NAII AI Tech Sprints

AI Tech Sprints provide a novel approach to innovation to meet Veteran needs. AI Tech Sprints are three-month competitive engagements that foster collaboration between industry, academia, and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Teams compete to create AI-enabled tools that leverage federal data to address specific Veteran health care issues.

The National Artificial Intelligence Institute (NAII) leads AI Tech Sprints by making federal data available and incentivizing collaboration and innovation through the Government Innovation Framework, Challenge.Gov. Industry, academia, and nonprofit organizations are encouraged to work together, with input from VA researchers and clinicians. Sprint participants have access to several federal data sets, including synthetic VA data.

AI Tech Sprints result in innovations that address real-world health care challenges faced by Veterans.

- Gil Alterovitz, PhD, NAII Director

Sprint partners iteratively design an intervention using federal and private data. Teams receive access to:

• large unique federal data sources (e.g., clinical trials, patents, experimental therapeutics, patients)
• Veteran and expert perspectives
• technical AI and machine learning support
• feedback on demos and from users
• longer-term partnership and/or funding opportunities

Top winners of the AI Tech Sprints receive prize money. Recognized prototypes may be invited to conduct a pilot of the product within VA or be introduced to another agency for next steps in product development. 

Learn more about AI Tech Sprints!

• Featured in Gov CIO: Listen: Breaking Down AI Tech Sprints at Veterans Affairs

NAII Announces the ASPIRE AI Tech Sprint 2022 Winners

AI Tech Sprint participants, interagency partners, VIPs and NAII staff gathered at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, and virtually, for the Golden Envelope Ceremony to hear the winners of the AI workforce-centric ASPIRE Tech Sprint announced. All six finalists shared demonstrations of their projects prior to the winners being announced.

Thank you to all the finalists and applicants for your participation in this iteration of the VA NAII AI Tech Sprint. A special thank you to all the federal partners on the All Services Personnel and Institutional Readiness Engine (ASPIRE) Program for their involvement in reviewing project submissions and supporting the competition. Federal partners include: the Department of the Navy, the Department of the Air Force, the Department of Labor, the Department of Health and Human Services, the National Space and Aeronautics Administration (NASA) and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Congratulations to all our winners and finalists on a job well done!  

First place: Groundswell Second place: Scaled Entelechy Third place: QuantHub Finalists: Coursera, Booz Allen Hamilton, Rixel

Golden Envelope Ceremony Photo Gallery

Groundswell wins first place in the 2022 ASPIRE AI Tech Sprint.	Scaled Entelechy wins second place.
QuantHub receives the third place trophy.	Timothy Strebel, NAII Supervisory AI Program Manager, welcomes finalists and guests to the Golden Envelope Ceremony.
Dr. Gil Alterovitz, NAII Director, explains the AI Tech Sprint.	Booz Allen Hamilton's finalist team receives their plaque.
Coursera is an ASPIRE Tech Sprint finalist.	Rixel is a finalist in the ASPIRE Tech Sprint.

AI Tech Sprint 2022: ASPIRE Demonstrator

Teams worked with cross-agency educators and AI experts to create or refine a computer-adaptive skill assessment platform which will be used across the federal government to train and assess the workforce of the future.

Teams produced a prototype learning platform for the All Services Personnel and Institutional Readiness Engine (ASPIRE) project. The platform:

• administers a computer-adaptive assessment of the test-taker’s skills and understanding of AI
• provides an assessment summary and personalized recommendations of courses or other materials to advance the test taker’s skills and
• offers learning resources to test takers.

The software provides a relatively stable and secure experience, with auditability and interpretability of results.

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