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CANA Foundation Supports Earth Day Highway Clean Up By Liz Cranston During this COVID-19 quarantine, the days seem endless, running one into the other.  At times I find myself surprised at what day it is - when a friend mentions it's Friday and time for our virtual happy hour, I find myself rubbing my eyes, lifting my head from my computer monitor, and then standing up slowly from my desk - similar to walking out of Plato's Cave. This happened last week - it was Earth Week, and on Wednesday - which was Earth Day - a friend reached out to me and asked if I'd like to support a local highway clean up in celebration of Earth Day.  Earth Day??!!  I had no idea.  Well, there is nothing like some positive peer pressure and a flexible work schedule - I said, "heck yeah!" Within an hour, five sets of families met up at our local grocery store where we passed around bright orange garbage bags, compared each other's attempt at wearing bright clothing, and stood six feet or more away from each other. For the next 3 1/2 hours, our five small "crews" picked up trash along both sides of of our local highway, approximately 1.5 miles in Haymarket, Virginia. Luckily it was a cool, sunny, only slightly breezy spring day, and it was fabulous.  Maintaining our physical distance but certainly engaging socially, it was rewarding to help our community, to walk without restrictions outside, and most importantly, to connect with friends. A thank you to the CANA Foundation for supporting this time well spent supporting my local community and celebrating Earth Day! Remember make Earth Day everyday. "The earth is what we all have in common." ~ Wendell Berry Elizabeth Cranston, Esq. Elizabeth Cranston is the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer of CANA Advisors.  As CEO/CFO, Liz expertly manages a diverse team of professionals and oversees multiple programs spanning CANA’s various product lines. You can contact Liz through email at ecranston@canallc.com #EarthDay2020 #CANAFoundation #EarthWeek2020 #EarthDayEveryday #teamCANA

A fun filled day of art at the Richland Schools with CANA's Koa Beam! Recently the CANA Foundation and Richland Schools sponsored a day of comic book style art for students at the Richland High School and Elementary School lead by CANA's very own Lead Graphic Artist, Koa Beam. The Richland High Schools' art teacher Mrs. Martha Ringler was the driving force behind putting the event together. This event arose out of the participation that Mrs. Ringler had had taking part in a previous 'Let's Draw Spider-Man!' one day workshop that Koa had done last year at the Community Arts Center of Cambria County. That event was a fun success and she thought a similar workshop shop for her high school students would be a great opportunity for the students to learn a little about how comic book artwork is created. Mrs. Ringler's Art Club was also kind enough to provide materials for high school students to use for the day and keep. The CANA foundation was kind enough to help support Koa with time to teach the workshops for the day and spread the joy of art and creation to the Richland students. The drawing workshop idea also caught the interest of the Richland Elementary School's Art teacher Mrs. Krista Hershberger. So, the day was expanded to include doing a fun draw along at the elementary school as well. Both workshops were a success and a ton of fun. Roughly 50 students got to take part in the event day between the high school and elementary school. At the high school the students first learned about some of the basic tools a comic book artist uses along with a little history behind comic book art and artists. At which point a short poll was taken to see what character they would be drawing for the day. And the surprise winner was... Groot from the Guardians of the Galaxy! So over the next 4 hours Koa lead and instructed the students in the, penciling, composition, layout, inking and coloring of a typical comic splash page. At the elementary school things were scaled back and made a lot simpler for the younger students as they were given the opportunity to use whatever pens, crayons, pastels, or markers they wanted to do the draw-along with Koa. Once again a quick poll was taken of the students to see who the kids would like to draw. And they chose The Child (or Baby Yoda as he is better known) off of the Mandolorian on Disney+. Koa then tried to break down baby Yoda into simple shapes for the kids to follow and color in. All in all the artwork that both the high school students and the elementary students created can only be described as awesome. Beyond being a day of fun, filled with art and education, the event managed to also raise $200 to be donated to the Community Arts Center of Cambria County. CANA Advisors through it's CANA Foundation is happy to have been a part of this fun day. Again, a big thank you to the CANA Foundation and the Richland Schools Art Programs, teachers and students. You guys rock! 'Nuff Said. :) #teamCANA #CANAFoundation #RichlandRams #letsdraw Koa Beam is the Lead Graphic Artist for CANA Advisors. If you wish to get in touch with him you can email kbeam@canallc.com

On April 16th CANA Advisors held part 3 of our webinar series on Working Virtually. Part 3 was a team CANA panel a conversation on parenting and care giving while working from home. Our team members will share their stories, challenges, and tips in their roles as caregivers and professionals. Over the past few weeks, most organizations have made the switch to working from home, a major transition for many employees. Our inboxes and news feeds have been flooded with articles on how to master the world of remote work. As an organization that was built to operate remotely and has been operating in this context for over twelve years, CANA Advisors is no stranger to the world of working virtually. As a remote team, one of the biggest changes many of us have experienced in the past few weeks is the addition of new “coworkers,” children, spouses, etc who are home at all hours. In this session, we'll have a candid conversation on maintaining work-life balance, staying focused, and setting up a remote team for success. DID YOU MISS PARTS 1 or 2? Don't worry if you missed any of our Working Virtually series you can watch them all here: https://www.canallc.com/working-virtually-series or listen to the podcast versions of any of the webinar here: https://www.canallc.com/podcast JOIN THE ONGOING CONVERSATION Building a vibrant, virtual professional community is more important than ever before. We want to hear about your experience working remotely and answer any questions you may have. Join in the conversation now on the CANA Connect Forum. #teamCANA #workingfromhome #workingvirtual #virtualoffice #onlinemeeting #homecare #parenting #caregiver #CANAwebinars

Thoughts On Working Virtually in Today's World There is no, one right way to work virtually. This may not be a surprise to folks that were forced into this mode by the recent Corona Virus situation. Of course, you can do a Google search and get thousands of "Ten things to make working from home easier" or "Increase your productivity working from home." You could literally spend the next ten years surfing these links, but I would argue that you would see marginal improvements at best and waste tons of time and money. So why do I know this, and what should you do? First, I have been working virtually for six years. Over that time, I lived in a two-bedroom apartment, many hotel rooms, and a three-bedroom house with a dedicated office. I have worked virtually on the road from airports, coffee shops, co-working facilities, and baseball stadiums. So I have experience. The second question is, what should you do? My short answer is, "get to work!" Let us first explore the non-virtual workspace, better known as the office. Offices are basically factories for knowledge workers. Spaces are designed for efficiency with team members located close to each other. Conference rooms, bathrooms, and snack areas are centrally located to allow for quick use. Organizations design office space to increase productivity and minimize cost. Variation is the enemy of a well-designed office. Your virtual workspace is designed by you. It can be a space designated as a home office, a lawn chair on your back deck, a couch in the family room, a kitchen table, or a seat at a baseball stadium. The sky is the limit, and the variation is infinite! That is both good and bad news. After all of those years, not having to think about the space where you work now, you have choices. To say this might be a little overwhelming is an understatement. Where do you start? I would recommend just start with what you have. You have a kitchen table, use it. A dedicated room for a home office, use it. You just need to start working. As you work over the next few days and weeks, you will begin to make observations. Perhaps your kitchen chair is uncomfortable after one hour sitting in it. Put any observations you make on a list either on paper or electronically. After one month, review your list. Then develop a list of ideas to mitigate your negatively impactful comments. You can list buying something to make things better, and I also challenge you to list ways to fix things by not spending money. For example, that uncomfortable kitchen chair, obviously you could buy a pad for the chair or perhaps a new, more comfortable chair. You could also get up and walk around the room every 45 minutes and take a break or change locations completely. Every person's experience working in the virtual environment is going to be different. There is no kit that organizations can send all of their team members to work efficiently virtually. Therefore sending all team members a standing desk is not going to create a great work environment for everyone. There is too much variation in team member's virtual spaces (i.e., house, coffee shop, co-working facility, etc.) to create a one size fits all solution. You must discover what works for you, and that takes time. Interested in learning more? You can check out our recent webinar series on Working Virtually here. Walt is our Director of Analytics Capabilities at CANA Advisors. To find more content on working virtually, continue to visit our CANA Connection. You can contact Walt at wdegrange@canallc.com #WFH #WorkingVirtually #VirtualCompanies CANA Advisors is a veteran-owned, woman-owned, equal opportunity company based out of Gainesville, Virginia in the United States of America.

CANA's newest team member, Connor McLemore, was awarded the 2020 John K. Walker, Jr. Award from the Military Operations Research Society (MORS) for his September 2019 article on Operational Readiness Rollup. The award is given "to recognize the author(s) of the technical article judged to be the best published in PHALANX, The Magazine of Military Operations Research, during the previous calendar year." The article highlighted Connor's analytics work on the Probability Management team with co-authors Shaun Doheney and Dr. Sam Savage. #teamCANA #MORS #CANAstrong #MORSS88

During the week of June 15th, several CANA team members attended the 88th Military Operations Research Society (MORS) Symposium, which was held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This year’s theme was “Multi-Discipline Analysis in National Security.” CANA was represented through a company demo, presentations in multiple working groups, individual awards, social events, and more. Our team members share their perspectives and key takeaways from an action-packed week at the MORS Symposium: Lucia Darrow On Tuesday, Norm Reitter and I presented our work Force Closure Modeling to Support Multi-Mission Scenario Analysis to the Logistics, Reliability, and Maintainability working group. It was a great opportunity to represent impactful work done by one of our largest development teams at CANA. At the CANA Partner Demo, our team shared some of our commercial work using R’s Flexdashboard and gained valuable perspectives from attendees. Apart from missing the networking possibilities with an in-person event, I enjoyed the virtual format for ease of moving between presentations and the high attendance for the end of conference sessions. Several sessions tackled national issues head-on, spurring conversations on race, gender, and the current pandemic from an analytics perspective. With growing interest in Data Science across the MORS member base, it was exciting to see a wide variety of presentations and high attendance in the new Data Science Working Group. Connor McLemore I found out on Tuesday that I was awarded this year’s MORS Walker Award along with my PHALANX Magazine co-authors Dr. Sam Savage and Shaun Doheney. The award is given "to recognize the author(s) of the technical article judged to be the best published in PHALANX, The Magazine of Military Operations Research, during the previous calendar year." I’m humbled by this unexpected recognition. I presented a summary of our work on military readiness and recommendations at the Symposium on Wednesday, June 17th, to a packed (virtual) room of 47 attendees. I also have submitted a technical paper describing our recommended approach to the MORS Journal, and my team is going through the review process now. I always look forward to and enjoy the sharing of knowledge that takes place at the MORS Symposium, and I was impressed with how seamless and effective the virtual presentation format was. It was great to see old friends (virtually), and I do hope next year it will be possible to have the 89th MORS Symposium in person! Renee Carlucci Despite being virtual due to COVID-19, I found the 88th MORS Symposium to be extremely well attended, with so many great presentations in the areas of Logistics, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Data Science, and Data Visualization. I especially appreciated the Special Session on COVID-19 and all the work by colleagues in the DoD to try to anticipate where, when, and to what degree local civil authorities may request support from the DoD and to anticipate where, when, and to what degree commanders can begin “return to normal” activities within acceptable risk tolerances. There was a lively discussion on ethics and how or when we tell decision-makers that we do not have the data or math to support a decision. Finally, I was so proud to see CANA’s own Norm Reitter get inducted as a Fellow of the Military Operations Research Society. Congratulations to both Norm and Connor for their achievements! Walt DeGrange It is always challenging to attend online conferences that were traditionally in-person events. The ability to instantly move from presentation to presentation was a major benefit. I typically make it a priority to attend at least one brief that is outside my area of expertise. This year I was able to attend five of those briefs. Gaining a different perspective from these presentations allows me to see connections that were not visible before. An excellent example of this during this year’s Symposium was a presentation on measuring how happy people are with the work they perform. This brief highlighted research into the area and techniques to survey people to determine their overall work satisfaction level. This provided me insights into improved ways to quantify qualitative data in future projects. Norm Reitter This year’s MORS Symposium was a big success for MORS - to pivot from in-person sessions to an all-virtual conference was a huge undertaking that the program team and staff took on seamlessly. I was thrilled to present some of our exciting modeling, simulation, and analysis work with Lucia Darrow to Working Group 17 - Logistics Reliability and Maintainability, and to chair our MORS Logistics Community of Practice session for a “Year in Review.” Added highlights of this MORS Symposium included Connor McLemore receiving this year’s Walker Award, presenting work with Lucia Darrow, participating in the Past President’s session, and seeing the great work that is being done across the MORS community. I look forward to the time when we can all be together again. The most honored and humbling experience for me this week was being inducted as the 85th Fellow of the Society and becoming part of a group of great MORSians whom I’ve admired for years. This year’s 88th MORS Symposium was a new endeavor for the organization - hosting the symposium as a completely online event for the first time - and we thought it was a great experience for all of us involved. If you would like to learn more about MORS and its community visit MORS.org. #MORS #MORSS88 #CANAADVISORS #TeamCANA

Team CANA is made up of some pretty superlative professionals. We pride ourselves on our diversity - truly every make and model from all types of backgrounds. Our diversity extends to thought leadership on all sorts of topics and services - from cutting edge technology to the basics of learning and development. Ah, but our diversity is unique - it is unique because we are uniquely passionate about what we do, how we do it, and to whom we do it for. We hope you enjoy this issue where we speak to our passions - we share technology best practices from a recent (first time “virtual”) symposium; we invite you to learn more about our esteemed colleague, Lucia, the current Learning & Development lead at CANA; and we close by highlighting just one aspect of our diverse hiring programs. Welcome to our Team! DEVELOPING A WEB API FOR THE THE DOD MORS 88th Symposium Presentation By Renee Carlucci | Principal Operations Research Analyst At the 88th Military Operations Research Society Symposium (MORSS) held virtually this June, CANA Advisors’ Renee Carlucci presented on her recent experience developing a Web API for a Department of Defense (DoD) client. The project utilized an R program backend to be hosted on a DoD cloud. She shared some of her team’s valuable takeaways, lessons learned, and best practices. Renee discussed the various types of cloud solutions being used by government agencies, the cloud and app certification process, the agile development process, and some of the tools being used that support agile software development. Renee also defined some web application interface concepts and commented on a number of software packages that support the process of building, running, managing, and distributing applications. Please find the following link for a comprehensive summary of Renee’s recent presentation - Developing a Web API for DoD (full article) #MORSS88 #webAPI #Rstudio #ReneeCarlucci TEAM CANA MEMBER SHOWCASE Lucia Darrow | Learning and Development Lead Lucia Darrow is a Senior Operations Research Analyst with CANA Advisors. Lucia has five years of analytics experience working on both government and commercial projects, leveraging domain expertise in logistics, healthcare, and manufacturing. She specializes in data visualization, R programming, and the development of decision support tools for complex analyses. She is an active member of the Military Operations Research Society (MORS), co-organizer of RLadies Vancouver, and co-chair of the Vancouver Datajam. Lucia is passionate about making analytics accessible and inclusive through training, writing, and community engagement. On CANA’s approach to community involvement, Lucia says, “In the world of open-source tools and fast-paced advancements in data science, community engagement is essential. I love that CANA prioritizes contributing to, and learning from, the broader analytics community!” Working with CANA, Lucia contributed to the simulation and optimization of a Marine Corps Prepositioning Force offload modeling project through the development of the input and output data miners, which focus on user interaction with the modeling suite. On the commercial side, she developed a set of simulation and optimization tools to model a large-scale mining transportation network at different time scales. Lucia has employed methods like text mining and social media analysis to help customers derive insights from data. Lucia is also the lead of CANA’s Learning and Development program and is responsible for the planning, development, and execution of short courses in a variety of analytics topics. Started in 2018 with courses made to prepare teams for the INFORMS Certified Analytics Professional exam, this program has grown into a set of customizable, modular training options for a range of audiences. Currently, Lucia is working in collaboration with the CANA Foundation on an exciting new Veterans Analytics Course, created to meaningfully impact participants through concrete skills, career advantages, and community connection. With Lucia at the helm, the Learning and Development program is also developing a crash course in data visualization. As one of the most often overlooked pieces of the analytics pipeline, Lucia is excited to blend data and aesthetic essentials with the tools of the modern data scientist. She says, “CANA’s commitment to staying on the bleeding edge of analytics techniques and technologies makes day-to-day work exciting. This attitude paired with expertise in statistics and operations research is the recipe for great analytics!” Lucia holds a Master of Science in Industrial Engineering from Oregon State University and a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from Dickinson College. Outside of work, Lucia loves getting outside, hiking, and exploring the Northwest. If you would like to learn more about Lucia and CANA Advisors’ upcoming courses in analytics or the CANA Foundation, please contact her at ldarrow@canallc.com! #teamCANA #canaadvisors #luciadarrow #CANALearningandDevelopment #CANAFoundation GOING FOR GOLD WITH OUR VETERANS CANA ADVISORS SUPPORTS DEPT OF LABOR PROGRAMS By Cherish Joostberns | Resource Coordinator & Walt DeGrange | Director of Analytics Capabilities CANA Advisors is proud of its veterans and understands the value that veterans bring to the American workforce. Creating a well rounded, diverse team is vital to CANA success and contributes to delivering successful results for clients. Indeed, veterans bring a unique skill set and insight into both CANA's government and commercial projects. As of June 2020, the CANA team is 57% veterans. CANA utilizes multiple avenues to support veteran programs and to attract former military personnel to its team. Department of Labor 2019 Gold HIRE Vets Medallion Award. CANA Advisors was proud to receive the 2019 Gold HIRE Medallion Award from the Department of Labor. The HIRE Vets Medallion Award is the only federal-level veterans' employment award that recognizes a company or organization's commitment to veteran hiring, retention, and professional development. The program honored CANA for its investments in recruiting, employing and retaining our nation's heroes. "Hiring veterans is a force multiplier - our company culture benefits greatly from the sound leadership practices, operational perspectives, and hard work ethic CANA's veterans bring to our team and to our clients." - Elizabeth Cranston, Chief Executive Officer To read more about the HIRE Vets government program go to https://www.hirevets.gov/ Hiring Our Heroes Program. CANA’s going for gold approach with veterans includes participation in the Hiring Our Heroes Program (HoH) through the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. This program promotes veteran hires by facilitating corporate fellowships for transitioning military. Service members can utilize their final three months of active duty as full-time fellows with participating companies. In its all-encompassing approach, the Hiring Our Heroes Program also includes military spouses, who are an often under-utilized wealth of skills and experience. The program’s desired end state is job offers, benefiting veterans, their families, and corporate America. CANA has hosted several Fellows over the past two years and has hired two full-time employees through the program. In fact, CANA’s lead for the 2020 HoH program (Northern Capital Region), kicking off on June 29th, is CANA’s Jason Fincher, a former HoH participant and strong advocate for the program. He is excited that this year’s program has already garnered almost 100 resumes pending review and potential selection; it is a candidate pool of exceptional depth and diversity, showcasing military talent. To read more about the Hiring Our Heroes government program go to https://www.hiringourheroes.org/ Veteran Support. CANA is dedicated to supporting and empowering veterans, from involvement in the Hiring Our Heroes program and the Virginia Values Veteran (V3) program, to projects supporting organizations like America’s Warrior Partnership https://www.americaswarriorpartnership.org/. CANA’s holistic perspective promotes veteran well-being on multiple levels and via multiple approaches. If you would like to learn more about CANA Advisors’ Veteran Hiring programs, please feel free to reach out to Cherish at cjoostberns@canallc.com or Jason at jfincher@canallc.com. #HiringOurHeroes #teamCANA #CANAstrong CONNECT WITH CANA ADVISORS IN 2020 Upcoming Online Events Wed, Sep 16 - Free Online Event Veterans Analytics Course This complimentary course, hosted by the CANA Foundation, provides an overview of the current analytics environment and aids in the transfer of existing skills to new government and commercial roles. By design, this course equips participants with concrete skills, career advantages, and connections to the analytics community. SIGN UP HERE Thu, Sep 17 - Free Online Event Veterans in Analytics Panel Discussion The CANA Foundation also brings you this complimentary event on navigating a career in analytics. Join us for a lively discussion on breaking into analytics, skill transfer, and the analytics community. We'll be joined by a panel of analytics experts, veterans in analytics, and veterans resources experts. SIGN UP HERE #CANAConnection #CANAAdvisors #CANAStrong

Supporting a client, in our case a Department of Defense (DoD) client, can offer some surprisingly rich take-aways other than the final products themselves. The following paragraphs summarize several valuable "lessons learned" that my team and I gathered from a recent project which utilized an R program backend to be hosted on a DoD cloud. This may be helpful to you if you are thinking about developing a web application yourself or would like to move a legacy application to the cloud. Cloud Platforms: It is no secret the government is migrating from traditional computer systems managed on-site to cloud-based services in order to gain operational efficiencies. Here I’ve listed just a few examples of the many cloud solutions being used by government agencies, such as Amazon Web Services (known as Infrastructure as a Service) with the red bracket on the right of each column identifying the services the cloud service provider manages. You’ll see the last two types of cloud solutions require the least amount of internal IT management: Platform As A Service (PAAS), where you manage just the applications and the data, and Software As A Service (SAAS), where the service manages everything. However, this shift also necessitates the migration of existing legacy applications to the cloud. Cloud and App Certification: Cloud solutions and new applications need to meet clear guidelines to ensure sufficient security safeguards are in place. The process can be a lengthy one for a cloud to receive the authority to operate (ATO). When Agencies decide to move their applications to the commercial cloud, the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) mandates specific approval and certification to connect the Cloud Access Point (CAP). At the individual application level, many of the required controls or safeguards can be inherited by the cloud solution, particularly from PAAS. This can speed the certification and deployment of new applications. The hardest part of navigating that process is determining exactly what the process is. 18F is an agency formed in 2014 to assist the government with developing digital services. Unfortunately, they have found the certification process to differ with each application across government agencies, and even within a single department. Since this can be the “long pole in the tent,” you would be wise to learn as much as you can and start developing early the necessary products required for the process. Agile Development: In the past, government applications were traditionally built using the so-called “Waterfall” development process; it starts with the customer defining the set of requirements for the software solution, then proceeds to design, then to development, etc. The problem with this process is the customer may not have the best idea of what the requirements should be at the outset. The customer also may have included requirements nobody wants, and later realizes a whole new set of requirements not included in the original design. The term “Agile Development” refers to a development process with principles that include satisfying the customer with early and continuous delivery of working software, ranging from a few weeks to several months, with a preference to the shorter timescale. This requires continuous communication between the developers and the customer. As government agencies are migrating legacy applications to the cloud or introducing new digital services, most are adapting to the agile approach to increase the effectiveness of their resources and to speed the delivery of working software. Jira: Jira is an issue tracking and project management tool used for agile development. There are a standard set of issue types such as Bug, New Feature, Task, Improvement, Story, Sub-task, and User Story. A User Story is typically something a user wants the software solution to do. It can be further broken down into a series of tasks. All of the issues of various types are put into the “backlog” of things to be done. In what is known as Agile Scrum workflows, issues (user stories, tasks, etc.) that can be executed in a manageable chunk of time, typically two weeks, are pulled from the backlog and put together into what is called a sprint. The issues are then assigned to individual developers. In Agile Scrum, the project is managed with daily stand-ups (quick meetings) to address the status of each developer’s issues to identify any “blockers” to workflow progress. Sprint Planning: Sprint planning takes place prior to the start of a two week sprint. What can be delivered in the Increment resulting from the upcoming Sprint? How will the work needed to deliver the Increment be achieved? These two questions are asked and answered to develop the planned workflow for each sprint. You may look at the set of tasks or stories needed to complete a new feature in the software. Each of the tasks or stories needs to be evaluated on how long they will take to accomplish, and are then assigned to a developer. A construct known as “story points” is typically used to assign relative workload to execute a task. You generally do not assign more than one eight point task per sprint, and estimating a developer can execute 3 story points per day, this equates to 25 to 27 story points per sprint. We utilized a fun tool for developing task estimates with the team called Planitpoker, a free, online software. Team members vote on estimated story points to assign to a task, and then try to reach consensus on the workload for a given task. If something is pointed too high, it probably needs to be broken down into multiple tasks. Git and GitHub: Git is version-control software created by the person who invented Linux. Git enables you to easily keep track of every revision you and your team make during software development. You all share one repository of code that is worked on independently and then merged back together. You do not need to be connected all the time because the project is saved both locally on each machine and remotely (likely at Github or Bitbucket). The repository, often referred to as a repo, is the collection of files and folders that you are using Git to track. The repository consists of the entire history of your team’s changes to the project. At CANA, we use GitHub for our repository storage. As developers complete software revisions, known as “commits,” they can push them to the GitHub repo so other developers can easily review the changes made, provide feedback, and approve changes to be merged into the main branch of code. R Packages for Web Applications: R is an open source programming language widely used among statisticians and data miners for developing statistical software and data analysis. Shiny is an open source R package that provides a web framework for building web applications using R. Many DoD analysts have used Shiny to build dashboard applications for their government clients. It allows R users to develop powerful web applications entirely in R, without having to understand HTML, CSS and JavaScript. It also allows us to embed the statistical power of R directly into those web applications. Plumber is an R package that converts your existing R code to a web API using a handful of special one-line comments. So, you can build your application and still make use of calls to R code for what R does best. To illustrate, you may have heard skiing is fairly easy to pick up, but hard to truly master, whereas, snowboarding is considered hard to pick up, but once you get past the initial phase, you can master it. Shiny skills are like skiing, easy to pick up, but hard to master. And once you have figured out Plumber, like snowboarding, you will master it and have a very powerful tool for exposing your R code to a web service. What is a Web API? The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is the dominant way information is exchanged on the Internet. An Application Programming Interface (API) is a broad term that defines the rules that guide your interaction with some software. In the case of HTTP APIs, you have a defined set of endpoints that accept particular inputs. Plumber translates the annotations you place on your functions into an HTTP API that can be called from other machines on your network. If you execute your Plumber API on a public server, you can even make your API available to the public Internet. Swagger: Upon starting the API, the Plumber package provides us with an IP address, and a port and a client, e.g., another R instance, can now begin to send REST Requests (requests for information). It also opens a browser tool called Swagger, which can be useful to check if your API is working as intended. Swagger allows you to describe the structure of your APIs so that machines can read them. The ability of APIs to describe their own structure is one of the awesome features of Swagger. This also helps you develop the technical documentation for your application as you build it. Docker: In simple terms, Docker is a software platform that simplifies the process of building, running, managing, and distributing applications. It does this by virtualizing the operating system of the computer on which it is installed and running. Let us hypothesize - you have three different R-based applications you plan to host on a single server, which could be either a physical or a virtual machine. Each of these applications makes use of a different version of R, as well as the associated libraries and dependencies that differ from one application to another. This could happen if the applications were developed at different times, by different developers. Since we cannot have different versions of R installed on the same machine, this prevents us from hosting all three applications on the same computer. A Docker Container does not have any operating system installed and running on it, but it would have a virtual copy of the process table, network interface(s), and the file system mount point(s). These have been inherited from the operating system of the host on which the container is hosted and running, whereas the kernel of the host’s operating system is shared across all the containers that are running on it. This allows each container to be isolated from the other present on the same host. Thus, Docker supports multiple containers with different application requirements and dependencies to run on the same host, as long as they have the same operating system requirements. Packrat and Renv are dependency management systems for R. R package dependencies can be frustrating. Have you ever used trial-and-error to figure out what R packages you need to install to make someone else’s code work, and been left with those packages globally installed forever because you are not sure you need them? Renv allows you to lock in the packages you need for a particular project and you can also revert to an older version if you run into a problem. These project libraries can be shared across your development team, regardless whether some are running Linux and some Windows. GUI Mock-ups & Pair Programming: We have found a graphical user interface, or GUI, mockups to be an important part of the development process working in concert with our client. Another important tip is the use of pair programming. In our DoD project, we were fortunate to have three of us working together on the backend, and it worked extremely well. To summarize the value of pair programming in your project: Two heads are better than one. If the driver encounters a hitch with the code, there will be two of them who will solve the problem. More efficient. Common thinking is that pair programming slows down the project completion time because you are effectively putting two programmers to develop a single program, instead of having them work independently on two different programs. But studies have shown two programmers working on the same program are only slightly slower than when those programmers work independently, rather than the presupposed 50% slow down, but they have more efficient code to show for it. Fewer coding mistakes. Because there is another programmer looking over your work, there are fewer bugs. Plus, pair programming allows the driver to remain focused on the code being written, while the other attends to external matters or interruptions. Sharing knowledge. They can share knowledge about the application purpose as well as the development operations more generally. Programmers get instant face-to-face instruction, which is much better and faster than looking for online resources and tutorials. Plus, you may learn things more easily from your partner, especially in areas that may be unfamiliar to you; developers can also pick up best practices and better techniques from more advanced programmers. Pair programming can also facilitate mentoring relationships between programmers. Develops your staff’s interpersonal skills and team building. Collaborating on a single project helps your team to appreciate the value of communication and teamwork. Renee G. Carlucci is a CANA Advisors Principal Operations Research Analyst.

CANA Advisors recently had the pleasure of hosting the 2020 FUELED Ops Virtual Demonstration Day that showcased the evolving technology of Unmanned Logistics Systems (ULS). The event, initially planned as an in-person meeting, quickly transitioned into a virtual event due to the ongoing COVID-19 circumstances. Notwithstanding this quick turn decision, the synchronous event, which included a FUELED Ops overview, a live demonstration of ULS platforms, market research on commercial unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), initial platform modeling and simulation scenarios and results, and an overview of NextStrategy, was a resounding success! LtCol Brandon Newell, Director of SoCal Tech Bridge, Naval X and Director of Technology and Partnerships - Marine Corps Installations - West, entrusted CANA to host this event in a virtual format: “CANA’s ability to pivot from a live event to virtual event planning, facilitation, and execution was phenomenal. The unique nature of a distributed, virtual work force that is highly adaptable is a perfect partner for designing programs.” CANA Advisors is a fully virtual company and has the tools and experience readily available to adapt to the unexpected and to bring an event like this from vision to reality. CANA used a variety of tools in execution of the FUELED Ops Virtual Demonstration Day, including Mural, JIRA, and Wix. CANA used the website generator, Wix, for the event invitation and read ahead materials. Koa Beam, CANA Advisors’ Lead Graphic Artist, was pivotal in designing from an initial idea to building a great final visual product. "I love when a design requirement comes in, and how I can help when things need to be made quickly. When we had to change the Demonstration Day from an in-person to a virtual event, we were able to keep things moving and remain very agile in the marketing development of the final event product." Koa also contributed to the project’s graphics and media support, building a 2D operational view with game pieces to display the operating area of an unmanned logistics system network to support future battlefield concepts. Graphics using these displays were important to socialize during this event as they will support continued discussions of ULS platform use in future FUELED Ops activities. CANA needed a virtual, on-line platform to collaboratively and simultaneously capture multiple users’ inputs into event design, planning and coordination. We used Mural, a virtual whiteboard, to visually map out and plan the event. Mural has the ability to import website links, documents, photos, and graphics. This gave the planning team a visual representation of how the event was going to look and kept all of the key information in one place. Mural is one of CANA’s project management “go to” tools for collaborating on-line with clients and the CANA team. Our project managers are able to create templates to design, plan, and execute tasks for a project based on multiple contributors’ input, synthesize the collected data, and come to a decision faster than using other traditional techniques. Mural has proven to be outstanding for virtual collaboration and getting everyone on the same page. For the FUELED Ops Virtual Demonstration Day, in particular, we used sixteen different boards for planning, preparing, and executing the event. Mural provided all the links to the boards on a single dashboard and made it easy to access all the information. CANA managed tasks for this event using JIRA software. JIRA is an issue and project tracking software for agile project management. The software allowed CANA to keep track of all tasks and assign team members, as needed, to maintain project progress based on the plan developed in Mural. By doing this, CANA was able to see live task tracking, which led to completing milestone dates on time. CANA Advisors’ identity as a virtual and agile small business enabled it to fully support the FUELED Ops team effort to seamlessly transform the FUELED Ops Demonstration Day into a virtual event and allow our client to accomplish its mission. The tools and capabilities inherent in CANA’s daily operations allowed for timely, virtual collaboration and the task completion necessary to host a highly successful event. #agilebusiness #navalx #fueledops #nextstrategy #canaadvisors By: Hannah Wallace Hannah, a key Project Manager at CANA Advisors, played an instrumental role in designing, planning, and coordinating the FUELED Ops event and was pivotal to its success. She brings curiosity and commitment to CANA's project management practice - as demonstrated by her research and assessment of MURAL as a force multiplier to our client engagements - and she is a leader within our team often engaging and implementing new technologies and efficiencies. If you'd like to learn more about Hannah Wallace or CANA's project management practice, please reach out to her at hwallace@canallc.com.

In this two-part CANA Connection Podcast, CANA Advisors' President Rob Cranston and Resource Lead Cherish Joostberns interview Anya Eliassen about managed mental health care in Oakland County, Michigan. Anya shares insights about her organization, the Oakland County Health Network, to include its provided services, the role of data analytics in care assessment, and also the network’s ongoing response to the COVID-19 health crisis. Anya is the Chief Financial Officer of Oakland County Health Network and has been with the organization for over 20 years. She has a depth of experience in all aspects of budget and finance decision-making within the organization, to include roles as a team support specialist, fiscal coordinator, and controller of costing. Anya currently has responsibility for Budget and Finance of Costing, Accounting, Contracts, and Facility Management, and is a member of the OCHN Executive Leadership team dedicated to quality service delivery for clients. Notably, Anya was selected as one of Crain’s Business Detroit 40 under 40 for 2019 and most recently served concurrently as Interim CEO and CFO of OCHN during 2020. If you would like to read more about OCHN, go to oaklandchn.org. And, if you would like to stay informed about more CANA Connection Podcasts follow us on social media, subscribe to our podcast feed, join our newsletter or consider joining in the conversation at our website in our community forum. #teamCANA #CANAstrong #ochn Listen to Part 1 Listen to Part 2 Click below for a written transcript of the CANA Connection Podcast Managed Mental Healthcare Part 1 Managed Mental Healthcare Part 2

CANA Connection Host: Rob Cranston Guest: Chris Schoenecker CEO of RoadSide Sytems Welcome to this episode of CANA Connection Podcast. Join us as our CANA Advisors President and Host Rob Cranston talks with long time friend Chris Schoenecker, CEO of RoadSide Systems about the logistics, changes, and innovations in the transportation trucking and fleet management industry during these changing times. Listen in as they discuss how the current pandemic changes affect the shipping backbone of our nation's economy and what does the future hold. Listen to the CANA Connection Podcast: Episode 10 If you would like more information about RoadSide Systems please visit their website at roadsidesyems.com We hope you enjoy this episode. To listen to more CANA Connection Podcasts or to sign up for out CANA Connection newsletter head on over to canaadvisors.com/podcast while there also consider signing up for our community forum. And as always remember; Analyze. Assess. and Execute. #CANAconnection #RoadsideSystems #FleetMangement #GPStracking Click below for a PDF written transcript of this podcast.

2020 has turned the corner, and a new year fast approaches. Leaves are turning - for some, schools are back in session - for some, and - for everyone, each day brings a variation of change, growth, uncertainty, and excitement. Then again, who would have imagined the “new normal” would be, simply, normal? Here at CANA, we continue to work in the way we always have: expertly managing, interpreting, and analyzing data to answer questions and solve problems. CANA’s commitment to excellence and innovation remains constant. In this month’s newsletter, we’ve highlighted some of this work in a profile of Jerome Dixon, a Senior Operations Research Analyst at CANA, and his ongoing efforts in healthcare analytics and a wrap-up of our virtual two-day Veterans’ Analytics Course, an event that culminated in an interactive panel discussion with a diverse group of leaders in the field of data analytics. We’re sending them a huge thank you from Team CANA for sharing their helpful insights! We hope this month and next continues to find you and yours well. Take in the traditions: experience the fun of Halloween, participate in our nation’s democratic processes in early November, and look forward to friends and family at Thanksgiving. The more things change, the more, in fact, they stay the same. Happy October! ~ Team CANA DEEP LEARNING IN THE CANA CAR: A CANCER TRIAL DATA SCIENCE CHALLENGE A look at the CANA Analytics Roundtable By Jerome Dixon | Senior Operations Research Analyst and Cherish Joostberns | Resource Coordinator As a Senior Operations Research Analyst at CANA Advisors, I’ve had the opportunity to apply both my military logistics experience and healthcare analytics expertise to a variety of challenging problems. I recently shared a learning experience with peers at our monthly CANA Analytics Roundtable (CAR). The CANA “CAR” is a monthly gathering open to all hands of the company, which highlights employee-chosen topics related to analytics techniques and technologies. Each monthly CAR typically hosts four to five short presentations. During our most recent roundtable, I talked about my strategy and initial execution of a cancer trial data science challenge hosted by Oak Ridge National Laboratories. The challenge set forth was to analyze cancer patient information and data sets to appropriately determine an individual’s assignment to a select clinical trial. I identified 25 input features within the patients’ information database that would eventually feed into the target variable – “Selected for Study, Yes or No.” I noted a specific need for improvement based on doctors’ feedback: trial names did not always match to the relevant disease site, thereby missing a critical linkage point between patients and potential trial participation. I used PyTextRank as one means to address the data challenge. Although the “bag of words” is a common model in text mining, it focuses mostly on simple word identification and count. In this instance, I felt Python’s PyTextRank library was the right tool, given the types of trials and abstracts in the challenge, to classify titles to the correct cancer sites. PyTextRank can be used not only for identification and counting but also to select keywords, assign importance to the word, and build summary sentences from text. I used Pytextrank to review the summaries and to establish an Eigenvalue centrality metric that ranked node importance based on not only the number of connections but also the quality of the connected nodes, essentially creating a network strength metric. Another critical tool was the R deep learning API, Keras. Although it appears a difficult language to work in, it seemed most of the heavy lifting work was done in data preprocessing to put the data in matrix vector format. Keras was critical in addressing my intent to define and train the model to appropriately match a large body of cancer trials to specific cancer anatomical sites, e.g., brain, breast, prostate, etc., thereby enabling efficacious patient match-up to a potentially useful trial. In order to put these different elements together, I used Reticulate to embed Python Pytextrank in R. This approach was fairly effective, and I was able to demonstrate initial iterations of my model. As I continued through validation and analysis of my approach, I realized the classification model did not produce what I considered significant results. I need to further feature engineer the text corpus dataset and improve the model's input features. This iterative process will help determine features that best represent, classify, and connect the data flowing into the model to provide optimal results. My next steps are to experiment and test out the methods used here in https://cloud4scieng.org/2020/08/28/deep-learning-on-graphs-a-tutorial/. This deep learning approach may reveal more about the underlying structure of the cancer study data; define the nodes and edges that detail its connections and features; identify or predict links and communities; and enable classification between classes. I intend to, quite literally, connect the dots of the data to solve this cancer clinical trial challenge. TEAM CANA MEMBER SHOWCASE Jerome Dixon | Senior Operations Research Analyst "There is no such thing as was-only is. If was existed, there would be no grief or sorrow.” -William Faulkner Jerome is a proven leader with 20 years of military experience. He uses a systems thinking approach that utilizes today’s most advanced data science tools for solving problems. His areas of expertise include: supply chain, logistics, aviation maintenance, information technology, and analytics. He is currently working in the healthcare space with the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Health System and the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services (DBHDS). Jerome’s work is focused on hospital informatics, hospital information systems, and precision medicine with genetic datasets. He is also active in the Institute for Operations Research and Management Science (INFORMS) and the System Dynamics Society (SDS). Previously, Jerome developed a series of forecasting models for the U.S. Marine Corps’ Bill of Material (BOM) and maintenance repair support. These models incorporated machine learning, natural language processing, forecasting, and data visualization best practices. He performed a literature review and research into additional machine learning models and algorithms applicable to the U.S. Marine Corps’ supply and maintenance business practices. His preferred tools were R, Python, SAS Enterprise Miner, Apache Spark, Amazon Web Services, Databricks, and Microsoft Power BI. Jerome’s primary career focus in 20 years of analytics and process improvement experience is the alignment of people, process, and technology. He believes culture and analytics are critical to achieving alignment of people, process, and technology for maximum organizational effectiveness. Jerome has held several U.S. Navy operational assignments, a U.S. Navy IT product development assignment, and a Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) Aviation program management tour. He is a former F/A-18 Weapon Systems Support Officer. Jerome has a wide and deep domain knowledge in the logistics space that he is leveraging and transitioning to the healthcare space, and more specifically, to personalized medicine. Jerome believes his Navy background and training have set him up well in this arena. “Personalized medicine is a very challenging concept where you are aligning the most recent research and healthcare techniques to a specific patient with information that can be acted on to reduce hospital costs and improve patient outcomes. Significant process improvement, information technology, analytical frameworks, disparate data, and cultural challenges all exist.” Not only is Jerome a finalist in the Virginia Beach Biotech (VaBeachBio) Innovation Challenge, He recently participated in the Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s (ORNL) Data Science Challenge. This challenge can be found here in more detail: https://github.com/Jerome3590/Using-Artificial-Intelligence-Techniques-to-Match-Patients-with-Their-Best-Clinical-Trial-Options Fun Fact: Jerome’s favorite album is the ‘Lucero Live From Atlanta’ album! You can follow Jerome’s github account for project updates or contact him at jdixon@canallc.com! Jerome's social media links LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeromedixon3590/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jerome.dixon3874/ VETERANS' ANALYTICS EVENTS CANA Advisors Learning and Development By Lucia Darrow | Senior Operations Research Analyst In September, the CANA Foundation partnered with CANA’s Learning and Development program to create an analytics course tailored to the veteran perspective. As a veteran-owned company, we see the immense value that veterans bring to our team and projects every day. This course gave our team a chance to give back, make connections, and share their unique perspectives on the skills needed to succeed in government and commercial analytics work. Several CANA team members, including Walt DeGrange, Jason Fincher, Connor McLemore, Rocky Graciani, and Kim Mamula volunteered their time to the development and delivery of the course. The course focused on concrete career advancement through analytics and coding skill development, portfolio development, and connection to the analytics community. Students were encouraged to uncover their “analytics superpower,” the crucial intersection of their interests, coding skills, and mathematical knowledge. The course was concluded with a community networking event: The Veterans in Analytics Panel Discussion. CANA was joined by Joshua Wilson (America’s Warrior Partnership), Randi VanNyhuis (The Walt Disney Company), John Alexander Harris (Boxelder Analytics), Daniel W. Hudson (ReefPoint Group, LLC), and Jerome Dixon (CANA) for an exciting and honest conversation about breaking into a career in analytics and data science. “I attended the CANA Advisors Veterans’ Analytics Course in September 2020. This free course was taught entirely by veterans on the CANA Advisors staff. Course topics ran the gamut from portfolio development to prescriptive analytics and modeling. The course content was pertinent, insightful, and well delivered by industry professionals. I sincerely appreciated the time and effort shown by the class instructors to give back to the transitioning veteran community. I especially enjoyed the panel discussion held afterwards, where several of the advisors engaged in a more free-form talk with a Q&A session. I gained invaluable contacts and advice from the advisors and my fellow attendees. I believe all the attendees were truly thankful for the efforts of the CANA advisors, especially given the stress of the current environment. It was a highly successful event from my perspective, and well worth repeating.” -Al Bellamy, an attendee of the Veteran’s Analytics Course. If you have any questions about the CANA Foundation, its initiatives, and partnerships, please reach out to Kenny McRostie, CANA Foundation Manager, at kmcrostie@canallc.com or visit our website at http://www.canallc.com/giving-back. If you would like to learn more about CANA’s Learning and Development offerings, please reach out to Lucia Darrow, Senior Operations Research Analyst, at ldarrow@canallc.com or visit http://www.canallc.com/learn. Interested in upcoming analytics training or webinars? The Learning and Development program at CANA Advisors would like to hear from you. Please take this survey to share your thoughts! CONNECT WITH CANA ADVISORS IN 2020 Upcoming Events Here are just a few of the events we will be attending in 2020 Open Data Science Conference - October 27th-30th, 2020 Get Inspired. Get Trained. Get Ahead. https://odsc.com/california/ INFORMS Annual Meeting - November 7th-13th, 2020 The Leading meeting for O.R. and Analytics Professionals http://meetings2.informs.org/wordpress/annual2020/ MORS Emerging Techniques Forum - December 7th-10th, 2020 Digital Reasoning Online Event https://www.mors.org/Events/Workshops/Emerging-Techniques-Forum Do you enjoy an insightful podcast? Then why not give a listen to our podcast The CANA Connection Podcast on your favorite podcast streaming platform. Click here to listen to the latest episode The Transitioning Veteran Workforce: A talk with Team CANA Military Veteran and Fellow Members You can follow us on social media at LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, sign up for our newsletter, or join our community forums. And as always remember. Analyze, Assess, and Execute.