Rome Laboratory, 26 Electronic Pky, Griffiss AFB NY 13441-4514

A -- EVALUATION OF INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS SOL BAA 95-03-PKPX POC Contact Louis J. Hoebel, Program Manager, 315/330-3655; Mary L. Lovett, Contracting Officer, 315/330-2308. Rome Laboratory is soliciting white papers for new and creative technical research and development studies and experiments to demonstrate improvements in methods for evaluating the behavior and performance of complex, intelligent and information driven systems (CIIS) and the development process for intelligent system components and their integration. Intelligent systems to be evaluated may be an element of a larger system or a tool enabling the implementation of such systems. These improvements are urgently required to enable the Air Force to measure, rate and certify the use of intelligent software in real-time, safety-critical operational C4I systems. Of particular interest are tools and methods that enable and automate the analysis and measurement of how well software systems perform under a spectrum of dynamic conditions and problematic constraints, tools and methods that enable explanation of system behavior, and tools and methods that analyze behavior for a set of test cases selected to measure the general purpose capability of the system. State-of-the-practice approaches need to be analyzed and documented so that best practice methods are available in a useful way to the research and development community. Further, documented results will be used by researchers to evaluate progress both within and across research projects. These will be used by system developers to determine methods for the analysis and measurement of performance against standards and predictions. They will be used by research and development planners to establish sound strategies for making future intelligent system evaluation technology investments. Solutions to the requirements of EIS require expertise that is not limited to any single organization or community (artificial intelligence, cognitive science or computer science). Expertise is required across multiple technology areas such as V&V, knowledge representation, integration techniques, statistics, test and evaluation and more. Therefore it is appropriate to distribute the total work among the varying contractor communities. Deliverables will be technical reports and, when appropriate, demonstrations. THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONSTITUTES THE ONLY SOLICITATION. DO NOT SUBMIT A FORMAL PROPOSAL AT THIS TIME. Offerors are required to submit three (3) copies of a five (5) page or less white paper with a cover letter indicating whether the offeror is a large, small, woman-owned small, or small disadvantaged business, or Historically Black College, University, or Minority Institution. The white paper will be formatted as follows: Section A: Title, Period of Performance, Cost of Task, Name of Company, Section B: Task Objective, and Section C: Technical Summary. All responses to this announcement must be addressed to ATTN: Louis Hoebel, Reference BAA #95-03-PKPX, Rome Laboratory/C3CA, 525 Brooks Road, Griffiss AFB NY 13441-4505. Also send one (1) copy of the cover letter only, by First Class Mail (DO NOT SEND CLASSIFIED), to ATTN: Richard Smith, Director of Small Business, Rome Laboratory/BC, 26 Electronic Pky, Griffiss AFB NY 13441-4514. Multiple white papers within the purview of this announcement may be submitted by each offeror. The purpose of the white paper is to preclude unwarranted effort on the part of an offeror whose proposed work is not of interest to the Government. Those white papers found to be consistent with the intent of this BAA may be invited to submit a technical and cost proposal. Such invitation does not assure that the submitting organization will be awarded a contract. Complete instructions for proposal preparation will be forwarded with the invitation for proposal submission. Evaluation of proposals will be performed using the following criteria: 1) The overall scientific and technical merits of the proposal, 2) The potential contributions of the effort to the overall objectives of the RL Artificial Intelligence program and ongoing efforts, and 3) The relative cost to the benefits, including leverage of ongoing work. No further evaluation criteria will be used in selecting the proposals. Criteria (1) and (2) will be used to determine whether white papers submitted are consistent with the intent of this BAA and of interest to the Government. Proposals submitted will be evaluated as they are received. Individual proposal evaluations will be based on acceptability or unacceptability without regard to other proposals submitted under this BAA. Options are discouraged and unpriced options will not be considered for award. Principal funding of this BAA and the anticipated award of contracts will start approximately 4th quarter of FY95. Individual awards will not normally exceed 27 months in duration, with dollar amounts normally ranging from $50K to $350K. A higher figure may be applicable to teaming arrangements that highly leverage on-going work and provide complementary and synergistic benefits. Total funding for this BAA is $944,000. Ten percent (10%) of this BAA will be reserved for Historically Black College, Universities, and Minority Institutions. In the event sufficient acceptable proposals are not received to fulfill the reserved portion, that portion may be awarded to offerors of other acceptable proposals. Foreign allied participation at the prime contractor level is permitted. Data subject to export control constraints may be involved and only firms on the Certified Contractor Access List (CCAL) will be allowed access to such data. The cost of preparing proposals in response to this announcement is not an allowable direct charge to any resulting contract or any other contract, but may be an allowable expense to the normal bid and proposal indirect cost in FAR 31.205-18. An Ombudsman has been appointed to hear significant concerns from offerors or potential offerors during the proposal development phase of this acquisition. Routine questions are not considered to be ''significant concerns'' and should be communicated directly to the Contracting Officer, Mary L. Lovett, 315/330-2308. The purpose of the Ombudsman is not be diminish the authority of the Contracting Officer or Program Manager, but to communicate contractor concerns, issues, disagreements and recommendations to the appropriate Government personnel. The Ombudsman for this acquisition is Mr. Vincent R. Palmiero, Chief, Policy and Management Division, at 315/330-7746. When requested, the Ombudsman will maintain strict confidentiality as to the source of the concern. The Ombudsman does not participate in the evaluation of proposals or in the source selection process. An informational briefing is not planned. The cutoff date for submission of FY95 white papers is 17 Mar 95, FY96 is 20 Feb 96, FY97 is 20 Feb 97. This BAA is open and effective until 30 Apr 97. To receive a copy of the Rome Laboratory ''BAA & PRDA: A Guide for Industry'', March 1994 (Rev), write to ATTN: Lucille Argenzia, Rome Laboratory/PKR, 26 Electronic Pky, Griffiss AFB NY 13441-4514. All responsible firms may submit a white paper, which shall be considered. Respondents are asked to provide their Commercial and Government Entity (CAGE) number with their submission and reference BAA #95-03-PKPX. Only Contracting Officers are legally authorized to commit the government. (0037)

Loren Data Corp. http://www.ld.com (SYN# 0001 19950207\A-0001.SOL)