Keynotes

Information on Keynotes for 2018 coming soon!

See 2017 Keynote information below.

Ram D. Sriram
Chief, Software and Systems Division
Information Technology Laboratory
National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899


Ram D. Sriram is currently the chief of the Software and Systems Division, Information Technology Laboratory, at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Before joining the Software and Systems Division, Sriram was the leader of the Design and Process group in the Manufacturing Systems Integration Division, Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory, where he conducted research on standards for interoperability of computer-aided design systems. Prior to joining NIST, he was on the engineering faculty (1986-1994) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and was instrumental in setting up the Intelligent Engineering Systems Laboratory. Sriram has co-authored or authored more than 250 publications, including several books. Sriram was a founding co-editor of the International Journal for AI in Engineering. Sriram received several awards including: an NSF's Presidential Young Investigator Award (1989); ASME Design Automation Award (2011); ASME CIE Distinguished Service Award (2014); the Washington Academy of Sciences' Distinguished Career in Engineering Sciences Award (2015); ASME CIE division's Lifetime Achievement Award (2016). Sriram is a Fellow of ASME, AAAS, IEEE and Washington Academy of Sciences, a member (life) of ACM and AAAI. Sriram has a B.Tech. from IIT, Madras, India, and an M.S. and a Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA.



Mr. James J. Thompson
Director, Major Program Support
Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Systems Engineering


Mr. James Thompson serves as the Director, Major Program Support (MPS) within the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Systems Engineering. In this capacity, Mr. Thompson leads program systems engineering planning and execution for major defense and software-intensive systems. MPS specialties include Systems Engineering Plan development, Program Support Reviews, and Systemic Root Cause Analysis.

A member of the Senior Executive Service, Mr. Thompson has more than 25 years of experience in the Department of Defense. Before assuming his current position, he served in the Systems and Software Engineering (SSE) Directorate as Program Support Team Lead for Fixed Wing Aircraft, Air Launched Weapons, and Space Programs. Before joining SSE, Mr. Thompson served in the Office of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Industrial Policy, where he was responsible for precision tactical and strategic weapons. In this role, he assessed manufacturing, industrial base capability, and defense mergers and acquisitions. During his tenure, the production of precision-guided munitions increased significantly in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. He also has worked in the Office of Secretary of Defense/Strategic and Tactical Warfare (Air Warfare), addressing aircraft, Cost as an Independent Variable policy, and international cooperation.



Dr. Barry Boehm

Dr. Barry Boehm is the TRW Professor in the USC Computer Sciences, Industrial and Systems Engineering, and Astronautics Departments. He is also the Director of Research of the DoD-Stevens-USC Systems Engineering Research Center, and the founding Director of the USC Center for Systems and Software Engineering. He was director of DARPA-ISTO 1989-92, at TRW 1973-89, at Rand Corporation 1959-73, and at General Dynamics 1955-59. His contributions include the COCOMO family of cost models and the Spiral family of process models. He is a Fellow of the primary professional societies in computing (ACM), aerospace (AIAA), electronics (IEEE), and systems engineering (INCOSE), and a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering.







Anita Carleton
Deputy Director, Software Solutions Division


Anita Carleton has more than 25 years of experience in the software engineering industry providing leadership for the research, development, and transition of methods and technologies that encapsulate best practices for software engineering, management, and measurement. During her tenure at the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) at Carnegie Mellon University, she has held several technical and senior leadership roles. She is currently the Deputy Director of the Software Solutions Division where she is responsible for devising and transitioning solutions to the challenges of developing, acquiring, and sustaining software-reliant systems for the Department of Defense (DoD), the defense industrial base, and commercial industry. Prior to that position, she served as the Director of the SEI Software Engineering Process Management Program, where she managed the SEI's software development and measurement initiatives, which included the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI); the Team Software Process (TSP), a software engineering method designed to yield high quality software and high performance teams; and the applications of measurement and analysis techniques. Carleton received her undergraduate degree in Applied Mathematics from Carnegie Mellon University. She is currently pursuing an Executive MBA at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management. She serves on the IEEE Software Advisory Board and is a Senior Member of the IEEE Computer Society. She has received recognition for her leadership in software measurement, and for her leadership in defining a core set of measures and measurement definition frameworks for collecting well-understood and consistent software data throughout the DoD. Carleton has also co-authored the book Measuring the Software Process: Statistical Process Control for Software Process Improvement published by Addison Wesley.






Brigadier General (ret) Gregory J. Touhill

Greg Touhill, President of the Cyxtera Federal Group, is one of the nation's premier cybersecurity and information technology senior executives. A highly experienced leader of large, complex, diverse, and global cybersecurity and information technology operations, Greg was selected by President Obama as the US government's first Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). His other civilian government service includes duties as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Cybersecurity and Communications in the US Department of Homeland Security and as Director of the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center where he led national programs to protect the United States and its critical infrastructure. Greg is a retired Air Force general officer, a highly-decorated combat leader, an accomplished author and public speaker, a former American diplomat, and a senior executive with documented high levels of success on the battlefield and in the boardroom.







Kirk Botula, CEO of CMMI Institute

Kirk Botula is the CEO of the CMMI® Institute, the home of the globally-adopted capability improvement framework that guides organizations in high-performance operations. Botula is a global growth company executive whose career has been focused on advancing the common good through the commercialization of technology. Prior to CMMI Institute, Botula served as President of Confluence, a global financial technology firm with operations in North America, EMEA and Asia. During his tenure, Confluence became the leading provider in its space achieving market share exceeding 70% in North America and 20% globally, while delivering the industry leading NPS of 40. Botula also served at BNY Mellon, Compunetix, and as a strategist to a variety of non-profit and for-profit organizations. He has a BFA and MSIA from Carnegie Mellon University and lives in Pittsburgh with his wife and three daughters.





Jeffrey Voas

Jeffrey Voas is an author and innovator. He is a computer scientist at the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, MD. Before joining NIST, Voas was an entrepreneur and co-founded Cigital that is now part of Synopsys (Nasdaq: SNPS). He has served as the IEEE Reliability Society President (2003-2005, 2009-2010, 2017), and served as an IEEE Director (2011-2012). Voas co-authored two John Wiley books (Software Assessment: Reliability, Safety, and Testability [1995] and Software Fault Injection: Inoculating Software Against Errors [1998], is on the editorial board of IEEE Computer Magazine, and was on the Editorial Advisory Board of IEEE Spectrum Magazine. Voas received his undergraduate degree in computer engineering from Tulane University (1985), and received his M.S. and Ph.D. in computer science from the College of William and Mary (1986, 1990 respectively). Voas is a Fellow of the IEEE, Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), and Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Voas's current research interests include Internet of Things (IoT) and BlockChain. Voas received the Gold Medal from the US Department of Commerce in 2014 for his work on smartphones in warfare.



Dr. Barry Horowitz

Dr. Horowitz joined the University of Virginia's faculty as a Professor in the Systems and Information Engineering Department in September 2001, after an industrial career involving the application of systems engineering to many large and complex systems. He assumed the role of Department Chair in 2009. Since joining the University he has focused his research efforts on economic models and system technologies related to cyber security. He is the UVa research site director for the National Science Foundation sponsored Industry/University Cooperative Research Center called WICAT (Wireless Internet Center for Advanced Technology). He currently is leading a DoD sponsored research effort focused on embedding security solutions into systems, referred to as System Aware Cyber Security. From 1969 through 1996 he was employed in a variety of positions at the Mitre Corporation, including the last five years as President and CEO and the three prior years as Executive Vice President and COO. Early in his career at Mitre he led an FAA-sponsored research activity that developed a prototype airborne collision avoidance system which served as the basis for what became the currently employed international system for commercial aircraft collision avoidance, TCAS. During Desert Storm he conceived of and led the integration efforts for a system for tracking and destroying SCUD missile carriers, involving the use of Joint Stars and other sensors integrated into the then existing command and control structure for controlling fighter aircraft. He received the Air Force's highest award for a civilian as a result of this effort. He also was awarded the Gold Medal for Engineering in 1990 from the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association for his efforts in leading major large scale systems integration activities.

As a result of his efforts, in 1996 Dr Horowitz was elected into the National Academy of Engineering. He is also a member of the Tau Beta Pi and Eta Kappa Nu honor societies.

Dr. Horowitz serves as a member of the Naval Studies Board (NSB) of the National Academy of Science and recently led a Chief of Naval Operations sponsored study for the NSB on cyber security. He also serves as a member of General Electric's Academic Software Advisory Panel and is a member of the Cyber Security Advisory Board for the Virginia Joint Commission on Science and Technology (JCOTS).

Dr, Horowitz received an MSEE and PhD from New York University in 1967 and 1969 respectively, and a BEE from the City College of New York in 1965.



2017 Sponsors: IEEE and IEEE Computer Society