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JUNE 2021 I SMT007 MAGAZINE 75 Acknowledgement e authors of this paper would like to acknowledge the contribution of the following IBM colleagues to the content of this paper: Igor Khapov, Ekaterina Krivtsova, Dmitry Gorbachev, Ilsiyar Gaynutdinov, Ilya Trofi- mov, Yuri Pravosud, omas Cook, Jeff Kom- atsu, Julian Reyes, Aaron Civil, John Bacon, Dingguo Xiong, Hailin Zhu. SMT007 References 1. Hamilton, Eric "What is Edge Computing: The Network Edge Explained." https://www.cloudwards. net/what-is-edge-computing/, 27 December 2018. 2. IBM Edge Computing Reference Architecture, https://www.ibm.com/cloud/architecture/architec- tures/edge-computing/overview Feng Xue is a senior technical staff member at IBM Charisse Lu is a senior technical staff member at IBM Christine Ouyang is a Distinguished Engineer at IBM James Hoey is a manufacturing engineer at IBM Rogelio Fernando Gutierrez Valdez is a senior engineer at IBM Richard B. Finch is a senior technical staff member at IBM NASA has a long history of supporting Ameri- ca's entrepreneurs as they develop technologies from ideas to commercial readiness. The agen- cy's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) pro- gram is furthering that legacy with 140 new Phase II awards to 127 U.S. small businesses that will help them move their innovations to market. The awards to these small businesses, located across 34 states and Washington, D.C., total $105 million. NASA's small business program is ded- icated to finding the most useful technologies for the agency and the commercial marketplace, and sourcing those innovations from a diverse group of entrepreneurs with different backgrounds and per- spectives. The companies chosen for Phase II fund- ing include 33 women-owned, minority-owned, and veteran-owned small businesses. The awardees all received initial SBIR Phase I contracts in 2020 to demonstrate the merits of their innovations and show how they could contrib- ute to NASA's efforts in human exploration, space technology, science, and aeronautics. The Phase II awards will provide them each with up to $750,000 to advance their technologies toward potential commercialization. The companies will spend up to two years developing, demonstrating, and deliver- ing their proposed projects. NASA aims to help small businesses focus on commercialization. The program offers additional funding opportunities for small businesses if their Phase II work proves successful, helping them find customers outside the agency. "The Phase II contract period is an exciting time, as small businesses put their ideas into practice and develop prototypes attractive to NASA and pri- vate investors," said NASA SBIR Program Executive Jason L. Kessler. "The selected technologies have displayed great potential impacts for their respec- tive sectors, and we are proud to continually invest in today's booming aerospace economy through these small businesses." NASA's SBIR/STTR program is part of STMD and managed by NASA's Ames Research Center in Cali- fornia's Silicon Valley. (Source: NASA) NASA Invests $105 Million in U.S. Small Business Technology Development