Neches Overview CV, June 2012
- 1. Robert T. Neches Office Personal Office, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense - Systems Engineering 4712 Admiralty Way, #283 3040 Defense Pentagon, Room 3C160 Marina del Rey, CA 90292 Washington, DC 20301 310 722-8818 571-256-7031 RNeches@earthlink.net Robert.Neches@osd.mil PROFILE Technical manager, research scientist and program manager. Strong experience across basic and applied information technology research and development, from point solutions to integrated systems and concepts of operation. Academic standing for many years among the most frequently cited authors in computer science, with publications in cognitive modeling, software engineering, data and knowledge management, human- computer interaction, collaborative work, and decision support systems. Strengths: big picture thinking; eclectic mindset; ability to identify creative uses of organizational technology assets to go from problem to solution via envelope-pushing approaches; emphasis on collaboration and team building; record of producing ahead of expectations. EXPERIENCE 1/11 - present Department of Defense, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (ASDR&E) - Washington, DC (salary $199,861) Director of Advanced Engineering Responsible for DoD-wide planning and coordination of all science and technology programs bearing on conceptualization, design, production and testing of complex cyber-electro-mechanical systems, including FY13-22 definition and planning for Engineered Resilient Systems, designated by the Secretary of Defense as a top science and technology priority, worth approximately $450M/yr over 60 programs. Responsible for program planning for approximately $110M in funds in FY13-17 Presidential Budget plans directly administered through ASDR&E. 7/97-12/2010 USC Information Sciences Institute – Marina del Rey, CA Director of Collaborative Systems and Research Associate Professor (from 6/2010) Computational Systems and Technology Division (salary $199,861) Special assignment to develop new directions and new business in decision support, forensic computer security, and computational social science Director and Research Associate Professor (6/2000 - 5/2010) Distributed Scalable Systems Division (salary $199,861) Recruited, trained and managed researchers in planning and scheduling, decision support, extremely large-scale information management, and cybersecurity; continuously maintained funding between $2-4M/yr and a group size of 14-20 Defined novel concepts of operation for technology applications in military operations, maintenance and logistics, intelligence, education, and healthcare Ran a research and development effort on planning and scheduling technology which went from research proposal to fielded prototype aircraft operations and maintenance system (i.e., from Technology Readiness Level 1 to Technology Readiness Level 6) in under five years, producing a spin-off company, a positive Neches Overview 1 of 5
- 2. Military Utility Assessment from the US Marine Corps, and technology transitions to the USMC and the Joint Strike Fighter Program. Established award-winning coordinated multi-agent planning efforts which outperformed conventional technologies by margins of 60-80% in over 97% of test cases independently defined and evaluated by DARPA Senior Project Leader for Distributed Collaborative Enterprises / Research Associate Professor (7/97 - 9/2000) Enterprise Integration Systems Division Wrote the founding charter for the Division At request of DARPA, led GeoWorlds, a consortial effort of the top ten projects of the DARPA/NASA/NSF Digital Libraries Initiative, producing one of world's first integrations of Geospatial Information Systems and the World Wide Web 1994-1997 Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency – Arlington, VA Program Manager Handled program definition, technical/financial plans, project selection and management Managed DARPA's Planning & Decision Aids program, refocusing it toward plan repair/adaptation and collaborative planning. Initiated technology transfer to USTRANSCOM. Selected and funded new efforts worth over $24M. Co-developed DARPA's Advanced Logistics Program on concurrent control of military operations and logistical support, leading program definition of technology and demonstrations in supply, procurement, and electronic commerce. Architected concept of plan sentinels, an early warning system for plan breakdowns. Selected and guided contracts valued over $50M. Advised the Defense Logistics Agency on creating its first R&D program, valued at $40M, and negotiated and managed its coordination with DARPA investments Managed elements of the Human-Computer Interaction, Agile Manufacturing, and Intelligent Integration of Information programs, valued over $25M. Moved all three programs toward focus on network information access and composing separate research results into a comprehensive system. 1982-1994 USC Information Sciences Institute – Marina del Rey, CA Project Leader / Research Assistant & Associate Professor (7/86 - 6/94) Intelligent Systems Division Established the 8-person INtegrated User-Support Environments (IN-USE) research group on individual and collaborative information management systems, emphasizing reusable component technology. Efforts included basic work on knowledge-based systems, intelligent interfaces and collaboration, as well as applied work on intelligent logistics and electronic commerce. Maintained a funding stream between $1-2M/year throughout this period. Wrote winning proposals obtaining approximately $5M of funding for e- commerce work performed in a separate USC ISI division, enabling founding of the second operating e-commerce service in the country (FASTXchange), which won awards for support of Operation Desert Storm and is now among the oldest e-commerce businesses still in operation. Led the ARPA Knowledge Sharing Effort, a consortium of over 20 academic, industrial and government R&D centers on tools and protocols for sharing and reuse of knowledge-based systems. A strong example of high funding leverage, with a budget less than $200K/year over three years, the effort's reports on Neches Overview 2 of 5
- 3. knowledge representation languages, reusable ontologies, and agent communication languages have since been cited in over 500 academic papers. Research Computer Scientist, Software Engineering (8/82 - 6/86) Researched, developed and demonstrated a paradigm for maintainable expert systems capable of explaining their reasoning steps. Developed and published some of the earliest work in the field on friendly, object-oriented computing OSs, tested via adoption and operational use of advanced email and collaboration aids by ISI's software engineering staff. 1/81 - 8/82 University of Pittsburgh Learning Research & Development Center – Pittsburgh, PA Post-Doctoral Research Fellow Developed cognitive simulations, machine learning programs and programming architectures for cognitive modeling (since validated and still recognized today). EDUCATION Ph.D. Carnegie-Mellon University, 1981 Cognitive Psychology (Thesis Title: Models of Heuristic Procedure Modification) M.S. Carnegie-Mellon University, 1977 Cognitive Psychology B.A. UC San Diego, 1976 Independent Studies in Artificial Intelligence and Education Technologies (very possibly the first Bachelor's diploma in the country in Artificial Intelligence. Bachelor's Thesis Title: Intelligent Educational Dialogue Systems) PUBLICATIONS Over 90 refereed journal, book chapter and conference publications; one edited book. Publications span psychology, computer science, healthcare, education and logistics. Among the top 1% of most frequently cited authors in Computer Science, based on data from inception to 2010 in the CiteSeerX index of computer science literature. 18 additional technical reports, on subjects ranging from policy recommendations produced at the request of DARPA for the Federal E-Commerce Task Force, to descriptions of advanced logistics technology utilized by the GAO in evaluating efficiency in military logistics, to study group recommendations leading to founding of DARPA research programs. RECENT SERVICE ACTIVITIES Informatics Director, (9/2007-ongoing) Pediatric Disaster Research and Training Center, Childrens Hospital Los Angeles Defined strategy underlying the Center, initially funded at $5M by DHHS (see www3.isi.edu/div2-ppt-systems_social_resilience_healthy_communities.ppt) Combined over $800K in PDRTC and Los Angeles County Department of Health Services funding to build the Pediatric Emergency Decision Support System (PEDSS), a tool combining geospatial, demographic, epidemiological Neches Overview 3 of 5
- 4. and clinical knowledge for preparation and rapid decisionmaking known as, "TurboTax for disaster planning." (http://think-fast-decisions.blogspot.com) Participation in National Level Studies Lead Coordinator for Defense Department -wide Science and Technology Priority planning studies on Engineered Resilient Systems (2011) Contributor, Defense Department -wide Science and Technology Priority Area planning studies on Counter Weapons of Mass Destruction (2011) Reviewer, CDC National Committee Report on Emergency Mass Critical Care in Pediatrics (2010) Participant, National Academy of Science Institute of Medicine Workshop on Regionalized Medical Care (2010) Committee member and co-author, National Academy of Science Computer Science and Technology Board study on Improving Disaster Management: The Role of IT in Mitigation, Preparedness, Response, and Recovery (2007) Institutional Level Activities Chair, University of Southern California Information Sciences Institute Undergraduate and Masters Student Intern Mentorship Committee University of Southern California Information Sciences Institute Representative to the World-Wide Web Consortium Advisory Group MEMBERSHIPS International Council of Systems Engineers (INCOSE) National Defense Industrial Association Association for Computing Machinery (ACM): Special Interest Group on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction Special Interest Group on Mobile Computing TECHNICAL INTERESTS Information Technology: Distributed software systems engineering, information management, human-computer interaction, computer-supported cooperative work, resource management, decision-making and decision support. Technology and policy: Enablers for cost-effective and efficient delivery of services, resilience of social, physical and technological systems. Government and civilian applications of command, control, computing, communications and intelligence: New concepts of operation utilizing information technology to enhance effective situation assessment and decision making, applied in both traditional operational settings (military operations, national intelligence, homeland security) and non-traditional operational settings (design, systems engineering, manufacturing, healthcare, enterprise management). OTHER PERTINENT INFORMATION Neches Overview 4 of 5
- 5. Native-born U.S. Citizen Clearance level: TS SCI, with multiple compartment clearances References available upon request Neches Overview 5 of 5