Northeast Big Data Innovation Hub

Pursuant to 13.106-1(b), the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) intends to negotiate a single source purchase order with Columbia University to conduct exploratory research on engaging big data hubs.   

The Big Data Hubs has created existing communities of practice for data scientists as part of prior funding from the National Science Foundation.  The West Big Data Hub created a program titled “Data Science for Social Good” that has brought together data scientists and domain experts for short-term efforts on challenging problems. Having experience and tested processes for conducting community of interest activities with data scientists is essential for measuring the value for highway transportation. Commercial vendors including small businesses could not replicate this service. Commercial vendors would need to recruit and pay people to participate in a community of practice. As an institute of higher education, the Big Data Hub can recruit students and have them participate as an educational activity. 

The intent of this notice is not to request competitive proposals, and any information received from interested parties will only be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether a competitive procurement should be conducted. However, interested parties may submit a description of their firm's capabilities for satisfying this requirement, which demonstrates they possess the ability to successfully perform this effort. The responses must be received by May 8, 2023, at 4:00 PM Eastern. All questions concerning this matter should be addressed directly to Kevin Hardy at kevin.hardy@dot.gov.