3D Geospatial Series Tech Sprint II – OGC CDB 2.0

Closed on 05 June 11:59 PM EST

Closed to Government on 15 June 11:59 PM EST

Purpose
SOFWERX, in concert with USSOCOM Program Executive Office SOF Digital Applications (PEO-SDA), will continue a 3D Geospatial Tech Sprint Series designed to encourage virtual collaboration among software engineers and geospatial experts working to enhance 3D data production and dissemination. The series is designed to stimulate advances in 3D geospatial data compatibility and promote interoperability between Modeling & Simulation and Mission Command systems, providing decision support to Special Operations Forces.

What is a Tech Sprint?
A Tech Sprint is a 1-3 week event to rapidly assess and integrate technologies of interest. Those selected software engineers and developers to participate, will collaborate with others to combine their tools for assessment and integration during the three week event.

Objective
In support of SOF Future Concepts, this effort hopes to accelerate evolution of the OGC CDB standard to meet the needs of planning, rehearsal, and Mission Command systems providing decision support to Special Operations Forces and enabling SOF tactical and operational advantage. Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) industry standards enable interoperability of geospatial data across systems and applications that SOF Operators and analysts use across warfighting functions.

What is OGC CDB?
OGC CDB is an open industry standard, defined by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), for packaging a rich set of data that is interoperable between geospatial intelligence applications, modeling and simulation environments, and decision support tools. The standard defines an open format to store, access, and modify a geospatially accurate synthetic environment up to and including a “versionable” virtual representation of the earth.

Data layers which can be stored in an OGC CDB include maps, imagery, terrain information, sensor data, 3D models of structures and other features, detailed textures and physical characteristics allowing computation of material effects and behavioral models used by full-mission simulators, virtual reality systems, advanced analytic and planning applications and AI-enabled decision support tools requiring real-world correlation.

Why Developers & Engineers Should Participate
USSOCOM, and other Defense organizations, are interested in purchasing material solutions for emerging capabilities that use the same foundation geospatial data for M&S and Mission Command. Software engineers and geospatial experts will have an opportunity to exchange technical knowledge and collaborate on emerging standards that will inform OGC Standards Working Groups and other consensus standards development organizations such as the Khronos Group and the Simulation Interoperability Standards Organization (SISO) involved in advanced technologies for 3D graphics, virtual and augmented reality, parallel computing, machine learning, and vision processing.

Those selected will engage in collaborative discussion, drafting of a conceptual design, technical experimentation, and creation of engineering and change reports that can be contributed to the OGC CDB Standards Working Group (SWG) to accelerate the development of a “next generation” version 2.0 of the CDB standard.

Event Timeline
Completed Phase 1 – 21 May 2020 to 05 June 2020 Submissions Open: Government, Industry, Academic, and Laboratory partners can submit a summary of their relevant individual experience, such as geospatial software development, GIS data management, using OGC, Khronos, and SISO standards, and participation in OGC and/or other standards organizations. Submission instructions and template are provided at the bottom of the webpage. Multiple people from an organization may submit, however each individual who wishes to be considered must submit separately.

Submissions will be reviewed and evaluated for participants’ potential to contribute to the collaborative CDB 2.0 Tech Sprint. Selected participants will receive an invitation on or about 10 June 2020. A total $50K stipend is available to the selected participants per below:

To receive the full $50K stipend, participants are required to participate in all phases (phases 3-7).
A $10K stipend will be distributed at the conclusion of each of the following phases: Phases 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7. Satisfactory participation in each of the aforementioned phases equates to the $50K total stipend.

Completed Phase 2 – 06 June 2020 – 10 June 2020 Downselect: Individuals with favorably evaluated submissions will receive an invitation for advancement on or around 10 June 2020.

Completed Phase 3 – 22 June 2020 to 26 June 2020 Virtual Concept Development: In a series of virtual workshop conferences, participants will create a conceptual model for a CDB 2.0 standard. This model will be documented in a GitHub (or GitLab) repository and will serve as the basis for technical experimentation in Phase 4.

Phase 4 – 06 July 2020 to 30 September 2020: Virtual Tech Sprint: All prototypes, experimentations, and relevant technical integration experimentation testing done.

Phase 5 – 03 August 2020 to 30 September 2020: Engineering Report: Running in parallel with Phase 4. The engineering report will be finalized 30 October along with the Final Report. Participants are currently working the engineering report but the bulk of the work and final details will be done after experimentation. The Final Report and engineering report will likely have a lot of similar info in each, so it shouldn’t be a huge effort to do both that month.

Phase 6 – Moved to the SWG. No “proposed draft spec” will be done. Pushed the engineering report and experimentation out, and eliminated the spec. The SWG will have to do the draft spec at a later date.

Phase 7 – 05 October 2020 to 30 October 2020 Final Report: Participants will write a final report summarizing activities to date, recommendations for the OGC SWG and other standards bodies to consider, and contributions of each participant.

Questions?
For event-related questions, please contact Jessica Pecoraro, at jessica.pecoraro@sofwerx.org
For technical questions, please contact Tracey Birch, at tracey.birch@cloudlakellc.com