Speakers

Dr. Lynne Parker is Associate Vice Chancellor and Director of the AI Tennessee Initiative at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK). For four years (2018-2022) she served various roles in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, including as Founding Director of the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Office, Deputy Chief Technology Officer of the United States, and Assistant Director of Artificial Intelligence. At UTK, she previously served as Interim Dean of the Tickle College of Engineering (TCE), Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and Engagement in TCE, and Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. She also previously served at NSF as Division Director of Information and Intelligent Systems. She spent several years at Oak Ridge National Laboratory as a Distinguished Research and Development Staff Member. She received her PhD in Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Dr. Parker has been on the UT faculty since 2002, and is the founder of the Distributed Intelligence Laboratory at UT, which has conducted research in multi-robot systems, sensor networks, machine learning, and human-robot interaction. She has made significant research contributions in distributed and heterogeneous robot systems, machine learning, and human-robot interaction. Her dissertation research (1994) on ALLIANCE, a distributed architecture for multi-robot cooperation, was the first PhD dissertation worldwide on the topic of multi-robot systems, and is considered a pioneering work in the field. She has published extensively in these areas and has received numerous awards for her research, teaching, and service, including the PECASE Award (U.S. Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers), the IEEE RAS Distinguished Service Award, and many UT Chancellors, College, and Dept awards. Dr. Parker served as the General Chair for the 2015 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, as the Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE RAS Conference Editorial Board, and as Editor of IEEE Transactions on Robotics. She is a Fellow of AAAI, AAAS, and IEEE, and a Distinguished Member of ACM.

Dr. Mark T. Esper is the Chairman of Red Cell's National Security Practice. Dr. Esper served as the 27th Secretary of Defense from 2019 to 2020. He is now the first John S. McCain Distinguished Fellow at the McCain Institute for International Leadership at Arizona State University, and a member of the Board of Directors at the Atlantic Council. Prior to becoming Secretary of Defense, he was Secretary of the Army from 2017 to 2019 and a senior corporate executive at the Raytheon Company from 2010 to 2017. He served earlier as an Executive Vice President at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and as COO and Executive VP of Defense and International Affairs at the Aerospace Industries Association. Dr. Esper also served as a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense at the Pentagon from 2002-2004, and was a senior Congressional staffer on the Senate Foreign Relations, Senate Government Affairs, and the House Armed Services committees. He also served as national security advisor for former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. Dr. Esper is a combat veteran of the 1990-91 Gulf War, and retired from the U.S. Army in 2007 after spending 10 years on active duty and 11 years in the National Guard and Army Reserve. Dr. Esper is a two-time recipient of the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service, and has also received the Legion of Merit, Bronze Star Medal, the Kuwait Liberation Medal, Kuwait Liberation Medal-Saudi Arabia, and the Combat Infantryman Badge.

Dr. Steven K. Rogers is the Senior Scientist for Automatic Target Recognition and Sensor Fusion, Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. He serves as the principal scientific authority and independent researcher in the field of multi-sensor automatic target recognition and sensor fusion. Dr. Rogers initiates, technically plans, coordinates, evaluates, and conducts research and development to advance the knowledge of interdisciplinary ATR and sensor fusion systems for all Air Force aircraft, missile and space systems. He leads collaboration across AFRL in object detection, tracking, geo-location, identification and supporting technologies. He also conducts research and development activities in the broad area of ATR and sensor-fusion technology including phenomenology modeling, model-based and learning algorithms, evaluation and tracking. Dr. Rogers also conducts research and development in image and signal processing, synthetic target and scene modeling, resource allocation and evidence accrual aimed at decreasing the cost and improving the performance of Air Force and Department of Defense systems.

Dr. Rogers has had an extensive career in both government service and civilian industry. He retired from the Air Force after 20 years active-duty service, beginning his Air Force career as a flightline enlisted logistics specialist. He was later commissioned though the Airman Education and Commissioning Program and assigned as research engineer developing of a new high order programming language. Following the completion of his advanced degrees he served as a professor at the Air Force Institute of Technology for more than a decade. While at AFIT he directed research efforts in areas that included identification of targets in a variety of sensors. He also did ground-breaking work in learning algorithms.

As Founder, President, CEO and Chief Scientist of Qualia Computing, Inc., later CADx Systems and then iCAD, Inc., Dr. Rogers led the effort to bring intelligent information processing to women's healthcare. Under his direction the company not only became the leader in mammography computer-aided design, it also developed a multi-modality CAD platform to facilitate the quick and efficient application of the technology to many medical detection problems. Dr. Rogers also has worked on developing practical applications of advanced information processing techniques for other medical products. He has authored several hundred publications and has been awarded 16 patents.

Dr. Yisroel Brumer, PhD is a Co-Founder and the CEO of Defcon. Dr. Brumer is the President of Red Cell Partners, Defcon’s parent company, and a Co-Founder and the founding CEO of Zephyr AI. He joined Red Cell following an extensive career of executive leadership in the Department of Defense (DoD) culminating as Acting Director of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (CAPE). Reporting directly to the Secretary of Defense, he led the annual program review process that built the five-year defense program totaling over $3.5 trillion. Dr. Brumer also led CAPE’s oversight of all major investment programs, emphasizing analyses of alternatives, investment strategies, and programmatic tradeoffs. He led the SecDef-directed studies on high-stakes issues known as Strategic Portfolio Reviews that drove the strategic direction of the Department for the last decade. He was a member of DoD’s most senior decision bodies, including the Nuclear Weapons Council, the Missile Defense Executive Board, and the Deputy Secretary’s Management Action Group, among many others. Yisroel holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Physics and a M.Sc. in Chemistry from Harvard University and has published several works on the physics of complex systems and the application of mathematics and computation to biology and cancer.

Dr. Allen Badeau is the chief technology officer for Empower AI, as well as the director of the Empower AI Center for Rapid Engagement and Agile Technology Exchange (CREATE) Lab. In this role, he leads innovation research and development activities designed to add value to Empower AI’s customers and their missions, including cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, software defined networks, robotics, advanced data analytics, agile DevSecOps and many other areas.

With the CREATE Lab, Empower AI is building next-generation, value-based solutions for its customers utilizing a collaborative, knowledge-sharing environment. Under Allen’s direction, the CREATE ecosystem brings together people, processes, and ideas, as well as software and hardware resources — exploring the strategy and implementation of new and advanced technologies, and redefining how innovation is integrated into our customers’ environment.

Prior to joining Empower AI, Allen held various leadership roles at ASRC Federal, CSC, Innovative Management & Technology Services and Lockheed Martin. Allen received his bachelor’s in physics, and both his master’s and doctoral degrees in mechanical engineering from West Virginia University.

Bill Washburn is MarkLogic’s Federal Chief Program Officer (CPO) leading MarkLogic’s major federal program efforts, to include Prime contract wins with USAF ABMS, and JAIC’s DRAID programs. Bill provides US Defense, Intelligence and Civil Government clients with a vision and strategy for their data challenges and partners with them for success. 

Prior to MarkLogic, Bill worked at Informatica Federal Operations Corp, the US subsidiary (FOCI Compliant) of Informatica Inc. He led the company as the President and pursued Data Management and Quality business with the federal government in the Intelligence Community and National Security sectors. In addition, Bill also spent 15 years in executive roles with large and small services companies like SAIC, CSC, Octo and Perspecta (now Peraton), where he focused on Analytics, Systems Engineering, and Integration efforts in the Intelligence Community, Homeland Security, and Defense Department.

In addition, Bill held positions as an Engineer, Developer, and a Program Manager in large and small companies, supporting broad customer sets with dynamic solutions. He led large development teams, building enterprise-wide solutions for the IC and ran IT and Communications Operations Centers for large worldwide secure federal enterprises with a focus on communications and IT sustainability. Prior to joining the private sector, Bill served 10 years in the US Army with assignments at the White House Communications Agency (WHCA), 25th Infantry Division and others.

Bill earned a technical degree from Strayer University (Washington DC) while working full time, graduating Cum Laude in 2003 with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science. Bill also holds a Project Management Certificate from George Washington University School of Business.

Aaron Boyd is an award-winning journalist currently serving as senior editor for technology and events at Nextgov. He primarily covers federal government IT contracting and cybersecurity issues affecting both civilian and defense agencies. As a lifelong nerd and policy wonk, he feels right at home covering the intersection of technology and policy in the nation’s capital.

Patrick Tucker is technology editor for Defense One. He’s also the author of THE NAKED FUTURE: WHAT HAPPENS IN A WORLD THAT ANTICIPATES YOUR EVERY MOVE? (CURRENT, 2014). Previously, Tucker was deputy editor for The Futurist for nine years. Tucker has written about emerging technology in Slate, The Sun, MIT Technology Review, Wilson Quarterly, The American Legion Magazine, BBC News Magazine, Utne Reader, and elsewhere.

In her current role as Senior Director of Strategic Accounts at Defense One, Laurie Diamond works closely with defense and national security thought leaders. In doing so she assists with conveying their messaging and innovative solutions to top leaders and communities in the defense space. Prior to Defense One, she has 28+ years of experience serving in leadership and management roles in marketing, DoD business development, proposal and capture management, market research and networking. She has excelled in senior leadership positions at The Washington Post, Congressional Quarterly, Clear Channel, Alion Science and Technology and several technology solutions-based companies supporting federal and defense contracts.

Helen Dubas is Publisher of Government Executive

Alex Treadway is Associate Publisher of Route Fifty.