September 10, 2020
Tracye Turner, EVP/COO, Optimal Solutions Group, recently participated in Johns Hopkins University’s “Entrepreneurship Matters” series. Entitled “A Conversation with Entrepreneurs Tracye Turner and Tina Williams-Koroma,” the conversation ranged across a variety of topics and issues common to small business. The series is hosted by Alicia Wilson, Vice President for Economic Development at The Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins Health System. The link to the talk […]
September 10, 2020
The Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Microloan Program makes direct loans to qualified nonprofit, quasi-governmental and tribal mediators that, in turn, lend working capital for job creation, equipment, and material purchases. This program is essential for small businesses who do not qualify for traditional business loans and who have historically been underrepresented in the business community across a number of industries. […]
September 1, 2020
The SBA’s Regional Innovation Cluster (RIC) Initiative, launched in September 2010, promotes and supports U.S. regional clusters—geographically concentrated groups of connected businesses, suppliers, service providers, and similar institutions in an industry or field. Clusters act as a networking hub to convene resources for small businesses. This then helps small businesses in navigating funding, procurement, and supply-chain opportunities in their specific […]
September 1, 2020
A logic model provides a visual likeness of the key program pathways linking program components to short-term, intermediate, and long-term outcomes. The purpose of a logic model is to define a program’s theory of change by showing how the program’s underlying assumptions, strategies, resources, activities, and contextual factors are expected to lead to the desired outcomes. Optimal prepared logic models […]
September 1, 2020
Government agencies often use incomplete and non-systematic approaches to identify qualified contractors and capable, socially and economically disadvantaged small businesses for government requests. While information about firms is available, it is stored across disparate systems that are not linked together. In order for staff to more efficiently identify small disadvantaged businesses, Optimal Solutions Group, LLC (Optimal), developed a series of […]
September 1, 2020
The Small Business Administration’s (SBA) 8(a) Business Development Program grants participants access to set-aside or sole source contracts, a business opportunity specialist, the right to enter a mentor-protégé program, and other benefits. The goal of the Evaluation of 8(a) Certified Firms is to better understand the market for goods and services demanded by federal agencies and those supplied by 8(a) businesses. The […]
September 1, 2020
This study helped SBA in improving the program enactment of Emerging Leaders (e200) Training and Mentoring Initiative by identifying strategies to improve program participation and stakeholder engagement. It also identified the factors affecting the business revenue and business survival rates of the businesses poised for growth in historically challenged communities. Optimal assisted in developing the overall evaluation frameworks for SBA’s […]
August 11, 2020
COVID-19 has interrupted corporate internships, but Optimal Solutions has developed a safe alternative.
July 1, 2020
Established in 2016, the All Small Mentor-Protégé Program (ASMPP) extends the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) approved mentor-protégé relationships to every small business. The program’s goal is to develop strong protégé firms through mentor-provided business development assistance. Optimal assessed why firms leave the ASMPP either during the application process before they are approved for the program or during the program participation […]
July 1, 2020
The annual federal procurement scorecard assesses the extent to which federal agencies reach their small business contracting goals, which Congress develops. The SBA is responsible for ensuring that small businesses participate in the government-wide goal, which is established annually at the statutory levels, and that the reporting agencies’ achievements are close to reaching the goals. The SBA made revisions to […]
June 10, 2020
The challenges of quickly transitioning to online classes in response to the COVID-19 global health crisis highlight the urgent need for digital accessibility in higher education. Website designers and developers often overlook incorporating accessibility features and best practices and may be unaware that they have created an inaccessible website. iAccessible tests websites for digital accessibility, instructs developers on how to […]
April 20, 2020
Revelo Software, LLC (Revelo) has been approved to join as a member of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Led by web inventor Tim Berners-Lee and Director Jeffrey Jaffe, W3C is an international community that develops protocols, guidelines and standards for the web. Web standards that are presented by the W3C are developed by members for the W3C community, W3C […]
April 1, 2020
The Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute (MTECH) awarded a Maryland Industrial Partnership (MIPS) grant to Optimal Solutions Group (Optimal) and the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) jointly to build an automated government procurement decision support tool. The work conducted over the next year will focus on creating a deep learning algorithm as the backend of a tool for government agencies’ […]
June 18, 2015
Access to public spaces, such as parks, green spaces or green infrastructure, has shown to be associated with improved levels of physical activity.
April 20, 2015
In an effort to underscore the importance of healthy living and staying active, Optimal Solutions Group, LLC (Optimal) encourages its employees to keep moving and provides opportunities for staff to expand their knowledge outside their subject matter. Earlier this year, Optimal held a WalkFit contest, for which groups of staff members “walked” to San Salvador, El Salvador.
November 13, 2014
2014 was a big year for reaching out to communities near and far for Optimal staffers.
November 10, 2014
Optimal’s Research Analyst Kelsye Turner will be giving a brown bag presentation on fair trade at noon on November 12, 2014.
October 16, 2014
The office of Cultural Programs of the National Academy of Sciences (CPNAS) is hosting an exhibition of a selection of Dr. Ben Shneiderman’s treemap works.
October 6, 2014
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) started the Learning, Evaluation, and Analysis Project (LEAP) in 2011 with the goal of providing assistance to developing countries.
July 29, 2014
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)’ Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI)’s Learning and Diffusion Group (LDG) awarded Optimal Solutions Group, LLC (Optimal) the Learning System Data Management (LSDM) Project. Under this project, Optimal is developing a system for standardizing and collecting learning event data from each CMMI’s healthcare innovation models to meet Government Performance and Results […]
July 22, 2014
This year marks the fourth year of the Small Business Administration (SBA)’s Regional Cluster Initiative pilot program.
January 31, 2014
After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Armenia has struggled to regain political, social, and economic stability.
January 13, 2014
Poverty has afflicted Bangladesh since its independence in 1971. Since then, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), has designed and implemented projects to promote private-enterprise development and employment generation. These previous USAID-funded projects had the same goals of 1) strengthening product, market development, and market linkages; 2) promoting economy-wide and sector-level reforms; and 3) increasing lending to target firms. […]
September 9, 2013
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) held its bi-annual Education Summit from August 6 – 8 in Washington, DC.
September 9, 2013
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.
August 30, 2013
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), in their efforts to reach out to small businesses, awarded Optimal Solutions Group, LLC (Optimal) a contract to study and prepare a report which documents the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) providers and participant characteristics. The SFSP was designed to ensure that children who benefit from the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and […]
August 5, 2013
The LEAP team conducted cost-benefit analyses (CBAs) of four agriculture-related projects in Ethiopia to assess the beneficiary, social, and financial outcomes of the following interventions: Agribusiness and Market Development (AMD), the Livestock Growth Project (LGP), Pastoralists Resiliency Improvement and Market Expansion Project (PRIME), and Graduation with Resilience to Achieve Sustainable Development Project (GRAD).
July 31, 2013
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 31st at 12 noon at Optimal Solutions Group, LLC (Optimal’s) office in M Square Research Park, Maryland.
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