Our work
Case studies from government, research and commercial projects since 2008.
- In business
- 18 years, since 2008
- First project
- Defense Acquisition University, 2008
- Longest client relationship
- DC Public Works, since 2016
- Sectors
- Government, research, commercial
Sectors
Each sector buys and reviews software in its own way. We have worked in each one for years, and each has its own page.
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Research
Research centers and university research offices
Since 2016 we have built program websites and center software for the National Science Foundation (NSF), including the Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers (MRSEC) and the Materials Innovation Platforms (MIP). We also help centers with their reporting and outreach. Centers can pay from the grant, so the work does not wait on university procurement.
Clients: Penn State, University of Houston, UT Austin, UC Santa Barbara, University of Missouri, NC A&T, Texas A&M AgriLife.For research centers
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Government
Federal, state and local agencies
We hold Maryland's Consulting and Technical Services+ (CATS+) contract in all ten functional areas and are registered on SAM.gov, so work can start in weeks. Our first government work, in 2008, was for the Defense Acquisition University. We were prime contractor on two state pandemic responses, and we have worked with the DC Department of Public Works since 2016.
Clients: DC Department of Public Works, Maryland Department of Health, DC Public Schools.For government
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Commercial
Insurance, software companies and growing platforms
Through Innate, we designed and built a sales platform for a travel insurance group, which sells $120 million a year in eight countries. We built automated software delivery for Autodesk, and designed a new architecture for an advocacy platform that needed to grow.
Clients: Innate, Autodesk, Booz Allen Hamilton, Phone2Action, now Quorum.For companies
Our role on a project: prime contractor, architect, subcontractor or trainer
We have worked in all four roles. On the first call, we will tell you which one fits your project.
- Prime contractor
- Two state pandemic responses, where we managed the subcontractors and the reporting. The DC Department of Public Works, since 2016.
- Architect
- A travel insurance platform in eight countries, designed and built from the start. A new architecture for an advocacy platform, designed together with its engineers.
- Subcontractor
- The technical work on another firm's contract. The travel insurance platform ran this way, through Innate, from 2012 to 2015. So did a student case management system for DC Public Schools, from 2010 to 2014, which we joined mid-project as technical lead and helped bring to release.
- Trainer
- We mentored Booz Allen Hamilton’s technical team in development, deployment and performance tuning, and coached Phone2Action’s engineers on planning for growth.
Selected projects
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How we run Kaizen on AI
An AI agent sorts our email, writes up meetings, checks contractor invoices, drafts client invoices and follows up on late work. Anything that leaves the company waits for a person to approve it.
Kaizen
Since 2025 -
COVID-19 response systems for Maryland and Delaware
Contact tracing, mass vaccination scheduling and community testing for two state health departments. A million vaccination appointments, up to ten thousand a day, on infrastructure that met Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) rules and passed a state security review.
Maryland and Delaware
Prime contractor, 2020-2023 -
One live data warehouse for the DC Department of Public Works
About 100 million readings from a 200-vehicle fleet, combined with data from a dozen agency systems in one warehouse. Reports that arrived weekly as spreadsheets now update within minutes. In continuous use since 2016, through several chief information officers and a pandemic.
DC Department of Public Works
Since July 2016 -
A travel insurance sales platform in eight countries
Working as a subcontractor to Innate, we designed and built the platform from the start. It sells $120 million a year in policies across eight countries. Our work finished in 2015, and the platform still sells policies today.
Travel insurance group
Through Innate, 2012-2015 -
An instrument finder for a multi-site research program
Built for the National Science Foundation's Materials Innovation Platforms (MIP). Researchers ask which instrument can do the measurement they need. Each answer links to its source page and ends with the named person who manages that instrument. Questions that the program's own pages do not cover get no answer.
Materials Innovation Platforms
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A proposal advisor for a National Science Foundation program
The EPIIC Assistant, for the National Science Foundation's Enabling Partnerships to Increase Innovation Capacity (EPIIC) program. It gives stored expert answers for the common questions, and AI answers based on the program guidance for the rest. Each answer shows where it came from.
National Science Foundation EPIIC program
EPIIC Assistant -
CHARM Online, a coastal planning platform for Texas A&M AgriLife
We develop CHARM Online for the Texas Coastal Watershed Program: a web platform for coastal planning, hazard maps and scenario modeling.
Texas A&M AgriLife
Since 2024 -
A student case management system for DC Public Schools
We joined a project in trouble as technical lead, helped bring it to its first release, then led four more years of development. The student records were protected under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).
DC Public Schools
Subcontract, 2010-2014 -
Automated software delivery for Autodesk
A repeatable, automated delivery system on Amazon Web Services (AWS), Elastic Beanstalk and Docker. Autodesk’s developers could spend their time on features instead of server setup.
Autodesk
Continuous delivery -
Architecture and tuning for the Defense Acquisition University's learning system
Booz Allen Hamilton asked us for a prototype of a new portal for the university's online learning system. We designed the architecture for moving the system to a new platform, then load tested and tuned it to handle ten times its traffic. We also mentored Booz Allen Hamilton's technical team in development, deployment and performance tuning, so they could run it themselves.
Booz Allen Hamilton
Subcontract, 2008-2010 -
A new architecture for a growing advocacy platform
Phone2Action’s platform was growing fast and would soon need to handle much more traffic. We designed the next architecture with their engineers and coached them on capacity and performance, so the knowledge stayed with their team.
Phone2Action, now Quorum
Architecture and training
Also worth reading
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Writing
How we cut an AI agent's running cost by splitting the work between two models
The toolkit we built for a tax accountant in India worked on the first day but cost too much to run. What we changed, what it cost, and the open-source code.
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Service
AI and software for business operations
Systems that take repetitive work off your staff, and help to finish AI projects that stopped after the demo.
Have a similar project?
In a 30-minute call, we will tell you if it is worth building, what it would cost, and how long it would take.