SETA AI/ML Support Services Extension

The Office of Procurement Operations (OPO) on behalf of the Office of Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) hereby issues this notice of intent to award a sole source procurement.  DHS OPO intends to solicit and award an extension of systems engineering and technical assistance (SETA) support services for Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML) efforts as a sole source Task Order modification to Noblis, Inc, 2002 Edmund Halley Drive, Reston, VA 20191.  This is a notice of intent to solicit and award a sole source contract under the authority of FAR 6.103-1 “Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements”. The relevant NAICS code is 541611 Administrative Management and General Management Consulting Services, with a size standard of $24.5 million. The PSC code is R408, Support-Professional: Program Management/Support.

Summary of the requirement

Background

DHS S&T's mission promotes the development of effective techniques to protect our citizens and our country's infrastructure against the devastating effects of explosives by seeking innovative approaches in detection and in countermeasures. S&T provides concepts, science, technologies, and systems that increase protection from explosives and promotes the development of field equipment, technologies, and procedures to interdict explosives.

Among its missions, S&T develops explosives countermeasures, including the detection, mitigation, and response to explosive threats including: all modes of transportation within the Transportation Systems Sector (Aviation, Maritime, Mass Transit, Highway, and Freight Rail); in checked and carry-on baggage; homemade explosives (HME); improvised explosive devices (IEDs); vehicle borne IEDs (VBIEDs); person borne IEDs (PBIEDs); and response and defeat technologies. S&T accomplishes this through interactions with potential partners in the private sector, university communities, national labs, government agencies, and international partners to leverage collective expertise, resources, and knowledge to efficiently and effectively develop capabilities aligned to the mission-critical needs of the HSE. Within S&T, several of these Programs are executed by the Mission and Capability Support (MCS) Office.

The Screening at Speed (SaS) program conducts research and development of new technology, techniques, and processes that allow aviation checkpoints to screen 300 passengers and their carry- on belongings per lane per hour to TSA's highest security standards. New systems will reduce the need for divestiture of outerwear or removal of liquids and electronics from carry-on bags and adapt dynamically to information provided by risk-based screening. Raising throughput and lowering costs will also enable highly secure screening to support other Homeland Security customers. The Screening at Speed program aims to deliver solutions and shape future screening technology development. S&T is identifying opportunities to augment and enhance current systems and processes such as advanced person and carry-on baggage scanning systems and passenger identification and vetting techniques. It will also demonstrate innovative technologies and techniques that, will lay groundwork towards a long-term vision.

As part of the Screening at Speed Program, S&T acquires data sets through both traditional and innovative research and development methods, to include Prize Competitions. As an example of scope, a recent Prize Competition resulted in over 500 teams participating, submitting 149 distinct approaches. Leaderboard scoring algorithms show solutions with promise that would sharply improve aviation security and reduce time-consuming and invasive alarm-resolution measures, such as pat-downs and physical searches. Winners licensed their winning submissions and source code via non-exclusive license granted to S&T and TSA in their role as sponsors. Both S&T and TSA benefit from experts who can assess both the detection performance of these algorithms and their ability to transition to a deployed security measure and resolve which solutions would be the most effective in the field, or modifications or combinations of several algorithms represent superior investments for further development. The algorithms acquired through the Passenger Screening Algorithm Challenge have also shown promise to be adapted to other on-person screening systems including shoe scanners, other portal-based systems, or real-time systems.  In addition, the Screening at Speed program sponsors efforts in synthetic data generation, as well as development of virtual testbeds for new algorithms.

Scope

The task order provides technical and management support services around artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) efforts under Screening at Speed and partner programs including subject matter expertise, project and algorithm evaluation, maturation, and certification/qualification support. This work supports the S&T Program’s collaboration with TSA efforts to improve security at airports and other venues as well as significantly improve the overall travelling public experience with security screening. The work includes delivering essential tools, data and analyses of security screening systems and methods at various stages of the developmental lifecycle, including those in development and more advanced prototypes undergoing rigorous test and evaluation.

Place of Performance: The primary place of performance will be at Government and contractor facilities in the metropolitan Washington, DC area.

Period of Performance: 9 month extension from June 3, 2026 through March 2, 2027.

Market research is underway for a competitive recompete of these support services for the Screening at Speed program. This competitive procurement is expected to take place during calendar year 2026. A determination by the Government not to compete based upon responses to this notice is solely at the discretion of the Government.

This is a notice of the intent to award a sole source contract. It is published for informational purposes only and not a request for competitive proposals. Therefore, no solicitation document exists for this requirement.  Any firm believing that they can fulfill the requirement may be considered by the agency. Interested parties may identify their interest and capabilities in response to this synopsis. All questions and/or comments regarding this notice shall be addressed in writing to the Contracting Officer Jennifer.Koons@hq.dhs.gov by May 27, 2025 by 10:00 AM Eastern.  Questions by phone will not be considered.