Members Only Roundtable
The impact of Artificial Intelligence and Autonomous Systems is real and tangible. Across all industries, businesses are designing and developing intelligent and autonomous systems to help create innovative products and to increase operational efficiency. Nevertheless, there still remain many questions along our collective journey of exploration, for instance: Will our new understanding of natural intelligence change the paradigm of future AI? What are the promises and perils of autonomous systems and how should we prepare ourselves to address them? What are some of the emerging technologies that may help create better AI and Autonomous Systems? What are the areas of research and development that we haven’t yet paid enough attention to?
Today's event is an ILP Members Only Roundtable on MIT-Industry Dialogues on AI and Autonomous Systems & EECS Talent Recruiting at MIT on February 25. This roundtable includes two MIT-Industry panels with distinguished researchers and corporate executives sharing their perspectives with live audience Q&A. With talent recruiting being a key challenge for many companies in this field, we will also discuss a new initiative at MIT Electrical Engineering & Computer Science (EECS) that helps companies enhance their strategic talent recruiting at MIT.
The prior February 23 event is on Advancing Better AI and Autonomous Systems and includes presentations from MIT faculty members and MIT-connected startups from MIT Startup Exchange. Recordings will be available for viewing the same day of the event.
Dr. Sophie Vandebroek is a seasoned executive with extensive C-level experience including Chief Operating Officer at IBM Research and Chief Technology Officer at Xerox Corporation and has served on public company boards since 2008. She is an expert in the creation and application of technologies that drive growth and in the governance of inclusive and innovative global organizations. Full profile here
Most recently, Sophie was MIT’s School of Engineering Inaugural Visiting Scholar. Her last corporate position was as Chief Operating Officer of IBM Research where she was instrumental in creating the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab. Previously Sophie was Xerox’s Chief Technology Officer and led Xerox’s global laboratories, including PARC, Inc., an innovation services company.
Sophie is a member of the Board of Directors of IDEXX Laboratories, the global leader in veterinary diagnostics, and on the Supervisory Board of Wolters Kluwer, a global provider of professional information, software solutions, and services. Sophie has been a member of the advisory council of the dean of engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for the past decade. She is also a trustee at the Boston Museum of Sciences and very much enjoys her time serving as a member of the international advisory board of the Flanders AI Research Program.
Sophie is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers (IEEE). She is a frequent public speaker with keynote presentations at, among others, the IEEE International Solid State Circuit Conference and the USA Department of Energy, ARPA-e Summit. Sophie was inducted into the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame and elected into the Royal Flemish Academy for Arts & Sciences. Sophie’s passion for creating inclusive organizations where innovation thrives has earned her many awards among which is Xerox’s Inaugural Lifetime Diversity Leadership Award of Distinction.
Sophie grew up in Belgium and earned a master's degree in Engineering Magna from KU Leuven, Belgium and a Ph.D. in Engineering from Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.
Aude Oliva, PhD is the MIT director in the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab and director of strategic industry engagement in the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing, leading collaborations with industry to translate natural and artificial intelligence research into tools for the wider world. She is also a senior research scientist at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), where she heads the Computational Perception and Cognition group. Oliva has received an NSF Career Award in computational neuroscience, a Guggenheim fellowship in computer science and a Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship in cognitive neuroscience. She has served as an expert to the NSF Directorate of Computer and Information Science and Engineering on the topic of human and artificial intelligence. She is currently a member of the scientific advisory board for the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence. Her research is cross-disciplinary, spanning human perception and cognition, computer vision and cognitive neuroscience, and focuses on research questions at the intersection of all three domains. She earned a MS and PhD in cognitive science from the Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble, France.
Bilge Yildiz is a professor in the Nuclear Science and Engineering and the Materials Science and Engineering Departments at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she leads the Laboratory for Electrochemical Interfaces. She received her PhD at MIT in 2003 and her BSc from Hacettepe University in 1999. After working at Argonne National Laboratory as a research scientist, she returned to MIT as an assistant professor in 2007. Yildiz’s research focuses on laying the scientific groundwork to enable next generation electrochemical devices for energy conversion and information processing. The scientific insights derived from her research guide the design of novel materials and interfaces for efficient and durable solid oxide fuel cells, electrolytic water splitting, brain-inspired computing, and solid state batteries. Her laboratory has made significant contributions in advancing the molecular-level understanding of oxygen reduction, water splitting, ion diffusion, and charge transfer on mixed ionic-electronic conducting oxides. Her research has uncovered the effects of surface chemistry, elastic strain, dislocations, and strong electric fields on the reactivity, efficiency, and degradation in these applications. Her approach combines computational and experimental analyses of electronic structure, defect mobility and composition, using in situ scanning tunneling and X-ray spectroscopy together with first-principles calculations and novel atomistic simulations. Her teaching and research efforts have been recognized by the Argonne Pace Setter (2016), ANS Outstanding Teaching (2008), NSF CAREER (2011), IU-MRS Somiya (2012), the ECS Charles Tobias Young Investigator (2012), the ACerS Ross Coffin Purdy (2018), and the LG Chem Global Innovation Contest (2020) awards.
Tod Newman is currently the leader for Raytheon’s Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence Center of Excellence. In this role his overarching goal is to enable faster adoption and maturation of AI and ML at Raytheon Technologies. He is also the Principal Investigator for Raytheon Missile Systems’ research into advanced microelectronics and is the Chair of Raytheon’s Information Systems and Computing Technology Network. He is a member of various Science Advisory Boards, primarily focusing on cognitive processing technology research. He is a Raytheon Certified Architect and a Senior Member of IEEE.
Prior to this position, Tod served as the Raytheon Corporate Technology Area Director for Information Systems and Computing (ISaC). He also led the RMS Test Systems Department for four years. He has worked in multiple technical roles on numerous programs and proposals in his 20 years with Texas Instruments and Raytheon. In his previous career he served as an officer in the U.S. Coast Guard where he busted drug smugglers, pirates, and fishermen acting outside the law. He is a 1992 graduate from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy.
He likes to write in his free time between 10PM and 1AM and has published three books. His chief nerd hobby is applying machine learning to sports data and he has done small projects for the U of Arizona athletics department. He also has lots of Raspberry Pi’s and can always find a use for a new one.
Lauren Barozie heads the Analytics Transformation group within Liberty Mutual’s Global Risk Solutions - a leading provider of Property & Casualty Insurance, Specialty, Surety, and Reinsurance. Her team is focused on leveraging Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to incubate new ideas and drive business value. As a leader, Lauren encourages innovation with purpose and is passionate about Agile methods for Data Science teams. She joined Liberty Mutual 15 years ago, and has worked in numerous actuarial, analytics, and data science roles across both Personal and Commercial Insurance. Lauren is a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society (FCAS) and holds a degree in Quantitative Economics from Tufts University. In her free time, Lauren enjoys outdoor activities with her husband and two year old daughter.
Malcolm Mcrae heads up the AI and Advanced Analytic group at Vale, one of the world’s leading multi metal mining companies. He is an evangelist for the adoption of applied AI in the mining industry and has assembled an industry recognized team and practice in this area. Malcolm is a frequent speaker on the adoption of AI and its application in asset intensive industries. He has over 20 years of industry experience and holds degrees in Economics and Computerized Business Systems.
Lama Nachman is an Intel Fellow and Director of Human & AI Systems Lab in Intel Labs. Her research is focused on creating contextually aware experiences that understand users through sensing and sense making, anticipate their needs and act on their behalf. She leads a multi-disciplinary team of researchers that explore new user experiences, sensing systems, algorithms and applications and transfer these capabilities to biz units to impact future Intel products. Lama has 23 years of experience in the areas of context aware computing, multi-modal interactions, sensor networks, computer architecture, embedded systems and wireless technologies. Previous assignments at Intel involved researching and developing the next generation of self-organizing sensor network nodes (Intel Mote Platforms). She deployed these technologies in health applications as well as various commercial and industrial settings. Prior to joining Intel, Lama has held senior positions at Ubicom Inc, Weave Innovations and Microsoft Corporation. Lama received her MS and BS in computer engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
David Mindell is an engineer and historian. An expert in human relationships with robotics and autonomous systems, he has led or participated in more than 25 oceanographic expeditions. From 2005 to 2011 he was Director of MIT’s Program in Science, Technology, and Society. He is the author of five books and co-founder of Humatics Corporation, which develops technologies to transform how robots and autonomous systems work in human environments.
Nicholas Roy is the Bisplinghoff Professor of Aeronautics & Astronautics and a member of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has a B.Sc. in Physics and Cognitive Science an M.Sc. in Computer Science, both from McGill University. He received his Ph. D. in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon University in 2003. He has made research contributions to planning under uncertainty, machine learning, human-computer interaction and aerial robotics. He founded and led Project Wing at Google [X] from 2012-2014. He is currently the Director of Quest Systems Engineering in MIT's Quest for Intelligence.
Sertac Karaman is the director of the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems, and an associate professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT. His research areas are robotics and control theory, particularly the applications of probability theory, stochastic processes, stochastic geometry, formal methods, and optimization for the design and analysis of high-performance cyber-physical systems. The applications of this research include driverless cars, unmanned aerial vehicles, distributed aerial surveillance systems, air traffic control, and certification and verification of control systems software. Karaman received a PhD in electrical engineering and computer science and an SM in mechanical engineering from MIT and BS degrees in mechanical engineering and in computer engineering from the Istanbul Technical University.
John Tylko serves as Aurora’s Chief Innovation Officer, responsible for leading technology strategy and commercialization efforts. He oversaw Aurora’s major new program and customer acquisition efforts, enabling Aurora’s rapid growth which led to its acquisition by Boeing in 2017. He also developed the vision for Boeing’s Aerospace and Autonomy Center.
His career has been focused on the development of innovative technologies and products, spanning both the aerospace and the electronics and computer industry. He received a Bachelor of Science in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1979 and began his engineering career at General Electric where he developed the first composite structural assemblies for aircraft engines. Tylko cofounded General Computer in 1981, which developed innovative electronics and personal computer products. He also cofounded VideoGuide, which developed the first interactive television program guide.
Tylko helped start Aurora Flight Sciences with John Langford in 1989 and was a member of Aurora’s Board of Directors for nearly thirty years from 1989 to 2017. He led Aurora’s Global Hawk program, built its state of-the-art composite structures manufacturing center, and established Aurora’s aerostructures business sector. Tylko founded Aurora’s Research and Development Center in Cambridge in 2005 and was the principle architect of Aurora’s strategy for aerospace autonomy.
He has been a lecturer in MIT’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics and is a recipient of MIT’s Founders Award which recognizes innovation and entrepreneurship. Tylko was a Guggenheim Fellow at the National Air and Space Museum and is currently an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, as well as a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society. He is a Ph.D. candidate at MIT researching flight simulation technology.
Dimitris Bountolos is Civil Engineer (ICCP) from the University of Granada and a graduate of different senior management courses at Stanford, ESADE and IESE. During his career as an entrepreneur, he was a founder and partner of different startups in the space, drones and employee experience sector including Zero 2 Infinity, Guudjob, BlueSouth, and IllusionBox.
He has taken on several management positions in Iberia, including Vice President of Customer Experience, and has contributed to the transformation and development of the airline’s Hub.
In addition, he was Chief Digital Officer of Latam Airlines, senior advisor to NASA’s Chief Innovation Officer in Houston and advisor of digital transformation for the Travel, Transportation and Logistics sector at McKinsey.
Sherif Marakby was named Magna International’s Executive Vice President of Research and Development in July 2020. In this role, Sherif will manage all aspects of the company’s innovation and new product development strategy and related activities.
Marakby has been in automotive and technology industries for 30 years and comes to Magna from Ford Motor Company, where he held a variety of product development and engineering leadership positions. He has extensive experience in electrification, having led the Ford team in developing a battery electric vehicle, plug-in hybrid vehicles and hybrid electric vehicles.
Marakby also served as President and CEO of Ford Autonomous Vehicles LLC, and was on the board of directors for Argo AI, Ford’s self-driving technology partner. Additionally, he spent time with Uber as Vice President of Global Vehicle Programs, leading the integration of their autonomous software into production OEM vehicles.
Tomás Palacios is a Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California - Santa Barbara in 2006 and his undergraduate degree in Telecommunication Engineering from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (Spain). His current research focuses on demonstrating new electronic devices and applications for novel semiconductor materials such as graphene and gallium nitride. His work has been recognized with multiple awards, including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the 2012 and 2019 IEEE George Smith Award, and the NSF, ONR, and DARPA Young Faculty Awards, among many others. Prof. Palacios is the founder and director of the MIT MTL Center for Graphene Devices and 2D Systems, as well as the Chief Advisor and co-founder of Finwave Semiconductor, Inc. He is a Fellow of IEEE.