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U.S. DOT FY 2024.2 Phase I Pre-Solicitation Q&A



3/1/24  Update: The Pre-solicitation is now closed. Topic questions are no longer being accepted. * * *

This U.S. DOT Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Pre-solicitation Q&A Forum provides small businesses an opportunity to submit clarifying questions on the topic published in the U.S. DOT Fiscal Year (FY) 2024.2 Phase I Pre-Solicitation. Questions will be answered by the Technical Experts/Topic Authors during this period. Questions shall be limited to improving the understanding of a particular topic's requirements and should not share proposal ideas nor proprietary information.

The U.S. DOT’s FY 2024.2 Pre-Solicitation period is February 1, 2024, through March 1, 2024, at 5:00 pm Eastern Time (ET). Only questions posted within this period will be responded to.

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Please note, all comments will be public information. Potential offerors shall not include in the question(s) or comment(s) any information that they do not wish to be made public. Telephone inquiries or meeting requests will not be addressed and may be removed. The U.S. DOT shall not respond to requests for advice or guidance on any offeror’s solution to any SBIR topic and shall not consider any submitted materials other than questions.

Thanks for joining our FY24.2 SBIR Pre-solicitation Q&A Forum.

If you experience technical difficulties, please contact us at DOTSBIR@dot.gov.

55 results found

  1. Minimum/ideal number of data elements to include in solution?

    Is there a minimum number of data elements to be included to be considered for this opportunity? Is one proposal that looks to generate or enhance 5 elements to solve a particular problem less valuable to U.S. DOT than another that looks to enhance or generate 10 elements? Or is the use case of the data the main factor for evaluating?

    2 votes

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    1 comment  ·  Admin →
  2. Preferred standard for data to fill in

    Will the DOT be supplying a preferred standard for each of the unavailable or incomplete data attributes?

    For example, for a dataset that collects sidewalk surface conditions, a standard may include categories and values to choose from, such as:

    • Surface issue: roughness, cracking, heaving
    • Severity: mild, moderate, high
    • Etc.

    This way, there is a national standard for each of the incomplete data attributes that need to be filled out. Perhaps this can only be created after the development of each dataset.

    2 votes

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  3. Incomplete Datasets - Introductions from the DOT to Maintainers

    Would the DOT offer introductions to some of the maintainers or organizations that upkeep the existing incomplete datasets mentioned at https://its.dot.gov/csai/datasets_externalLink.html?

    1 vote

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    1 comment  ·  Admin →
  4. Scope of the decision support tool?

    Should the decision support tool we're developing for this project aim to cover all three aspects outlined in Appendix A: identifying gaps, proposing solutions to fill those gaps, and evaluating the potential impact of those solutions comprehensively? Alternatively, would it be sufficient for the tool to focus on addressing a specific urgent issue within the network, such as bike safety, thereby improving the overall quality of the complete streets network?

    5 votes

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    1 comment  ·  Admin →
  5. Focus on data, or the decision making tool?

    Is the focus of the SBIR the data generation or the decision making tool? The presolicitation talks about both. However, without the underlying data available, we cannot build a good decision making tool, especially the NLP examples given. Is DoT looking for easy to use decision making tools, or the tools to fill in the missing data elements?

    7 votes

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    1 comment  ·  Admin →
  6. Data for Phase I - are we expected to use best available data for the selected geography?

    It appears that the budget for Phase I will likely cover utilizing best available data elements for a selected geography and may not allow procuring or testing new data sources. Please clarify if novel data sources are meant to be applied in Phase II or later.

    2 votes

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    1 comment  ·  Admin →
  7. Why no data detail for freight needs (e.g. unobstructed vertical clearance) other than freight volume counts in Table 2?

    While the Complete Streets AI Initiative Pre-Solicitation mentions freight five times, why no mention of freight data / goods movement / waste-recycling needs in the Table 2 list of data elements other than freight vehicle volume and type data? Roadway characteristics important for freight such as unobstructed vertical clearances, turning radii for freight vehicles, etc. are missing. Can these omissions be corrected in the resulting solicitation to remove bias against freight needs?

    2 votes

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    1 comment  ·  Admin →
  8. Prompt and Output

    Examples 1 and 2 in APPENDIX A show “prompt” and “output” in the form of text and descriptions of imagery. Further, the expected Phase II outcomes list includes “perform[ing] analysis in response to queries from users.”

    Does the decision software tool need a natural language query interface?

    2 votes

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    1 comment  ·  Admin →
  9. Novel Data Coverage

    APPENDIX A states “The outcome of Phase I shall be a proof-of-concept report, as well as the digital data layers that have been generated for the chosen geographic region… [and shall include an] assessment of data coverage limitations and gaps”

    Can you elaborate on how important the percentage of coverage is for the novel generated, enhanced, and integrated data elements within the geographic region during Phase 1? All other things being equal, do you have a sense if you’d rather see offeror select a small densely populated area or a sprawling geographic area for Phase 1?

    2 votes

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    1 comment  ·  Admin →
  10. Data Ownership Rights

    APPENDIX A states “The data and methodologies generated from this initiative that reflect existing bicycle, pedestrian, and accessibility infrastructure shall be hosted publicly in an open and accessible format” — Can you expand on this? Will this be a carveout of data ownership rights? How long will this data be publicly hosted on whose servers?

    6 votes

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  11. Contiguous Geographic Areas

    As long as it meets the stated summary requirements, can Phase 1’s contiguous geographic area be arbitrarily defined by the offeror?

    2 votes

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    1 comment  ·  Admin →
  12. Working with small business.

    Numerous companies that would not be defined as small businesses collect or could collect data that can be used to help develop the tool that this project is seeking. Will Volpe consider curating a list of companies that could be partners to a small business looking to develop the desired tool(s).

    3 votes

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    1 comment  ·  Admin →
  13. What intellectual property (IP) rights will apply to the data and software deliverables produced in different phases

    For phase II's beta software tool, what level of access and usage rights does the DoT expect from companies (government pupose rights, unlimited rights, or negotiated licenses)?

    What are the potential(expected) licensing options for the fully functional software developed in phase III (consider commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) licensing or the DoT wants the IP rights)? What are the DoT's long-term goals for ownership and operation of the phase III software?

    Pre-existing IP: if companies use pre-existing IP in their deliverables, can you clarify ownership and licensing rights for those components?

    7 votes

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  14. Does the DOT have a list of Metro transit agencies or Regional Planning organizations who would be willing to work with Small businesses pla

    Does the DOT have a list of Metro transit agencies or Regional Planning organizations who would be willing to work with Small businesses as part of this topic ?

    3 votes

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    1 comment  ·  Admin →
  15. Road Weather & Conditions

    I don't see weather/road conditions as Context data elements to generate or enhance. Is that data element intentionally not included and is it a data element that should be included as it impacts safety, efficiency, etc.?

    5 votes

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    1 comment  ·  Admin →
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