SOLICITATION NOTICE
R -- Help Desk and Information Technology Support of the NLM's Insight Toolkit (ITK-v4)
- Notice Date
- 3/28/2013
- Notice Type
- Combined Synopsis/Solicitation
- NAICS
- 511210
— Software Publishers
- Contracting Office
- Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Library of Medicine, 6707 Democracy Blvd., Suite 105, Bethesda, Maryland, 20894, United States
- ZIP Code
- 20894
- Solicitation Number
- NIHLM2013694
- Archive Date
- 4/18/2013
- Point of Contact
- Suet Vu, Phone: 301-496-6546
- E-Mail Address
-
vus@mail.nih.gov
(vus@mail.nih.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- Total Small Business
- Description
- Project Purpose In order to continue to provide leadership within the national research community in the area of software development for image analysis, the National Library of Medicine (NLM) seeks to provide help desk and information technology support for its open-source image processing application programmers interface (API), known as the Insight Toolkit (ITK). In 1999, NLM organized a software development program along with support from across NIH, NSF and DoD. The resulting open source software library has become the very successful initiative known as the Insight Toolkit (ITK). ITK operates across multiple computing platforms, supporting many combinations of operating systems and compilers. ITK is currently in use in over 45 countries by thousands of researchers in hundreds of laboratories spanning research topics from traditional medical disciplines such as neurology, pathology, radiology, and oncology, to electron microscopy, systems biology, remote sensing and even astronomy. In a research contract program from 2010 to 2013, NLM revisited the foundations of the toolkit to assure its viability for the next ten years. In the intervening decade since the original design of ITK, computing technologies made radical advances including the advent of multi-core microprocessors, 64-bit CPU architectures, and a proliferation of graphics processing units (GPUs) capable of general purpose computing. The result of the NLM program was a major software release, ITK version 4.0, which targeted these emerging features of contemporary computing. NLM is actively seeking to incubate the revised version of ITK, now in release ITK-v4.3, encouraging users to migrate to the new release and grow the user community. A maintenance award is required to accomplish this goal. General description of the required objectives and desired results The Insight Toolkit (ITK) is currently available with the release, ITK version 4.3, announced in December 2012 (see the URL: http://www.itk.org). NLM wishes to maintain the underlying design and software architecture for ITK as well as support and grow the user community at this time. The purpose of this procurement is to obtain contract software support services for the Insight Toolkit (ITK), the image processing tools initiative of the Visible Human Project. The goal is to support ITK to attempt to allow it to perform and evolve for the research community for up to another five years. All deliverables will be released under the existing ITK license as public, open-source software, and so all deliverables must be free from encumbering licenses or restrictions. NLM intends to select a single contractor to address these issues, with the emphasis on experienced ITK programming talent either from a systems development perspective or from the application developer point of view. All respondents to this announcement are encouraged to assemble expert teams, and subcontracting and consulting relationships are permitted as part of any proposed award. The period of performance for any award is one (1) year, with possible options for four (4) additional option years. Detailed description of the technical requirements. Supporting ITK and its user community as a maintainable and sustainable software toolkit for the next five years is the goal, and it will require a breadth of expertise as well as in-depth knowledge of the existing toolkit and its application programmers interface (API). Potential contractors should have a keen appreciation for the existing community, its needs, and the processes and work-flow of ITK users. NLM encourages the growth of ITK through peer-reviewed software additions. The current mechanism for proposing and evaluating new code is through submissions to the Insight Journal. Respondents should have the technical capability to manage an online journal as well as the subject matter expertise to moderate reviews and discussions of software and data for medical image analysis. Integration is considered the key to success for both this contract action as well as the success of the ITK toolkit in general. All offerors should be prepared to work closely with other NLM contractors and with the existing Insight software community. All software deliverables will be checked-in to the current source code control system and vetted through the style checker and regression testing dashboards currently in place. Respondents to this announcement should demonstrate their proficiency with the software tools and processes in use by the ITK users including GIT and Gerrit as well as their experience supporting user information through wiki pages, mailing lists, and other communication vehicles. The prospective contractor should be able to identify and correct bugs in ITK. This requires extensive knowledge of C++ programming including the use of templates as well as the techniques for providing language bindings for allowing access to ITK software capabilities called through other programming languages. Deep knowledge of the existing ITK-v4.3 code is required. Proficiency in Python, in particular, is considered essential. NLM anticipates that the contractor will travel to promote ITK through one or two symposia, tutorials, and workshops per year held in conjunction with technical conferences where medical image analysis is being discussed. NLM encourages outreach activities with other programming groups and user communities. The contractor should be able to show their demonstrated capacity to organize tutorials and to teach ITK programming. Prospective contractors should not assume that all outreach will be performed under this funding. Rather, the successful contractor will organize and invite other members of the ITK community to join in the presentation of tutorials and workshops promoting ITK. Subordinate tasks or types of work. The contractor will be required to participate in the following tasks or prepare the following deliverables: 1. Maintain and monitor communications with the ITK user community. This includes the running of mailing lists/list-serves and responding user questions and complaints. It also includes conducting and moderating weekly teleconference meetings for ITK developers, keeping minutes and maintaining meeting agendas. 2. Identify and correct bugs and other software flaws in ITK. 3. Contribute documentation, tutorial materials, and courseware. Organize outreach activities such as one or two symposia, tutorials, or workshops in conjunction with related conferences per year. 4. Produce semi-annual software releases of ITK. 5. Perform all software and documentation development under the style guidelines and architectural rules of the Insight Toolkit. 6. Maintain the ITK software repository using a source code control system. The current distributed revision control and source code management system for ITK is Git. The contractor will support ITK through Git until and unless the ITK developer community adopts a different system. 7. Support the quality of ITK software through the use of software code review tools. The current system for software review is Gerrit, a free, web-based team software code review tool that integrates with Git version control software. The contractor will promote software quality in ITK by supporting Gerrit until and unless the ITK developer community adopts a different system. Quality Control. In keeping with the practices for the development of the current Insight Toolkit, all software deliverables will be required to pass through the ITK dashboard, the open-source system for regression testing and quality control. No deliverables will be considered acceptable without checking in the software to the source code repository, and cleared through the dashboard regression testing process. All software, including examples, must be accompanied by software tests, both run-time and regression test, suitable for implementation in the dashboard system. All deliverables must pass their own tests as well as not break other tests in the toolkit. Coding style and software will be reviewed for style, documentation, completeness, comprehensiveness and coverage of the software tests, and the correctness of the implementation. A web-based team software code review tool will be used (currently Gerrit). Reporting Requirements. The successful contractor will hold weekly teleconferences, videoconferences, or virtual conferences to provide continuing communication among the ITK developer community. Attendance at these weekly meetings is required for the contractor. Deliverables will be checked-in to a source code repository and testing of deliverables will be covered in an automatic build and regression testing environment. Annual reports of the activity of the contractor and the state of the community are required. Period of Performance. The period of performance for this requirement is one (1) year. Four options for one year each (4 option years) should be offered with the proposal. Deliverables. All deliverables will reside in the public domain (either through controlled Internet distribution from the NLM or through a third party electronic publisher), including all source code. The NLM will use the Visible Human Project rights and data clause with this requirement, claiming ownership of all data and software generated under this requirement, including all source code. NLM intends to place the ITK license on all software and release it in the public domain. The eventual software developers will be held to high software standards, and extensive documentation for the software tools (including tutorials, manuals, and examples) are required. All deliverables will be checked-in to a source code repository. Submission of Technical Proposals. Beyond introductory material, software management experience and philosophy, and other ancilliary information, the offeror should map the substance of the proposal to the following sections, corresponding to the categories of the Technical Evaluation Plan/Criteria for this solicitation: I. Perspective and Understanding of the Technical requirements The proposal must demonstrate a thorough understanding of the requirements of the Statement of Work and describe an approach that will demonstrate the achievement of timely and acceptable performance. The proposal must present a comprehensive statement of the problem, scope, and purpose of the project to demonstrate an understanding of the requirements from a management and technical standpoint. Specifically the proposal must demonstrate how the offeror will meet the specific tasks in the statement of work including: 1. Maintain and monitor communications with the ITK user community. This includes the running of mailing lists/list-serves and responding user questions and complaints. It also includes conducting and moderating weekly teleconference meetings for ITK developers, keeping minutes and maintaining meeting agendas. 2. Identify and correct bugs and other software flaws in ITK. 3. Contribute documentation, tutorial materials, and courseware. Organize outreach activities such as one or two symposia, tutorials, or workshops in conjunction with related conferences per year. 4. Produce semi-annual software releases of ITK. 5. Perform all software and documentation development under the style guidelines and architectural rules of the Insight Toolkit. 6. Maintain the ITK software repository using a source code control system. The contractor will support ITK through Git until and unless the ITK developer community adopts a different system. 7. Support the quality of ITK software through the use of software code review tools. The contractor will promote software quality in ITK by supporting Gerrit until and unless the ITK developer community adopts a different system. II. Qualifications of key personnel NLM is placing considerable emphasis on ITK programming experience either from a systems development perspective or from the application developer point of view. This background experience with ITK is deemed essential to successfully be able to support ITK. Each proposal must demonstrate and document the relevant experience, education, and availability of developers to meet the needs of the project. Some of the traits NLM is seeking include: • Strong knowledge of C++ object-oriented programming. • Demonstrated experience (of at least a year) in supporting a Git and Gerrit software revision control and review system (verified through peer-reviewed publication or the existence of an established Github site). • In-depth knowledge of the ITK software internals (verified through a response to a written or oral inquiry or a track record of responses and answers on the existing ITK users and developers mailing lists). • Demonstrated understanding of collaborative multi-institution open-source software development principles (verified through documented participation of the offeror in the Insight Software Consortium or as part of some other open-source community project). • Scientific depth in image processing methods (demonstrated through peer-reviewed papers with research investigators named as authors). • Commitment to developing software under this contract under the style rules and architectural design of the Insight Toolkit. Offerors should map named personnel to technical tasks in section I, making initial staff assignments of software developers to specific programming objectives. III. Institutional Experience/Commitment NLM is seeking confirmation that the offeror is committed to building and releasing open-source software, especially in working with software under the ITK license or similar unrestricted copyrights. Support of this experience and commitment should be expressed through (a) documentation of previous releases of ITK software, (b) a letter of support from the offeror's Dean or Chief Operating Officer or similar official stating the offeror's commitment to releasing patent privileges and copyrights of work performed under this requirement to the public domain, and/or (c) the text of the copyright or license, documented or clearly cited for its source, used by the offeror in previous releases of open source software and/or public domain data. IV. Proposed relevant facilities The contractor should have a demonstrated ongoing active research interest and an in-house program in clinical or biomedical information processing or the use of medical computing in health services research. This requirement is necessary to ensure the contractor has the established background and knowledge required to make practical advances in these complex areas of research. NLM wishes to establish relationships with institutions or organizations that have independent/complementary research interests to ensure continued development towards the eventual goal of comprehensive algorithm coverage in ITK. The contractor should also have access to members of the principal user groups for which ITK is intended (i.e., computer software designers and toolbuilders for health sciences practitioners, educators, health services researchers, biomedical researchers) who can be used to test the effectiveness of the structures and models developed. The proposal must describe the availability and proposed utilization of appropriate facilities and equipment required to successfully perform work in the proposed application area. This includes access to source data and validation instrumentation. Electronic copies of the technical proposal are due by the application deadline. In addition to the official electronic submission, Seven printed copies of the technical proposal are required. These printed hard copies should be printed, 3-hole punched, and submitted in binders. NLM anticipates an official deadline for electronic submission by noon (12:00 PM), Thursday April 18, 2013, with an official deadline for printed hard copy submission by close of business, Thursday April 18, 2013. Electronic copies of submissions should be sent via e-mail to the contracting officer, Suet Vu, at vus@nlm.nih.gov. Furthermore, the technical proposal and the business proposal may be transmitted separately. At the completion of the proposal submission, even if only a single e-mail is transmitted, an additional confirmation text-only e-mail should be transmitted, communicating that a complete submission has been sent and detailing the contents of each file and how many separate e-mail files should be expected.
- Web Link
-
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/HHS/NIH/OAM/NIHLM2013694/listing.html)
- Place of Performance
- Address: Bethesda, Maryland, 20894, United States
- Zip Code: 20894
- Zip Code: 20894
- Record
- SN03023383-W 20130330/130328235121-e3007dd68a3b6b8874752b0bc5e734ad (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
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