Most people today equivalate the sum of Artificial Intelligence to one thing; ChatGPT. In this week’s episode of Feds At the Edge, we’ll bust the myth by sharing how Federal leaders are making data-driven decisions leveraging advancements in technology with a wide range of AI.
We dive into the five concepts you may never have thought of but should be top of mind:
Clean Data. What happens when second or thirdhand data leaves you with a challenging clean up?
Privacy and Security. Is your agency keeping up with compliance?
AI Use Agency Wide. How do you tackle an enterprise-wide endeavor?
Analytics. From big data to deriving lessons from data sets- where should the focus be?
Language. What is being lost in translation?
Vijay Sharma, CTO from the Department of Education reminds us that Artificial Intelligence is like having the best bike in town and not knowing how to ride it.
Are you ready? Tune in on your favorite Podcasting platform now!
To view this webinar: The AI Big Bang: Exploring Government’s Growing Universe of AI Applications .
Featured Speakers:
Dr. Joseph Glover
Provost & Senior Vice President, Academic Affairs
Joe Glover has been UF Provost and Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs since July 2008. Dr. Glover arrived at UF in 1982 as an assistant professor in mathematics. He chaired the Mathematics Department (1993-1998) and served as Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (1998-2001). Dr. Glover also served as Associate Provost for Academic Affairs (2001-2006), as Interim Provost, and as Interim Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
Dr. Glover chaired the Task Force on the Future of the University of Florida and co-authored the university’s strategic plan in 2002. He represented UF on the New World School of the Arts Executive Board (2001-2008), chaired the Florida Virtual Campus Executive Board (2012-2014), and serves on the Executive Committee of the APLU Council on Academic Affairs (2010-2021). He currently oversees the university’s transformative initiative in artificial intelligence and data science.
Dr. Glover received his bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Cornell University and his master’s and doctoral degrees in mathematics from the University of California, San Diego. He taught at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Rochester before joining the University of Florida faculty. He held a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellowship at UCSD and an NSF-CNRS fellowship at the Universite de Grenoble II. His research in probability theory, stochastic processes, and potential theory has been supported by the NSF, the AFOSR, and the NSA. He served as an Associate Editor of the Journal of Theoretical Probability (1996-2007) and, since 2001, Dr. Glover has provided orientation and training to new department chairs in the State University System through the Institute for Academic Leadership.
Provost & Senior Vice President,
Academic Affairs, University of Florida
Dr. Alan Sim
Chief Data Officer
Dr. Alan Sim is an epidemiologist with extensive experience in population health informatics and translational data science. He currently serves as CDC’s Chief Data Officer (CDO) and the Director of the Enterprise Data Office (EDO). Dr. Sim has over twenty years of experience with healthcare data management, analytics, public health informatics, and data science with multiple government, health, and military organizations. Dr. Sim serves as the executive champion for several key enterprise and Data Modernization Initiatives (DMI) activities including the Enterprise Data Catalog (EDC), Enterprise Data Analytics and Visualization (EDAV) platform, and Data Standards Management and Harmonization (DSMH) Working Group.
Chief Data Officer,
Centers for Disease Control
Vijay Sharma
Chief Technology Officer
As the U.S. Department of Education’s (ED) Chief Technology Officer, Vijay Sharma is responsible for IT innovation and modernization, IT strategy, Artificial Intelligence governance and implementation, Cloud architecture and integration, IT security and ICAM, and act as a senior IT advisor to the department’s executive leadership.
Vijay joined ED in 2015 as its Deputy Director in the Financial Systems Services, where he led Department’s Financial and Grants management services modernization, established department wide enterprise program management office (EPMO), and led IT modernization roadmap and implementation strategy.
Throughout his tenure at ED, Vijay has led its major transformation from a 12-year legacy IT service delivery contract to a new service model that modernized the infrastructure, end user computing and software upgrades and positioned the Department to seamlessly transition to a successful remote and hybrid workforce and continue to modernize. Vijay served as a principal advisor to the CIO with respect to IT modernization and program management services supporting the CIO’s efforts in overseeing the Department’s $1B portfolio.
Prior to his employment with ED, Vijay served as a Manager, Information Architecture at the Federal Reserve Board, a market regulation technology Branch Chief at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, a NextGen platforms Division Director at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office , a cloud and cybersecurity Director at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, and a business solutions architect in Silicon Valley.
Vijay holds a bachelor’s degree in technology, and a master’s degree in computer science. Vijay is certified in Enterprise Architecture (TOGAF 1 & 2), IT Security Management (CISM), Project Management (PMP), IT Operations and Services Management (ITIL), Cloud Security (CCSK), and FAC/PPM Senior IT. Additionally, Vijay is a Federal Executive Institute (FEI) graduate in Leadership for Democratic Society (LDS), holds a corporate governance certification from Wharton, and a business negotiations certificate from Harvard.
Chief Technology Officer,
Department of Education
Akhtar Zaman
Chief Data Officer (CDO)
Akhtar Zaman serves as the Chief Data Officer for the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) since Feb 2022. As the CDO, he has overall responsibility for the data governance, data management, and data compliance across the agency. He is responsible for establishing a data vision to improve organizational decision-making and enhancing the public data sharing for citizens including research community.
Akhtar spent 12 years working at Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), where he held several senior level IT positions. His recent role was to lead the Medicare Modernizations Program as a Chief Technology Officer (CTO), where he facilitated the migration of legacy mainframe-based Medicare systems to cloud and provided guidance for resolving data inefficiency, duplication, inconsistency, and quality across Medicare programs.
Prior to joining CMS, Akhtar worked as Applications Services Sr. Analyst in Merck Research Laboratory (MRL) division at Merck & Co between 2005-2010. Akhtar also worked as a Lead Automation Scientist at Bristol-Myers Squibb (2001-2005). Akhtar earned a Master of Science (MS) in Environmental Engineering and Bachelor of Science (BS) degree in Mechanical Engineering.
Chief Data Officer,
National Archives
Jan Krysa
Enterprise Data Architect
Jan is an Enterprise Data Architect with EPA’s Office of Digital Services and Technical Architecture where he supports AI awareness, governance, and implementation. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Biology and masters in Geography and Environmental Policy from Northeastern Illinois University. His earlier roles at EPA included Geospatial Data Librarian, GIS Technical Lead, and Enterprise Cloud Architect.
Enterprise Data Architect,
Environmental Protection Agency
Pat Butler
Executive Vice President, Product Management
Pat Butler, in his role as EVP, Product Management, provides direction to the technology and development teams on strategic priorities – most notably through building and managing the product roadmap. The Product team synthesizes input on corporate strategy, competitor capabilities, revenue priorities, marketing direction, and development team resource availability to ensure the Babel Street technology platform strengthens our lead in our core market of broad Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) and expands our beachhead into the larger and rapidly growing Identity/Risk market. Pat joined the Babel Street team in May 2020 as part of the acquisition of the intellectual property of technology firm Dunami Inc., where he was the CEO and founder. Prior to Dunami, Pat served in the United States intelligence community, where he applied his mathematics/statistics background to develop breakthrough new technologies and capabilities credited with disrupting numerous terrorist threats worldwide.
Executive Vice President, Product Management, Babel Street
Ali Golshan
Co-Founder & CEO
Ali Golshan is the Co-founder and CEO of Gretel, a platform that combines generative AI and privacy-enhancing technologies to create safe, synthetic data. Prior to Gretel, Ali was Co-founder and CTO of StackRox, (acquired by Red Hat), and before that he was the Co-founder and CTO of Cyphort. Ali started his career in government, where he conducted security and vulnerability research for the intelligence community and assisted with issues related to designing resilient infrastructure.
Co-Founder & CEO,
Gretel
Jim Rebesco
Founder & CEO
Dr. Jim Rebesco is CEO and a co-founder of Striveworks, an artificial intelligence company focused on the deployment of AI/ML models at scale. He is a board member for Sayari Labs, a leading financial intelligence company, and has served as a consulting member of the Army Science Board.
Prior to founding Striveworks, Dr. Rebesco worked at Virtu Financial, a leading electronic market-making firm, where he led trading and data science teams as a partner in the firm. He was instrumental in building Virtu’s capabilities from the beginning in data science and analytics and played a critical role in the that firm’s IPO in 2015.
Dr. Rebesco has been engaged with the Federal Reserve Board, elements within the Department of Defense, the United States Military Academy, and others as a recognized subject matter expert in both AI and its applications to various industries, including finance and national defense. Dr. Rebesco earned his B.S. in Physics from the California Institute of Technology and his PhD in computational neuroscience from Northwestern University.
Founder & CEO,
Striveworks
Jane Norris
Contributing Editor
Jane Norris a contributing editor to FedInsider, is committed to advancing government communications and putting people first in every regard.
Jane brings a lifetime career in media and government to her role. She has held senior roles at the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). As a consultant and public relations lead, she worked to execute priority issues for two powerhouse government contracting firms creating successful communications strategies for issues like, technology modernization, AI, data analytics, cybersecurity, customer experience, human centered design, health and economic policy, the government workforce and employee engagement.
Jane’s private sector career also includes on-air work with multiple radio and television stations, most recently as a daily drive-time host on Federal News Radio/WTOP in Washington DC.
Moderator & Contributing Editor,
FedInsider
