Consultant for SeeOtter code upgrade

Notice of Intent This is a notice of intent to solicit from a single source. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), intends to award a purchase order to Collin Power for consulting services in upgrading and improving SeeOtter modelling and code. Award will be made in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 13.106-1(b) and the procedures at FAR Part 12 entitled, Acquisition of Commercial Items and FAR Part 13 entitled, Simplified Acquisition Procedures.

USGS has a mission to improve and broaden the use of this product for wildlife studies in USGS. Mr. Power was originally contracted by USFWS to create this code for processing images.

Collin Power is, to the USGS’ knowledge, the only source who have the special knowledge and skills with SeeOtter and phyton coding language and can complete this work in the timeline required for this work, as he was the co-creator of SeeOtter python code and the creator of the model currently used to detect sea otters in aerial images. The purpose of this notice is to satisfy the requirements of FAR Subpart 5.101(a)(1) and FAR 5.2. This notice of intent is not a request for competitive quotes.

However, all responsible parties may submit a quotation by the closing date of this announcement which shall be considered by the agency. No solicitation will be issued. A determination not to compete this action based upon responses received is in the sole discretion of the Government. The NAICS code for this action is 541690, Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services.

Responses or inquiries shall only be accepted through electronic mail addressed to yangzhideng@usgs.gov and must be uploaded and received in their entirety no later than June 4, 2024 at 1700 PST. Responses submitted by hardcopy or any web portal shall not be accepted or considered.