Tuesday, March 17

Michael Barton, Ph.D., ITEA Fellow and Chairman

Dr. Michael Barton is a Parsons Fellow and Chairman of the ITEA Board of Directors. He has worked on Aberdeen Proving Ground since 2001, ten years supporting the Army Test and Evaluation Command and the last ten with the Army Research Laboratory working in large-scale data analytics, high-performance computing, and outreach to test and evaluation and other stakeholders. Dr. Barton’s career is in physics-based modeling and simulation with six years as an aerospace consultant, twelve years as a contractor supporting the Air Force at the Arnold Engineering Developmental Complex in Tennessee and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Glenn Research Center in Ohio; and the first 4 years of his career with The Boeing Company in Seattle. He received Bachelor of Science and Ph.D. degrees in engineering science and mechanics from The University of Tennessee-Knoxville and a Master of Engineering degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from The University of Washington.

Erwin Sabile, CTEP, ITEA Fellow and Vice-Chairman of ITEA

Erwin Sabile is an experienced Test and Evaluation Senior (T&E) Engineer with Booz Allen Hamilton, bringing over two decades of expertise spanning Acquisition, DT&E, IT&E, OT&E, FOT&E, experimentation, and prototype testing. Raised in Virginia Beach, VA, he earned a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Old Dominion University, commissioning through NROTC, and later completed a Master of Arts in Defense and Strategic Studies from the U.S. Naval War College. He also holds a Graduate Certificate in Public Health Preparedness: Disaster and Bioterrorism from Pennsylvania State University.

Sabile currently supports the Air Force Test Team and has contributed to advanced experimentation efforts with the Air Force Research Laboratory and OUSD R&E. His broad portfolio includes roles with OPTEVFOR, multiple Navy PEOs, 5G program, Joint Chem-Bio initiatives, and DHS cyber tabletop exercises. In the Navy Reserve, he serves as Navy Reserve 7th Fleet’s Assessment Warfare Director, supporting a three-star commander with operational assessments across USINDOPACOM. He previously deployed to East Africa as the CJTF-HOA Assessment Lead and KLE Branch Chief and has held key leadership roles in major fleet training and certification exercises.

Mr. Sabile is President of the ITEA Hampton Roads Chapter and an active leader in national T&E events. An avid outdoorsman, he has hiked Kilimanjaro, Machu Picchu, and regularly explores Shenandoah National Park.

Congresswoman Jen Kiggans, Virginia Second District, US House of Representatives

Congresswoman Jen Kiggans is a member of the Republican Party and serves Virginia’s Second Congressional District. She has been in office since January 3, 2023, and her current term ends on January 3, 2027. Kiggans is a former Navy helicopter pilot and a board-certified Adult-Geriatric Primary Care Nurse Practitioner. She has a strong background in healthcare and military advocacy, having served in the U.S. Navy and advocating for the military community in Congress. Kiggans has been involved in various organizations and committees, including the House Armed Services Committee and the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. She is known for her efforts in promoting election security and advocating for patients, families, and caregivers in long-term care facilities. Kiggans is running for re-election to the U.S. House to represent Virginia’s Second Congressional District in 2026.

Sandeep (Sandy) Patel, Ph.D., AI/ML Enterprise Manager and Deputy Program Manager for KBR’s DIA and DOT&E/TETRA Contract

Sandeep (“Sandy”) Patel, PhD is the Space and AI/ML Enterprise Manager and Deputy Program Manager for KBR’s DIA/TETRA contract, supporting the Defense Intelligence Agency’s (DIA) Test and Evaluation Threat Resource Activity (TETRA), a Department of War (DoW) field activity organizationally assigned to the Director, Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E). In this role, he advances mission‑relevant test and evaluation (T&E) for U.S. defense stakeholders across space systems, electromagnetic spectrum operations (EMSO), and cognitive electronic warfare (CEW) systems. He leads cross‑disciplinary teams integrating artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) with rigorous T&E frameworks to accelerate capability development, assessment, and operational relevance.

Previously, Dr. Patel was the Founder and President of Patel Technologies Corporation (2013–2024), where he delivered advanced data science solutions and technical leadership supporting NASA, the U.S. Army and Navy, DIA, and the Missile Defense Agency (MDA). His technical expertise spans digital signal processing (DSP), AI/ML, modeling and simulation (M&S), optimization algorithm development and test, sensor systems, and human‑centered software and user interface/experience (UI/UX) design, applied to complex, data‑intensive mission problems.

An astrophysicist by training, Dr. Patel’s early research spanned multi‑wavelength high‑energy astrophysics and cosmology, studying clusters of galaxies, neutron stars, magnetars, and gamma‑ray bursts at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). He later supported propulsion systems engineering at MSFC, specializing in high‑frequency data acquisition, DSP, and M&S for rocket engine and turbomachinery testing – experience that continues to inform his systems‑level approach to T&E.

Dr. Patel holds BS and MS degrees in Physics and a PhD in Astrophysics. Based in Huntsville, Alabama, he is currently committed to accelerating innovation at the intersection of space systems, EMSO, and AI/ML to strengthen national defense T&E capabilities across the acquisition lifecycle.

Bryan Vandrovec, Chief Technologist, Booz Allen Hamilton

Bryan Vandrovec is a Chief Technologist at Booz Allen, where he leads Physical AI workstreams, including the Digital Proving Ground, that apply digital engineering and generative AI to advance the test and evaluation of autonomous systems. He previously led the CDAO Glacier TDL 53 effort, delivering technical recommendations to the Director, Operational Test and Evaluation. Bryan has also pioneered the patent‑pending Action Validator, a neurosymbolic assurance capability that enforces mission constraints for autonomous platforms. With more than 25 years in systems and software engineering, he specializes in architecture, cognitive AI, human‑machine teaming, and uncrewed aircraft systems. His prior roles include Autonomous Systems Solution Architect at Leidos, Lead Software Architect at Gibbs & Cox, and Human Systems Technical Lead supporting the U.S. Navy. He has contributed to DARPA programs, presented at I/ITSEC, and is credited as an inventor on multiple patents. He earned degrees from Cornell and Johns Hopkins and co‑founded Immersive Technologies, LLC.

Judy Brown Stoer, Autonomy Test Team Lead, Weather Gage Technologies

Judy Stoer leads the Autonomous System Test and Evaluation group at Weather Gage Technologies (WGT), where she oversees the development of processes and infrastructure for testing autonomous systems across the full testing lifecycle, from defining autonomy requirements to conducting live vehicle testing. She is an active contributing member of the IEEE Guide for Verification of Autonomous Systems (GVAS) Working Group, which is in the final stages of publishing its standard and related papers. Ms. Stoer holds a B.A. in Computer Science from Boston College and an M.S. in Computer Science from Johns Hopkins University. Before joining WGT, she worked as a software engineer in the public safety domain.

Johannes Waldstein, Founder & CEO, PiLogic Inc.

 

Policarpio Soberanis, Ph.D. Synopsys Inc.

 

Nelson Santini, Senior Vice President, Edge Case Defense

 

James Sharp, Ph.D., Defense Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), Ministry of Defense, UK

Dr James Sharp is a Senior Principal Scientist at Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), the UK Ministry of Defence’s in-government S&T organisation. He has previously provided Independent Technical Evaluation to UK Defence aerospace, and has over a decade of experience on the use of software and complex electronic hardware in safety and mission critical systems. James maintains active research interests in assurance frameworks and verification techniques for both existing and novel technologies that can deliver advanced Defence capabilities. He leads the UK’s Future of Compute for Defence project, which canvases, identifies, and assesses emerging Novel and Unconventional Compute and its potential to provide a Defence advantage.

John Frederick, Director, Innovation and Testing Strategies, Veracity Engineering

John Frederick is the Director of Innovation and Testing Strategies at Veracity Engineering, bringing over 40 years of experience supporting the FAA mission. He retired from federal service in 2024 as Manager of the FAA’s Verification and Validation Strategies and Concept Visualization Branch. Throughout his career, he has led test and evaluation (T&E) efforts for more than a dozen major FAA programs and collaborated with government, industry, and academia to advance innovative verification and validation (V&V) strategies. As the FAA’s primary advocate for V&V, he served as the T&E Stakeholder for the FAA Joint Resources and Acquisition System Advisory Group, helping define policies and standards that strengthen Acquisition Decision Point processes. A recognized V&V subject matter expert, Mr. Frederick currently serves as President of the International Test and Evaluation Association (ITEA) Senior Advisory Council, liaison to the Digital Twin Consortium (DTC), and is a graduate of the Federal Executive Institute.

Ian Levitt, Ph.D., Distinguished Board Member, National Aerospace Research & Technology Park

Dr. Ian Levitt’s research interests are in complex systems and mathematics.  Dr. Levitt spent 15 years with the Federal Aviation (FAA) leading international standards and national laboratory development for the agency.  Afterwards, he spent 5 years as a senior research scientist for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).  Now he is the founder and CEO of Tapestry RDI, applying cutting edge mathematics that turn data into intelligence about complex system architecture.

 

Eman Kawas, Independent Advisor, Decision Assurance using AI-Enabled Digital Twins

Eman Kawas is a Principal at Thynkli, focused on applying digital engineering, AI, and digital twins to decision assurance in safety-critical systems. Her work emphasizes ensuring that testing, validation, and simulation efforts translate into measurable outcomes (improved risk posture, capital efficiency, and operational readiness) across the full system lifecycle. Eman brings a value-engineering and decision-structure perspective to AI-enabled systems, aligning V&V and T&E evidence with acquisition, certification, and operational governance. Her view is pragmatic: if testing does not inform, validate, or constrain real decisions about authority, certification, or use, it is cost, not assurance.

Antonios Kontsos, Ph.D., Henry M. Rowan Foundation Professor, Director of the Digital Engineering Hub

Dr. Antonios Kontsos is the first Henry M. Rowan Foundation Professor in Rowan University’s Mechanical Engineering Department and Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering, where he is also the inaugural Director of the Digital Engineering Hub (DEHub). Prof. Kontsos’ research interests are in the area of digital engineering with emphasis on connecting the physical and digital domains via data streams and digital twins. To achieve this goal, his research relies on using methods that involve theory, experiments, modeling, manufacturing, and simulations. Dr. Kontsos has been using multiphysics sensing and multiscale testing methods across time and length scales, in conjunction with digital signal processing, numerical simulations, artificial intelligence methods, and internet of things (IoT) type architectures to design and produce materials, as well as to evaluate and predict their behavior. In relation to these research efforts, Prof. Kontsos teaches topics related to solid mechanics, advanced manufacturing, and cyberphysical systems.

Education:
Post-Doctoral Fellow, The University of Texas at Austin, Center for Mechanics of Solids, Structures and Materials
Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science, RICE University (2007)
Diploma, Mechanical Engineering & Aeronautics, University of Patras, Greece (2002)

Research Expertise:
Digital Engineering; Data-driven Modeling; Mechanics of Materials; Advanced Manufacturing; Nondestructive Evaluation

Jonathan Dziok, Systems Engineer, Veracity Engineering

Jonathan comes from a diverse background of aerospace and education technology including curriculum development. Jonathan has rich experience developing and training machine learning and artificial intelligence platforms, defining corporate artificial intelligence target operating models, and engineering training systems to support enterprise digital transformation with meaningful outcomes.

Kerianne Hobbs, Ph.D., Senior Engineering Specialist, Vehicle Autonomy & System Trust, The Aerospace Corporation

Dr. Kerianne Hobbs has led space vehicle autonomy and trust research at The Aerospace Corporation since August 2025. Previously, as the Safe Autonomy Lead at the Air Force Research Laboratory, Dr. Hobbs directed the Safe Trusted Autonomy for Responsible Spacecraft (STARS) program. This program focused on leveraging neural network control systems trained using reinforcement learning for multi-vehicle autonomous satellite proximity operations concepts, developing runtime assurance technologies to maintain spacecraft autonomy within mission and operational constraints, and integrating these advancements into a human-AI interface that allowed operators to compare various autonomous control solutions and adjust mission parameters. Prior to her work on STARS, she contributed to automatic collision avoidance technology for fighter aircraft. Dr. Hobbs holds a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, an M.S. in Astronautical Engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology, and a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Recognition: Dr. Hobbs’s significant contributions to the aerospace autonomy community are underscored by her selection for the 2024 AIAA Associate Fellow Class and the 2020 AFCEA 40 Under 40 award. Notably, she was a member of the team that earned the prestigious 2018 Collier Trophy for the Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System. Her leadership extends to influential roles within the community, including previously leading the AIAA Autonomy Task Force and serving as secretary and publications lead of the AIAA Intelligent Systems Technical Committee. She has also contributed to the NASA Formal Methods Program Committee, the IEEE Aerospace Conference Committee, and the IEEE Space Mission Challenges for Information Technology Program Committee.

Wednesday, March 18

Amy E. Henninger, Ph.D., Senior Science Advisor for Advanced Computing, Science and Technology Directorate, U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Dr. Amy Henninger serves as Senior Advisor for Advanced Computing (AC) in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) S&T Technology Centers, providing strategic vision and leadership to programs and policy makers in Artificial Intelligence (AI), Cybersecurity, Data Analytics, Modeling and Simulation (M&S), and Quantum Information Science.

Prior to joining DHS, Dr. Henninger’s work traversed the private/public defense sector space. In the public sector, she has served in several special term appointment technology leadership positions in the DoD and IC that, cumulatively, span the RDT&E space.

• Interagency personnel appointment to the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, leading digital engineering and standards portfolio for systems engineering.
• Highly Qualified Expert (HQE) Army M&S Executive, providing vision, leadership, and oversight for a $10B M&S portfolio; and advising the Army’s Senior Analyst on studies supporting operational requirements analyses.
• Defense Intelligence Senior Leader Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) Senior Advisor, leading the development of the Agency’s Digital Transformation Strategy.
• HQE Senior Advisor for Software and Cybersecurity, serving as the Pentagon’s final technical authority in the assessment of software and cybersecurity T&E on major DoD programs for the Director, Operational T&E. She has over 200 hours training with NSA Cyber Red Teams.

In the private sector, she served at a federally funded research and development center, leading a variety of strategic technology initiatives including the development of a software assurance primer promulgated by CISA and NSA as recommended reading. Dr. Henninger’s other private sector experience includes founding a P&L center of Soar Technology, Inc., a tech startup focused on third-wave context-informed AI solutions that grew out of the AI Laboratory at the University of Michigan. Over her tenure, Dr. Henninger led research teams sponsored by DARPA and other Defense agencies, growing the office by 400%. Her private sector experience also includes co-leading the development of a distributed virtual training system used to train over 1.5M soldiers.

Dr. Henninger earned a PhD in Computer Engineering with emphasis and dissertation work in AI. She has taught undergraduate classes in computer science and graduate classes in AI, authored over 80 publications, and received multiple awards for her work.

Daria Stafford, Technical Director, Director Operational Test and Evaluation

Coming Soon

Laura Freeman, Ph.D., Deputy Director, Virginia Tech National Security Institute, Assistant Dean for Research, College of Science, and ITEA Fellow

Dr. Laura Freeman is a Research Professor of Statistics and serves as the Deputy Director of the Virginia Tech National Security Institute. Her research leverages experimental methods in the domains of cyber-physical systems, data science, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning to address critical challenges in national security. She develops new methods for test and evaluation focusing on emerging system technology. Her work in the National Security Institute focuses on transitioning emerging research into implementable solutions to solve challenges for the Defense, Intelligence and Homeland Security Communities. She is also a hub faculty member in the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative and leads research in AI Assurance. She is the Assistant Dean for Research for the College of Science, working to shape research directions and collaborations across the College of Science.

Previously, Dr. Freeman was the Assistant Director of the Operational Evaluation Division at the Institute for Defense Analyses. In that position, she established and developed an interdisciplinary analytical team of statisticians, psychologists, and engineers to advance scientific approaches to DoD test and evaluation. During 2018, Dr. Freeman served as the acting Senior Technical Advisor for Director Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E). As the Senior Technical Advisor, Dr. Freeman provided leadership, advice, and counsel to all personnel on technical aspects of testing military systems. She reviewed test strategies, plans, and reports from all systems on DOT&E oversight. Dr. Freeman served as Editor-in-Chief of the International Test and Evaluation (ITEA) Journal from 2020-2024 and transitioned the Journal to an online offering with options for peer-reviewed articles.

Dr. Freeman has a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering, a M.S. in Statistics and a Ph.D. in Statistics, all from Virginia Tech. She is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association. Her areas of statistical expertise include designed experiments, reliability analysis, and industrial statistics. Her Ph.D. research was on design and analysis of experiments for reliability data.

Dr. Robert “Riddle” Houston, Director of T&E, Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office

Dr. Robert “Riddle” Houston, Director of T&E, CDAO is a skilled professional in the field of test and evaluation, with a particular focus on artificial intelligence, cyber systems, and weapon systems. He has made significant contributions to the field of testing in both the public and private sectors, including R&D of advanced T&E and diagnostic methods, DoD T&E, and commercial T&E support of government and industry. He received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology, an MBA from Our Lady of the Lake University, and a Doctor of Engineering from George Washington University. Dr. Houston is the author of numerous research papers and holds patents in diagnostic systems and electromagnetic signal transmission. His primary professional interest is in the testing, evaluation, and assurance of AI-enabled systems.

Jeremy Werner, Ph.D., Chief Scientist, Cadence Design Systems

Jeremy Werner, Ph.D., Chief Scientist, Cadence Design Systems is a physicist, data scientist, and scientific computing architect with petabyte-scale big data expertise. He is a renowned strategic thought leader and hands-on expert practitioner in the domains of data, AI, and digital transformation with a particular emphasis on operationalizing these to create decision advantage for Multi-Domain Operations and Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control. He is an expert in Test and Evaluation (T&E) and served as the Pentagon’s top weapons tester’s—Director, Operational Test and Evaluation’s (DOT&E)—Chief Scientist from 2021 to 2025, where he led an R&D portfolio with the primary thrust of digitally transforming the US Department of Defense/Department of War T&E enterprise. Before then, he founded a data science-oriented military operations research team at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory that transformed the analytics of an ongoing military mission to solve a critical challenge that had stumped experts for decades. He previously served at the Institute for Defense Analyses, supporting the highest levels of Pentagon leadership in the rigorous T&E of a variety of systems and platforms. Dr. Werner earned a PhD in physics from Princeton University where he was an integral contributor to the experimental discovery of the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research in Geneva, Switzerland. He received a bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of California, Los Angeles where he was the recipient of the E. Lee Kinsey Prize for being the most outstanding graduate in physics.

Steve Robert Crews II, PhD., Georgia Tech Research Institute

Dr. Steve Crews is a senior research engineer at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), where he supports space-focused test and training infrastructure for the U.S. Space Force and Department of Defense. In this role, he provides technical leadership on live-virtual-constructive training environments, digital twins, and artificial intelligence integration—drawing on more than two decades of operational and research experience in robotics, autonomy, and space systems.
Before joining GTRI in 2024, Dr. Crews served 21 years across the U.S. Army and U.S. Space Force. His military career spanned combat aviation, space operations, and technical leadership roles shaping the future of autonomous warfare. As Chief of Operations & Integration at Space Training & Readiness Command, he launched a $1.8B test and training infrastructure for 16,000 Guardians, led development of the Space Force’s first spacecraft digital twin, and directed over 1,400 personnel executing critical space, cyber, and intelligence readiness tasks.
Earlier, Dr. Crews commanded and flew combat missions as a CH-47D/F pilot in Iraq and Afghanistan, leading Soldiers into combat and orchestrating multinational aviation operations with NATO partners. He managed fleets worth billions, oversaw the recovery of a $36M Chinook helicopter under hostile conditions, and was repeatedly recognized for leadership well above his grade.
At West Point, Dr. Crews served as an Assistant Professor and Robotics Lab Director, founding the Modular Robotics Laboratory and mentoring cadets who designed more than three dozen robots across autonomous swarms, reinforcement learning, and operator-in-the-loop systems. His team won national recognition for top Army engineering research, secured $1M+ in competitive awards, and earned the prestigious Clark Award for research excellence.
Dr. Crews also brings extensive experience in global space operations, having supervised international crews responsible for the command and control of 50 military space units supporting SATCOM, GPS, electromagnetic interference, and space domain awareness. He directed tracking of more than 23,000 satellites and debris objects, integrated non-traditional sensors into operations, and advanced international cooperation across allied space programs.
Dr. Crews holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, specializing in robotics, AI and dynamic motion planning, and dual master’s degrees in Astronautical and Mechanical Engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
A published researcher and peer reviewer for international robotics and engineering journals, Dr. Crews has authored and co-authored multiple papers on autonomous systems, modular robotics, and space control. He continues to focus on the intersection of space, autonomy, and artificial intelligence, ensuring that future warfighters are equipped to train, fight, and prevail in contested domains.

Rachel Brower-Sinning, Ph.D., Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute

Rachel Brower-Sinning is a machine learning scientist in the Tactical Edge and AI-enabled Systems (TAS) initiative in the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. Her current research interests are to improve operational readiness of AI-enabled systems by creating and transitioning innovative solution and practices to improve testing and maintenance of AI-enabled systems. Rachel holds bachelor’s degrees in Biology and Physics from Virginia Tech, a Master’s in bioinformatics from George Mason University, and a Ph.D in computational biology from the University of Pittsburgh.

Kelli Esser, PhD., Chief Strategy Officer, Virginia Tech National Security Institute (VTNSI)

 

Josef B. Schaff, DSc., Chief Scientist, Cyber Dominance Group (A4J) Non-Kinetic Warfare Branch, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab

Dr. Josef Schaff is the chief scientist for cyber dominance at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU APL), Air and Missile Defense Sector. He actively researches complexity and emergent effects related to self-organizing systems, cyber offense and defense, and applying AI/ML to forecast overall system stability. Prior to joining APL, he was the lead autonomy architect for the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD), and a NAVAIR associate Fellow.

As an interdisciplinary researcher with a background in physics, mathematics, and computer science, he has designed algorithms for AI/ML and cybersecurity, and hardware for experimental verification, and led interdisciplinary research teams in ML and methods to leverage complexity science. Most of his career has focused on research into advanced technologies and software development for defense systems, interspersed with commercial industry and start-ups in communications, robotics, and video game software.

He has over 35 years of experience in Neural Network (NN) and related AI algorithms, and for the past two decades has investigated venues of leveraging complexity science in both AI/ML and self-organizing topologies that include distributed agents.

He is also an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland, and has designed and currently teaches several courses for the graduate robotics program, including Human-Robot Interaction and Machine Learning Applied to Cybersecurity. A significant portion of the lectures focus on AI/ML, leveraging complexity and chaos for emergent robotic behaviors and complex human-robot interactions. Both courses ask the open-ended question of how to test these complex adaptive systems.

He has written chapters for books¹, and presented papers at the International Conference on Complex Systems (ICCS)², Software Technology Conference, IEEE, INCOSE, NATO RTO, other DoD and related conferences, and co-authored several patent applications in cryptography and cyber resilient systems. He has participated in Navy, AFRL, and DARPA programs on collaborative autonomy, cybersecurity, and advanced technologies.

In the past, he applied complexity science to create self-organizing cyber resilient massive networks and swarms, fractal ML algorithms and cryptography, and designed scalable AI/ML architectures for cyber resilient complex adaptive systems.

1. Engineering Emergence: A Modeling and Simulation Approach; Rainey & Jamshidi, Eds.; Ó2019 CRC Press. ISBN-13: 978-1-138-04616-0, Chap. 5: “Leveraging deterministic Chaos to Mitigate Combinatorial Explosions”.
2. Unifying Themes in Complex Systems X; Braha et al. Eds.; @2021 Springer Proceedings in Complexity ISBN: 978-3-030-67317-8, pp. 287-299, “Deterministic Chaos Constraints for Control of Massive Swarms”.

Matt Maroofi, Senior Director of Product Development, Shield AI

Matt Maroofi is Senior Director of Product Development at Shield AI, where he leads advanced autonomy and AI integration for global defense applications. With over 20 years in aerospace and defense, Matt has specialized in cutting edge technology advancement in airborne and spaceborne applications, and AI-driven capability integration. Before joining Shield AI, he contributed to key advanced technology projects, holding roles in R&D and operational programs both in industry and government positions. Matt holds a M.S. in information and data science from UC Berkeley, focusing on deep learning and natural language processing, and an M.S. in electrical engineering from George Mason University, specializing in communication and satellite design.