMETRIES AND SCATTERING ATMOSPHERES, AND VARIOUS INSTRUMENT CONFIGURATIONS, WILL BE PROCESSED TO GEOSCIENCE PRODUCTS TO QUANTIFY SYSTEM EFFECTS ON THE ACCURACY. THIS PROCESSING WILL INCLUDE A METHOD RECENTLY DEVELOPED BY UB TEAM MEMBERS CALLED SURFACE ELEVATION RECONSTRUCTION AND CHANGE DETECTION (SERAC) WHICH HAS BEEN SUCCESSFULLY APPLIED TO DETECTING ELEVATION CHANGES IN GREENLAND ICE SHEETS. IN ADDITION TO ENHANCING THIS AND SIMILAR ALGORITHMS FOR DATA CHARACTERISTICS ANTICIPATED FROM THE FUTURE MISSIONS, SOPHISTICATED ERROR MODELING (RADIOMETRIC AND GEOMETRIC) WILL BE PERFORMED TO QUANTIFY THE UNCERTAINTIES IN THE RETRIEVED GEOSCIENCE PRODUCTS ASSOCIATED WITH SCENE COMPLEXITY AND INSTRUMENT CHARACTERISTICS. THESE EFFECTS CAN ONLY TRULY BE STUDIED THROUGH OUR PROPOSED COMPREHENSIVE END-TO-END SIMULATION INCLUDING THREE DIMENSIONAL TEMPORALLY VARYING SCENE STRUCTURE, A SCATTERING ATMOSPHERE, SOPHISTICATED INSTRUMENT MODELING COUPLED WITH STATE OF THE ART ALGORITHMS AND ERROR MODELING.

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• $78 - Tuesday the 31st of July 2012
  Department Of Army
  W7NR USPFO ACTIVITY NY ARNG
  ADULT MEALS

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• $66,000 - Friday the 10th of July 2015
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  NASA SHARED SERVICES CENTER
  THE NASA NSTRF PROPOSAL ENTITLED `NANOSTRUCTURED PHOTOVOLTAICS FOR SPACE POWER IS TARGETED TOWARDS RESEARCH TO IMPROVE THE CURRENT STATE OF THE ART PHOTOVOLTAIC TECHNOLOGY. A QUANTUM DOT NIPI DOPING SUPERLATTICE CELL WILL BE PURSUED WITH THE OBJECTIVE OF REALIZING AN INTERMEDIATE BAND SOLAR CELL (IBSC). THE NIPI STRUCTURE IS A NOVEL DESIGN THAT DEPENDS ON MULTIPLE N-TYPE / INTRINSIC / P-TYPE / INTRINSIC REPEAT UNITS. DUE TO THE MULTIPLE QUANTUM WELLS FORMED THROUGH THE THICKNESS OF THE NOVEL STRUCTURE, LATERAL CONTACTS ARE REQUIRED, WHICH CAN BE MADE VIA EPITAXIAL REGROWTH. WITH HIGH DOPING LEVELS, AND CLOSE SPACING BETWEEN DOPED LAYERS, QUANTUM CONFINEMENT OCCURS WITHIN THE SUPERLATTICE. THIS CONFINEMENT CREATES STATES THROUGH WHICH LOWER ENERGY PHOTONS WILL BE ABSORBED, ALTHOUGH THE UNCONFINED BULK MATERIAL IS TRANSPARENT AT THESE ENERGIES. AN ADDITIONAL BENEFIT OF THE TIGHTLY SPACED DOPED LAYERS IS THAT THE ENTIRE REGION WILL BE DRIFT FIELD DOMINATED, AND CARRIERS WILL NOT BE LOST DUE TO RECOMBINATION PRIOR TO THE MUCH SLOWER DIFFUSION PROCESSES. THIS DRIFT FIELD DEPENDENCE ALLOWS QUANTUM DOTS TO BE LOCATED AT ANY LOCATION WITHIN THE DEVICE, WHILE STILL ALLOWING THE CARRIERS TO BE QUICKLY EXTRACTED. THIS FREEDOM IN LOCATING THE QUANTUM DOTS WILL ALLOW THEM TO BE DOPED IN SUCH A WAY AS TO BE HALF FILLED WITH CARRIERS, WHICH IS AN ESSENTIAL REQUIREMENT FOR THE IBSC. WITH THE REALIZATION OF THE IBSC, EFFICIENCY INCREASES WILL BE SEEN, WITH THE POSSIBILITY OF REACHING 46% UNDER ONE SUN AM0 ILLUMINATION. THE HIGH EFFICIENCY THAT IS ATTAINABLE FOR THIS DEVICE STRUCTURE WILL PROVIDE DRAMATIC IMPROVEMENTS IN MASS SPECIFIC POWER, REACHING 1169.9 W/KG AT THE CELL LEVEL, WHICH EXCEEDS THE NASA METRIC OF 500 W/KG. DUE TO THE DRIFT FIELD DOMINATED DEVICE, A SUBSTANTIAL BOOST TO THE RADIATION TOLERANCE IN THE DEVICE IS ACHIEVED, SINCE A DECREASE IN DIFFUSION LENGTH WILL NOT NEGATIVELY AFFECT CARRIER COLLECTION. RADIATION TOLERANCE HAS BEEN SHOWN TO IMPROVE FOR A NIPI DEVICE, WHERE THE EXPECTED LIFETIME IS 11.9 TIMES GREATER THAN A SINGLE JUNCTION GAAS DEVICE, MAKING IT A GOOD CHOICE FOR THE HIGH RADIATION DOSES POSSIBLE IN SPACE. THE RADIATION TOLERANCE, ALONG WITH THE ABILITY TO COLLECT CARRIERS EFFICIENTLY THROUGH DRIFT MECHANISMS INSTEAD OF DIFFUSION ALLOWS THE DESIGN TO FUNCTION WELL FOR THE HIGH CONCENTRATIONS EXPERIENCED IN NEAR SUN MISSIONS. THE WORK TO REALIZE THE IBSC WITH THE QUANTUM DOT NIPI SOLAR CELL CAN BE REALIZED VIA A PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN RIT AND THE NASA GLENN RESEARCH CENTER. SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS HAVE ALREADY BEEN SEEN THROUGH THIS PARTNERSHIP, SOME OF WHICH INCLUDE THE DEVELOPMENT OF HIGH QUALITY QUANTUM DOTS, NANOWIRES, THE PRELIMINARY WORK RELATED TO THE NIPI STRUCTURE AND THE EVALUATION OF THE REGROWTH PROCESS. THIS PARTNERSHIP CAN BE FURTHERED THROUGH THE NSTRF FELLOWSHIP, AND THE SYNERGIES THAT WILL BE CREATED AS RIT STUDENTS INTERACT MORE CLOSELY WITH THE HIGHLY SKILLED NASA STAFF.

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• $5,928 - Tuesday the 6th of March 2012
  Department Of Army
  W7NR USPFO ACTIVITY NY ARNG
  TOTAL FOR PRE MOB EVENT

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• $57,619 - Friday the 10th of July 2015
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  NASA SHARED SERVICES CENTER
  DUSTY MOLECULAR TORI NOT ONLY PLAY A CENTRAL ROLE IN AGN UNIFICATION MODELS BUT ARE ALSO THE DOMINANT SOURCE OF MID IR EMISSION. CONSIDERABLE AMOUNTS OF SPITZER TIME HAVE BEEN DEVOTED TO MEASURING THE DETAILED SHAPES OF THE SPECTRAL ENERGY DISTRIBUTIONS (SED) IN AGN OF ALL TYPES MOTIVATED BY THE NEED TO ESTABLISH THE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF STAR FORMATION AND AGN HEATING THROUGH COSMIC TIME AND THE STRUCTURE OF THE TORUS. HOWEVER, THESE STUDIES HAVE TURNED OUT TO BE INCONCLUSIVE DUE TO THE COMPLEX SED SHAPES OBSERVED. OUR LIMITED KNOWLEDGE OF THE SIZE AND STRUCTURE OF AGN TORI AND HOW THEIR PROPERTIES VARY WITH LUMINOSITY HINDERS OUR ABILITY TO UNDERSTAND THE OBSERVED SED AND HENCE AGN DEMOGRAPHICS. ULTIMATELY THIS INHIBITS OUR ABILITY TO UNDERSTAND THE OBSCURED AGN POPULATION AND THE COSMIC EVOLUTION OF SUPER-MASSIVE BLACK HOLES. WE HAVE BEEN AWARDED A SIGNIFICANT ALLOCATION OF SPITZER TIME (196 HRS) IN CYCLE-8 TO OBTAIN THE DATA NECESSARY TO REVERBERATION MAP THE TORUS SIZE IN A SAMPLE OF 12 TYPE 1 AGN. THIS STUDY REPRESENTS A MAJOR ADVANCE IN THE FIELD, MORE THAN DOUBLING THE NUMBER OF OBJECTS WHICH HAVE BEEN STUDIED TO DATE, WHILE RADICALLY IMPROVING THE FIDELITY OF THE OBSERVATIONAL DATA AND ENABLING AN INVESTIGATION OF THE DEPENDENCE OF TORUS PROPERTIES ON KEY PHYSICAL PARAMETERS OF THE AGN (E.G. BH MASS, EDDINGTON RATIO). HOWEVER, DESPITE THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CAPABILITY TO STUDY THE TEMPORAL VARIATIONS ACROSS THE WHOLE (2- 150μM) SPECTRAL RANGE, THERE HAS BEEN ESSENTIALLY NO FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF THEORETICAL RESPONSE MODELS SINCE THAT OF BARVAINIS(1992). IN PARTICULAR, NO SUCH STUDY HAS BEEN BASED ON THE CURRENT GENERATION OF CLUMPY TORUS MODELS. OUR AIM IN THIS PROJECT IS TO ADDRESS THIS KEY DEFICIENCY BY MAKING DETAILED THEORETICAL PREDICTIONS OF THE TEMPORAL RESPONSE FUNCTION OF THE TORUS SED OVER WIDE RANGE OF PARAMETER SPACE. THE PRODUCTS OF THIS RESEARCH WILL PROVIDE A MODELING FRAMEWORK FOR EXTRACTING GEOMETRICAL AND PHYSICAL PARAMETERS OF THE TORUS FROM THE SPITZER CAMPAIGN DATA, OTHER EXISTING DATA SETS AND FUTURE OBSERVATIONAL STUDIES OF THE TEMPORAL RESPONSE OF AGN IN THE M/FIR/SUB-MM. ULTIMATELY, SUCH STUDIES, WITH THE THEORETICAL UNDERPINNING PROVIDED BY THE PROPOSED WORK, WILL YIELD TORUS SIZES FOR A RANGE OF AGN AND A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF STRUCTURE, ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION OF THE TORUS. TO SUPPORT THIS EFFORT, WE SEEK FUNDING FOR A GRADUATE STUDENT FOR 2 YEARS. THIS WORK WILL FORM THE BASIS FOR THE STUDENT'S PHD THESIS.

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• $55,387 - Friday the 10th of July 2015
  National Aeronautics And Space Administration
  NASA SHARED SERVICES CENTER
  LIGHT DETECTION AND RANGING (LIDAR) SENSING OF THE EARTH AND ITS ATMOSPHERE IS BECOMING AN INCREASINGLY IMPORTANT TOOL FOR EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE. SEVERAL OF THE FUTURE SATELLITE MISSIONS RECOMMENDED BY THE NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCILS DECADAL SURVEY AND BEING PURSUED BY NASA WILL USE LIDAR TECHNOLOGY. IN PARTICULAR, ICESAT-2 HAS BEEN IDENTIFIED AS A TIER-1 MISSION AND IS CURRENTLY IN PHASE-A STUDY. THIS MISSION WILL CARRY ON THE SCIENCE OF THE SUCCESSFUL ICESAT SATELLITE TO MONITOR CHANGES IN ARCTIC ICE SHEETS, MEASURE SEA ICE THICKNESS AND ASSESS ABOVE GROUND BIOMASS THROUGH MAPPING OF VEGETATION CANOPY HEIGHT. WHILE MUCH OF THE BASIC SCIENCE OF LIDAR SENSING IS WELL UNDERSTOOD, THERE REMAINS A NEED FOR CONTINUED RESEARCH INTO THE IMPACT OF REAL WORLD PHYSICAL PROCESSES ON RETRIEVED GEOSCIENCE PRODUCTS. IN PARTICULAR, THE ACCURATE MONITORING OF ICE SHEETS WITH LIDAR HAS BEEN LIMITED TO DATE BY OUR UNDERSTANDING OF LASER PULSE PROPAGATION IN THE COMPLEX SURFACE GEOMETRIES OFTEN FOUND IN ICE SHEET ABLATION ZONES AND ON FAST FLOWING OUTLET GLACIERS, AS WELL AS IN THE PRESENCE OF SCATTERING ATMOSPHERES INCLUDING CLOUDS. ALSO, AS NEW TECHNOLOGY IS INTRODUCED INTO A MISSION, AS IN THE CASE OF THE POSSIBLE USE OF PHOTON COUNTING DETECTORS FOR ICESAT-2, THERE IS A NEED TO INVESTIGATE NEW GEOSCIENCE RETRIEVAL ALGORITHMS FOR THE OPTIMAL OPERATION OF THE INSTRUMENT AND PROCESSING OF THE DATA. SINCE THE PERFORMANCE OF THE ALGORITHMS DEPENDS ON THE INSTRUMENT CHARACTERISTICS COUPLED WITH THE ACTUAL SCENE PHENOMENOLOGY, THE BEST WAY TO PURSUE THESE STUDIES IS A COMPLETE END-TO-END SIMULATION AND MODELING APPROACH. WE PROPOSE SUCH A COMPREHENSIVE MODELING APPROACH AIMED AT THE ADVANCEMENT OF LIDAR SENSING SCIENCE TO BE PURSUED PRIMARILY IN THE CONTEXT OF THE UPCOMING HIGH PRIORITY ICESAT-2 MISSION. OUR UNIQUELY QUALIFIED INTERDISCIPLINARY TEAM IS COMPRISED OF REMOTE SENSING SYSTEM MODELING EXPERTS FROM THE ROCHESTER INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY (RIT) WORKING TOGETHER WITH GEOSCIENTISTS FROM THE UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO (UB) WITH EXPERTISE IN REMOTE SENSING PRODUCT RETRIEVAL AND ERROR MODELING. A NOVEL ELEMENT AND KEY COMPONENT TO OUR PROPOSED RESEARCH WILL BE THE USE OF RIT S THREE DIMENSIONAL, TEMPORALLY DYNAMIC, SCENE AND IMAGE SIMULATION MODELING ENVIRONMENT KNOWN AS DIRSIG (DIGITAL IMAGING AND REMOTE SENSING IMAGE GENERATION). DIRSIG IS A PHYSICS-BASED FIRST PRINCIPLES RADIOMETRIC MODELING SUITE FOR THE CREATION OF PHENOMENOLOGICALLY CORRECT IMAGES. IT IS CAPABLE OF SIMULATING MANY REMOTE SENSING MODALITIES INCLUDING LIDAR USING A UNIQUE PARTICLE-ORIENTED APPROACH TO BEAM PROPAGATION AND SURFACE INTERACTION. THIS APPROACH HAS BEEN SHOWN TO BE RADIOMETRICALLY ACCURATE AND IT CAN PREDICT A VARIETY OF IMPORTANT GEOMETRIC EFFECTS INCLUDING MULTIPLE BOUNCES. THE MODEL ALSO SUPPORTS DETAILED DETECTOR AND PLATFORM EFFECTS INCLUDING MODELS FOR GEIGER MODE AVALANCHE PHOTON DETECTORS AND PLATFORM JITTER. THE SIMULATED LIDAR DATA SETS FOR DYNAMIC COMPLEX ICE GEOMETRIES AND SCATTERING ATMOSPHERES, AND VARIOUS INSTRUMENT CONFIGURATIONS, WILL BE PROCESSED TO GEOSCIENCE PRODUCTS TO QUANTIFY SYSTEM EFFECTS ON THE ACCURACY. THIS PROCESSING WILL INCLUDE A METHOD RECENTLY DEVELOPED BY UB TEAM MEMBERS CALLED SURFACE ELEVATION RECONSTRUCTION AND CHANGE DETECTION (SERAC) WHICH HAS BEEN SUCCESSFULLY APPLIED TO DETECTING ELEVATION CHANGES IN GREENLAND ICE SHEETS. IN ADDITION TO ENHANCING THIS AND SIMILAR ALGORITHMS FOR DATA CHARACTERISTICS ANTICIPATED FROM THE FUTURE MISSIONS, SOPHISTICATED ERROR MODELING (RADIOMETRIC AND GEOMETRIC) WILL BE PERFORMED TO QUANTIFY THE UNCERTAINTIES IN THE RETRIEVED GEOSCIENCE PRODUCTS ASSOCIATED WITH SCENE COMPLEXITY AND INSTRUMENT CHARACTERISTICS. THESE EFFECTS CAN ONLY TRULY BE STUDIED THROUGH OUR PROPOSED COMPREHENSIVE END-TO-END SIMULATION INCLUDING THREE DIMENSIONAL TEMPORALLY VARYING SCENE STRUCTURE, A SCATTERING ATMOSPHERE, SOPHISTICATED INSTRUMENT MODELING COUPLED WITH STATE OF THE ART ALGORITHMS AND ERROR MODELING.

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• $5,538 - Wednesday the 14th of December 2011
  Department Of Army
  W7NR USPFO ACTIVITY NY ARNG
  ADULT MEALS

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• $45,000 - Wednesday the 11th of July 2012
  Department Of Navy
  OFFICE OF NAVAL RESEARCH
  RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT IN THE PHYSICAL, ENGINEERING, AND LIFE SCIENCES (EXCEPT BIOTECHNOLOGY)

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• $44,000 - Thursday the 27th of September 2012
  National Archives And Records Administration
  ACQUISITION SERVICES DIVISION
  EXERCISING OPTION PERIOD 1 FOR OPERATION AND SUPPORT OF SITE, ADDITIONAL SERVICES, AND PURCHASE OF DATA LOGGERS (WHEN REQUESTED).

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• $4,391 - Sunday the 4th of December 2011
  Veterans Affairs Department
  242-NETWORK CONTRACT OFFICE 02
  CONFERENCE SPACE FOR LOI CONFERENCE

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