White Paper Phase Judging Panel
Dr. Tony Tether
White Paper Phase Judging Panel
Dr. Anthony J. Tether is a former Director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), having served the agency from 2001 to his retirement in 2009. He was responsible for the management of the agency’s projects for high-payoff, innovative research and development.
He is on several advisory and corporate boards and is a Distinguished Fellow with the Council on Competitiveness located in Washington, D.C.
In 2009, Dr. Tether re-formed The Sequoia Group (TSG), which he founded in 1996 to serve government and industrial clients.
From 1996 to 2001, he held the position of Chief Executive Officer and President of the group. From 1994 to 1996, he served as Chief Executive Officer for Dynamics Technology Inc. From 1992 to 1994, he was Vice President of Science Applications International Corporation's (SAIC) Advanced Technology Sector, and then Vice President and General Manager for Range Systems at SAIC. Prior to this, he spent six years as Vice President for Technology and Advanced Development at Ford Aerospace Corp., acquired by Loral Corporation during that period.
He has also held positions in the U.S. Department of Defense, serving as Director of DARPA’s Strategic Technology Office from 1982 to 1986, and as Director National Intelligence in the Office of the Secretary of Defense from 1978 to 1982. He served as Vice President of Systems Control Inc., a company he helped start after receiving his Ph. D., where he applied stochastic estimation and control theory to military and commercial problems with concentration on the development of algorithms to perform real-time resource allocation and control.
Dr. Tether has served on Army, Navy and Defense Science Boards, and on the Office of National Drug Control Policy Research and Development Committee. He is a Life Fellow for leadership in the advancement of commercial and defense technologies at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and is listed in several Who’s Who publications.
In 1986, the Director Central Intelligence Bill Casey honored him with the National Intelligence Medal and Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger with the Department of Defense Civilian Meritorious Service Medal respectively. In 2009, the US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates honored him with the Department of Defense Outstanding Public Service Medal. In 2013, he was honored by AIAA with the Aerospace Communications Award.
Dr. Tether received a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and Master of Science and Ph. D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.
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H.E. Faisal Al Bannai
White Paper Phase Judging Panel
His Excellency Faisal Al Bannai is Secretary General of the Advanced Technology Research Council that was established to shape Abu Dhabi into a world-leading research hub and desired location for global advanced technology talent.Leveraging high-impact R&D in the advanced technology domain, Al Bannai plays an instrumental role in building Abu Dhabi and the UAE’s knowledge economy and in reinforcing its position as a research and development hub and one of the next global leaders in breakthrough technologies.
He is a member of the Emirates Research and Development Council headed by His Highness Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, that was constituted in September 2021 to accelerate R & D efforts in the country.
Al Bannai is also CEO and Managing Director of EDGE, an advanced technology group for defense and beyond. In addition, he is a Member of the Board of Trustees for Khalifa University of Science and Technology, a world-class research institution that nurtures critical thinkers in applied science and engineering, as well as a Member of the Council of the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU), the nation’s flagship university which aspires to be a research-intensive institution.
Earlier in his career, Al Bannai founded DarkMatter, a global cyber security service provider, which he expanded into a US$400 million business. Prior to this, he founded Axiom Telecom, the largest distributor of mobile devices in the Middle East, with an annual turnover of US$2.5 billion.
He has received several accolades, the most notable being the 2005 Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. Al Bannai was also recognized as the Technology Business Leader of the Year at the Gulf Business Awards (2017). He joined the Arabian Business’s 100 Inspiring Leaders in the Middle East ranking (2018) as well as the elite Gulf Business Arab Power List (2018, 2019). Most recently, he ranked number 20 on Forbes’s Top CEOs in the Middle East 2021 list and was also cited in the Arabian Business’s Arab Power List for 2021.
Al Bannai holds a bachelor’s degree in Finance from Boston University in the US and a master’s degree in Shipping Trade and Finance from City University in the UK.
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Dr. Allan Steinhardt
White Paper Phase Judging Panel
Dr. Allan Steinhardt is Chief Scientist at AEye, Inc., a premier provider of intelligent, next-generation adaptive LiDAR for vehicle autonomy, advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), and robotic vision applications. He develops innovative solutions for passive and active optical sensing for robotics.
An IEEE (the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers)fellow and expert on radar, missile defense and sensor-based surveillance, he served as chief scientist for DARPA and Booz Allen; a radar project lead at MIT Lincoln Laboratory; and director of signal processing for the defense industry at BAE/Alphatech.
Dr. Steinhardt was also an assistant professor in Electrical Engineering and Applied Mathematics at Cornell University, where he performed funded research on sensor arrays and optimal detection.
He is a former member of the National Academy of Sciences Naval Studies Board, and recipient of the US Defense Medal for Exceptional Public Service. He has 32 patents under his belt, with 50 more pending.
He has co-authored a book on adaptive radar and published more than 200 articles in academic and defense strategy journals, exploring various areas of space-, land- and naval-based electronic warfare, sensor, and radar systems.
He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics, and graduate degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Colorado.
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Dr. Cesare Stefanini
White Paper Phase Judging Panel
Cesare Stefanini is a Full Professor at the BioRobotics Institute of Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna of Pisa, Italy, with the role of Area Leader in Creative Engineering Design. He also served as the Director of the Healthcare Engineering Innovation Center at Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi. His core expertise lies in the design and development of bio-robotic systems, often connecting creativity and engineering.
He has published more than 80 articles in high-impact scientific journals. A visiting researcher at Stanford University, he is the recipient of the Intuitive Surgical Inc. Research Grant. He has collaborated with multinational and international companies and holds many patents.
Dr. Stefanini is currently the PI of four research projects, including two international projects on underwater swarm robotics. He is scientific advisor to Medical Micro-instruments SpA, a leading company in the field of robotic surgery; member of the IEEE Societies RAS (Robotics and Automation), EMBS (Engineering in Medicine and Biology) and PES (Power and Energy); and recipient of the Intuitive Surgical Research Award. He received his Ph. D. in Micro Engineering from Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna.
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Dr. Eric Krotkov
White Paper Phase Judging Panel
Dr. Eric Krotkov is Chief Science Officer at Toyota Research Institute (TRI), where he directs the university research program partnering with academic research labs, leads the Opportunity Discovery and Technology Adoption program to identify areas of research important to Toyota and to promote the use of TRI technology by Toyota.
Before joining TRI, Dr. Krotkov served as a program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), where he created the Tactical Mobile Robotics Program. Thereafter, he worked for the agency as a consultant for 15 years.
Earlier in his career, Dr. Krotkov served as Vice President for Software at Cytometrics, a medical imaging technology startup, and worked as a faculty member of the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, where he researched computer vision, machine perception and mobile robotics, with a focus on planetary rovers.
Dr. Krotkov received a Ph. D. degree in Computer and Information Science from the University of Pennsylvania.
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Dr. Francesco La Gala
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Dr Francesco La Gala is the founder of a company called Spinitalia SRL, which is located in Rome, Italy. The company develops custom devices and has a product portfolio. Over the past three years, it has been contracted by the Italian army for driverless vehicle applications.
Since 2003, he has been working as Associate Professor at the University of Rome and Sapienza University, teaching Digital control (2003-2005), Automatic Control (2003-2010), Measure for control systems (2008-2013), and Applied Technology of control systems. (2013-2021).
In 2000, became a researcher at CNR-INM (National Council of Research) where he served as director of the experimental setup department from 2005 to 2010.
His fields of interest include electronic robotics, mechanical design, computer science, measurement sensors and fluid dynamics and collaborates with companies such as Siemens, Airbus, Thales Italia, Leonardo Finmeccanica, FFI, SSPA, Wdt71, Wass, FOI, as well as the Italian military research department.
Dr La Gala received a master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Ph. D. in Applied Mechanic (Mechatronic) from the Department of Automatic Control, University La Sapienza, Italy, in 1994 and 1998, respectively.
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Dr. Robert Hummel
White Paper Phase Judging Panel
Robert Hummel is Chief Scientist at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, an independent science and technology policy research institute in the United States. In his role, he directs studies for government clients, oversees S&T aspects of the institute, and ensures the studies, reports and publications of the institute reflect the highest standards in science, technology and policy.
He is also member of the Center for Revolution Scientific Thought (CReST), Potomac Institute's futures group, which harbors individuals from a variety of backgrounds to ensure a complete outlook on the futures of science and technology from an academic and policy perspective.
Earlier, Dr. Hummel served the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) as a program manager for nearly nine years, managing and initiating projects in information exploitation, computer science and sensor design.
In 2005, he received the DARPA Director’s Award. The following year, he joined the consulting firm of Booz Allen Hamilton as a Principal, where he worked with groups serving the Intelligence Community (IARPA), as well as with the commercial arm of the firm (which became Booz and Co.).
He is a co-founder of the U.S. Technology Leadership Council, a nonprofit industry association.
Dr. Hummel’s doctorate is in Mathematics, but his academic career spans various aspects of computer science, engineering, and mathematics, especially in the computer vision subfield of artificial intelligence. He was a faculty member at New York University’s Courant Institute for Mathematical Sciences from 1980 to 1997. He served as Director of the master’s program in computer science and developed and started a master’s program in Information Systems.
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