The Buzz with ACT-IAC ACT-IAC

Last week, ACT-IAC held its 2024 Emerging Technology and Innovation Conference in Cambridge, MD, where leaders and experts from across government, industry and academia met to discuss how government can harness new technology to improve mission outcomes. Our conference kicked off with a keynote presentation and fireside chat with Arun Gupta, a venture capitalist, lecturer at Stanford University, adjunct Entrepreneurship Professor at Georgetown University, and author of Venture Meets Miss...

This week, The Buzz presents a session from our 2024 Climate Change Summit. In this opening keynote session, Dr. Elizabeth Doris, Director of the Joint Institute for Strategic Energy Analysis at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), discusses the past, present and future work that the laboratory has conducted to assist in the United States' clean energy transition, climate change adaptation, and more. The Buzz will be taking a break next week as ACT-IAC holds its 2024 Emerging Tech...

This week, The Buzz presents a session from our 2024 Climate Change Summit. This panel focuses on how academic institutions contribute to climate change action through research, sustainable practices, and policy advocacy. Speakers will showcase university-led initiatives and their alignment with government efforts to meet national climate goals. Attendees will learn how academic expertise can guide effective climate action, emphasizing the importance of informed government strategies in tackl...

Have you ever tried to cancel an online subscription and ended up clicking around in circles trying to find the right button to press? If so, you experienced a "dark pattern" - a deceptive tactic of UX design that tries to trick users into doing something they don't want to do. In the online age, UX designers have enormous power in facilitating our access to information and services. What happens when this power is used for evil? To discuss this question (and more), we're joined by Colin Gray...

This week, The Buzz presents a session from ACT-IAC's 2024 Digital Transformation Summit. This panel of fedtech experts discusses the progress they have made in their respective agencies to leverage digital transformation to enhance the citizen experience, focusing on policy and process impediments that can derail progress and how to overcome them. Panelists:Andrea Fletcher - Chief Digital Strategy Officer, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid ServicesRaymond Holder - .VP o...

About a year ago, we were joined on the show by Gabriel Zucker of Code for America to talk taxes. Specifically, a provision of the Inflation Reduction Act that directed the IRS to develop their own proprietary, free tax prep software for the first time in history. Since then, the IRS has been hard at work. 2024 tax season marks the launch of the IRS Direct File pilot, a simplified tax prep tool available to residents of twelve states. It's free, easy, fast, and represents a huge win for civic...