Category: Press Releases

This past September, Optimal Solutions Group, LLC (Optimal) opened its new innovation and entrepreneurship center (IEC) as a part of its ongoing commitment and focus in these areas. The center, which is operational, is located adjacent to Optimal’s current headquarters in the University of Maryland’s (UMD) M Square Research Park. Research park tenants, University of Maryland officials, clients and partners are invited to Optimal’s newest center celebration. 

Currently, Optimal contributes to several entrepreneurship and innovation initiatives such as

• sponsorship of UMD’s College of Behavioral and Social Sciences (BSOS) business plan competition,
• sponsorship of UMD’s annual Human Computer Interaction Lab Symposium,
• sponsorship of UMD’s Smith School of Business, Center for Health Information and Decision Systems annual Workshop on Health IT and Economics,
• providing an entrepreneur’s perspective on the National Science Foundation/Howard University annually sponsored “Why be an Economist Day?,”
• evaluation support for the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) innovation clusters,
• partnering with UMD’s Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS) under a State of Maryland Industrial Partnerships grant (MIPs) for the development of artificial intelligence in health care quality improvement for Medicare Advantage Organizations and;
• supporting international development projects for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) through real-time data collection and analysis systems and the launch of Optimal Africa Research (OAR) which is dedicated to “propelling rigorous and sustainable policy research in Africa.”

The new center’s activities will be focused on further developing Optimal’s real-time framework and tool set, which are designed to enable “real-time public policy decision making.” In addition to software development, some of the technologies and tools within Optimal’s proven framework include social media analytics, business intelligence and analytics, dashboards and customized multi-modal reporting.  In addition, applicable rigorous research methods are researched and implemented to integrate with the technological tools used.

Optimal, an Inc. 500 firm, in anticipation of “big data” — is focusing on enterprise-wide and external disparate data integration including unstructured data, while incorporating rigorous and alternative research methods such as agent-based modeling. Additionally, Optimal will be hosting within its center, entrepreneurial students and fellows who will have 24-hour access to a “live, work and play” environment designed to spur constructive creativity and resulting products.

According to Optimal’s Vice President and COO, Tracye Turner, “Optimal is committed to continuing the research innovation leadership that it has provided in public policy research by encouraging the environment needed to cultivate thought leadership. With the instant creation and vast amount of data available today, there is an urgent need for policy decision makers to get facts quickly, accurately and less expensively. While political debates dominate the headlines, the public also needs timely information and facts. This new center will provide stakeholders, including policy makers, implementers and the public with unbiased data and tools to enable their decision making.”

In addition to Optimal’s university collaborations such as UMD, Drexel University, and Carnegie Mellon University, some of the strategic technologies and affiliations Optimal has are with firms such as IBM Cognos, Microstrategy, Tibco SpotFire, Radian 6, Collective Intellect and Apple.

In September 2010, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) launched the Regional Cluster Initiative, a pilot program to promote and support ten clusters — geographically concentrated groups of interconnected businesses, suppliers, academic institutions, service providers, and associated organizations — across a wide variety of industries and regions throughout the United States. The SBA’s Cluster Initiative provides funding to the organizing entities of the ten clusters in order to increase opportunities for small business participation within the clusters, promote innovation in the industries on which the ten clusters are focused, and enhance regional economic development and growth. This report describes the preliminary findings and outcomes from the first-year evaluation of the SBA’s Initiative. Read the Year One report. 

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Carol Boston- Faculty Research Assistant at the University of Maryland’s College of Information Studies (iSchool), will discuss work in progress on iSchool research related to volunteer motivation to participate in citizen science projects,  and the technology (including mobile apps and multi-user, touch-input-based tabletops)  to support and encourage their participation on April 17, 2013 at 12 noon at Optimal Solutions Group, LLC (Optimal’s) office in M Square Research Park, Maryland.   Insights gained from recent studies involving international volunteers and millennials (the so-called “digital natives”) will be shared. » Read more

Optimal Solutions Group, LLC (Optimal) was contracted to work with  the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) on its Regional Cluster Initiative in October of 2010. The SBA’s Cluster Initiative provides funding to the organizing entities of ten clusters in order to increase opportunities for small business participation within the clusters, promote innovation in the industries on which the ten clusters are focused, and enhance regional economic development and growth. » Read more

Scott Dempwolf, currently an Assistant Research Professor in the University of Maryland, Economic Development University Center will be presenting his dissertation on regional innovation clusters on Wednesday, July 31^st  at 12 noon at Optimal Solutions Group, LLC (Optimal’s) office in M Square Research Park, Maryland.  » Read more

Dr. Barbara Morgan, currently a senior lecturer and undergraduate advisor in the Department of Economics at Johns Hopkins University, will be giving a presentation on the key methodologies economists, sociologists and lawyers use to demonstrate whether or not discrimination exists in the labor market. » Read more

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) held its bi-annual Education Summit from August 6 – 8 in Washington, DC. » Read more

In an effort to sustainably reduce poverty and hunger through its Feed the Future (FtF) global initiative, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) works with host governments, development partners, and other stakeholders to address the root causes of global hunger. The initiative seeks to: 1) facilitate efficient market systems to meet the growing demand for food; 2) increase agricultural productivity; and 3) increase incomes so the poor can purchase food. There are 20 countries selected for the initiative, which aims to improve the countries’ and their communities’ capacity to better cope with adverse conditions that lead to food crises.¹

One of the 20 selected countries was Liberia, whose principal sector of activity is agriculture yet is a country plagued with food insecurity, widespread poverty, high unemployment, low human capital, and a recent outbreak of Ebola. The FtF initiative in Liberia has two main objectives: support growth in Liberia’s agricultural sector and improve the nutritional status of Liberians. In order to know how to better implement programs that work toward these two end-goals, USAID contracted Optimal Solutions Group, LLC (Optimal), under the USAID Learning, Evaluation, and Analysis Project (LEAP) contract, to conduct a population-based survey (PBS). Optimal worked alongside the University of Liberia-Pacific Institute for Research (UL-PIRE) to develop the survey and associated reports, and make ensure the use of sustainable methods so that UL-PIRE had the expertise to conduct future surveys.

The LEAP team sought to conduct near real-time data collection that would also prove to be sustainable for future surveys, so they used Asus Nexus 7 tablets for data collection, provided supervisors with laptops for quality review and daily data upload, and used Open Data Kit as the data collection software. The team made all these selections after conducting thorough field tests and after modifying the survey questions for the electronic and paper versions.

The team conducted the PBS in six Liberian counties— Montserrado, Nimba, Bong, Lofa, Grand Bassa, and Margibi—via a cluster approach and collected data on the following criteria:

• Consumption
• Prevalence of poverty
• Hunger
• Food insecurity
• Women’s empowerment

The LEAP team was scheduled to travel to Liberia to hand off the laptops during summer 2014, but the trip was canceled due to WHO and CDC travel warnings. Instead, the team arranged for laptops with software already installed to be sent to Liberia.

View the full report.