Aaron Drysdale, a Master of Computer Science graduate from Georgia Tech, is the Chief Technologist at the Cloud Hub. He manages the proposal process for research grants, organizes industry training sessions, and provides direct technical support to research teams utilizing cloud resources. Aaron's role also involves collaborating with Microsoft’s technical teams to resolve complex issues, ensuring seamless and efficient research progress. His expertise and proactive approach are vital to the success of the Cloud Hub's mission to advance innovative research.

Wei Xu is an associate professor in the School of Interactive Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Xu received her Ph.D. in Computer Science from New York University, and her B.S. and M.S. from Tsinghua University. Her research interests are in natural language processing, machine learning, and social media. Her recent work focuses on text generation, stylistics, information extraction, robustness and controllability of machine learning models, and reading and writing assistive technology. She is a recipient of the NSF CAREER Award, CrowdFlower AI for Everyone Award, Criteo Faculty Research Award, and Best Paper Award at COLING'18. She has also received funds from DARPA and IARPA and is part of the Machine Learning Center and NSF AI CARING Institute at Georgia Tech.

Larry P. Heck is a Professor with a joint appointment in the Schools of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Interactive Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He holds the Rhesa S. Farmer Distinguished Chair of Advanced Computing Concepts and is a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar. His received the BSEE from Texas Tech University (1986), and MSEE and PhD EE from the Georgia Institute of Technology (1989,1991). He is a Fellow of the IEEE, inducted into the Academy of Distinguished Engineering Alumni at Georgia Tech and received the Distinguished Engineer Award from the Texas Tech University. He was a Senior Research Engineer with SRI (1992-98), VP of R&D at Nuance (1998-2005), VP of Search and Advertising Sciences at Yahoo! (2005-2009), Chief Scientist of the Microsoft Speech products and Distinguished Engineer in Microsoft Research (2009-2014), Principal Scientist with Google Research (2014-2017), CEO of Viv Labs and SVP at Samsung (2017-2021).

Jason Borenstein, Ph.D., is the Director of Graduate Research Ethics Programs and Associate Director of the Center for Ethics and Technology. His appointment is divided between the School of Public Policy and the Office of Graduate Studies. He is also Affiliated Faculty at the Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Machines (IRIM). Dr. Borenstein is an associate editor of the journal Science and Engineering Ethics, a Founding Editor of the journal AI and Ethics, co-editor of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy’s Ethics and Information Technology section, and an editorial board member of the journal Accountability in Research. He is also Editor for Research Ethics for the National Academy of Engineering's Online Ethics Center for Engineering and Science. He was the Founder and formerly Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Philosophy, Science & Law. Dr. Borenstein’s research interests include bioethics, engineering ethics, robot ethics, and research ethics.

He is currently a Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI) on a five-year project funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) entitled "Institutional Transformation: The Role of Service Learning and Community Engagement on the Ethical Development of STEM Students and Campus Culture". He is a Co-PI on the NSF-funded “Fairness, Ethics, Accountability, and Transparency (FEAT) in Computer and Information Science and Engineering Workshop” that took place August 29 and 30, 2019 on Georgia Tech's campus. He is also a Co-PI on the NSF-funded project “Do the Right Thing: Competing Ethical Frameworks Mediated by Moral Emotions in Human-robot Interaction" and on the NSF-funded project "EAGER: Pilot Study on Bias and Trust in AI Systems". In addition, he is a Co-PI on the Mozilla Responsible Computer Science Challenge funded project “Cultivating an Ethics-Inclusive Mindset Through Role Play in Undergraduate Computer Science Courses”. His work has appeared in numerous professional journals including AI & Society, Communications of the ACM, Science and Engineering Ethics, Ethics and Information Technology, IEEE Transactions on Technology and Society, IEEE Technology & Society Magazine, Accountability in Research, and the Columbia Science and Technology Law Review.

Dr. Borenstein’s teaching and research interests include robot & artificial intelligence ethics, engineering ethics, research ethics/RCR, and bioethics.

Christopher J. MacLellan is an Assistant Professor in the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Institute of Technology, where he leads the Teachable AI Lab (TAIL; https://tail.cc.gatech.edu). His work on cognitive systems aims to advance our understanding of how people teach and learn and to build AI systems that can teach and learn like people do and in ways that are compatible with people. He explores the development of computational models of learning and how these models can support the development of AI technologies, such as intelligent tutoring systems and medical decision support systems, at scale.

He also investigates how data collected about how people learn and make decisions can be leveraged to drive the development of better cognitive models and computational learning systems. Chris has been a principal investigator on multiple sponsored project awards with DARPA, the U.S. Army, ONR, and NSF. He has also received external recognition for his work, such as the 2022 EAAI Now and Future AI Educator award as well as being named on the 2021 Technical.ly RealLIST of technologists building Philadelphia’s future.  

Prior to his position at Georgia Tech, Chris was an Assistant Professor of Information Science and Computer Science (by co-appointment) at Drexel University. Before that, he completed his PhD in Human-Computer Interaction at Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computing, where he was a fellow in the Program for Interdisciplinary Education Research (PIER).

The products of his work have immediate implications for AI-powered technology development. For example, through his work with the NSF-funded AI ALOE Institute, Chris is developing tools that let teachers build AI-powered tutors by naturally teaching an AI agent rather than programming. His work also has many broader implications, such as enabling doctors to support the development of AI-powered diagnoses tools where few training examples are available (DARPA-funded POCUS project) and for creating personal assistant agents that can engage in collaborative learning to support more effective human-machine teaming (ARL-funded STRONG project).

Research Areas: 

Artificial Intelligence; Cognitive Systems; Cognitive and Learning Sciences; Human-Computer Interaction; Learning Technology.

Anne Sullivan is an Assistant Professor in Digital Media and head of the StoryCraft Lab at Georgia Tech.

She received her PhD in Computer Science from University of California, Santa Cruz, where she created an artificial intelligence framework to support playable stories - stories that adapted and changed based on player choice. Before returning to school for her PhD, she was a game developer and designer with experience at AAA studios and as an independent developer.

Her research focuses on playful and storied interactive experiences from a feminist and humanistic perspective, with an emphasis on human-centered artificial intelligence (AI). To that end, Dr. Sullivan has established herself in the fields of critical game analysis through her work in feminist analysis of games, and co-creative AI through her work in educational interactive experiences and AI-assisted tools for craft and narratives. She also studies craft as an analog counterpart to playful and storied interactive experiences, researching in the exciting and emerging field of computational craft.

Dr. Sullivan is an award-winning quilter and the concept designer and producer of Loominary – a digital game system controlled with a loom - which has been shown internationally, including at the SAAM Arcade exhibit at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Education:

• PhD Computer Science - University of California, Santa Cruz

Areas of
Expertise:

• Computational Craft
• Craft
• Craft Games
• Digital Media
• Games
• Interactive Narrative
• Narrative
• STEM Education

Rahul Saxena is the Interim Director for CREATE-X and the Associate Director for LAUNCH. Leading up to this role, Saxena had a career as a Venture Capitalist, startup CEO, entrepreneur, mechatronic design engineer, and published academic researcher. Saxena is a mechanical engineering Georgia Tech alumnus, earned his European Master’s degree in Fluid Mechanics from the Von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics, and earned his MBA from Emory University. Saxena worked for Seraph Group, a venture capital firm, for 10 years evaluating and investing in companies while also holding the role of CEO in a company and serving on several boards of companies that went on to be acquired. 

Athanassios (Thanos) Economou is Professor at the School of Architecture in the College of Design, and Adjunct Professor at the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr. Economou’s teaching and research are in the areas of shape grammars, computational design, computer-aided design and design theory, with over sixty published papers in these areas. He is the Director of the Shape Computation Lab, a research group that explores how the visual nature of shape can be formally implemented with new technologies to enable new paradigms in visual computation, design automation, creative design and digital heritage. Recent projects include the Shape Machine, a new computational technology that allows shape matching in CAD systems, and Courtsweb, the most significant visual database on Federal Courthouses, sponsored by GSA and US.Courts. Design projects from his studios at Georgia Tech have received prestigious awards in international and national architectural competitions. He has been invited to give talks, seminars, and workshops at several universities including MIT, Harvard, TU Vienna, U. Michigan, KAIST, Chiao Tung U Taiwan, Emory, Seoul National U, Cambridge U, Tsinghua U, UCLA, NTUA, U.Thessaly, U.Aegean, among others. Dr. Economou holds a Diploma in Architecture from NTUA, Athens, Greece, an M.Arch from USC, and a PhD in Architecture from UCLA.

Justin B. Biddle is an Associate Professor in the School of Public Policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology. His research interests are interdisciplinary in nature, drawing on fields such as philosophy of science, technology, and medicine; ethics of emerging technologies, and science and technology policy. Conceptually, his research explores the relationships between three sets of issues: (1) the role of values in science, technology, and medicine; (2) the epistemic implications of the social organization of research, and (3) ethics and policy. He is currently exploring these relationships in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. He has also worked in the areas of biomedical research and agricultural biotechnology. He received a MA and PhD in History and Philosophy of Science from the University of Notre Dame and was later a Distinguished Fellow at the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study. Prior to arriving at Georgia Tech, he was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Philosophy at Bielefeld University in Germany.

Academic Specialty: Ethics in Technology

Saleeby was formerly a research staff member from Oak Ridge National Laboratory where he was in the Manufacturing Science Division. His work focuses on connecting machines and manufacturing processes with Industry 4.0 and Industrial IoT technologies. Current interests center on applications of data analytics and closed-loop control for Hybrid Manufacturing processes, where additive and subtractive (machining) processes are combined within a single machine tool.