Inactive

1 Introduction/Purpose This announcement is a Request for Information (RFI). This announcement is NOT a Screening Information Request (SIR) or Request for Proposal (RFP). The FAA is seeking informatio... 1 Introduction/Purpose This announcement is a Request for Information (RFI). This announcement is NOT a Screening Information Request (SIR) or Request for Proposal (RFP). The FAA is seeking information on commercial capabilities to design, build and sustain the next generation architecture and associated tools and processes to collect, cleanse, store, organize, integrate, analyze and share aviation safety data and information for the Aviation Safety Information Analysis and Sharing (ASIAS) program. This architecture will support safety analysis and information sharing activities for ASIAS, a collaborative government and industry initiative to proactively discover safety concerns before accidents or incidents occur, leading to timely mitigation and prevention of hazards. The new architecture will replace the legacy system of non-integrated silos of information. ASIAS, as referenced in this RFI, includes industry-proprietary FOQA (Flight Operations Quality Assurance) data and ASAP (Aviation Safety Action Program) data at the core, and is represented on the site asias.aero. ASIAS is not represented on the site asias.faa.gov, which is a separate program element with different data sets and access controls, and not related to this RFI. The FAA seeks information on experience in building a sustainable, integrated production system designed to utilize advanced analysis techniques such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, advanced data mining and other “Big Data” tools and techniques. ASIAS will receive operational data from a growing number of commercial aviation, corporate/business, general aviation operators, and other aviation community participants, across a wide range of equipment and aircraft types. ASIAS will integrate this information with other data such as digital flight data, text-based reports, FAA aviation radar/surveillance data, air traffic voice data, weather data, and other sources. ASIAS also anticipates the need to create architecture capable of integrating new varieties of data sources not yet identified. ASIAS uses this integrated data to operationally support: Data collection, ingest, quality, security and management activities related to the processing and preparation of program data sources; Analysis processes and capabilities to investigate identified safety incidents; Data monitoring processes designed to proactively discover safety-related trends and anomalies before accidents occur; Collaboration processes and environments for FAA, program participants, and other stakeholders, for controlled access to ASIAS data, information, and tools in accordance with program protocols; Dissemination of information to share appropriate analysis results and other safety information with the aviation community. 2 Nature of Market Survey The FAA is requesting interested vendors to explain and describe their capabilities and recent past experience in developing systems described in this RFI. The responses to this Market Survey will be used for informational and planning purposes only and will not be released. This is a Market Survey. This is not a Screening Information Request (SIR) or Request for Proposals (RFP) of any kind. The FAA is not seeking or accepting unsolicited proposals. All vendors responding to this announcement are responsible for ensuring that documents submitted contain the appropriate proprietary marking. The FAA has the option of conducting one-on-one communications as deemed appropriate without the obligation to hold communications with all respondents. Providing a response to this Market Survey neither qualifies respondents for, nor excludes respondents from, responding to the resulting SIR, if any. Respondent participation in any informational session is not a promise of future business with the FAA. and The FAA will not pay for any information received or costs incurred in preparing the response to the market survey. The acquisition strategy has not been determined at this time; however, if the FAA makes the determination to proceed with an acquisition, either an unrestricted competition or a set-aside may be chosen depending on the responses to the RFI. Accordingly, this RFI must not be construed as either a promise to award a contract or an obligation for the Government to provide compensation for information associated with the preparation and submittal of inquiries addressing this RFI. All information is to be submitted at no cost or obligation to the FAA. The FAA reserves the right to reject, in whole or in part, any private sector input as a result of this RFI. Responses will not be returned. Respondents will not be notified of the results of this survey or results of information submitted. This survey is being conducted in accordance with FAA Acquisition Management System (AMS) Section 3.2.1.2.1. 3 Background In 2007, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the aviation industry launched a collaborative safety analysis and data-sharing initiative known as the Aviation Safety Information Analysis and Sharing program. This program was intended to advance aviation safety by combining proprietary safety data from across the aviation industry with publicly available data to identify emerging risks and evaluate the effectiveness of deployed mitigations. ASIAS now incorporates voluntarily-provided safety data from operators representing a vast majority of United States air carrier operations. New types of aviation data available in ASIAS have expanded considerably over time, and ASIAS continues to develop advanced analytical capabilities to provide safety teams such as the Commercial Aviation Safety Team (CAST) and General Aviation Joint Steering Committee (GAJSC) with enhanced insight into operations in the National Airspace System (NAS) and international environments. Program data sources include airline operator proprietary safety data (such as digital flight data and safety reports), FAA data (such as radar/surveillance data and navigational information), publicly available safety data, manufacturer information, air traffic voice data, weather data and other sources. This data has been an invaluable source of information to monitor known safety risks, evaluate the effectiveness of deployed safety mitigations, and identify emerging hazards. Today, ASIAS has data-sharing agreements with over 40 commercial carriers, including all major U.S. domestic airline carriers, and a repository of more than 30 million digital flight records. ASIAS also includes over 120 corporate and business aviation operators, as well as labor associations, flight training entities, government agencies, manufacturers and trade associations. ASIAS is a central conduit for the voluntary exchange of safety information between the FAA and the aviation community, and a national resource for the aggregation, analysis, and dissemination of aviation safety analysis. ASIAS is a voluntary program, and ASIAS principles and governance protocols ensure that ASIAS information will be used only for safety purposes, and not for punitive action. In addition, certain ASIAS data are de-identified in order to protect the identity and privacy of individuals and participating companies. The FAA will migrate certain aspects of the current/legacy system to the new architecture, a stand-alone, integrated, sustainable production system. The new system will support acquisition, storage, analytical and collaborative functions, and be capable of fusing together multiple sources of disparate data for safety analysis. 4 Requirements The requirements for ASIAS encompass the architecture and advanced analytics capabilities requirements. 4.1 Requirements of ASIAS Architecture ASIAS requires a capability to ingest and store aviation safety data and related metadata. In addition, ASIAS requires on-demand provisioning of independent data enclaves that hold subsets of ASIAS data customized for use by analysts. ASIAS requires a website for information dissemination and for collaborative functions enabling authorized users to interact with and communicate to ASIAS. The ASIAS architecture must enable automated collection, processing, fusing, and mining of massive volumes of aviation data in a flexible, repeatable, efficient, cost effective, and secure manner. The ASIAS architecture must integrate disparate data sources to enable analysts to identify potential safety issues. The ASIAS architecture must be scalable to support the reproducibility and traceability of data provided for various types of ASIAS analyses. The design and implementation principles of the ASIAS architecture are as follows: Be flexible and scalable, to allow for changes to operator and participant data feed processes, data models, volume, and varieties of data. Support the efficient production of ASIAS outputs derived from repeatable and traceable analytic processes. Support system flexibility and efficiency while meeting security and de-identification requirements for ASIAS data sources (e.g., operator proprietary data). Enable uniform data processing and increased analytic capacity. Support data collection, collaboration and information sharing with diverse stakeholder communities, such as commercial and general aviation, rotorcraft, and international participants. Establish integrated access controls and security management across different stakeholder groups. ASIAS maintains governance policies and data sharing agreements that enable participants to share proprietary data and information under program protections, for safety analysis. The ASIAS architecture, analytical capabilities and processes must provide secure collection, analysis, and dissemination of safety information in accordance with ASIAS protocols. 4.2 Requirements of ASIAS Advanced Analytic Capabilities The scope of ASIAS analytic capabilities must include analytic tools to identify complex patterns and predict the probability of safety hazards, using historical data and predictive methods. This will include tools for data visualization, data analysis, anomaly detection, trend detection, statistical and inference models, and others. ASIAS must use emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, to support predictive analytical efforts that enhance aviation safety. ASIAS must provide analysts with controlled access to authorized data and tools, to conduct safety analysis or tool development activities. ASIAS must have a data fusion capability. Data fusion in the context of ASIAS involves joining extremely large, complex and non-homogeneous data, such as voluntary pilot and controller text reports, digital flight data, radar, weather, and other sources to build a comprehensive understanding of the flight environment and situational context for individual and aggregate flight operations. ASIAS analysts must have ready access to complete information about aircraft flight operations, fused together to develop enhanced metrics and benchmarks for analysis, and to help ASIAS members address safety issues through internal Safety Management Systems. ASIAS must also mask specific information in accordance with program requirements. The masking, called de-identification, is vital to ASIAS processing to protect the identity and privacy of individuals and stakeholder organizations. 5 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code The FAA has tentatively identified North American Industry Classification Systems (NAICS) Code 541512 – Computer Systems Design Services as applicable to this procurement. The size standard for this NAICS code is $30M. Respondents may recommend other appropriate NAICS codes for FAA consideration. 6 Submittal Requirements for Market Survey Interested vendors are requested to submit the following documentation in response to this RFI: Company Name, years in business, business size, address, URL of company, Point of Contact with telephone number and email address, and whether the respondent is Small Business, a service disabled veteran owned small business, a socially and economically disadvantaged small business or other than a small business. Capability Statement – Submit a brief summary addressing your company’s capability to meet the FAA’s ASIAS program needs. Capability Statements should not exceed 5 pages in length. Either PDF or Microsoft Word format is acceptable. Answers to the list of Questions for Vendors. The answers to all questions should not exceed 10 pages in total. The FAA may request that one, some, all, or none of the respondents to this RFI provide additional information. No evaluation of vendors will occur based on this additional information, and vendor participation in any informational session is not a promise for future business with the FAA. All responses (one response per company) are to be provided on company letterhead. No type font less than 10 point may be used. Responses must be received no later than December 7, 2020 5:00 PM EST. All submittals, including attachments shall be emailed to Toloria.J.Crawford@faa.gov, copy to Francisco.Felix@faa.gov. No evaluation letters or results will be issued to respondents in connection with this RFI. A vendor's failure to respond to this RFI will not exclude a vendor from any competition. Any information provided under this RFI is for informational purposes only. Any proprietary information submitted must be explicitly and conspicuously marked by the respondent as proprietary. If appropriately marked, such information will not be released to the public by the FAA, except as required under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) or any other applicable law, regulation and/or policy. The Government may transfer documents provided by a respondent to any department or agency within the Executive Branch if the information relates to matters within the organization's jurisdiction. 7 Attachments/Links: Attachment 1 – ASIAS Preliminary Requirements Attachment 2 – ASIAS Questions for Vendors 8 OTHER: It is highly recommended that interested vendors frequently check the Contracting Opportunities website Beta.SAM.gov for any updates and amendments to this announcement.