PROPOSERS’ DAY CONFERENCE The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Advanced Technology Office (ATO) will host a Proposers’ Day conference in support of the Mission Adaptable Chemical Sensor (MACS) program on November 4, 2005 at the George Mason University, Arlington Campus Professional Center, 3401 Fairfax Drive, Room 329, Arlington, VA. The event will begin at 8:30 AM and continue until 5:00 PM. The purpose of this conference is to provide information on the program, promote additional discussion on associated topics, and address questions from potential proposers. The objective of the MACS program is to successfully demonstrate a portable (< 1 cubic foot, < 30 lbs), ultra-sensitive (parts-per-trillion detection capability) chemical sensor based upon submillimeter/terahertz (THz) rotational spectroscopy. This technology takes advantage of the quantized nature of rotational motion for gas phase materials, and provides unique chemical spectra for multiple analytes in parallel, with very little interference from background atmospheric clutter. Further, rotational spectroscopy allows detection of many chemicals simultaneously, in a single sample, over a wide range of concentrations, without significant compromise in probability of detection or increase in false alarm rate. The Mission Adaptable Chemical Sensor will be capable of sampling the local atmosphere and determining the presence of chemical, biological, and explosives threats by means of their gaseous signatures. This program asserts that unambiguous identification of such threats can be accomplished only by the rapid, simultaneous identification of the suite of gaseous chemicals that constitute their “signature”; accordingly, the sensor must be capable of identifying at least 300 molecular species in a single sample of the local atmosphere, within 10 minutes. The sensor must have a 0.9999 probability of threat detection and 0.0001 probability of false alarm. DARPA anticipates that an early focus of this developmental program will be the availability of compact THz sources of radiation and sensitive detectors, which have appropriate performance characteristics for identification of gases at the parts-per-trillion (PPT) level. A system-level analysis would determine performance thresholds required for these and other components, such as gas sampling and signal processing. While successful completion of the first phase of the program will require only the correct determination of a possible 30 analytes in an unknown mixture, the development of algorithms for robust identification of more than 300 analytes, within a few minutes, will be necessary by the end of the program. This final capability should require only the addition of simple spectral information to digital storage, and require little added time for correct identification. It is anticipated that DARPA will release a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for the program prior to the conference. This BAA will encourage proposals for the full scope of the Mission Adaptable Chemical Sensor development (i.e., an end-to-end system that is designed by a multidisciplinary research team, with coordination and implementation support from an integrator). Therefore, potential proposers are encouraged to use the Proposers’ Day to discuss their organization’s capabilities and explore teaming arrangements with other conference attendees. REGISTRATION INFORMATION Those who wish to attend this conference must register NLT October 24, 2005 at the following website: https://enstg.com/signup/passthru.cfm?ConferenceCode=NET69843. No registration fee is required for this event. Directions to the facility and additional important information are available at the registration website. The Proposers’ Day will be unclassified and open to the public. Attendance of the Proposer’s Day is voluntary, and is not required to propose to any associated BAA. Due to space limitations of the conference facility, attendance will be limited to the first 140 registrants, and no more than 2 representatives per organization. All US Citizens are required to submit a US Citizenship Verification form in order to attend this conference; permanent residents will be required to complete and submit DARPA Form 60 “Foreign National Visit Request”. These documents must be completed and faxed (ATTENTION: Al Jackson) to 703-696-9781 NLT October 24, 2005. Both documents are available for download at the registration website. In order to facilitate the teaming that is encouraged for proposal development, attendees are granted the opportunity to present an overview of their organizations, and discuss their technology expertise, via presentation at the conference. Presentations are limited to four (4) slides and five (5) minutes (including setup time) per organization. A softcopy of all material to be presented must be submitted in MS PowerPoint format to Al Jackson at
[email protected] NLT October 24, 2005. There will be no exceptions to this requirement. All material to be displayed at the conference must be approved in advance by both the organization that funded the research and DARPA. It is the presenter’s responsibility to ensure that all material they plan to present at the conference has been approved by the funding organization in advance. The DARPA MACS Program Manager, Dr. Frank Patten, will screen the proposed material for sensitive material and must approve in advance any presentations. NOTE: DO NOT CONTACT THE CONTRACTING OFFICER IDENTIFIED BELOW WITH RESPECT TO THIS NOTICE. ANY QUESTIONS ON THIS ANNOUNCEMENT SHOULD BE SENT TO
[email protected].