ACT-IAC Calls for Government-Enabling Innovations from All Quarters

FAIRFAX, Va., Nov. 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Council for Technology and Industry Advisory Council's (ACT-IAC) Institute for Innovation is now accepting nominations for its sixth annual Igniting Innovation Conference and Awards to be held in May 2019. Anyone can submit nominations through January 18, 2019. To nominate an innovation, visit https://www.actiac.org/igniting-innovation-2019-nomination-form.

An innovation must have been conceived, developed, deployed or upgraded in the last two years (after October 31, 2016) to be eligible. Nominations will be reviewed by government and industry executives to select the top finalists to exhibit at the event.

"Our goal is to identify, recognize, promote and connect innovations and innovators to improve services to citizens and government operations," said Judy Douglas (Perspecta) chair of ACT-IAC's Institute for Innovation. "We are seeking innovations from all sectors ? that is why we have co-chairs from industry, government, and academia this year."

Jim Cook, (Mitre) this year's industry co-chair said, "Building on last year's highly successful program, we plan to engage people from more communities and recognize and create awareness of the innovation occurring across these communities."

Dr. Olivia Blackmon and Andy Kasinski (George Mason University - Virginia Serious Game Institute) are the first academic co-chairs. Dr. Blackmon said, "This is a tremendous opportunity for college students and faculty to showcase their innovative work which can benefit the government and commercial sectors. We will focus on engaging academia to accelerate ingenuity across different industries."

2018 Igniting Innovation winners include:

• The Health Resources and Services Administration's Modern Data Analytics Platform providing self-service tools to support its $9 billion grants portfolio.
• NIC Federal LLC's Gov2Go digital personal assistant that delivers essential federal, state, and local government services to citizens quickly and easily.
• MITRE's Acquisition in the Digital Age (AiDA) to help agencies leverage digital strategies and tools to navigate the complex acquisition enterprise with greater success.
• IBM's Cognitive Object Detection Assistant (CODA) machine learning for baggage screening to improve threat object detection.
• NASA's Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Traffic Management to address a current gap in safely integrating large-scale small UAS operations in low-altitude airspace.

About ACT-IAC ? Advancing Government Through Education, Leadership, and Collaboration

ACT-IAC is a non-profit educational organization established to create a more effective and innovative government. ACT-IAC provides a unique, objective, and trusted forum where government and industry executives work together to improve public services and agency operations through the use of technology. ACT-IAC contributes to better communications between government and industry, collaborative and innovative problem solving, and a more professional and qualified workforce.

ACT-IAC Institute for Innovation
The ACT-IAC Institute for Innovation was created in 2011 to advance government missions through innovative application and management of information technology.

Learn more about ACT-IAC and the Institute for Innovation and how to become a member at http://www.actiac.org or call (703) 208-4800. Connect with ACT-IAC Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

SOURCE The American Council for Technology - Industry Advisory Council (ACT-IAC)