About Us

Alex Fielding is the co-founder and CEO of Ripcord, a robotics company on a mission to take the world paperless. He began his career as an engineer for Cisco Systems and Apple, where he worked on multiple generations of macOS and PowerBook.

In 2001, Fielding co-founded Wheels of Zeus with Apple’s co-founder, Steve Wozniak; it was sold to Zontrak in 2006. Today, Fielding sits on the boards of the CodeWarrior Foundation and the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME) and is on the advisory board of Astra Space.

Dr. Ashok K. Goel is a professor of computer science and human-centered computing in the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Institute of Technology, where he teaches classes in knowledge-based artificial intelligence, computational creativity, and cognitive science. He is also the director of Georgia Tech’s Design & Intelligence Laboratory, and the chief scientist for Georgia Tech’s Center for 21st Century Universities.

In addition to his widespread involvement in academic journals, conferences, and initiatives, Professor Goel pioneered the development of Jill Watson, an AI-powered teaching assistant. His current research projects explore design thinking and systems thinking in scientific modeling, visual thinking on intelligence tests, and analogical thinking and meta-thinking in human-robot interaction. Notably, he’s the author of two recent influential papers in the Journal of Thoracic Imaging: "Augmenting Interpretation of Chest Radiographs With Deep Learning Probability Maps" and "Deep Learning Localization of Pneumonia".

Dr. Daniel Koehler is an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture, where he champions forward-thinking architectural theory and design research. His work takes a deep dive into the fascinating crossroads of generative AI, architectural theory, and research by design, projecting optimistic futures through the synergy of architecture.

Specializing in generative systems and compositional histories, Dr. Koehler seeks to understand the impact of AI on urban architecture. He is a respected voice in the architecture community, with over 50 publications, including a monograph, edited volumes, and conference papers. He holds a bachelor’s of science in architecture from the University of Dortmund, a master’s in architecture from the University of Applied Arts - Studio Hadid Vienna, Austria, and a PhD in architecture and urban design from the University of Innsbruck, Austria.

Dr. Deidra R. Hodges is an associate professor and the chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Florida International University. She is an exceptional leader in photovoltaics (PV) and solar energy research with extensive experience in PV and X- and gamma-ray radiation detectors for National Security. She is highly focused on advancing renewable energy, sustainability, nuclear materials, and extreme photon sensing.

Dr. Hodges’ contributions include supporting and developing the pixilated cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) gamma detector at Brookhaven National Laboratory and highly efficient thin-film mixed perovskite halides photovoltaics. She has achieved perovskite solar cell power conversion efficiencies greater than 21 percent, approaching the world record efficiency of 25.2 percent.

Dr. Hodges’ network spans many Department of Energy government laboratories, including BNL, Idaho National Laboratory, Kansas City National Security Center Honeywell FM&T, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, collaborating with Scientists and as a user of facilities.

Dr. George Crabtree is a senior scientist and distinguished fellow at Argonne National Laboratory; distinguished professor of physics, mechanical and electrical engineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago; and director of the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR). He received his BS in science engineering, his MS in physics, and his PhD in condensed matter physics.

In the course of his distinguished career, he's published more than 440 scientific papers on topics that range from energy policy to next-gen battery materials to sustainable energy. He’s led Department of Energy (DOE) workshops on energy storage, co-chaired assessments of the DOE’s applied energy programs, and testified before Congress about the challenges and opportunities associated with sustainable energy. In 2018, Crabtree's team at JCESR received the Secretary of Energy's Achievement Award for its work in the future of next-gen batteries.

Dr. James Lester is the Goodnight Distinguished University Professor in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning at North Carolina State University. He is the director of the Center for Educational Informatics and the National Science Foundation AI Institute for Engaged Learning. His research centers on transforming education with artificial intelligence. His current work ranges from AI-driven narrative-centered learning environments and virtual agents for learning to multimodal learning analytics and sketch-based learning environments.

Dr. Lester received a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, four Best Paper Awards, and the International Federation for Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems Influential Paper Award. At North Carolina State University, he has been recognized with the Alumni Association Outstanding Research Award, the Outstanding Teacher Award, and the Alexander Quarles Holladay Medal for Excellence. His research is supported by the National Science Foundation, the US Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences, the National Institutes of Health, and the Army Futures Command. He has served as Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education. He is a fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI).

Dr. Jason Corso is an associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Michigan. His primary research focuses on high-level computer vision, with an emphasis on video understanding for physical engagement with the environment by agents (e.g., robots).

Dr. Corso has published on a large number of problems in this space, but his primary areas are video segmentation and video action recognition. His company, Voxel51 LLC, seeks to expose video understanding in a commercial setting.

Dr. Jiang Hu is a professor and co-director of graduate programs in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering at Texas A&M University. He received his BS in optical engineering from Zhejiang University, and a PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Minnesota.

Dr. Hu’s research interests include electronic design automation (EDA), computer architecture, approximate computing, and machine learning for EDA.

Dr. Hu has received five IEEE Conference Best Paper Awards, the IBM Invention Achievement Award, and the Humboldt Research Fellowship. He has served on the IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems editorial boards and the ACM Transactions on Design Automation of Electronic Systems. He was the general chair of the ACM International Symposium on Physical Design 2012, and was named an IEEE fellow in 2016. Dr. Hu co-authored Machine Learning Applications in Electronic Design Automation, released in 2022.

Dr. Jie Yin is an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at North Carolina State University. He earned his MS in solid mechanics from Tsinghua University and his PhD in engineering mechanics from Columbia University.

Before joining NC State, he worked as a postdoctoral associate at MIT and an assistant and associate professor at Temple University. He received the Cozzarelli Prize from the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), an NSF CAREER Award, and an Extreme Mechanics Letters (EML) Young Investigator Award. Dr. Yin’s group’s research is on both fundamental mechanics and functionality of novel materials and structures at all scales.

Dr. Jung-Eun Kim is an assistant professor of computer science at North Carolina State University. She received her BS and MS in computer science and engineering at Seoul National University, and her PhD in computer science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Before joining the faculty at NCSU, Dr. Kim was an assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science at Syracuse University and an associate research scientist in computer science at Yale University.

Dr. Kim’s research focuses on the bias and efficiency of AI and deep learning. She is particularly interested in the tradeoffs between performance, resource consumption, and other factors when designing robust, reliable, and sustainable models. She has served on the program committee of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI), the Design Automation Conference (DAC), and the Design, Automation, and Test in Europe (DATE) Conference.

Dr. Kara Kockelman is the Dewitt Greer Centennial Professor of Transportation Engineering at the University of Texas and a leading expert on autonomous vehicles and traffic engineering. Among her many honors, she has received the Beijing Overseas Talent Pool Award, the Google Research Award, the James Laurie Prize in Transportation Engineering, the Walter L. Huber Research Prize in Transportation Engineering, and the Young Researcher’s Award from the Transportation Research Board’s Committee on Statistical Methods.

Dr. Kockelman has authored or contributed to more than 175 academic papers, books, and articles. She holds a bachelor's, a master's and a doctorate in civil engineering, as well as a master's in city planning—all from the University of California, Berkeley.

Karen Horting is the Executive Director and CEO for the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), a position she’s held since 2014. In her prior role as Deputy Executive Director, Horting oversaw the Society’s professional development, K-12 outreach, the annual conference, and international expansion.

Prior to joining SWE, Horting worked for both the New York Academy of Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She currently serves on the Leadership Circle of the 50K Coalition, the FIRST Robotics Board of Directors, the Automation Federation Board of Directors, the STEM Ed Coalition Board of Directors, and the Association Forum CAE Working Group.

Dr. Kartik Chandran, a professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Engineering at Columbia University, is an American environmental engineer focusing on environmental molecular and microbiology, biotechnology, and engineering. He is a world-renowned expert on wastewater treatment and resource recovery. His research primarily focuses on uncovering the molecular microbial ecology and metabolic pathways of the microbial nitrogen cycle.

The practical applications of his work include developing sustainable approaches to sanitation, energy and resource-efficient treatment of nitrogen-containing wastewater streams, and innovative models for resource recovery. He was a co-author of the “Environmental Engineering for the 21st Century: Addressing the Grand Challenges” report published in 2019 by the National Academies.

Dr. Leilei Duan is a lecturer with the Spatial Sciences Institute at the University of Southern California. She earned her PhD in design, construction, and planning from the University of Florida. Prior to joining the faculty at the Spatial Science Institute, Duan was an instructor for 3D modeling, visualization, and simulation at the University of Florida. Her current research and teaching interests include the application of GIS in urban planning and other aspects of GeoDesign.

Duan has presented her research at numerous conferences, including those of the Geodesign Summit and the American Association of Geographers. She is also the founder and administrator of the GeoDesign Wiki website

Massimiliano (Max) Moruzzi is co-founder and CEO of Xaba (Xaba.ai), a startup focused on intelligent automation to enable sustainable manufacturing. Moruzzi has an extensive 15-year career as lead scientist and business innovator in sustainable materials and disruptive manufacturing process automation, including work for Autodesk.

As the lead scientist and director of business development for Magestic Inc., he was responsible for revolutionizing the business models of major OEMs in the aerospace (Boeing, Airbus, Lockheed Martin) and automotive (FCA, GM, FORD, Lamborghini, Ferrari) industries.

Dr. Michael Todd, a Professor of Structural Engineering at UC San Diego, is a leading researcher in the structural health monitoring of civil, mechanical, and aerospace engineering projects. As one of the pioneers of “smart structures”—self-measuring systems which send performance feedback—his adeptness with both hardware and software have made him a leading structural engineer internationally today.

Dr. Todd received numerous awards, including the Alan Berman NRL Publication Award (1999), NRL Patent Awards (2003 and 2004), the Fifth International Workshop on Structural Health Monitoring’s Professional of the Year (2005), and the Von Liebig Entrepreneurship Award (2005). He’s a member of UCSD’s OUT List—an organization of LGBTQ faculty and administrative professionals—as well as a member of QuEST, an LGBTQ engineering society based in San Diego.

Dr. Oleg Zikanov is a professor and chair of mechanical engineering at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. He earned his MS in mechanics from Moscow State University and his PhD in fluid dynamics and plasma physics from the Institute for Problems in Mechanics.

Before joining the faculty at UM-Dearborn, Dr. Zikanov conducted research at TU Darmstadt, TU Dresden, and Florida Atlantic University. His areas of research interest include computational fluid dynamics and heat transfer; magnetohydrodynamics; liquid metal technologies in energy applications; thermal convection; and hydrodynamic instabilities and transition to turbulence. He is the author of Essential Computational Fluid Dynamics.

Dr. Peter Hosemann is a professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering at the University of California Berkeley, where he is also the department chair. He received his MS and PhD degrees in material science from Montanuniversität Leoben, Austria.

Prior to joining the Department of Nuclear Engineering at UC Berkeley, Dr. Hosemann was a graduate research assistant and a post-doc at Los Alamos National Laboratory. His research features experimental material science for nuclear applications, with a focus on the structural materials used for nuclear components.

Dr. Ruth Charney is the President of the American Mathematical Society (AMS). She is also the Theodore and Evelyn Berenson Professor of Mathematics at Brandeis University, where she researches geometric group theory.

A past president of the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM), Charney has served on various AMS committees since 1993, and in 2017 completed a five-year term on the Board of Trustees. She is a fellow of both AWM and AMS.

Sha Viswanathan is a 14-year veteran at Microsoft, currently serving as a software engineering manager in the company’s cloud and AI division. He studied electrical and computer engineering at the University of Texas at Austin and moved to Seattle to start his career at Microsoft. His first five years at the company were spent in research and development of Internet of Things (IoT) when the concept was still in its formative stages. Now, Viswanathan hires and manages teams of engineers that have worked on projects that integrate AI into Windows and other Microsoft products.

Dr. Steven D. Fleming is a professor of the practice of spatial sciences in the Spatial Sciences Institute at the University of Southern California Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences. He earned his BS in computer science from West Point, his master’s degree in national security and strategic studies from the Naval War College, and both his master’s and his doctorate in geography from the University of Georgia. His research and teaching is focused on four areas: the applications of geospatial technologies for national defense; emerging terrestrial, airborne, and space-based image collection systems; online and blended training using mobile devices; and the dynamic mapping of coastal regions.

A retired colonel in the US Army, Fleming has command, staff, and combat experience, twice deployed in Operation Enduring Freedom. Prior to joining the faculty at USC, Fleming served as deputy head of the Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering at West Point. In addition to his role at USC’s Spatial Science Institute, Fleming is also a research professor with the USC’s Institute for Creative Technologies, a DoD-sponsored research center that works in collaboration with the US Army Research Laboratory (ARL).

Dr. Thomas Harmon is a founding faculty member and civil and environmental engineering professor at the University of California, Merced. He also serves as director of the Sierra Nevada Research Institute, which oversees the work of over 60 professional researchers and faculty members. Before joining UC Merced, he taught at the University of California, Los Angeles. His research and teaching interests revolve around developing innovative technologies and methods to sustainably monitor, model, and manage environmental systems.

In addition, he regularly works on identifying viable solutions for complex socio-environmental problems. Dr. Harmon holds a bachelor’s of science in civil engineering from Johns Hopkins University and a master's of science and PhD in environmental engineering from Stanford University. Working alongside other prominent environmental engineers and scientists, he is a co-author of the National Academies' 2019 report “Environmental Engineering for the 21st Century: Addressing the Grand Challenges.”

Tricia Hatley is the 2020-2021 President of the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE). She serves on numerous committees within the organization. Tricia is a past President of the Texas Society of Professional Engineers, where she served in numerous leadership roles and is now a member of the Oklahoma Society of Professional Engineers.

Additionally, she is a Principal and Vice President at Freese and Nichols, Inc (FNI), an engineering, architectural, and environmental firm with offices throughout Texas, Oklahoma, Georgia, Florida, and North Carolina. She has been with FNI for 27 years, and prior to that, she worked at the Oklahoma Department of Transportation.

Dr. Vincenzo Piuri is a Professor of Computer Engineering at the University of Milan, Italy, where he was the Department Chair from 2007 to 2012. He received his MS and PhD in computer engineering from Politecnico di Milano, Italy.

Dr. Piuri’s research and industrial application interests are in AI, intelligent systems, pattern analysis, machine learning, cloud computing, and digital architectures. As one of Italy’s leading scientists, he’s published over 400 scientific papers in international journals, international conferences, books, and book chapters.

Dr. Piruri has held several leadership roles at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and is also the founder and co-chair of IEEE’s Environmental Engineering Initiative, an interdisciplinary forum for the environmental engineering community. Dr. Piuri is an IEEE Fellow, a member of IEEE Eta Kappa Nu, an Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Distinguished Scientist, and a Senior Member of the International Network for Natural Sciences (INNS).

William Santana Li is chairman and CEO of California-based robotics security company Knightscope, which serves U.S. airports, corporations, hospitals, stadiums, and other security-sensitive sites. Li leverages his electrical engineering training, entrepreneurial prowess, and passion for robotics to create novel security and law enforcement technologies. Before founding Knightscope, he was Chairman and CEO of the Carbon Motors Corporation, developer of the world’s first purpose-built law enforcement vehicles.

Li also founded and headed Built-to-Order, Model E Corporation, and Greenleaf Health. He holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and a master's of business administration (MBA) from the University of Detroit Mercy.

Dr. Wolfgang Fink is an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and the inaugural Edward & Maria Keonjian Endowed Chair in Microelectronics at the University of Arizona. He holds joint appointments in the departments of electrical and computer engineering, biomedical engineering, systems and industrial engineering, aerospace and mechanical engineering, and ophthalmology and vision science.

Dr. Fink is the founder and director of the Visual and Autonomous Exploration Systems Research Laboratory at Caltech and the University of Arizona and the founder and director of the University of Arizona Center for Informatics and Telehealth in Medicine.

Dr. Fink’s research comprises general smart service systems, autonomous systems, brain-computer interfaces, smart platforms for mobile and telehealth, and computer-optimized design. He was one of the principal investigators of the US Department of Energy’s Artificial Retina consortium—involving six National Laboratories, four universities, and one industry partner—which pioneered the only FDA-approved visual prosthesis to date: the Argus II by Second Sight Medical Products, Inc. Dr. Fink is an AIMBE fellow, a PHMS fellow, an SPIE fellow, an ARVO fellow, and a senior member of IEEE. He holds more than 29 US and foreign patents to date.