On March 27th and 28th, we attended the Small Business Summit as part of the 8th Annual National Small Business Federal Contracting Week, located in Washington DC. The summit was presented by the National Association of Small Business Contractors, the American Small Business Chamber of Commerce, and the US Women’s Chamber of Commerce. The summit brought together small businesses from around the country and a conglomerate of representatives from federal agencies and prime contractors. We truly appreciate the federal agencies and prime contractors for supporting the small businesses in becoming a larger footprint within the government contracting world.

The presentations were wonderful and informative from a variety of perspectives, from the US Navy and NAVAIR to DLA, DOT, the VA, DHS, and EPA. In addition to the presentations were the one-on-one meetings and the networking sessions. We learned so much and met a lot of great people from across the government and industry.

Thanks to everyone who supported the summit, from the organizers to the federal agencies and prime contractors. We really appreciated all your guidance and information sharing, and look forward to new opportunities and continued growth.

See you guys next time!

Today is that wonderful time of year where we get to celebrate one of mathematics wonderful little values: π. Many celebrate March 14th by competing in pizza pie or apple pie eating contests. Some even go as far as eating some pie at 1:59PM (or AM if you’re awake). Here at Kepler, we employ several…let’s call them math-enthusiasts. You know, those who loved calculus class and enjoy building mathematical models until 4 in the morning. The ones that loved proofs in geometry, yep those guys. Well, because our math-enthusiasts are dear to our Kepler family, we wanted to show our Pi-appreciation, by passing along some Pi-humor. Enjoy!

A Little Pi-Humor

What did π say to √(-1)? “Get real”. And what did √(-1) say in return? “Be rational”.

What do you get when you divide the circumference of a Jack-O-Lantern’s by its diameter? Pumpkin Pi

What do you get when you divide the circumference of the moon by its diameter? Moon Pi

What do you get when you divide the circumference of the sun by its diameter? Pi in the sky!

Mathematician: Pi r squared. Baker: No pies are round, cakes are square!

A mathematician, a physicist, and an engineer are all given identical rubber balls and told to find the volume. They are given anything they want to measure it, and have all the time they need. The mathematician pulls out a measuring tape and records the circumference. He then divides by two times pi to get the radius, cubes that, multiplies by pi again, and then multiplies by four-thirds and thereby calculates the volume. The physicist gets a bucket of water, places 1.00000gal of water in the bucket, drops in the ball, and measures the displacement to six significant figures. And the engineer? He writes down the serial number of the ball, and looks it up.

We recently released two case studies, with one more close behind, describing how we applied our capabilities to solve specific problems. The goal of the case studies is to define a problem experienced by one of our clients, and then briefly describe our solution to alleviating that problem. Each case study will highlight one or more service offerings, and are often tied to a specific set of core capabilities.

Current Case Studies

Case studies are currently accessible through their respective Service Offering main page.
The two case studies currently available on our website are:

• The MDA Source Selection Support Team – in which our team excelled in mitigating risks associated with Missile Defense Agency’s (MDA) source selections by conducting in-depth analysis and mitigation of forecasted risks. The team was recognized for their excellence in mitigating risks associated with six critical MDA source selections, ensuring optimum acquisition performance and absolute success of the evaluation teams.

• TimePiece™ – a case study about our web-based scheduling software that facilitates the scheduling of resources in a dynamic operational environment. TimePiece™ enables schedulers to add, delete, view, and modify alert and training events, assigning required personnel and assets to the events for event execution. It was developed to ensure integrity and accuracy in the schedules for the Air Force’s Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) forces. TimePiece™ provides visibility throughout the organization, ensuring horizontal and vertical coordination of resources.

Another case study on Resource Allocation is in final review and will be posted shortly. The Resource Allocation case study will cover modeling techniques applied to a crew scheduling problem. The model created optimizes the assignment of Air Force personnel and assets to fulfill critical mission requirements. The case study will also contain a link to the white paper that provides greater detail on the problem and Kepler’s approach, with a little shallow diving into the mathematics behind the model. We did not want to go too far with the math and scare anyone off due to causing horrific flashbacks to their days in Linear or Integer Programming classes (classes that this author, a math nerd, loved).

Keep checking back to see more case studies about how we have applied our capabilities to solving unique problems!

We stumbled upon this just recently: Stanford University has joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in offering free online courses to the public. Beginning in Fall 2011, Stanford started offering free online courses taught by their university professors, calling it a “bold experiment in distributed education“. They currently offer courses in the following fields of study: Civil Engineering, Complex Systems, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Entrepreneurship and Medicine. Students taking the courses do not receive university credit, but do gain rich knowledge in a variety of interesting subjects, so why not try it?

Stanford expanded their course offerings in Spring 2012, and continue to add courses monthly. Some of the interesting courses being offered are:

• Game Theory
• Probabilistic Graphical Models
• Design and Analysis of Algorithms
• Technology Entrepreneurship

For a full listing of ongoing and upcoming courses, visit Class Central for more information.

Happy Learning!

Kepler Research achieved Small Business status in 6 additional North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Sector 54 Codes following changes to the small business size standards.

SBA Increases Size Standards for NAICS Sector 54, Professional, Technical, and Scientific Services

The United States Small Business Administration (SBA) has increased 37 small business size standards for 34 industries and three sub-industries in NAICS Sector 54, Professional, Technical, and Scientific Services. The SBA published a final rule on Friday, February 10, 2012 that changes various size standards, to become effective on March 12, 2012. Check out the article here.

Kepler Now Small Business in the Following NAICS Codes

Search for Kepler’s entry in the Central Contractor’s Registry here.

• 511210 – Software Publishers
• 541330 – Engineering Services
• 541511 – Custom Computer Programming Services
• 541512 – Computer Systems Design Services
• 541519 – Other Computer Related Services
• 541611 – Administrative Management and General Management Consulting Services
• 541618 – Other Management and Consulting Services
• 541690 – Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services
• 541712 – Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Biotechnology)
• 541720 – Research and Development in the Social Sciences and Humanities
• 541990 – All Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

We’re very proud to launch our new Kepler website, and appreciate all the help our
website design team, CMS Advertising Group, put into this project. Susan, Deven, and
Cooper are outstanding and extremely creative.

Keep checking the Kepler Blog for the latest news, events, and articles.

And don’t forget to visit our Contact Us page and reach out!