RUN LIKE THE (TRADE)WIND
T
he DOD Tradewind initiative for artificial intelli- gence solutionsmade headlines when it first launched in 2021, and now it is turning heads again with its newest offering—a video-based marketplace for AI
solutions to government problems.
“We have to make buying solutions as easy as adding something to your cart online,” said Bonnie Evangelista, the Tradewind execution lead within the DOD Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office. Te Tradewind Solutions Marketplace, intro- duced in October 2022, is a platform that invites partners in industry and academia to upload short videos to pitch their tech solutions to DOD. But that’s not the most exciting part. Te submissions are assessed by a team of technical and acquisition experts, and then either approved as “awardable” to government clients who can log in and browse solutions, or marked “not awardable” and given ample feedback and the opportunity to try again.
“Te submitters have an unlimited number of opportunities to continue to refine their submission and resubmit,” said the project’s submission assessment lead, Gene Del Coco. “If not immediately awardable, they get a do-over and they can do over as many times as they want, to focus or adjust their video so it meets the government’s requirement.” Tat’s unheard of in federal acquisition.
THE BASICS What’s this all about? According to the DOD Tradewind website, Tradewind is “a suite of tools and services designed to acceler- ate the procurement and adoption of artificial intelligence and machine learning, digital and data analytics solutions across DOD.” It was formed through an other-transaction agree- ment with Indiana Innovation Institute (IN3), now known as the Applied Research Institute (ARI), in early 2021 to “set up and manage a prototype business process that streamlines rapid procurement and agile delivery of AI capabilities for the
Department of Defense,” according to a Joint Artificial Intelli- gence Center press release.
“Tradewind was meant to accelerate the delivery of artificial intelligence to the DOD, as everyone acknowledged that the current way of doing business was not giving us the results we were looking for, in terms of delivering capabilities,” Evange- lista said in an interview with Army AL&T. “So, Tradewind was an intentional effort to do something different.” In short, it’s an attempt to unlock the full potential of the other-transac- tion authority and alternative acquisition pathways.
Evangelista said the initiative also involves cultivating a commu- nity of interest around AI solutions. “We can’t do this alone, so we wanted to create a community or, we often refer to it, an ecosystem, where people can not only plug in and connect, but can also find resources and a support system to help them in this journey,” Evangelista said. She believes that many of the efforts at Tradewind may be unfamiliar to members of the defense acqui- sition workforce, but she hopes to change that. “Tis may be foreign to them—and I say that with love—because they’ve not been exposed to these new contracting pathways that we’re imple- menting under Tradewind.”
IN THE MARKET FOR AI Of all the interesting tools and services that Tradewind offers, Evangelista said she believes the new Tradewind Solutions Marketplace shows the most promise in terms of acquisition innovation. It is “the newest and most promising contracting pathway that we are providing, and I believe it can be a game changer,” she said. “Te marketplace is a concept we believe will have a strong demand signal, and our focus is to create a thriv- ing marketplace.”
Te Tradewind team is asking industry, academia and individ- ual innovators to submit five-minute videos about their solutions and how they will solve a DOD problem—whether a product,
“If we’re right, and it’s readily accepted by the acquisition authorities, then I think we have a winner on our hands.”
18 Army AL&T Magazine Spring 2023
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132
