Dr. James (“Jim”) C. Spohrer is Director of Cognitive OpenTech, including open source artificial intelligence. He also serves as Director of IBM Global University Programs and IBM’s Cognitive Systems Institute Group. He co-founded IBM’s first Service Research group, ISSIP Service Science community, and was founding CTO of IBM’s Venture Capital Relations Group in Silicon Valley. In the 1990’s, he was awarded Apple Computers’ Distinguished Engineer Scientist and Technology title for his work on next- generation learning platforms. Spohrer holds a doctorate in Computer Science/Artificial Intelligence from Yale University and has taught at the University of Rome “La Sapienza”, among other European universities. His current team and system building focus is T-shaped innovators working to rebuild rapidly from scratch digital cognitive systems for smarter/wiser service systems.

Roger Smith is a Senior Scientist with Soar Technology, which provides AI solutions in national security for customers that include DARPA, Defense Health Agency, and the US Army. He previously served as Chief Technology Officer for the Florida Hospital Nicholson Center where he was responsible for establishing the technology strategy and leading research experiments in robotic surgery, telesurgery, simulation-based education, and telehealth. For many years, he taught robotic surgery skills with the da Vinci surgical robot to 4th year medical students at the University of Central Florida. Dr. Smith has published 3 professional textbooks on simulation and recently published A CTO Thinks About Innovation.

Erick Galinkin is a hacker and scientist specializing in the theory of machine learning and the application of artificial intelligence to cybersecurity problems. As the Principal AI Researcher at Rapid7, he works to find applications for and vulnerabilities in artificial intelligence systems. He is also a researcher at the Montreal AI Ethics Institute focused on applying DevOps principles to the security and ethics of machine learning systems. Dr. Galinkin has taught on cybersecurity topics for both private organizations and the University of California – Berkeley. He heads the Community Engagement arm of the COVID-19 Cyber Threat Coalition.

Raluca Crisan is the CEO and co-founder of ETIQ, Inc., an organization that builds software solutions to help identify and mitigate algorithmic bias. Educated at University of York, University of Oxford, and Amherst College, Crisan has deep experience in data science and analytics. She also co-founded Beagli Data Science, served as Director of Data Science at Merkle-Aquila, and created the British Gas Nectar insight roadmap for British Gas & Sainsbury’s as part of her work at Aimia Inc. Crisan’s work on bias in AI algorithms, a concerning emergent problem in AI, informs EXPLO’s content development in this area.

Vasudha Shivamoggi is a Senior Data Scientist at Rapid7, a cybersecurity company headquartered in Boston. She develops predictive models to better understand the nature of security threats and vulnerabilities, and works on automated ways to make cyberattacks easier to catch. Prior to this, Dr. Shivamoggi worked in retail analytics and quantum computing research. She holds a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of California-Berkeley and attended MIT as an undergraduate. Her postdoctoral work at the University of Illinois focused on condensed matter theory.

David S. Touretzky is a Research Professor in the Computer Science Department and the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition Carnegie Mellon University. He is the founder and chair of the AI for K-12 Initiative, an NSF-funded project that is developing national guidelines for teaching AI in K-12. His particular research interests include AI, cognitive robotics, computer science education, and computational neuroscience. One of his current projects is Calypso, an intelligent robot programming framework for the Cozmo robot, with real computer vision, speech recognition, and AI.

Khashayar Rafat Zand teaches Radiology at UMass Medica and the Staff Radiologist at McGill University Health Centre and Lakeshore General Hospital. Dr. Rafat Zand is the former Director of Body MRI at UMass Memorial Medical Center, with fellowship training in abdominal imaging and body MRI and academic thoracic imaging experience. He uses AI-aided image reading in his work. He has held fellowships and scholar residencies at Harvard Medical School, McGill University, and Stanford University. Dr. Rafat Zand is an MRI enthusiast with particular interest and experience in MRI physics teaching, including multi-tiered MRI protocols and point-of-care MRI, technical innovations, and a “flipped classroom” for medical education. He is a current member of national and international radiology society committees.