National IGE Report: January-February 2025

Over a series of four IGE roundtable sessions at the 2024 Federal Small Business Conference (Nov. 20-22 in New Orleans), SAME provided a platform to delve into some of the more pressing issues facing project delivery and the federal A/E/C sector.

These discussions included members from the military, government, industry, academia, and other non-profit organizations, emphasizing SAME’s commitment to a collaborative environment for driving partnership and delivering solutions.

As the Society implements the 2030 SAME Strategic Plan and continues to elevate its involvement in key areas of the nation’s security environment, such as the ongoing Indo-Pacific Engagement Campaign, and the 2024 Europe Tri-Services IGE Workshop, which served as a model to follow in each of the military services working together with industry to advance engineering issues of mutual importance, opportunities at national events for IGE roundtable sessions, as well as listening sessions, and meetings of the Executive Advisory Group are an invaluable atmosphere to lead collaboration and advance thought-leadership for the greater good. Members are encouraged to join National IGE Projects that interest them and seek out chances to participate in other structured industry-government engagement.

Delivering Logistically Challenging, Remote Projects. This roundtable session focused on delivering projects for government agencies in remote locations, such as islands in the Pacific. Supporting this work faces an upward battle because typically only large companies have the capacity for these contracts, due to the remote location imparting logistical challenges. However, large firms often require small business involvement to complete the execution.

The discussion covered challenges such as housing, operations, logistics, geography, local regulations, and authorities. A deep bench of professionals experienced in completing work in austere environments shared insights and lessons learned. Primes looking to subcontract for this type of work want small businesses that are operating in their strongest capability. The challenges of remote locations leave no room for error, so having a strong foundational relationship in place is critical.

Mitigating Cyber Security Risks. Part of SAME’s Cybersecurity National IGE Project, this session focused on the cybersecurity needs of modern government facilities, in particular securing operational technologies. Operational technologies continue to gain complex cyber elements, and with that, comes vulnerabilities to cyber-attack. Discussion focused on the processes, requirements, and operations needed to sustain an effective cybersecurity posture for operational technology.

In a conversation that included audience input, the roundtable shed light on the scope of the current challenge. Panelists discussed work being done to standardize language between engineers and cybersecurity experts, as well as how to advance the integration of cyber commissioning into the design and operation of federal facilities.

AI in the A/E/C Industry. This roundtable, part of SAME’s AI National IGE Project, quickly filled to standing room only and covered artificial intelligence and the current state of adoption in the federal A/E/C sector. After a presentation from the roundtable panelists, attendees were invited to participate in a discussion on the current use of the technology across the industry and how it may be applied further on future government projects.

Federal Facility Innovations. This interactive session, part of SAME’s Facility Innovation National IGE Project, challenged attendees to consider facility planning in the context of quickly evolving technologies, digital advancements, new weapon systems, resilience, sustainability, and flexible space for future missions. The roundtable divided the audience into two groups, each with a specific task. While one group focused on discussing agile facilities, the second group worked on the concept of integrative planning. Participants were led in a robust dialogue that considered the integration of operational and cyber/communications planning into facilities planning while meeting programming and budgeting requirements.