When the Homeland Security Department wants to know about evaluating the risks of terrorism, mitigating microbial hazards or protecting our food supply against foreign animal diseases, it knows where to turn. DHS is funding a dozen Centers of Excellence at universities around the country. At each, top researchers study a particular threat to the country. Matthew Clark directs the Office of University Programs in the Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate. He joined Tom and Emily for an overview.

The lurid stories are as old as software and computers themselves. Federal program managers order ambitious new systems. But the software development quickly becomes late and over-budget. One potential solution is something called agile development. Lawrence Fitzpatrick is president of Computech, and he’s got 30 years of software experience. He discussed a new report on how federal agencies can benefit from agile development.

Federal employees are donating their time and effort to provide food to people in need. The Feds Feeds Families Program partners with federal agencies and the Agriculture Department to donate and collect literally tons of food to families across America. Last year, the program collected more than 7.2 million pounds of food. Doug Keeler, the national program manager of Feds Feed Families, offers an update.

Homeland Security officials are heading to Silicon Valley this week. They will pitch the potential of federally-funded cyber tools to venture capitalists and other potential investors. Michael Pozmantier is the program manager of the Transition to Practice in the department’s Science and Technology Directorate. He explains to Federal News Radio’s Jason Miller how the program works.

If you want to see how user-friendly a government website can be, check out usability.gov. With it’s redesign, it offers a smorgasbord of the latest thinking in how people use the Internet. Dick Stapleton manages the site. He is the senior web strategist at the Department of Health and Human Services.