In order to accomplish the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) Flight Plan goals for development of the Next Generation Air Transportation System, the Office of System Engineering (AJP-1000) requires on-site, systems engineering, graduate-level courses for the Air Traffic Organization's (ATO) workforce. For the past few years, the FAA has obtained these courses from Steven's Institute of Technology (SIT), Hoboken, NJ. SIT was selected as the service provider after an extensive market analysis of New Jersey's accredited engineering colleges and universities. The search was limited to schools located in the State of New Jersey because, to date, all the courses have been taught at the William J. Hughes Technical Center, Atlantic City International Airport, NJ and there was a need to minimize the instructor's travel costs. The search criteria also stipulated that the school had to: Be an accredited College and/or University; Have an accredited School of Engineering with an accredited System Engineering and Engineering Management Program at the graduate levels; Offer courses in non-traditional instructional formats, i.e. distance learning, week-long classes in a modular format that condensed 16 weeks of traditional academic course lecture time and delivered it within a five-day, 40-hour time period;. Supply full-time professors (not adjunct) for all classroom instruction; and Include the cost of the instructor's travel expenses and all required books and other instructional materials in their tuition rate. SIT was the only school that met all the above criteria. The classes offered by SIT are delivered onsite, in the modular lecture format and supplemented with an additional eleven weeks of professorial guidance to students. During this time, students work on class assignments and papers and the professor is available for consultation to all students. The modular format minimizes employee time away from productive engineering work while simultaneously achieving the Flight Plan goal of upgrading the skills of the future aviation workforce. Finally, SIT met the most important consideration, i.e. they had an extensive, widely-recognized and innovative graduate-level systems engineering curriculum. The FAA plans to continue offering graduate level engineering courses to the ATO workforce for the next five years and intends to issue an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (ID/IQ) contract to SIT on a single source basis with SIT. SIT appears to be the single source that can satisfy the Flight Plan training requirements and issuance of the ID/IQ contract will reduce procurement lead time and streamline the selection and ordering of course when funds are available. The SIT classes delivered in the past few years have resulted in a number of employees pursuing advanced engineering degrees and offering the courses has had a positive effect on the systems engineering knowledge base and on employee morale. The course format and onsite delivery results in the FAA being able to offer this educational benefit to a larger number of employees than would otherwise be possible with the traditional, tuition-remission, one employee, one-class-at-a-time method. By continuing the training already started with SIT, the FAA will realize labor cost and time savings described earlier, meet the Flight Plan training goals and provide academic continuity for those employees pursuing advanced engineering studies. The required tasks under the proposed contract will include: Graduate level Systems Engineering course instruction, at FAA provided facilities, to Air Traffic Organization (ATO) employees and managers with a minimum class size of 15 ATO employees; Systems Engineering courses, similar to those described in Attachment 1, will be taught by full-time professors. Subjects are in the area of Lifecycle, Architecture, Program Management, System Integrations, System Thinking, Modeling and Simulation, and other System Engineering courses that may be added to the curriculum by SIT during the life of the contract; The courses shall be in a modular format, where 16 weeks of traditional academic course work is delivered within a 5-day, 40-hour period. The courses shall be a academic courses for credit and employees who successfully complete an offered course will receive a letter grade (i.e. A,B,C, etc) and credits (minimum of 3); For up to eleven weeks after the on-site lecture, the professor shall be available to ATO employees, either in person or via e-mail, internet or telephone, to provide instruction and consultation pertinent to course material and assigned homework projects; and Within 30 days after the course concludes and all students have been issued grades and credits, the University will deliver a letter to the Contracting Officer's Technical Representative that contains the total number of students that signed up for the class, total number of students that received credits for the class, total number of students who either did not finish the class and number of students who failed. Based on the success that the FAA has experienced with SIT's services, the continuing need to offer systems engineering courses to ATO personnel and the desire to provide continuity in the curriculum and format of classes offered, the FAA believes that SIT is the single source to meet all of the above stated requirements. In accordance with the FAA Acquisition Management System (FAAAMS) paragraph 3.2.2.4, the FAA announces its decision to contract with Stevens Institute of Technology Castle Point on Hudson, Hoboken , New Jersey, 07030 using single source procedures. A competitive solicitation is not available for this procurement. If you do not agree with this single source determination, please provide evidence of requisite capabilities and experience in providing systems engineering educational services for the FAA to evaluate. All responses to this announcement must be in writing and received no later than 2 pm, local time, July 10, 2007. Responses are to be sent to: Federal Aviation Administration William J. Hughes Technical Center Engineering Services Acquisition Sub-Team (AJP-7951) Attn: P. Schlegel Atlantic City International Airport, NJ 08405
