DHS creates new cyber panel, NASA funds disruptive tech, GitHub goes GWAC

New DHS panel examines cyber threats

The Department of Homeland Security has established a Cybersecurity Subcommittee under its Homeland Security Advisory Committee, in order to look more closely at how DHS handles cyber threats to its operations.

The new subcommittee will provide findings and recommendations to the advisory council on best practices sourced from industry, state and local government, academic experts and community leaders.

According to an Aug. 14 notice in the Federal Register, the subcommittee will have two primary purposes:

n  Identifying the readiness of the department to meet cyber threats and provide recommendations for rapidly restoring critical functions and services following a significant cyber event.

n  Looking at how DHS can provide a more unified approach to support state, local, tribal and territorial cybersecurity.

NASA's picks for 'disruptive' space tech

NASA is investing in the future of space exploration by enlisting the ivory tower's newer recruits.

The agency made awards for eight projects led by up-and-coming university researchers investigating "unique, disruptive or transformational space technologies," NASA announced Aug. 14.

Each award is for roughly $200,000 per year, for up to three years. The winning faculty and their projects, from NASA:

• Robust Planning for Dynamic Tensegrity Structures -- Kostas Bekris of Rutgers University.
• Synthetic Biology for Recycling Human Waste into Food, Nutraceuticals, and Materials: Closing the Loop for Long-Term Space Travel -- Mark Blenner of Clemson University.
• Lightweight and Flexible Metal Halide Perovskite Thin Films for High Temperature Solar Cells -- Joshua Choi of the University of Virginia.
• Dynamics and Control of Tensegrity Space Manipulators -- James Forbes of the University of Michigan.
• Advanced Physical Models and Numerical Algorithms to Enable High-Fidelity Aerothermodynamic Simulations of Planetary Entry Vehicles on Emerging Distributed Heterogeneous Computing Architectures -- Matthias Ihme of Stanford University.
• Reduced Order Modeling for Non-equilibrium Radiation Hydrodynamics of Base Flow and Wakes: Enabling Manned Missions to Mars -- Marco Panesi of the University of Illinois.
• Engineering Cyanobacteria for the Production of Lightweight Materials -- Fuzhong Zhang of Washington University.
• High Temperature InGaN-based Solar Cells -- Yuji Zhao, Arizona State University.

GitHub Enterprise now available through major GWACs

Federal, state and local government agencies now have a new path for procuring GitHub Enterprise, the platform for code review, collaboration and documentation, GCN reports.

In partnership with GitHub, DLT Solutions will make the collaboration platform available to its government customers.

The DLT announcement marks GitHub's first government reselling partnership.