2025 Keynotes to be Announced
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2024 Keynotes
Vint Cerf, Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist, Google
BIO: Vinton G. Cerf is vice president and Chief Internet Evangelist for Google. He is the co-designer of the TCP/IP protocols and the architecture of the Internet. He has served in executive positions at ICANN, the Internet Society, MCI, the Corporation for National Research Initiatives and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. A former Stanford Professor and former member of the US National Science Board, he is also the past President of the Association for Computing Machinery and serves in advisory capacities at NIST, DOE, NSF and NASA. He earned his B.S. in mathematics at Stanford and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in computer science at Stanford. He is a member of both the US National Academies of Science and Engineering.
Cerf is a recipient of numerous awards for his work, including the US Presidential Medal of Freedom, US National Medal of Technology, the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, the Prince of Asturias Award, the Tunisian National Medal of Science, the Japan Prize, the Charles Stark Draper award, the ACM Turing Award, the Marconi Prize, the Legion d’Honneur and the Franklin Medal. He is a Foreign Member of the British Royal Society and Swedish Academy of Engineering and holds 29 honorary degrees. He is a member of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists and the Worshipful Company of Stationers.
Note: Vint Cert’s keynote will be virtual due to a schedule conflict.
Anne Cohen PhD, Tenured Scientist, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
BIO: Anne Cohen PhD, leader, and innovator of DigitalReefTM, is a tenured scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, faculty in the MIT-WHOI Joint Graduate Program in Oceanography, and author of more than 100 scientific papers on climate change and coral reef ecosystems. She served as Expert Witness to the US House of Representatives, on the Science Steering Committee for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and on NOAA’s Science Advisory Board Working Group for Ecosystem Sciences and Management. She represented the US State Department at the Our Oceans Conference in Chile, addressed the UN General Assembly in New York City, and the Polynesian Leaders Group in Funafuti, Tuvalu. Dr Cohen holds the Oliver Davies medal for outstanding scientific contributions, was named Coral Champion by the Lewis Pugh Foundation, and was featured in ECO Magazine’s Top Coral Reef Researchers. Her new initiative, Digital Reefs, utilizes Digital Twin technology to transform ocean ecosystem management and sustainability by putting intuitive, immersive, actionable data and tools into the hands of decision-makers.
TOPIC TITLE: Saving Reefs, Saving Ourselves with Ocean Digital Twins
ABSTRACT: One billion people around the world depend on coral reefs to provide food, jobs, and protection from waves, storms, and sea level rise. But our exploitation of reefs, combined with threats of global climate change, impact their ability to sustain us, fueling urgent demand for new tools that enable sustainable management of these valuable ocean ecosystems in the 21st century.
Digital Reefs is an accurate, interactive, four-dimensional digital twin of each coral reef, that provides a virtual testing ground for proposed management solutions. Decision-makers can conduct multiple what-if scenarios in the virtual reef and determine the optimal solution that balances protection of the environment with public safety concerns.
The modular design of the Digital Reefs platform facilitates the twinning of most coastal ocean habitats. Ultimately, an interconnected network of coastal ocean digital twins has potential to transform the way we interact with, and benefit from, our coastal ecosystems, and provide a blueprint for application of Digital Twin technology oceanwide.
Dr. Jonathan Pan, Chief, Disruptive Technologies Office, and Director, xCybersecurity, Enterprise Group, Home Team Science and Technology Agency (HTX), Singapore
BIO: Jonathan Pan leads the Disruptive Technologies Office of the Home Team Science and Technology Agency (HTX), Singapore. This office explores the frontiers of Science and Technologies, like Artificial Intelligence and Quantum, for homeland security application through their applied Research and Development endeavors. He also concurrently leads the cybersecurity team in HTX. Jonathan conducts his own research in Artificial Intelligence & Cyber Security. He is also an Adjunct Associate Professor with Nanyang Technological University Singapore where he teaches Cyber Security and Artificial Intelligence courses.
TOPIC TITLE: Advancing Technology for Public Safety
ABSTRACT: This keynote explores the crucial role of collaborating together to advance technology for public safety. It highlights the importance of partnerships across academia, industry and communities to drive innovation and develop solutions to deal with public safety challenges. Attendees will leave inspired to embrace collective action in our efforts to make impactful technological advancements.
May Dongmei Wang, Wallace H. Coulter Distinguished Faculty Fellow and Full Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University, USA
BIO: May Dongmei Wang is Wallace H. Coulter Distinguished Faculty Fellow and full professor of Biomedical Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Computational Science and Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology (GT) and Emory University (EU). She is the Director of Biomedical Big Data Initiative, Georgia Distinguished Cancer Scholar, Petit Institute Faculty Fellow, Kavli Fellow, AIMBE Fellow, IAMBE Fellow, IEEE Fellow, and Board of Directors of American Board of AI in Medicine.
Her research is in Biomedical Big Data with AI-Driven Intelligent Reality (IR) for predictive, personalized, and precision health (pHealth). She has 20+ years of academic professorship and ~4 years industrial research experience, published 290+ articles in referred journals and conference proceedings with 15,000+ Google Scholar citations, and delivered 280+ invited and keynote lectures. Dr. Wang received BEng from Tsinghua University China, and MS with PhD degrees from GT.
She is a recipient of GT Outstanding Faculty Mentor for Undergrad Research Award, and EU MilliPub Award (for a high-impact paper that is cited over 1,000 times). At Georgia Tech, Dr. Wang is in 2022 President LeadingWomen Program and 2021 Provost Emerging Leaders Program. She was 2018-2021 Carol Ann and David Flanagan Distinguished Faculty Fellow, and 2015-2017 GT Biomedical Informatics Program Co-Director in Atlanta Clinical and Translational Science Institute (ACTSI). Before 2016, Dr. Wang was Director of Bioinformatics and Biocomputing Core in NIH/NCI-sponsored U54 Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence, and Co-Director of GT Center of Bio-Imaging Mass Spectrometry for over 10 years.
Dr. Wang’s research has been supported by NIH, NSF, CDC, VA, Georgia Research Alliance, Georgia Cancer Coalition, Shriners’ Hospitals for Children, Children’s Health Care of Atlanta, Enduring Heart Foundation, Coulter Foundation, Imlay Foundation, Microsoft Research, HP, UCB, and Amazon.
Monica Watkins, Associate Director for Strategic Mission Integration within the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Emergency Communications Division (ECD).
BIO: Monica Watkins serves as the Associate Director for Strategic Mission Integration within the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Emergency Communications Division (ECD). In this capacity, Associate Director Watkins is responsible for oversight and management of the formulation, justification, defense, execution, and strategic alignment of ECD’s multi-million dollar budget. In addition, she leads the development and implementation of ECD’s organizational strategy. She oversees the planning, grants guidance, performance management and operations functions, and is responsible for all acquisitions that enhance the security, resiliency, and reliability of emergency communications across the Nation.
Prior to joining ECD, Associate Director Watkins served as the Acting Director for Budget, Finance and Acquisitions within the Cybersecurity and Communications Division of the National Protection and Programs Directorate. In this role, she was responsible for oversight and management of a $1.3B Budget.
In addition, she has over 30 years of experience developing and managing complex multi-million dollar budgets, acquisitions, Information Technology (IT) Capital planning processes and programs within the Department of Navy, Department of Treasury, Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security.
Mrs. Watkins holds a Bachelor of Science in Applied Mathematics from Norfolk State University and a Master of Administrative Management (Concentration – Public Administration) from Bowie State University. She is also a financial and active member of the Prince William County (VA) Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated since April 2005.
TOPIC TITLE: Overview of Emergency Communications Division (ECD), Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)
ABSTRACT: Monica Watkins, Associate Director for Strategic Mission Integration, Emergency Communications Division (ECD), Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) presentation will include an overview of ECD and its mission to collaborate with partners to enhance emergency preparedness and response efforts around the globe.
Additionally, Ms. Watkins will present information on the current emergency communications ecosystem, provide a list of threats to communications, share insight on the National Emergency Communications Plan, and offer tools to enhance our emergency preparedness and communications capabilities.