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Biographies
Wed. 8/3/2016 – 08:00 Workshop Opening Remarks By AIAA ISTC Chairman Dr. Nhan Nguyen, NASA Ames Research Center
Dr. Nhan Nguyen is a senior research scientist at NASA Ames Research Center in
the Intelligent Systems Division with 30 years of experience. He is the technical
group lead of the Advanced Control and Evolvable Systems group. He earned Ph.D.
and M.S. in mechanical engineering and dual B.S in mathematics and mechanical
engineering. He publishes 180 publications. He has three US patents and one
patent in pending. He received over 36 career awards at NASA including NASA Exceptional Scientific
Achievement Medal, NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal, and two NASA Ames Honor Awards for
Excellence as Engineer. He is the chair of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA)
Intelligent Systems Technical Committee. He served as the general chair of the AIAA Infotech@Aerospace
conference in 2012 and chair of the Intelligent Systems workshop in 2015. He received an AIAA
Distinguished Services Award. He is an adjunct professor at Santa Clara University. He is an AIAA associate
fellow.
Wed. 8/3/2016 – 08:05 Welcome Remarks
Ms. Cathy Mangum, Associate Director of NASA Langley Research Center
Cathy Mangum is the Associate Director at NASA’s Langley Research Center.
Previously, she served as Director of the Center Operations Directorate.
Mangum began her NASA career in 1983 as a contractor for the Science Mission
Directorate at NASA Headquarters. Through her career, she served as IT manager
for the Aeronautics Mission Directorate and progressed to Director of the
Management Operations Division in the Office of Aeronautics. After helping
institutionalize the newly established federal CIO role, she served as acting CIO and then became the
Langley CIO.
She served as Special Assistant to the Director leading the Vibrant Transformation to Advance Langley
(ViTAL) efforts and the Center’s 20‐year revitalization plan.
Mangum earned a bachelor’s degree in Information Management from James Madison University in 1983.
She has received numerous awards, including NASA’s Outstanding Leadership Medal in 2006.
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Wed. 8/3/2016 – 08:20 Introduction by Workshop Chair
Dr. John Valasek, Texas A&M University
John Valasek is Director, Center for Autonomous Vehicles and Sensor Systems
(CANVASS), Director, Vehicle Systems & Control Laboratory, Professor of
Aerospace Engineering, and member of the Honors Faculty at Texas A&M
University. He has been actively conducting flight mechanics and controls research
of Unmanned Air Systems (UAS) in both Industry and Academia for 31 years. Prior
to his 19 years at Texas A&M University he was a Flight Control Engineer for the
Northrop Corporation, Aircraft Division where he worked in the Flight Controls Research Group, and on
the AGM‐137 Tri‐Services Standoff Attack Missile (TSSAM) program. John is a co‐inventor on a patent
for autonomous air refueling of UAS and on a provisional patent for the design of a research UAS. John’s
research is currently focused on bridging the gap between traditional computer science topics and
aerospace engineering topics, encompasses machine learning and multi‐agent systems, intelligent
autonomous control, vision based navigation systems, fault tolerant adaptive control, and ground
control stations and displays. He has published over 169 peer reviewed articles including three books:
Advances in Intelligent and Autonomous Aerospace Systems, AIAA (2012); Morphing Aerospace
Vehicles and Structures, Wiley (2012); and Nonlinear Multiple Time Scale Systems in Standard and
Non‐Standard Forms: Analysis and Control, SIAM (2014). John is an Associate Fellow of AIAA, and
currently a member of the Unmanned Systems Technical Program Committee, and the Intelligent
Systems Technical Committee. John earned the B.S. degree in Aerospace Engineering from California
State Polytechnic University, Pomona in 1986 and the M.S. degree with honors and the Ph.D. in
Aerospace Engineering from the University of Kansas, in 1990 and 1995 respectively.
Wed. 8/3/2016 – 08:30 Summary of Progress on Intelligent Systems Roadmap
Dr. Christopher Tschan, Aerospace Corporation
Chris Tschan is a senior project lead at The Aerospace Corporation in Colorado
Springs, CO where he applies intelligent systems technologies to space
operations. Chris has been an active member of the AIAA Intelligent Systems
Technical Committee (ISTC) since 2007. He was the chair of the TC from 2011‐
2013. Since then, he’s been contributing to and editing the 1st Edition of the
Roadmap for Intelligent Systems in Aerospace. He became an AIAA Associate
Fellow in 2015.
His undergraduate degree is in Aeronautics and Applied Math. He received a PhD from the University of
Michigan was in Atmospheric Science in 1987. He retired from the United States Air Force in 1998 after
20 years where his career fields were meteorology and space operations. He is a private pilot with an
instrument rating.
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Wed. 8/3/2016 – 09:00 Keynote Presentation: Unmanned Ground, Aerial, and
Marine System in Disaster Response: Challenges and Opportunities for Autonomy
Dr. Robin L. Murphy, Texas A&M University
Robin R. Murphy is the Raytheon Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University and directs the Center for Robot‐Assisted Search and Rescue. She has over 150 publications on artificial intelligence, human‐robot interaction, and robotics including Introduction to AI Robotics and award‐winning Disaster Robotics. An IEEE Fellow, a TED speaker, and a founder of Roboticists Without Borders, she has deployed ground, air, and marine robots to over 24 disasters in five countries including the 9/11 World Trade Center, Hurricane Katrina, and Fukushima Daiichi. She has extensive government service, including the Defense Science Board and USAF Scientific Advisory Board.
Wed. 8/3/2016 – 10:15 Panel Discussion: Lessons Learned from Government Agencies
Moderator: Dr. Danette Allen, NASA Langley Research Center
Dr. Danette Allen is the NASA Senior Technologist (ST) for Intelligent Flight Systems and the Head of the Autonomy Incubator at NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC). She is responsible for setting the strategic vision, transforming the workforce, and building systems to realize the promise of autonomy and robotics in enabling new missions in space, aeronautics, and science. She provides subject matter expertise on several DoD autonomy programs including ONR AACUS, DARPA CODE, and DARPA ALIAS. Prior to her current position, Dr. Allen served as the Research Team Lead for Human‐System Integration (HSI) and ATM Concepts in Crew Systems and Aviation Operations. She also served as Mission Manager in the Earth Science Systems Pathfinder (ESSP) Program Office as well as Head of the Mission Simulation Lab (MiSL) and the Integrated Design Center. Dr. Allen began her NASA career in the design, development and operation of spaceflight missions including Lidar In‐Space Technology Experiment (LITE) on STS‐64, Measurement of Air Pollution from Satellites (MAPS) on Mir, and Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (SAGE) III on ISS. Dr. Allen received her Bachelor’s degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering from North Carolina State University, MBA from Manchester University (UK), Master’s Degree in Computer Engineering from Old Dominion University, and her Master’s and Doctoral Degrees in Computer Science from UNC Chapel Hill. She is the recipient of several NASA awards including NASA astronauts’ “Silver Snoopy” award for achievements related to human flight safety and mission success as well as the NASA "Systems Engineering Excellence Award" medal.
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Panelist: Dr. David Casbeer, Air Force Research Laboratory
Dr. David Casbeer is the Team Lead for the UAV Cooperative and Intelligent Control Team in the Control Science Center of Excellence, Aerospace Systems Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory. In this capacity he leads a team of researchers investigating the cooperative control of autonomous UAVs with a particular emphasis on high‐level decision making and planning under uncertainty. Dr. Casbeer received BS and PhD degrees from Brigham Young University in 2003 and 2009. His current work involves GPS‐denied cooperative navigation, UAV self‐protection, and ground intruder tracking by UAV/UGS. He currently serves as the Chair‐elect for the AIAA Intelligent Systems Technical Committee and is a Senior Editor for the Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems. Panelist: Dr. Sherry Borener, Federal Aviation Administration
Sherry Borener is the Program Manager of the System Safety Management
Transformation program at the FAA, where she has worked since 2008. Prior to
that time she worked for the Joint Planning and Development Office as a NASA HQ
employee developing integrated modeling capability to evaluate NextGen system
impacts. For the rest of her 28 years in government she worked for the Department of Transportation,
Volpe Center in Cambridge Massachusetts where she conducted safety and environmental risk analyses
for the DOT, Nuclear Regulatory Commission and NASA. Sherry earned her Ph.D. and Masters degrees at
the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and her undergraduate degree at Grand Valley State University
in Michigan.
Panelist: Dr. Reid Simmons, National Science Foundation Reid Simmons is a Research Professor in Robotics and Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. He is currently on leave as a Program Director at the National Science Foundation. He earned his B.A. degree in 1979 in Computer Science from SUNY at Buffalo, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from MIT in 1983 and 1988, respectively, in the field of Artificial Intelligence. Since coming to Carnegie Mellon in 1988, Dr. Simmons' research has focused on developing self‐reliant robots that can operate autonomously, and cooperatively, over extended periods of time in unstructured environments. Specific research interests include human‐robot social interaction, coordination of multiple heterogeneous robots, robots to improve quality of life for the elderly and persons with disabilities, task planning, execution monitoring and failure recovery,
Over the years, Dr. Simmons has been involved in the development of over a dozen autonomous robots.
He has published over 200 papers and articles on autonomous robots, human‐robot interaction, multi‐
robot coordination, robot architectures, planning and probabilistic reasoning. He is an Associate Editor of
AIJ and is on the Editorial Board of International Journal of Social Robots.
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Panelist: Ms. Vicki Crisp, NASA Langley Research Center Vicki K. Crisp serves as Director, Systems Analysis and Concepts Directorate at NASA Langley Research Center.
She leads an organization that provides aerospace systems analysis products such as mission architecture, advanced systems concepts, system and technology assessments, systems integration, and pre-decisional analysis to Agency decision makers and programs to enable informed technical, programmatic, and budgetary decisions. The organization does so through the development and implementation of tools and methods, and a highly skilled workforce with capability applicable to the Agency’s Space Exploration, Aeronautics, and Science programs.
From 2008 – 2012, Ms. Crisp served as Director, Aeronautics Research Directorate also at NASA Langley Research Center. In that capacity, she provided the strategic and technical leadership to secure and successfully execute aeronautics programs and projects for research and technology development supporting the Agency’s Aeronautics vision.
From 2005 – 2008, Ms. Crisp served as Deputy Program Manager, Fundamental Aeronautics Program within the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, NASA HQ. She supported the Program Director in Agency leadership of research that will result in revolutionary improvements in aircraft performance, noise, and emissions, and in innovative aircraft and rotorcraft concepts to aid in achieving the goals of the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen), as well as foundational research that is relevant and critical to NASA’s human and robotic space exploration objectives.
Ms. Crisp has a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Computer Science from Christopher Newport University in Virginia.
Wed. 8/3/2016 – 12:45 Breakout Session A: Integrated Health Systems Management
Moderator: Dr. Lorraine Fesq, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Lorraine is the Chief Technologist for the Systems Engineering and Formulation Division at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology. She leads NASA’s Fault Management Community of Practice, and co‐Leads NASA Software Architecture Review Board. She recently spearheaded the development of the NASA Fault Management Handbook, and organized two Fault Management Workshops. She has over 30 years of aerospace experience that spans industry, government and academia, and has worked all mission phases of spacecraft development including technology research, requirements definition, systems design, hardware/software integration and test, launch and mission operations. Lorraine contributed to over a dozen spacecraft projects, and held a teaching and research position in MIT’s Aeronautics/Astronautics department. She received her B.A. in Mathematics from Rutgers University and her M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of California, Los Angeles.
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Lorraine holds two patents, and has received numerous awards including NASA’s Public Service Medal and NASA’s Exceptional Achievement Honor Award.
Moderator: Mr. Richard Ross, NASA Langley Research Center
Mr. Ross is aerospace engineer at NASA Langley Research Center’s Research
Directorate. He currently oversees a major research contract and was previously
a team leader in the Durability, Damage Tolerance, and Reliability Branch.
Previously, Mr. Ross was the Project Scientist for the Vehicle Systems Safety
Technologies project and developed hardware and software technologies for
integrated systems health management. Mr. Ross was also a team leader on the
Integrated Vehicle Health Management project and recently authored a chapter
on “Integrated vehicle health management in aerospace structures.” Mr. Ross has a B.S. in computer
science and an M.S. in Applied Physics.
Wed. 8/3/2016 – 12:45 Breakout Session B: Assured Autonomy & Software V&V
Moderator: Dr. Natasha Neogi, NASA Langley Research Center
Dr. Natasha Neogi is a research engineer at the NASA Langley Research Center. She
currently splits her time working on the UAS Integration in the NAS project and Safe
Autonomous Systems Operation project. Her primary research interests are in the
verification and validation of software‐intensive safety‐critical infrastructure
systems, as well as certification issues concerning airworthiness of UAS. She
received her B.Eng.Hons. in Mechanical Engineering from McGill University, an
M.Phil in Physics from Cambridge University, and an M.Sc and Ph.D in Aeronautical
and Astronautical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in
Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Moderator: Mr. Florian Adolf, DLR (German Aerospace Center)
Florian Adolf graduated in Computer Science at Trier University of Applied
Sciences in 2003 where he developed autonomous robotic transportation
behaviors based on real time object recognition. He received a Master of Science
in Autonomous Systems from Bonn‐Rhein‐Sieg University of Applied Sciences
where he developed online robotic soccer players for a team of Mid‐size League
at the Robocup World Championship.
Since joining DLR in 2005, Mr. Adolf developed automated guidance and mission planning systems for the
DLR fleet of unmanned rotorcraft.
Since 2013 Mr. Adolf has led a team of researchers that work on automated mission execution for
different aircraft types with an emphasis on validation and certification aspects.
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Moderator: Ms. Kerianne Gross, Air Force Research Laboratory
Ms. Kerianne Gross is a Research Aerospace Engineer on the Verification and
Validation of Complex and Autonomous Systems (VVCAS) Team at the Air Force
Research Laboratory at Wright‐Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. Prior to joining
the VVCAS full time team in 2015, she also participated in the development,
simulation, and test of ground and midair collision avoidance systems for fighter
aircraft. Ms. Gross has a BS in Aerospace Engineering from Embry‐Riddle
Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona and an MS in Astronautical
Engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright‐Patterson Air Force Base.
Wed. 8/3/2016 – 12:45 Breakout Session C: Unmanned Traffic Management
Moderator: Dr. Yan Wan, University of Texas at Arlington
Dr. Yan Wan is currently an Associate Professor in the Electrical Engineering
Department at the University of Texas at Arlington. She received her Ph.D. degree
in Electrical Engineering from Washington State University in 2009. Her research
interests lie in developing fundamental theories and tools for the modeling,
evaluation, and control of large‐scale dynamic networks and cyber‐physical
systems, with applications to air traffic management, airborne networking, and
complex information systems. Her research has been funded by the NSF, NIST, IEEE, and MITRE
Corporation as subcontracts from FAA. Dr. Wan's research has been recognized by several prestigious
awards, including the NSF CAREER Award and RTCA William E. Jackson Award.
Moderator: Ms. Sharon Graves, NASA Langley Research Center
Sharon Graves serves as Deputy Project Manager of NASA’s Safe Autonomous
System Operations (SASO) Project. The goal of the project is to develop autonomy
related concepts, technologies, and architectures that will increase efficiency,
safety, and capacity of airspace operations.
Graves has spent most of her 25‐year career in aerospace supporting NASA's
strategic goal of advancing knowledge in the fundamental disciplines of aeronautics and the development
of technologies for safer aircraft and higher capacity airspace systems. She has led multiple key
development projects with research ranging from integrated vehicle health management, atmospheric
science, hypersonic boundary layer transition experiments, intelligent flight systems and verification and
validation of flight critical systems. Most recently, in the Airspace Operations and Safety Program (AOSP),
she supports high‐impact, fundamental research that leverages accelerating developments in machine
learning and adaptive, cognitive computing architectures to enable high‐impact autonomy applications.
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Graves earned a degree in mathematics at the Claremont Colleges in Claremont, CA. She completed her
Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering (MSME) at the Joint Institute for Advancement of Flight
Sciences at George Washington University.
Wed. 8/3/2016 – 12:45 Breakout Session D: Human-Machine Interactions
Moderator: Dr. Daniel Selva, Cornell University
Dr. Daniel Selva is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
and Systems Engineering at Cornell University. His research interests are on the
development of intelligent systems for space systems engineering and architecture,
including aspects of knowledge engineering, global optimization, machine learning
and human‐computer interaction. Daniel has a dual background in electrical
engineering and aerospace engineering, with a PhD in Space Systems from MIT
(2012), and Masters’ degrees from Telecom Barcelona and Supaero in Toulouse (2004). Between 2004
and 2008, Daniel worked in French Guiana as an avionics specialist in the Ariane 5 Launch team.
Moderator: Dr. Alexander Stimpson, Duke University
Alexander J. Stimpson received the B.S. degree in biological engineering from the
University of Florida, Gainesville, FL in 2007, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degree in
Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT), Cambridge, MA in 2011 and 2014, respectively. He is currently a research
scientist in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Duke University,
Durham, NC. He specializes in the application of machine learning models to
complex data sets involving human‐machine interaction. His current research interests include human
supervisory control, decision support systems, artificial intelligence, and data mining.
Wed. 8/3/2016 – 15:00 Breakout Session E: Real-Time Risk Assessment and Safety Assurance
Moderator: Dr. Christine Belcastro, NASA Langley Research Center
Dr. Christine M. Belcastro received the Bachelor of Science Degree in Electrical
Engineering in May 1980, and the Master of Engineering Degree in May 1986, both
from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. She received the Ph.D. degree in
Electrical Engineering in December 1994 from Drexel University in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. Dr. Belcastro has been a research engineer at the Langley Research
Center of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) since June 1980.
She is a Senior Research Engineer in the Dynamic Systems and Control Branch (DSCB). Her research
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interests include resilient aircraft control for multiple hazards mitigation, vehicle upset prevention and
recovery, real‐time aircraft flight safety assessment and assurance, autonomous and semi‐autonomous
vehicle systems for safety‐critical applications, multidisciplinary modeling of vehicle dynamics under
highly nonlinear and adverse conditions, analysis of uncertain nonlinear systems under adverse
conditions, and the validation of complex integrated systems that provide real‐time prediction, detection,
identification, and mitigation of hazardous conditions and their implications for flight critical aircraft
applications. She currently leads the Safety and Risk element of the Unmanned Aerial Systems Traffic
Management (UTM) Project within the Airspace Operations and Safety Program (AOSP).
Moderator: Dr. John Ryan, NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center
Dr. John (Jack) Ryan is currently the Deputy Chief of the Controls and Dynamics Branch at the NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center. He is also the Autonomous Systems Research lead for NASA Armstrong. His research has primarily been in the areas of peak‐seeking control, robust control, and optimal control which he has applied to a wide breadth of research projects.
Previously, Dr. Ryan was the NASA Chief Engineer of the Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance project, and the Small UAV Ground Collision Avoidance project. He has conducted research with the X‐56 Program, X‐48 Program, X‐43 Program, Autonomous Aerial Refueling Demonstration project, Networked UAV Teams project, the Autonomous Formation Flight project, and others.
He received a B.A. in physics from St. John’s University, M.S. degree in aerospace engineering from the
University of Minnesota, and Ph.D. degree in aerospace engineering from UCLA. He has been with the
NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center since 1999.
Wed. 8/3/2016 – 15:00 Breakout Session F: Robotics
Moderator: Dr. Catherine McGhan, University of Cincinnati
Catharine McGhan has recently accepted a position as an assistant professor at the
University of Cincinnati in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering
Mechanics, starting this fall. Prior to this, she worked as a postdoctoral scholar at
Caltech on the Resilient Spacecraft Systems project, a joint effort between Caltech,
MIT, NASA JPL, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. Her research interests
include intelligent systems, human‐robot interaction, and space robotics. Dr.
McGhan received her B.S. and M.S. degrees in Aerospace Engineering in 2004 and 2006, respectively, from
the University of Maryland at College Park, and a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of
Michigan in Ann Arbor in 2014.
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Moderator: Dr. Yu Gu, West Virginia University
Dr. Yu Gu is currently an Assistant Professor at West Virginia University. His main
research interests are in the areas of bio‐inspired robot perception, control, and
interaction strategies. His current research focus on autonomous sample return,
formation flight, cooperative GPS‐denied navigation, robotic precision pollination,
and autonomous systems design. Dr. Gu has authored over 70 technical papers and
designed more than 500 UAV flight tests and numerous robot experiments. He is
also the leader for WVU Team Mountaineers that won the NASA Sample Return Robot Centennial
Challenge in 2014 and 2015.
Wed. 8/3/2016 – 15:00 Breakout Session G: Adaptive Systems
Moderator: Dr. Irene Gregory, NASA Langley Research Center
Dr. Irene M. Gregory is NASA Senior Technologist (ST) for Advanced Control Theory and Applications. She is responsible for technical and strategic leadership across air and space domains with emphasis on autonomy looking at smart vehicles, man‐machine interactions, modeling dynamics, guidance, control systems, methods to ensure trusted autonomy and high confidence / safety critical software. She serves as a member of numerous industry technical review boards and was a Government controls representative to DARPA Vulture Program. She has over 90 technical publications in peer‐reviewed journals and conferences, invited lectures and presentations. Her current interests are in the areas of robust autonomous systems, health aware vehicle adaptive mission management, resilient control for advanced, unconventional configurations and man‐machine teaming.
Previously, Dr. Gregory served for two years as NASA Langley’s strategic advisor for Intelligent Flight Systems, where she led the development of the Center’s Intelligent Flight Systems Roadmap as well as the autonomy strategy, and advised senior leadership on critical workforce and laboratory investments needed to accomplish these strategies. Prior to that, Dr. Gregory served as a senior researcher in the Dynamic Systems and Control Branch, where her research spanned all flight regimes from low subsonic to hypersonic speeds, and included advanced control for aircraft and launch vehicles, aeroelasticity, fluidic control effectors, and autonomous vehicles.
Dr. Gregory earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Doctorate in Control and Dynamic Systems from California Institute of Technology. She is an Associate Fellow of the AIAA, a member of IEEE and IFAC, serves on IEEE Control Systems Society Aerospace Control Technical Committee and on IFAC Aerospace Control Technical Committee. She is an emeritus member of the AIAA GNC Technical Committee and a former member of the AIAA Intelligent Systems Technical Committee.
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Moderator: Dr. Steve Cook, Northrop Grumman Corporation
Dr. Stephen Cook serves as Airworthiness Engineering Fellow in the Office of
Independent Airworthiness at Northrop‐Grumman. In this role, Dr. Cook is
responsible for developing and implementing airworthiness policy and strategy
across Northrop‐Grumman Aerospace Systems’ portfolio of manned and
unmanned aircraft. Prior to joining Northrop‐Grumman, Dr. Cook worked at the
MITRE Corporation as Principal Safety Engineer in the Navigation and Unmanned
Aircraft Systems (UAS) Department where he supported multiple efforts to
integrate civil and military unmanned aircraft into the National Airspace System (NAS).
Before joining MITRE, Dr. Cook worked as a civilian at the Naval Air Systems Command where he led the
UAS Division of the Airworthiness Directorate, an independent office within the Command responsible for
certifying the airworthiness of Navy and Marine Corps aircraft. Dr. Cook has also served as an Adjunct
Visiting Professor to the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department at North Carolina State
University where he developed and taught graduate courses on airworthiness.
Dr. Cook earned his Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Maryland in 2003, and M.S.
and B.S. degrees in aerospace engineering from North Carolina State University. He currently leads two
ASTM standards groups that are defining industry consensus airworthiness standards for UAS software.
Wed. 8/3/2016 – 15:00 Breakout Session H: Big Data
Moderator: Dr. Sam Adhikari, Sysoft Corporation
Sam Adhikari is the Director of Software Engineering and Intelligent Systems
at Sysoft Corporation, Whitehouse Station, NJ. He is also a faculty in the
Department of Management Science and Information Systems, Rutgers
University. He is educated at Stanford University, Temple University, City
University of NY, and University of South Carolina. He was the founding
Director of the accredited Computational Technology degree program at Kean
University in 1986. Together with his research group and industry participation he investigates methods,
models, architectures, and techniques for autonomic, self‐adaptive and self‐managing intelligent systems
driven by statistical learning and data science. In 2012 he became an Associate Fellow in the American
Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) for his contributions in software engineering, intelligent
systems, and cyber security. His research team won the Silicon Valley Best innovation award for software
engineering in 2001. In 1990 he received the AT&T Bell Laboratory Leadership Award for developing
intellectual property matters and computer system security management systems. In 1991 he directed
the creation of Advanced Computational Development Environment at Sematech, a consortium of IBM,
AT&T, Motorola, Intel, Texas Instruments, Digital Equipments, and other semiconductor manufacturing
companies.
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Moderator: Dr. Sheema Mirchandan, Rutgers University
Dr. Sheema Mirchandani is a faculty member in the Department of Management Science and
Information Systems, Rutgers University. Together with her research group and industry participation she
investigates methods, models, architectures, and techniques for data driven autonomic, self‐adaptive and
self‐managing intelligent systems. Her research team won the Silicon Valley Best Innovation Award for
Software Engineering in 2001.Dr. Sheema's area of expertise is data management, modeling, and intelligent analysis.
Thur. 8/4/2016 – 08:00 Keynote Presentation: DARPA CODE: Cooperative Operations in Denied Environments
Mr. Jean‐Charles (JC) Ledé, DARPA
Mr. Jean‐Charles Ledé joined DARPA in July 2013 as a Program Manager in the Tactical Technology Office. His interests include autonomous/unmanned air vehicle systems, cooperative systems, counter UAS and counter‐swarms, and operations in contested and denied environments.
Prior to joining DARPA, Mr. Ledé was the Director for Autonomous/Unmanned Systems at Raytheon Missile Systems, where he provided a vision for innovative autonomous systems concepts and products. Before working at Raytheon, Mr. Ledé held multiple positions with Aurora Flight Sciences Corporation, ultimately becoming Vice President for Advanced Concepts. At Aurora, he focused on rapid prototyping and the development of new unmanned air vehicle concepts.
Mr. Ledé holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and a Master’s degree in Aeronautics from École Nationale Supérieure de l’Aéronautique et de l’Espace.
Thur. 8/4/2016 – 09:00 Panel Discussion: Emerging Autonomy Applications
Moderator: Dr. Brett Ridgely, Raytheon Missile Systems
Dr. D. Brett Ridgely is a Principal Fellow at Raytheon Missile Systems (RMS) in Tucson,
AZ. He currently directs the RMS Strategic IRAD portfolio. Prior to that, he was the
manager of the Flight Controls Department for 14 years. He joined Raytheon in 1997
after 9 years of teaching at the Air Force Institute of Technology and 4 years working
in the Flight Dynamics Directorate at AFRL, both at WPAFB, OH. He holds Bachelor’s,
Master’s and Doctoral degrees in Aeronautical Engineering. He is an Associate Fellow
of AIAA and past chair of the AIAA GNC Technical Committee.
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Panelist: Dr. John Valasek, Texas A&M University (Precision Agriculture)
John Valasek is Director, Center for Autonomous Vehicles and Sensor Systems
(CANVASS), Director, Vehicle Systems & Control Laboratory, Professor of Aerospace
Engineering, and member of the Honors Faculty at Texas A&M University. He has
been actively conducting flight mechanics and controls research of Unmanned Air
Systems (UAS) in both Industry and Academia for 31 years. Prior to his 19 years at
Texas A&M University he was a Flight Control Engineer for the Northrop Corporation,
Aircraft Division where he worked in the Flight Controls Research Group, and on the AGM‐137 Tri‐Services
Standoff Attack Missile (TSSAM) program. John is a co‐inventor on a patent for autonomous air refueling
of UAS and on a provisional patent for the design of a research UAS. John’s research is currently focused
on bridging the gap between traditional computer science topics and aerospace engineering topics,
encompasses machine learning and multi‐agent systems, intelligent autonomous control, vision based
navigation systems, fault tolerant adaptive control, and ground control stations and displays. He has
published over 169 peer reviewed articles including three books: Advances in Intelligent and
Autonomous Aerospace Systems, AIAA (2012); Morphing Aerospace Vehicles and Structures, Wiley
(2012); and Nonlinear Multiple Time Scale Systems in Standard and Non‐Standard Forms: Analysis and
Control, SIAM (2014). John is an Associate Fellow of AIAA, and currently a member of the Unmanned
Systems Technical Program Committee, and the Intelligent Systems Technical Committee. John earned
the B.S. degree in Aerospace Engineering from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona in 1986
and the M.S. degree with honors and the Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Kansas,
in 1990 and 1995 respectively.
Panelist: Mr. Mark Ballin, NASA Langley Research Center
(Connected Vehicles and Transportation)
Mark Ballin is the Technical Integration Manager of NASA’s Airspace Operations
and Safety Program. As a research engineer at the NASA Langley Research
Center, he specializes in research and development of future decentralized air
traffic control concepts and their enabling flight deck automation technologies.
He is an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and
Astronautics and an active member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. He is the
author of over forty technical publications. He is currently coordinating development of a roadmap for
the NASA Aeronautics Mission’s Strategic Thrust 6, “Assured Autonomy for Aviation Transformation.”
Panelist: Dr. Anthony M. Filippi, Texas A&M University
(Natural Resource Management)
Anthony M. Filippi received a Bachelor’s degree in Geography from Kansas State
University (1995), a Master’s degree in Geography from the University of South
Carolina (1998), and a PhD in Geography from the University of South Carolina
(2003). He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography, College of
Geosciences, at Texas A&M University—College Station. In the summers of 2005‐
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2008, he served as a Faculty Fellow at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Dr. Filippi has served as an
invited Remote Sensing Expert on the Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (TFI),
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). His research interests include remote
sensing/environmental and hydrologic optics, geographic information systems (GIS)‐based modeling,
coastal studies, vegetation mapping, and machine learning. He has been awarded research funding from
a number of sources, and has published varied refereed journal articles and book chapters. He teaches
courses in remote sensing and GIS/GIS‐based spatial analysis and modeling, and has taught physical
geography. He has served as a member, co‐chair, or chair on more than 70 graduate committees, and
students that he has supervised are currently working in academia, government, and the private sector.
Panelist: Mr. Andrew Lacher, MITRE Corporation (Security)
Andrew Lacher has over 30 years of systems engineering experience mostly in the
aviation and transportation systems domain. He currently has a leadership role in
defining The MITRE Corporation’s research strategy in unmanned and
autonomous systems. He is focused on the safe integration of Unmanned Aircraft
System (UAS) in civil airspace as well as methods to calibrate the trustworthiness
of autonomous systems.
Much of Mr. Lacher’s research and analysis activities involve improving the safety, security, and
efficiency of aviation operations through the application of new information technologies. Mr. Lacher
worked on the definition of NextGen as part of the Joint Program and Development Office and was a
thought leader in the area of future Traffic Flow Management concepts including Collaborative Decision‐
Making.
In addition to his MITRE work, Mr. Lacher worked as a product manager for Orbcomm and was a strategic
information technology consultant working with small airlines. He serves on a number of committees,
standards working groups, and external research advisory panels. He was one of the authors of a National
Research Council study on Autonomy Research for Civil Aviation: Toward a New Era of Flight and currently
serves on the FAA’s RE&D Advisory Committee for Aircraft Safety. Mr. Lacher earned both an MS in
Operations Research and a BS in Electrical Engineering at The George Washington University
Thur. 8/4/2016 – 10:45 Keynote Presentation: A Science of Autonomy
Dr. Marc Steinberg, Office of Naval Research
Marc Steinberg is the Science of Autonomy program officer at ONR. At the basic
research level, he focuses on highly multi‐disciplinary autonomy research that
cuts across different technical areas and mission domains. Some of the types of
fields that are involved include control theory, computational intelligence, human
factors engineering, and related fields such as biology, game theory, cognitive
science, psychology, and neuroscience. He also manages a small applied research
program that focuses on autonomous air systems and multivehicle collaborative systems. Prior to coming
to ONR, he was a technical fellow at the Naval Air Systems Command and has worked on science and
technology programs since first joining the Naval Air Development Center in 1989. He was principle
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investigator on a wide range of basic and applied research projects that dealt with computational
intelligence, autonomous control, survivability, vehicle management systems, prognostics and health
management, and robust, adaptive, nonlinear, and reconfigurable control. He has authored or co‐
authored papers on a range of related subjects and received numerous professional society awards for
his technical contributions including the Derek George Astridge Award for Contribution to Aerospace
Safety (British Institution of Mechanical Engineers), the Dr. George Rappaport Best Paper Award (IEEE
National Aerospace Electronics Conference), the 2nd Best Paper of Conference Award for AIAA Guidance,
Navigation, and Control Conference, and has twice‐won Pathfinder Best Paper awards for AUVSI
Unmanned Systems North America. He has received B.S. and M.S degrees in Mechanical Engineering
from Lehigh University and a second M.S. degree in Human Factors Engineering.
Thur. 8/4/2016 – 15:30 Open-Mic Session
Moderator: Dr. Daniel Selva, Cornell University
Dr. Daniel Selva is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
and Systems Engineering at Cornell University. His research interests are on the
development of intelligent systems for space systems engineering and architecture,
including aspects of knowledge engineering, global optimization, machine learning
and human‐computer interaction. Daniel has a dual background in electrical
engineering and aerospace engineering, with a PhD in Space Systems from MIT
(2012), and Masters’ degrees from Telecom Barcelona and Supaero in Toulouse (2004). Between 2004
and 2008, Daniel worked in French Guiana as an avionics specialist in the Ariane 5 Launch team.
Speaker: Mr. Chuck Howell, MITRE Corporation
Every Silver Lining Has Its Cloud: Hazard Analysis and AI Systems
Chuck Howell is the Chief Engineer for Intelligence Programs and Integration at the MITRE Corporation. He serves as the senior technical focal point for facilitating how MITRE addresses our Intelligence customers’ key technical challenges. He contributes to oversight of technical activities across MITRE’s Intelligence programs, including participation in the development and integration of MITRE’s research program, direct technical support to projects, and review of technical aspects of MITRE’s Intelligence Community programs. He was the Chair of a DARPA panel refining a research agenda for Building Trustworthy Systems, Chair of a three‐FFRDC study for DUSD (S&T) to develop a roadmap for S&T in software engineering, the MITRE lead for a team (MITRE, Aerospace, Johns Hopkins APL) that developed a recommended set of Mission Assurance Program guidelines for the Missile Defense Agency, and has been a Principal Investigator on multiple MITRE research programs addressing various aspects of software assurance, safety cases, and error handling. He was a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Software Engineering Body of Knowledge Industrial Advisory Board. He co‐chaired the Fall 2015 Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) workshop on Cognitive Assistance in Government and Public Sector Applications, and is co‐chair of the Fall 2016 AAAI workshop of the same name.
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Chuck has over thirty years of software and systems engineering experience. He has led or participated
on a broad range of red teams, integrated product teams, and independent executive reviews for major
software intensive systems developments for the DoD, the Intelligence Community, NASA, the Law
Enforcement Community, and the Department of Commerce. He previously held roles at Mitretek, Sun
Microsystems, Reliable Software Technologies, and Computer Sciences Corporation. He is a Senior
Member of the IEEE.
Speaker: Dr. Natalia Alexandrov, NASA Langley Research Center
Surviving Autonomy
Natalia Alexandrov received her doctorate in Computational and Applied
Mathematics at Rice University. She has been working at the NASA Langley
Research Center in the analysis and design of complex adaptive systems,
including human‐cyber‐physical and biological systems; variable‐fidelity
modeling, mathematical foundations and algorithms for multidisciplinary design
optimization. She is an author of over seventy publications and is an AIAA Associate Fellow. Natalia now
leads the research element Ab Initio (or clean slate) Design of Autonomous Airspace in the Safe
Autonomous Systems Operations Project of the NASA's Airspace Operations and Safety Program and is in
the Langley's Aeronautic Systems Analysis Branch.
Speaker: Mr. Florian Adolf, DLR – Autonomous Intelligent Aircraft? –
V&V Considerations with DLR’s ARTIS Fleet
Florian Adolf graduated in Computer Science at Trier University of Applied
Sciences in 2003 where he developed autonomous robotic transportation
behaviors based on real time object recognition. He received a Master of Science
in Autonomous Systems from Bonn‐Rhein‐Sieg University of Applied Sciences
where he developed online robotic soccer players for a team of Mid‐size League
at the Robocup World Championship.
Since joining DLR in 2005, Mr. Adolf developed automated guidance and mission planning systems for the
DLR fleet of unmanned rotorcraft.
Since 2013 Mr. Adolf has led a team of researchers that work on automated mission execution for
different aircraft types with an emphasis on validation and certification aspects.
Speaker: Dr. Yu Gu, West Virginia University
Soft Autonomy – Lessons Learned from Building an
Autonomous Sample Return Rover
Dr. Yu Gu is currently an Assistant Professor at West Virginia University. His main
research interests are in the areas of bio‐inspired robot perception, control, and
interaction strategies. His current research focus on autonomous sample return,
formation flight, cooperative GPS‐denied navigation, robotic precision pollination, and autonomous
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systems design. Dr. Gu has authored over 70 technical papers and designed more than 500 UAV flight
tests and numerous robot experiments. He is also the leader for WVU Team Mountaineers that won the
NASA Sample Return Robot Centennial Challenge in 2014 and 2015.
Speaker: Ms. Jaime Junell, TU Delft
Learning Approaches for Robotic Applications
Jaime Junell is a PhD student at Delft University of Technology in Delft, The
Netherlands. Her research focus is on reinforcement learning applications for high
level guidance decision making. Formerly, she worked at Lockheed Martin space
systems company. She earned her BS and MS in mechanical engineering from
Oregon State University.
Speaker: Dr. Yan Wan, University of Texas at Arlington
Directional Aerial Networking System for Emergency
Communication
Dr. Yan Wan is currently an Associate Professor in the Electrical Engineering
Department at the University of Texas at Arlington. She received her Ph.D. degree in
Electrical Engineering from Washington State University in 2009. Her research
interests lie in developing fundamental theories and tools for the modeling,
evaluation, and control of large‐scale dynamic networks and cyber‐physical systems, with applications to
air traffic management, airborne networking, and complex information systems. Her research has been
funded by the NSF, NIST, IEEE, and MITRE Corporation as subcontracts from FAA. Dr. Wan's research has
been recognized by several prestigious awards, including the NSF CAREER Award and RTCA William E.
Jackson Award.
Speaker: Dr. Gregory A. Dorais, NASA Ames Research Center
NASA Transformative Aeronautics Concepts Program Convergent
Aeronautics Solutions Project Overview
Gregory A. Dorais has worked as a research scientist in the Exploration Technology
Directorate Intelligent Systems Division at the NASA Ames Research Center since
1997. Dr. Dorais currently is the NASA Ames Autonomous Systems and Robotics
Area Deputy and serves as the Ames liaison for the Transformative Aeronautics
Concepts Program Convergent Aeronautics Solutions Project. While at NASA, he
was a project team member on the Deep Space One spacecraft, LCROSS Lunar Impactor, and LADEE Lunar
Orbiter missions. Dr. Dorais also served as the chief technologist for the NASA Space Technology Mission
Directorate Small Spacecraft Technology Program. He received his Ph.D. in Intelligent Systems at the
University of Michigan.
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Fri. 8/5/2016 – 08:00 Keynote Presentation: Unmanned Combat Air System Autonomy
Mr. Pablo Gonzalez, Northrop Grumman Corporation
Pablo Gonzalez II is the program director of the Navy Unmanned Combat Air System (N‐UCAS) program within the Strategic Systems division of Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems, a premier provider of manned and unmanned aircraft, space systems and advanced technologies critical to our nation’s security.
Pablo is responsible for the development and integration of operational carrier based unmanned aviation for the Advanced Air Warfare center. In this role, Pablo leads the application of unique and innovative solutions to enable power projection by unmanned aviation from the decks of our aircraft carriers.