Weekly GEOINT Community News

ICEYE Announces Partnership with European Space Agency; Mapbox Releases AR Platform; IARPA Announces UG2 Prize Challenge; Boeing to Open Research Center in Korea; More

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ICEYE Announces Partnership with European Space Agency

The European Space Agency (ESA) and ICEYE announced a partnership designed to explore promising applications of ICEYE’s synthetic aperture radar data and technology, particularly in disaster response and climate change research. Hardware development efforts will focus on improving the design of ICEYE’s microsatellite as well as its X-band SAR instrument. The collaboration indicates ESA’s interest in leveraging commercial space capabilities to solve global challenges. ICEYE also announced agreements with Kongsberg Satellite Service and Aker Arctic.

Radiant Solutions Awarded Army Geospatial Center Contract

Maxar’s Radiant Solutions was awarded a $2.6 million follow-on contract with the Army Geospatial Center for continued support of the Center’s Remote Ground Terminal program. Radiant will provide systems engineering and software development for the program’s ground receivers and processors, which receive high-resolution optical and synthetic aperture radar data from DigitalGlobe, SSL, and other commercial imagery providers.

Mapbox Releases Augmented Reality Platform

Mapbox officially launched its Mapbox Augmented Reality (AR) platform, an AR rendering software that combines global location data with tools such as 3D elevation models and satellite imagery compression for app and video game developers. The platform is being marketed as the first to provide global reality-grade data that adjusts based on the user’s location.

IARPA Announces UG2 Prize Challenge

The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) announced its UG2 Prize Challenge, created to advance the analysis of imagery captured by small UAVs, gliders, and ground data entries. IARPA will provide participants access to its UG2 dataset, which participants will use to develop image restoration and enhancement algorithms aimed to improve readability for analysis. Submissions will compete for a total of $75,000 in prizes. Registration closes April 1, with algorithm submission closing April 15. Winners will be announced May 15.

General Dynamics Outbids CACI to Acquire CSRA

CACI submitted an unsolicited bid last week to acquire CSRA, in an effort to compete with ongoing acquisition negotiations between CSRA and General Dynamics. The transaction value of CACI’s bid is an estimated $7.2 billion—an increase from General Dynamic’s original $6.8 billion proposal. However, General Dynamics responded with an amendment to its acquisition agreement that raised the value of its bid to $9.7 billion. CRSA has indicated it will continue moving forward with General Dynamics.

Boeing to Open Research Center in Korea

Boeing announced plans to establish a new research center in the Republic of Korea. Korea has hosted Boeing operations since 1950 and represents a major market for the aerospace company, which is currently in discussion with the nation’s government regarding the center. Key research initiatives will focus on advancing autonomy, artificial intelligence, avionics, analytics, and other smart technologies .

Peer Intel

John Pereira, intelligence industry leader for defense and intelligence at IBM Global Business Services, was named an intelligence community fellow at the IBM Center for The Business of Government. Pereira will direct thought leadership pertaining to intelligence in government and will help agency leaders improve program effectiveness and efficiency.

Jennifer Jensen, former VP of business development for communications, navigation, and surveillance systems at Sierra Nevada Corp., was named VP of national security and space at Charles Stark Draper Laboratory. Jensen will lead the nonprofit’s defense and space-based opportunities as well as pursue relationships with new clients in government and the private sector.

Photo Credit: ICEYE 

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