SOURCES SOUGHT
A -- Agent-Based Modeling of Irregular Warfare (ABMIW)
- Notice Date
- 7/20/2007
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 541710
— Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences
- Contracting Office
- ACA, ITEC4, Directorate of Contracting , 2461 Eisenhower Avenue, Alexandria, VA 22331-0700
- ZIP Code
- 22331-0700
- Solicitation Number
- RFI-2007-1276
- Response Due
- 3/31/2008
- Archive Date
- 5/30/2008
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- Subject: Request for Sources Sought for Market Research. A solicitation has not been issued for this requirement. The NAICS Code is 541710 (Size Standard 500 employees) Research & Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences. This information is required for The Deputy Director for Strategic Analysis and Irregular Warfare (S/A&IW), in the Office of the Director for Programs Analysis and Evaluation (OD/PA&E), who is responsible for performing capability, weapons system, force structu re and readiness analyses in a joint, theater context to support the Defense Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution System (PPBES). To support this range of analytic requirements, SA&IW operates the Simulation & Analysis Center (SAC). The studies and analysis requirements of OSD PA&E, SAC and analytic partner, Joint Staff J8 War fighting Analysis Division (WAD) has a requirement for more advanced models, tools, and simulations to analyze major issues for the Department of Defense under The Office of the Secretary of Defense. This request for Sources Sought for Market Research will provide information for the following: Agent-Based Modeling of Irregular Warfare RFI # ABMIW 2007 - 1276. The Army Contracting Agency (ACA/ITEC4), on behalf of The Office of the Secretary of Defense, Program Analysis and Evaluation (OSD-PA&E), is conducting market research to be used for informational purposes to assist in meeting the Governments requirem ents for Agent-Based Modeling of Irregular Warfare (ABMIW) from interested companies and institutions. The Government seeks to identify potential sources to perform a study of irregular warfare using models that can continuously be revised under various scenarios that may be used by PA&E staff analysts. The findings from this Market Research effort may be used to impact future solicitations related to this requirement. This Market Research is not a solicitation, as defined by FAR 2.101. The Government is not requesting offers or proposals at this time. Any responses to this RFI received by the Government will not be accepted to form a binding contract. Interested parties are requested to provide the following: (1) Information about your company to include: (a) Company name and address: (b) Companys point of contact name, phone, fax, and e-mail: (c) If a U.S. or foreign company: (d) Company size (sma ll or large according to the NAICS and size standard listed above); and (e) DCAA or DCMA points of contact. If your company is a Small Business, specify if your company is or is not each of the following: (a) Small Disadvantaged Business: (b) HubZone Busi ness: (c) Women-Owned Business: (d) 8(a) Business: (e) Veteran Owned Business. (2) Technical Approach briefly discuss your technical approach to these requirements. (3) Response time is critical as many of the items will be considered critical to the Warfighter and requires short turnaround times. (4) Discuss your ideas regarding teaming to accomplish the requirements with other companies, including any past experience in teaming either as a prime or subcontractor, (5) Include an outline of previous projects and specific work previously performed or being performed related to this requirement. (6) Discuss your personnel and facilities that would be available to perform part of this requirement if required and the l ocation of these facilities. The Government Office is located in the Washington D.C. Metropolitan area. (7) Any other specific and pertinent information as pertains to this particular of procurement that would enhance the Governments consideration and evaluation of the information submitted. Contractors should appropriately mark any data this is restrictive, proprietary or has restricted data rights or markings. This synopsis is not a request of proposal, but sources sought announcement for information only. No solicitation will be issue d until the Government has had the oppo rtunity to evaluate responses to this sources sought announcement for information and planning purposes. The Government will not pay for any effort expended or materials submitted in response to this synopsis. This synopsis does not obligate the Governme nt to issue a solicitation or award a contract for any items for which information is voluntarily submitted for this assessment. Offers shall be submitted in MS Word and/or MS EXCEL format, and will be rejected and considered no responsive if submitted in any of the following formats: .b64, .bat, .bhx, .ceo, .ce0, .cpl, .dbx, .dll, .dot, .eml, .exe, .hqx, .Ink, .max, .mim, .nch , .ocx, .pi, .pif, .scr, .sct, .uue, .uu, .vbe, .vbs, .wsc, .wsf, .wsh, .xxe, and .zip. Submission to this RFI should be directed to the undersigned, to the following email addresses: alyssa.murray@us.army.mil and nellie.potockireeves@us.army.mil, no later than 1:00 p.m. on Monday, July 30, 2007. Attachment 1 Market Research Request for Information (RFI) for The Office of the Secretary of Defense, Program Analysis and Evaluation Agent-Based Modeling of Irregular Warfare (ABMIW) RFI # 2007-1276 ABMIW. The purpose of the study is twofold: support a study of specific classified scenarios to be conducted by the contractor with input and assistance from PA&E staff analysts, and to support a PA&E staff led evaluation of the general utility and limitations of agent-based models to analyze irregular warfare. IV&V&A (Verification, Validation, and Accreditation) issues and limitations of this approach are to be identified. PA&E and its government partners are evaluating multiple approaches in this area and this effort requires an agent-based modeling approach. The output of the study follows: 1) answers to the study questions for the classified study, 2) an evaluation of the agent-based approach, and 3) an operational model and database to be operated by PA&E from the PA&E Simulation and Analysis Center location in Arlington, VA, subject to programming and/or helpdesk support from the model developer. The agent-based model will include a module for Information Operations. The agents will have the ability to interpret messages (representing media, information campaigns, cultural ideas, political beliefs, and messages from the environment) in terms of th eir utility, well being or satisfaction, and react to those messages. This utility, well being or satisfaction may incorporate direct physical benefit but also will incorporate sense-making, cognitive consonance, and benefits on the psychological and cult ural level. The agent-based model will incorporate the influence, based on social theories agreed upon with the government, of infrastructure, economic, and practical constraints and opportunities on behavior. It will model the relation between these phe nomena and thoughts, beliefs, and ideas that mediate between these physical states and action, for agents representing individual citizens, military, political, and government personnel. The constraints and opportunities that these messages afford, based on social theories agreed upon with the government, will be taken into account in the model. The model will also accommodate the strategic and game theoretical implications of the cultura lly based beliefs people have about the messages sent by DIMEFIL (Diplomatic, Intelligence, Military, Economic, Financial, Information and Law Enforcement) activities undertaken at the strategic, operational, and tactical levels in addition to the results from information campaigns. The agent based model will include the formation and dissolution of social groups, (pre-organized and organized), including political, terrorist, and insurgent organizations (factionalism), resulting from the individual decisions of its members and leaders , as well as the actions of states (including the formation and dissolution of states, as well as state failure and success). The agent base d model will include the interactions between decisions of individual members of a group and the top down decisions of the group leaders that affect the formation and dissolution of organized social groups. The simulation will include the capability of working out political compromise such as the reallocation of goods or control among interested groups. The agent-based model will incorporate the effects of individual DIMEFIL actions at a lower level of resolution than the strategic/campaign level and work out their implications, so that patterns emerge in the PMESII (Political, Military, Economic, Social, Infrastructure and Information) environment, on the level in which strategic and campaign decisions are made. Lower level rules and strategic level patterns will both be in accordance with social theories agreed upon with the government. The agent based model will include and make use of a database of the infrastructure, political, economic, and social states and relations between agents, so as to work out the implications of actions in a particular instantiation of a PMESII environment, g iven the rules of relations from micro level and macro level political, social, cultural, psychological, and economic social theories agreed upon with the government. It will use this data in concert with the application of social rules to give a plausibl e outcome of DIMEFIL actions in the PMESII environment. The simulation will be transparent: analysts will be able to access a complete description of the state of the simulation at output and during processing. The simulation will have a causal tracing tool to aid in finding the patterns of behaviors which ca use the emergent effects. After a preferably automated calibration process, the data and social theory should support the social models at the individual relation level as well as the level of groups of relations and sequences of relations. The input schema will be convenient for switching in and out modular sets that are applicable to particular social theory paradigms and particular world regions. This may take the form of an interface (e.g. xml files for artificial intelligence (AI) modul es that determine actions from sensor input). One deliverable will be an integration toolkit in which AI modules may be plugged in, or data, or other simulations. This toolkit will deal with differences in ontology (data and knowledge representation schemes) between these modules in a way that allows new modules to interface in a flexible way. It must also use a standard interface. This toolkit should support a variety of integration schemes (e.g., voting, conflict resolution and iterative integration schemes). There will be a Graphical User Interface (GUI) to the causal tracing, xml input, calibration, and simulation/AI/data plug-ins that will facilitate ease in building and testing of simulations. Nothing follows.
- Place of Performance
- Address: ACA, ITEC4 Directorate of Contracting , 2461 Eisenhower Avenue Alexandria VA
- Zip Code: 22331-0700
- Country: US
- Zip Code: 22331-0700
- Record
- SN01348189-W 20070722/070720224255 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)
| FSG Index | This Issue's Index | Today's FBO Daily Index Page |