The first Navy-wide Sustainment Data Challenge is entering its final phase of competition as five remaining teams were selected April 8 to continue with the challenge. 

Imagine trying to make sense of five years of usage data (3.65GB) from a multitude of different sources and formats to provide much needed insights and working prototypes in less than five months. Nine teams, dwindled down from 17 at the start of the year, did exactly that during the competition’s second checkpoint. 

The nine self-formed data challenge teams from across the Navy brought data expertise and a desire to produce meaningful solutions to the Navy’s sustainment planning problem. Based on team’s inventive approaches and novel data insights, the teams presented projects at checkpoint two. 

Sponsored by Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Research, Development and Acquisition (ASN RDA), Chief of Naval Operations and the Office of the Chief Management Officer the challenge is to develop prototype predictive system-of-systems analytical model(s) to identify future program sustainment requirements and resources that consider dynamic operational scenarios to achieve Navy readiness goals. The ability to apply, scale and extend the solutions to additional Navy programs is anticipated.

Shirley Franko,Sustainment Program Baseline lead for ASN RDA, stated, “Expectations for resulting solutions are high. Leveraging the creativity of our subject matter experts and the power of data analytics is enabling innovative modeling that could optimize our highly complex Sustainment system to enable readiness while reducing risk.”

Competing teams recently briefed key stakeholders to determine which teams will continue to the next phase. Based on team’s approach, technical viability and innovation along with an ability to deliver a solution by May, five teams were selected to continue to the finals. 

“There is a razor-thin margin separating each of the teams,”said Capt. William Sherrod, commander, Naval Air Forces Sustain Program Baseline Lead. “Those selected to advance to the next phase show great promise in producing a series of models that are scalable across naval aviation as well as offer a more holistic view of aviation sustainment.”

The remaining five teams have less than a month to finalize their analysis and deliver a working prototype model. From there, teams move on to the Sustainment Data Challenge summit where the selected finalists will present their solutions for winner selection. Based on current efforts, one or more teams are likely to have an opportunity to mature and expand their solutions after the challenge finals. 

Franko observed, “The teams’ outstanding efforts and enthusiasm are clearly evident, the speed and agility of the Navy’s Data Challenge process have worked very well and I’m really looking forward to seeing how we can use these ideas to solve Sustainment challenges on real programs.”