Hosts 

Dr. Waseem Naqvi
Chief Technology Officer
Raytheon Unmanned Vehicle Systems

Dr. Waseem Naqvi is the CTO (Technology Director) for Raytheon’s (NYSE: RTN) Unmanned Vehicle Systems business. He is responsible for defining business strategy, capability, technology and investment priorities addressing future unmanned and autonomous systems.
Raytheon is a leader in unmanned vehicle control systems and has provided the Ground Control Systems, and Mission Planning Systems for Global Hawk, BAMS, Fire Scout and other UxS. Raytheon develops sensors, surveillance, communications, command and control and vehicle control systems and cyber solutions into the Unmanned Systems industry.
Dr. Naqvi is an active contributor to the Autonomous Vehicle and Robotics Industry. He is President of the Board of Directors for the Association for Unmanned Systems International (AUVSI) New England Chapter. Waseem is Vice President and a member of the Board of Directors for the Northeast UAS Airspace Integration Research Alliance (NUAIR), a FAA UAS Test Site. He is a past Board member for AUVSI Headquarters, and also represented all 36 chapter Presidents. He previously served on the advisory board for the Massachusetts Robotics Sector. He is an International Executive Resource Group (IERG) Global Business Leader Fellow and serves as the Chair of its Board.

Keynotes 

Dr. Sertac Karaman
Associate Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Sertac Karaman is an Associate Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His research interests lie in the broad area of embedded systems and mobile robotics. He has worked on driverless cars, unmanned aerial vehicles, distributed aerial surveillance systems, air traffic control algorithms, certification and verification of control systems software, and many others.
His most recent research on flying robots spans the spectrum from the miniature micro-drones to the extremely-agile super-drones that can navigate complex environments.
He is also the co-founder of Optimus Ride, a Boston-based MIT-spin-off company that develops self-driving vehicle technologies to enable efficient, sustainable, and equitable mobility.

Dr. Peter Wurman
Director, Artificial Intelligence Group
Sony USA

Peter led Cogitai, a startup (recently acquired by Sony) that developed next generation reinforcement learning technologies for application to many domains including automotive and physics based games.
Previously, as CTO and Technical Co-Founder of Kiva Systems, a company that pioneered the use of mobile robotics in warehouses and distribution centers, Dr. Wurman was responsible for system architecture and optimization. Since it acquired the company in 2012, Amazon.com has deployed over 45,000 Kiva robots. As part of Amazon, Dr. Wurman also initiated the Amazon Robotics Challenge. Of his joining Cogitai, Dr. Wurman said, "I'm looking forward to helping this world-class team bring innovative AI technologies to market."
Prior to joining Kiva, Dr. Wurman was an Associate Professor of Computer Science at North Carolina State, where he taught e-commerce systems and researched electronic auctions, multi-agent resource planning, and resource allocation.
He holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Doctorate in Computer Science from the University of Michigan

Brian Wynne
President & CEO,
Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI)

Brian Wynne is president and CEO of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI), the world's largest nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement of unmanned systems and robotics. AUVSI represents corporations and professionals from more than 60 countries involved in business and government and who work in the defense, civil, and commercial markets.

Leaders 

Apoorva Bajaj
Innovation Manager, CASA Engineering Research Center
University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Apoorva Bajaj serves as Innovation Manager at the Engineering Research Center for Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere (CASA) at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He leads the development of technology to support safe routing of remotely piloted and autonomous aerial vehicles around weather. He also supports the development of radar technology for simultaneous detection of non-cooperative micro-drones and weather. Apoorva is a member of the North Central Texas Council of Governments UAS Safety & Integration Task Force and the working group member of the ANSI Unmanned Aircraft Systems Standardization Collaborative. Currently, he is interviewing drone and air taxi operators on their weather related needs. His overall focus is on development of new business models for acquisition, deployment and operation of sensor networks for public safety, commerce and defense applications. He brings innovation training and practices to the Center’s faculty, staff and students, with a focus on Customer Discovery. Apoorva has a M.S. in Electrical & Computer Engineering and an M.B.A. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.