2011 Speakers

Bob McDonnell was sworn in as the 71st governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia on January 16, 2010. In his campaign for the office he received nearly 59% of the vote, and the most votes of any candidate for governor in Virginia history. As Virginia's Chief Executive, he has built a record of results.
Governor McDonnell inherited an unprecedented $6 billion in budget shortfalls. He defeated a proposed $2 billion increase in the state income tax, kept existing car tax relief in place and brought Democrats and Republicans together to close the shortfall without a single tax increase, producing a $400 million surplus. During that same time 80% of McDonnell's legislative proposals passed Virginia's bi-partisan General Assembly. In 2011, McDonnell saw 92% of his legislative proposals pass the bi-partisan General Assembly, including his plan that makes the largest investment in transportation in Virginia in a generation, and legislation to make college more affordable and accessible for Virginia students. Job creation and economic development remain the governor's top priority. The unemployment rate in Virginia has fallen from 7.2% when McDonnell took office to 6% today, and the Virginia was recently named by CNBC as "The Best State for Business" in the country. Governor McDonnell represents Virginia in other leadership roles outside of the Commonwealth as well. He currently serves as Chairman of the Republican Governors Association, Chairman of the Southern States Energy Board, Chairman of the Southern Growth Policies Board, Chairman of the Southern Regional Education Board, and Chair of the Legal Affairs Committee of the National Governors Association. The governor has dedicated his life to public service. He served 21 years in the U.S. Army, both active duty and reserve, retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1997.Upon graduating from law school in 1989 he served as a Virginia Beach prosecutor. McDonnell was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates in 1991 and served 14 years representing Virginia Beach. He was elected as the 44th attorney general of Virginia in 2005. As attorney general, McDonnell kept all seven of his campaign promises and successfully passed 92 of his 105 legislative proposals, with strong bipartisan support. McDonnell was raised in Fairfax County. He graduated from the University of Notre Dame (BBA), Boston University (MSBA) and Regent University (JD and MA). In addition, he has received an honorary doctor of laws degree from the College of William and Mary, and an honorary doctor of humane letters from Virginia Commonwealth University.

Lesa Roe is first female Director of NASA's Langley Research Center- the place where NASA researches solutions to problems from global climate change and access to space, to air travel, future aviation vehicles. Appointed as Director in 2005, Lesa is the senior management official of the Center, overseeing facilities valued at more than $3.3B, and employing over 3,600 engineers and scientists. She is responsible for the Center's technical implementation of aeronautical, space and science programs, as well as the overall management of the Center's facilities, personnel and administration. Lesa has had a long and distinguished career within NASA at multiple NASA centers. Prior to NASA Langley, she served as the Program Manager leading the International Space Station Research Program at Johnson Space Center, leading the efforts of over 900 engineers and scientists on the $450M annual research program delivering the first research to the International Space Station. Lesa spent over 15 years at the Kennedy Space Center in program and project management, developing systems and flight tests for flight elements which are now in orbit as part of the International Space Station. Lesa has served as a systems engineer for over 20 Space Shuttle flights. She started her engineering career performing satellite communications analysis for Hughes Space and Communications in El Segundo, California. Her honors include the Senior Executive Service Presidential Rank Award, NASA Exceptional Service Medal and Distinguished Career Achievement Award from the University of Florida and she was also inducted to the Electrical and Computer Engineering Academy at the University of Florida in 2009. She is a senior member of AIAA and a member of IEEE, a member of the Board of Directors of the American Astronautical Society, a member of the Governor's Virginia Aerospace Advisory Council, a member of the Virginia Research and Technology Advisory Commission, a member of the Hampton Roads Partnership and the University of Florida External Advisory Board. Lesa won the 2010 YWCA Women of Distinction Award in Science and Technology and was also selected as co-recipient, the 2010 Women in Aerospace Leadership Award. She holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Florida and a M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Central Florida.

Fred Lewis, RADM, USN (Ret.), a native of Los Angeles, graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy with the class of 1962 and was designated a naval aviator at NAS Kingsville, Texas in November 1963. After an initial tour of duty as a flight instructor at Whiting Field, he trained in the F-4 Phantom and participated in numerous operational deployments to the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and the Mediterranean Sea. During this time, he deployed twice to the Gulf of Tonkin and carried out combat missions over North Vietnam. Following these combat deployments, he attended the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School and subsequently led the stand-up of the Atlantic Fleet's F-14 Training Squadron. Several command assignments followed including his first carrier air wing command when he led the wing in successful operations in the Gulf of Sidra during which his pilots downed two Libyan fighter aircraft. Various staff assignments in Washington, DC followed including participation in the Program for Senior Defense Managers at Harvard University. He subsequently was given his second air wing command when he inaugurated the Navy's "Super CAG" program. It was in this assignment that he was selected for promotion to flag rank. Flag assignments including Director, Strike and Amphibious Warfare (Pentagon), Commander, Tactical Wings, Atlantic, and Commander, Naval Safety Center followed in quick succession. He was sent back to sea in 1991 as Commander, Carrier Group FOUR and Commander, Carrier Striking Forces, Atlantic. In March 1993 he led the stand-up and became the first Commander of the Naval Doctrine Command located in Norfolk, Virginia. During his naval career, he accumulated over 6,500 accident-free flying hours in tactical aircraft and over 1,200 carrier arrested landings. He is one of the few TACAIR pilots to be dual qualified in fixed wing and rotary wing aircraft. In December 1995 he joined the National Training and Simulation Association as the President where he inaugurated numerous programs to promote the modeling and simulation community of practice and to bring M&S technologies to national prominence. His efforts throughout led to a Congressional declaration in 2007 that M&S is a National Critical technology. In addition to his professional occupation he is a member of the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation Board of Trustees, and as part these duties he has over the years moderated a series of panel sessions at the Annual Symposium which focused on important historical events in Naval Aviation. He has served as a director of the Navy Mutual Aid Association, is a former Chairman of the Tailhook Association, currently serves as the Chairman of the Washington, DC Battle of Midway Commemoration Committee, is a director of the Air Warrior Courage Foundation, and is a member of the Early and Pioneer Naval Aviators Association (Golden Eagles).

L.D. Britt, M.D., M.P.H. is the recipient of the nation's highest teaching award in medicine, the Robert J. Glaser Distinguished Teaching Award, which is given by the American Association of Medical Colleges in conjunction with the national medical honor society, Alpha Omega Alpha. Each medical school, in both the United States and Canada, submits its best faculty member to compete for this top award given for medical education. He was also selected to be the AOA Visiting Professor. Dr. Britt was also selected by the Association for Surgical Education to be the recipient of the 2004 Distinguished Educator Award, presented annually to one individual who has attained national prominence and demonstrated excellence as a master educator. In addition, on eight occasions, Eastern Virginia Medical School has awarded Dr. Britt the Sir William Osler Award as the outstanding teacher of the year. In addition, he was the recipient of the Dean's Faculty Achievement Award for excellence in the clinical sciences and subsequently received the highest award given by the medical school, the Dean's Outstanding Faculty Award. He is the youngest faculty member ever to be given this award. Dr. Britt received Virginia's most prestigious award, The Outstanding Faculty Award, which is presented by the Governor and State Council of Higher Education for excellence in teaching, research and public service.

Stu Armstrong is the Chief Technology Officer for QinetiQ's Simulation and Training Group. Stuart started his career at the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (then part of the UK MOD) in 1999, developing defence simulations and joined QinetiQ when it was privatised in 2001. Since then, Stuart has been responsible for the practical exploitation and application of many simulation technologies in support of a wide and diverse military user base.In his role as CTO, Stuart provides advice and support to senior UK MOD decision makers on the impact of emerging technologies on the UK training and education policy. Through his work, Stuart has introduced the concept of Serious Games to the UK military training landscape and has developed numerous novel training applications from the technology. In particular, the fielding of two Urgent Operational capabilities based on games technologies has helped save UK military lives in current operations.Stuart is currently leading the UK MOD's Training Transformation program which is developing the core MOD simulation architecture that will enable the rapid exploitation of emerging technologies. The core architecture is being used to support the delivery of future Aviation, Ground Based and Fast Air training capabilities and will enable the UK MOD to potentially realise £100M's of savings through the re-balancing of live and synthetic training. Stuart is the chairman for the pan-industry research program into commercial technologies undertaken as part of the UK's Synthetic Environment Tower of Excellence, is the national lead and chair of the US, UK, Canada & Australia technical co-operation on commercial technologies and has chaired numerous NATO working groups on the use of emerging simulation technology. Stuart is also an active member of the I/ITSEC Serious Games Showcase & Challenge Project Team.

Congressman Randy Forbes is a ranking Member of the House Armed Services Readiness Subcommittee, tasked with ensuring that our men and women in uniform have the equipment, facilities, and training to be the most effective military in the world. Randy's position—the minority party's equivalent of Chairman—is central in developing the nation's long-term strategies to meet our future security needs. As a result of his work on behalf of our military, in 2009, Randy became one of the few individuals to have been honored with the highest civilian award offered by both the United States Army and the United States Army and the United States Navy. Congressman Forbes is the founder and co-chairman of the Congressional Modeling and Simulation Caucus.

Sridhar Kota is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is on leave from UM to serve as the Assistant Director for Advanced Manufacturing at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. In this capacity, Dr. Kota coordinates Federal advanced manufacturing R&D across Federal agencies and address issues related to R&D funding gaps, manufacturing competitiveness, technology development and commercialization. Dr. Kota develops policy recommendations to foster commercialization and U.S.-based manufacturing of emerging technologies to advance manufacturing across the nation.
Prof. Kota received M.S and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Minnesota before joining the University of Michigan in 1987. His teaching and research interests include synthesis of bio-inspired engineering systems, shape-adaptive compliant structures, electromechanical systems design with applications to aerospace, automotive, robotics and advanced manufacturing. He has authored over 200 technical papers in engineering design including four award-winning papers. He is the recipient of the ASME Machine Design Award the highest honor bestowed in Engineering Design, the ASME Leonardo Da Vinci award and seven other design innovation awards. He holds several (25+) US and foreign patents related to applications in machinery, automotive, aerospace and micro electromechanical systems. He served as an engineering consultant to numerous organizations on topics related to product design and development. He is the founding President and CEO of FlexSys Inc., a small business firm engaged in development of fuel-efficient adaptive aircraft wings, and high efficiency wind turbine blades based on shape adaptive design principles that he pioneered in the 90s. Kota's research was featured in New York Times, Discovery Channel, Science News, Aviation Week, Popular Science, and other popular press. He is a member of several professional societies including ASME, AIAA, AHS, and AWEA.

Mario Armstrong translates technology for non-tech audiences through his radio shows, TV segments, public speaking, print and online programs. Mario covers the stories, headlines, issues, gadgets and news makers of the day through the lens of technology! He entertains and educates audiences as to how technology impacts our society and businesses. He has appeared on CNBC, MPT, PBS, C-Span and TV-One. He hosts and syndicates his own radio technology talk shows on XM/Sirius radio, USTalkNetwork.com, WYPR and WEAA. Armstrong is also a co-founder of the Urban Video Game Academy, and educational non-profit program that uses the allure, interactivity and development process of video games to increase students' interest and academic achievement in science, technology, English and math.

Dr. Ethan Danahy is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Tufts University, having received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in Computer Science in 2000 and 2002, respectively, and a Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering in 2007, all from Tufts. Additionally, he acts as the Engineering Research Program Director at the Center for Engineering Education and Outreach (CEEO), where he manages educational technology development projects while researching innovative and interactive techniques for assisting teachers with performing engineering education and communicating robotics concepts to students spanning the K-12 through university age range. Dr. Danahy presented on "Increasing Accessibility to Medical Robotics Education" at the IEEE TePRA conference, April 11-12, 2011. The idea of taking a complex system (like super-expensive, high-end, complicated medical robots used for tele-surgery and tele-medicine) and simulating/modeling them with LEGO robotics. Coupled with a scalable curriculum, the same toolset can then be used to teach varying concepts at the elementary to high-school to graduate-school levels. It provides a more comfortable (familiar), cost-effective (cheap) method for exposing a wide-range of learners to these higher-level concepts, and the ability to do so starting at a very young age.

Dr. Sanjay Gowda, AMA, VP earned his doctorate from Washington State University in Mechanical Engineering and has worked at AMA since 1999. He has lead several large scale software development projects including the award winning Advanced Engineering Environment at NASA. His expertise includes visualization for manufacturing and virtual and augmented reality systems for engineering, marketing and training projects.