Agenda | Speakers | Co-Host Program | Robotica Home |
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Dr. Jeffrey DeCarlo Dr. Jeffrey DeCarlo is the MassDOT Aeronautics Division Administrator tasked with providing statutory and regulatory oversight for all aviation matters in the Commonwealth, including safety, security, airport development, and UAS programs. |
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Jeff Adams Jeff joined AUVSI in 2013 looking for industry connections and partnerships as he and his partners launch UAS Development Inc, a small UAS R&D firm focused on localized remote pilot systems for enhanced payload and mission requirements. UAS Development continues to explore solutions for sophisticated and demanding vehicle/asset integrations and provides engineering design services along with systems validation testing with a variety of air-frame platforms. Jeff was appointed AUVSI New England Chapter President in 2017, and serves on several technology advisory groups, including the national Unmanned Maritime Advisory Council. |
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Noel Zamot Noel Zamot is the Revitalization Coordinator for the Financial Oversight and Management Board (FOMB) for Puerto Rico. He is responsible for accelerating the island’s economic recovery by bringing private capital to revitalize Puerto Rico’s critical infrastructure, in order to create jobs and set the conditions for sustainable growth. Mr. Zamot manages the Critical Projects Process under Title V of the PR Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA). This initiative currently has $7B of infrastructure projects under consideration for designation and implementation. Mr. Zamot also provides oversight for the fiscal plan development process for Puerto Rico’s Electric Power Authority and Aqueducts Authority, which set the conditions for sustainable growth and effective operations for the island’s future. Prior to his appointment to the FOMB, Mr. Zamot was an entrepreneur and executive in the aerospace industry. He was the founding partner of Corvus Analytics LLC, a consulting firm helping businesses manage cyber risk and design cyber resilient systems. Corvus led teams that created an innovation accelerator for unmanned systems on behalf of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, developed and taught methods to evaluate military systems against cyber threats for the US Air Force, and supported several industry efforts in autonomy and robotics. As an executive in the aerospace industry he managed profit/loss operations valued at $230M for a major defense contractor, providing complex technical solutions to customers in the Federal Government. He has developed and implemented strategies for revenue growth and market segmentation, crafted a strategic roadmap for firm-wide contract transition, and led his Before entering private industry, Mr. Zamot served as a colonel in the U.S. Air Force. He finished his active duty career as commander of the USAF’s elite Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base, California. In that role he crafted the service’s initial framework for testing military systems in contested cyberspace, and developed the first formal curriculum to train military drone test pilots. He is a sailplane pilot, an avid triathlete, and speaks frequently on the challenges and opportunities related to investment in Puerto |
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Chad Council Chad Council is the Regional Geospatial Coordinator for FEMA Region 1, where he provides GIS support to the region’s deliberate planning efforts and coordinates GIS and remote sensing activities during federal disaster responses in New England. |
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Ryan Coates
Ryan Coates is the Manager of Policy, Regulations and Stakeholder Engagement with Transport Canada’s UAS Task Force. Ryan joined Transport Canada in 2008 and has been instrumental in shaping public policy, implementing legislative change and advancing priorities within Transport Canada’s Civil Aviation and Marine Safety and Security programs. He has built on this experience and is currently providing policy leadership as Transport Canada implements its UAS strategy. Ryan holds a Master’s Degree in Public Policy and Public Administration from Concordia University in Montréal, Québec. |
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Dr. Waseem Naqvi Dr. Waseem Naqvi is the CTO (Technology Director) for Raytheon’s (NYSE: RTN) Intelligence, Information and Services (IIS) 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. |
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Edward “Ted” Lester Ted Lester is a Lead Systems Engineer at The MITRE Corporation in Bedford, Massachusetts. He supports the United States Air Force Common Airborne Sense and Avoid (C-ABSAA) program, is co-chair of the UAS EXCOM Science and Research Panel (SARP), conducts research on UAS safety and certification for the Air Force and FAA, and participates in numerous standards committees related to UAS and cooperative surveillance systems. He is currently serving as co-chair of the RTCA Special Committee 228 Detect and Avoid (DAA) working group. Prior to MITRE, Mr. Lester worked as a general aviation avionics Product Manager and as a Systems Engineer at Avidyne Corporation in Lincoln, Massachusetts. He holds a B.A. from Middlebury College majoring in physics and an S.M. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Aeronautics and Astronautics, where he worked in the International Center for Air Transportation (MIT ICAT). Mr. Lester is an avid cyclist and pilot, FAA Certified Flight Instructor – Instrument (CFII), and part owner of two Cessna airplanes. |
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Lieutenant Colonel Randy “Laz” Gordon Lieutenant Colonel Randy “Laz” Gordon, PhD is a decorated, multi-discipline leader with a demonstrated 20-year track record of professional excellence. He is the Test and Evaluation Lead for the US Air Force’s AFWERX Technology Venture Partner initiative. Prior to this, he was a Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Harvard Business School. |
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Scott Gardner
Scott has been with the Federal Aviation Administration for approximately 9 years and with the Emerging Technologies office since 2011. He assumed the Emerging Technologies acting manager role in June 2016. Prior to joining the Emerging Technologies office, he was an Air Traffic Security Specialist in the FAA’s Domestic Events Network (DEN), coordinating the FAA’s response to domestic real-time aviation security events. Scott is also a retired Colonel with the Air Force Reserve, serving as an Emergency Preparedness Liaison Officer (EPLO) with the National Security Emergency Program (NSEP). He also served as an Air Traffic Control Officer in both the active Air Force and the Air National Guard. |
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Gregory S. Woo, Ph.D. Dr. Gregory Woo manages the Aviation Systems Engineering division at the U.S. DOT Volpe Center. He has more than 30 years of broad experience encompassing data center management, information technology and network management, risk management, and leadership of technical research and new product development programs. He has led a wide variety of projects at the Volpe Center ranging from Air Traffic Control systems engineering and acquisition program management projects, to risk management and safety assessment exercises, to testing of instrumentation and technology for low-visibility operations in the airport terminal environment. Woo is a volunteer member of the FAA’s New England Safety Team, serving as a safety counselor and stage check pilot in the general aviation industry. He holds an Airline Transport Pilot certificate for multi-engine aircraft and is type-rated in the Boeing 737NG. He also holds an FAA Remote Pilot certificate. Woo is an active flight instructor training general aviation pilots to safely operate technically advanced aircraft with advanced automation and flight management systems. Woo also serves as a member of the Unmanned Aircraft Safety Team (UAST) supporting the uncontrolled flight risk identification and mitigation workgroup. Woo has a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from Yale University, a master’s degree in organizational management and development from Fielding Graduate University, and a Ph.D. from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University with a focus on aviation safety, safety management systems, and human factors. His dissertation examined the limits of human performance in the visual detection of small unmanned aircraft. |
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Jeffrey DeCoux |
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Matthew Kling Matthew Kling is a Research Engineer/Scientist working at KRI at Northeastern University, LLC where he leads the operation of the Northeastern Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Lab at the Innovation Campus in Burlington, MA. In this position he collaborates with academia, industry and government to conduct cutting edge research in unmanned systems in areas such as Counter-UAS and autonomy. He focuses on developing innovative solutions and has an extensive background in real-time embedded systems, system architecture, systems engineering and system integration/test. His professional certifications include TOGAF and Zachman enterprise architecture. He obtained a MS in Systems Engineering 2006 and a BS in Electrical Engineering in 2002, both from WPI. His career began at Raytheon in 2002 as a software engineer for SATCOM/Radar systems. During his 15 years there he became a technical leader for several major military SATCOM systems where he was considered an expert in domains such as communication waveforms, RF systems, real-time embedded systems, security engineering/cyber, and system architecture/requirements. Additionally, he has published several papers and applied for/received patents for remote control systems and security devices. |
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R. John Hansman R. John Hansman is the T. Wilson Professor of Aeronautics & Astronautics at MIT, where he is the Director of the MIT International Center for Air Transportation. He conducts research in advanced technologies for operational aerospace systems. Professor Hansman led the founding Beaverworks capstone project class and has led several student driven innovative UAV designs including LOCUST/Perdix, Jungle Hawk Owl and Firefly. Dr. Hansman holds 7 patents and has authored over 300 technical publications. He has over 6000 hours of pilot in-command time in airplanes, helicopters and sailplanes including meteorological, production and engineering flight test experience. Professor Hansman chairs the US Federal Aviation Administration Research Engineering & Development Advisory Committee (REDAC). He is co-director of the national Center of Excellence in Aviation Sustainability Center (ASCENT). He is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering (NAE), is a Fellow of the AIAA and has received numerous awards including the AIAA Dryden Lectureship in Aeronautics Research, the ATCA Kriske Air Traffic Award, a Laurel from Aviation Week & Space Technology, and the FAA Excellence in Aviation Award. |
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Alex Slawsby Alex is Director of Innovation for EmbraerX in Boston. EmbraerX is the disruptive innovation team within Embraer, the third largest producer of civil aircraft in the world. In his role, Alex is responsible for identifying and accelerating new technologies and business models emerging from the Greater Boston innovation ecosystem that have the potential to transform or even disrupt Embraer’s core businesses. |
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Mike Mester Mike Mester joined the Chicago office of The Boston Consulting Group as an Associate in the summer of 2009. He is a core member of the firm's Aerospace & Defense practice. Mike has supported a series of projects on aftermarket business strategy for a major aviation systems manufacturer, including commercial aviation sustainment / aftermarket profit pool analysis, services pricing and growth, M&A support and strategy across program lifetime stages. He is currently leading a study on electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) transport markets. |
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Scott A. Uebelhart, PhD Scott A. Uebelhart, PhD supports MassDOT Aeronautics as Chief Scientist of the Drone Program, laying out the strategy and planning to adopt drones across MassDOT. Prior to this, Dr. Uebelhart was an early employee of technology startup, and was on the technical staff at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. There, he conducted systems analysis of U.S. space architectures for the Air Force, analyzing missions, requirements, and solutions to technical challenges, and provided recommendations to senior government decision makers. Before that, Dr. Uebelhart was a postdoctoral associate with MIT's Program in Science, Technology and Society, where he established the cross-disciplinary Space, Policy, and Society research group, applied MIT technical expertise to questions of human spaceflight space policy, and briefed senior Congressional and NASA leaders. Scott earned his SB, SM and PhD from the MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. |
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Rodney Cole Rodney Cole started his career at MIT Lincoln Laboratory in the early 1990s developing windshear detection algorithms and systems for the FAA, continuing on to lead various teams in weather analysis and weather prediction for both FAA and NASA programs. Rod has taken programs from initial concept through field testing to technology transfer to industry and operations in the NAS. He has also led an algorithm team developing space surveillance algorithms. Over the past nine years, he has led the Laboratory’s portfolio of FAA, NASA, DoD and DHS UAS airspace integration programs. He is currently an Assistant Group Leader of the Surveillance Systems Group where he is helping to lead a broad portfolio of programs focused on aviation safety and efficiency. Rod has a math and physics background with a PhD in mathematics. |
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Philippe Labouchère, Ph.D. Philippe holds a MSc and BSc in Physics from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ). After having explored the mysteries of quantum cryptography during his studies, he did an internship at the Science & Technology office at the Embassy of Switzerland in Tokyo, Japan, where he got acquainted with the swissnex network. Upon his return home, he started a doctoral program with Prof. Grätzel at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), during which he worked on next-generation dye-sensitized solar cells. After having completed his Ph.D., Philippe moved to London and worked in the field of artificial intelligence applied to online marketing. In 2017, he joined the swissnex Boston team to foster the exchanges between Switzerland and the Greater Boston Area in the fields of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. |
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Terrence McKenna Terrence McKenna supports MassDOT Aeronautics as the Senior Program Manager for the Drone Pilot Program. In this role, he oversees the integration of UAS into all facets of the Commonwealth's operations by bringing together disparate but mutually beneficial ecosystems within the State. Mr. McKenna comes from a rich background of both technical and operational UAS development serving as technical and programmatic leads for a variety of programs at Aurora Flight Sciences for over a decade. He has worked closely with the Air Force Research Lab, DARPA, and NASA to develop autonomous aerial solutions for the needs of the warfighter. He augments extensive UAS experience with work on the manned side of aviation by serving in the U.S. Air Force as a C-5M Super Galaxy Pilot at Westover Air Reserve Base. Mr. McKenna earned his SB in Aerospace Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and holds a Fixed Wing Multi-Engine Commercial/Instrument, Seaplane, and Remote Pilot's License. |
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