Digital Transformation in the Department of the Air Force

Ted F. Bowlds

Ted F. Bowlds (Lt Gen USAF, Ret.) is an independent consultant and most recently served as the CEO and CTO for IAI North America. During his 36-year career in the U.S. Air Force, he led multiple large-scale, complex procurement activities. As Commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), he was responsible for the diverse research undertaken by AFRL, which spanned across microelectronics, human factors, medical, aeronautics, computers, satellites, and power generation. His last assignment on active duty was as the Commander of the Electronic Systems Center and Program Executive Officer (PEO) for Air Force information technology procurements, applications, and systems. He currently serves as a member of the Mississippi State Research Technology Advisory Group, the Department of Defense’s Systems Engineering Research Council, and previously served as a member on the National Academies’ Air Force Studies Board. Lt Gen Bowlds holds an MS in electrical engineering, an MS in engineering management, and a PhD in systems engineering.

Paul D. Nielsen

Dr. Paul D. Nielsen, NAE, is the director and CEO of Carnegie Mellon University's Software Engineering Institute (SEI), which develops and transitions technologies in software architecture, integration and interoperability, cybersecurity, process improvement, real time systems, systems engineering related to software engineering or AI systems. Prior to joining the Software Engineering Institute, Dr. Nielsen served in the U.S. Air Force, retiring as a Major General. In his final assignment, Dr. Nielsen was the commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory and the Technology Executive Officer for the U.S. Air Force from 2000-2004. He is a fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the International Council of Systems Engineering (INCOSE). He is a past president of AIAA and served on the Defense Science Board and the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board. Dr. Nielsen received a PhD and MS in applied science from the University of California, Davis and an MBA from the University of New Mexico.

Jill Crisman

Dr. Jill Crisman is the vice president and Executive Director of the Digital Safety Research Institute (DSRI) at UL Research Institutes. Before joining UL Research Institutes, Dr. Crisman was the principal director for AI/ML Modernization in the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSD(R&E)), the Chief Scientist for the Department of Defense’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC), and the Chief Scientist at Next Century Corp. At the JAIC and within OUSD(R&E), she worked to help modernize the Department of Defense for both agile software and AI systems. She also served as a Program Manager for the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) and was a founding faculty member of the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering. Throughout her career, she worked on numerous computer vision applications including robotic navigation, satellite image understanding, 3-D reconstruction from video, and tracking objects through multi-view surveillance video. Dr. Crisman earned her PhD in electrical and computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon University where, for her thesis, she created some of the first computer vision perception algorithms for self-driving cars.

Daniel A. DeLaurentis

Dr. Daniel A. DeLaurentis is the vice president for Discovery Park District (DPD) Institutes and Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Purdue University. His charge in research is via the Center for Integrated Systems in Aerospace (CISA), which he directs, working with faculty colleagues and students to research problem formulation, modeling, design, and system engineering methods for aerospace systems and systems-of-systems. Dr. DeLaurentis also serves as chief scientist of the Department of Defense’s Systems Engineering Research Center (SERC) UARC, working to understand the systems engineering research needs of the defense community and translate that to research programs that are then mapped to the nation’s best researchers and students in the SERC network of 25 universities. He is a senior research fellow at the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue, Fellow of the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE) and was recently elected Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Dr. DeLaurentis earned his BS in aerospace engineering from the Florida Institute of Technology, and his MS and PhD in aerospace engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is also a current member of the National Academies’ Air Force Studies Board.

Tommer Ender

Dr. Tommer R. Ender serves as Deputy Director for Research at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) and leads the Electronics, Optics, and Systems Directorate. In this role he manages the operations for an 800-person unit with a $300M/year sponsored research portfolio across three research laboratories: the Applied Systems Laboratory (ASL), the Electro-Optical Systems Laboratory (EOSL), and the Electronic Systems Laboratory (ELSYS). He also serves on the GTRI Executive Council, helping set GTRI strategy and informing critical decisions impacting the organization. His area of research includes the development of collaborative, executable, Model Based Systems Engineering tools utilizing multidisciplinary design optimization and trade space analytics as applied to complex problems. Dr. Ender is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and Certified Systems Engineering Professional (CSEP). He is a Senior Member of IEEE, and active member of INCOSE, NDIA, and MORS, regularly publishing with those organizations. He earned his BS, MS, and PhD in aerospace engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Vijay Gadepally

Dr. Vijay N. Gadepally is a senior scientist and principal investigator at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Lincoln Laboratory, a Visiting Scientist with MIT Connection Science, and works closely with the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). He is also the Chief Technology Officer of Radium Cloud – a company focused on providing high performance cloud computing for AI workloads – and advises two early-stage venture-backed startups - Chicory.ai and Davinci3. Dr. Gadepally’s research interests include high performance computing, artificial intelligence, high performance databases and environmentally-friendly computing. In 2017, he was named to AFCEA’s inaugural 40 under 40 list and was awarded MIT Lincoln Laboratory’s Early Career Technical Achievement Award. In 2011, Dr. Gadepally received an Outstanding Graduate Student Award at The Ohio State University. He holds an MS and PhD in electrical and computer engineering from The Ohio State University and a BTech degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur.

Priscilla E. Guthrie

Ms. Priscilla E. Guthrie is a fellow at IDA, the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA). She rejoined IDA after serving as the Special Command Advisor, Cyber Security/Information Technology/Information Assurance for U.S. Cyber Command. Prior to that, she was a VP at ViaSat, Inc. In 2009, she was confirmed by the Senate as the Intelligence Community Chief Information Officer. She was Director of ITSD at IDA, and the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Deputy Chief Information Officer). Before moving to the Pentagon, Ms. Guthrie was a VP at TRW Inc. where she worked in and led businesses in defense/intelligence, automotive, and information technology. She supports various advisory groups for the Department of Defense in the areas of systems engineering, cybersecurity and information technology, including the Defense Science Board and the U.S. Strategic Command Strategic Advisory Group. She has an MBA from Marymount College and a BSEE from Penn State.

Azad M. Madni

Dr. Azad Madni, NAE, is a university professor of astronautics, aerospace and mechanical engineering, and electrical and computer engineering in the Viterbi School of Engineering of the University of Southern California. He holds the Northrop Grumman Foundation Fred O’Green Chair in Engineering and is the Executive Director of USC’s Systems Architecting and Engineering Program. He is also the founder and CEO of Intelligent Systems Technology, Inc., an aerospace and defense R&D company. His key areas of research include digital twin-enabled model-based systems engineering and augmented intelligence in human-AI teaming. Dr. Madni has conducted Air Force R&D for 40+ years in intelligent planning and decision aiding and distributed simulation technologies. He is a recipient of the 2023 NAE Bernard M. Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering and Technology Education. He is a Life Fellow of IEEE and recipient of the 2023 IEEE Simon Ramo Medal for pioneering contributions to systems engineering and systems science. He is an Honorary Fellow of AIAA, Honorary Member of ASME, Life Fellow of INCOSE and recipient of the INCOSE Pioneer and Founders Awards. He is the author of Transdisciplinary Systems Engineering: Exploiting Convergence in a Hyperconnected World (Springer, 2018), and co-author of Deep Learning: Design, Development and Deployment (Springer, 2023). He is the Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Handbook of Model Based Systems Engineering (Springer, 2023). He earned his BS, MS, and PhD degrees in engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles. He is also a graduate of AEA/Stanford Executive Institute.

Brian Maue

Dr. Brian “Beam” Maue is a principal and transformation architect at TiER1 Performance Consulting where he focuses on designing and activating strategies to enhance performance at the team and organizational levels. Previously, he was the co-founder and startup years leader of AFWERX. During his tenure, Dr. Maue’s team turned the Pentagon idea of AFWERX into an actual organization that Fast Company ranked as #16 in the world as a “Best Workplace for Innovators” out of the 865 organizations evaluated in the year 2020. During that time, AFWERX held innovation challenges to advance the digital integration of multi-domain operations (MDO) and Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2) capabilities. Dr. Maue has studied and applied human behavior and performance insights within military and civilian organizations, informed by formal education and research as well as lifelong study of spiritual and philosophical traditions. His areas of interest include design thinking, strategy, economics, politics, ethics, and history. He earned a BS in political science pre-law and an MBA in leadership and change management at Michigan State University. He earned his PhD in policy analysis from RAND.

Laura J. McGill

Laura J. McGill, NAE, is the deputy laboratories director and CTO at Sandia National Laboratories, where she leads nuclear weapons modernization, stockpile programs, and systems integration. She previously served as Deputy Vice President-Engineering at Raytheon Missiles & Defense, where she directed the work of 15,000 engineers and scientists. Prior to that, she was the VP of engineering for Raytheon Missile Systems, leading 7,800 engineers and scientists developing and producing weapons for the U.S. military and Department of Defense. Ms. McGill was responsible for systems performance, technical execution, test and flight operations, technology investment, engineering career development and capital investments. She also served as the chief engineer of a $2 billion Air Warfare Systems portfolio, including Tomahawk cruise missiles, air-to-air combat systems and precision strike weapons. Ms. McGill was elected president of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) in 2022 and inducted into the National Academy of Engineering in 2019. She was named Raytheon Principal Fellow in 2010 and elected as Lifetime Fellow of the AIAA in 2007, and she serves on the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Advisory Committee. Ms. McGill earned her BS in aeronautical and astronautical engineering from the University of Washington and her MS in aerospace systems from West Coast University. She is a current member of the National Academies’ Air Force Studies Board.

Olivia Pinon Fischer

Dr. Olivia J. Pinon Fischer is a principal research engineer within the School of Aerospace Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she serves as the chief of the Aerospace Systems Design Laboratory’s Digital Engineering Division. In her current position, Dr. Pinon Fischer leads pivotal research efforts in close collaboration with government and industry experts, bringing together advancements in modeling, data management, and analytical capabilities to address challenges related to both complex engineering systems and socio-cyber-physical systems. She also manages multi-disciplinary research teams in the fields of digital engineering, digital twins, digital thread & digital ecosystems, model-based systems engineering, and ML/AI. Dr. Pinon Fischer is a recipient of the Georgia Tech EVPR Institute Research Award for Outstanding Achievement in Research Program Impact. She is also an associate fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and chair of the AIAA’s Digital Engineering Integration Committee (DEIC). She also serves as the co-chair of the NATO STO AVT Certification by Analysis Technical Activity and is a member of the International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences (ICAS) Programme Committee. Dr. Pinon Fischer holds MS degrees in a variety of engineering fields and a PhD in aerospace engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

William L. Scherlis

Dr. William L. Scherlis is a Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University and Special Advisor to the Software Engineering Institute. He recently served as director of DARPA’s Information Innovation Office (I2O) leading program managers in the development of programs in cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, secure software, and information operations. At Carnegie Mellon (CMU) he served for more than a decade as head of the Software and Societal Systems Department, which hosts research and educational programs related to software development, security and privacy, IoT and mobility, AI engineering, social network analysis, and related topics. He also served as program chair for a number of technical conferences including ACM Foundations of Software Engineering (FSE) and ACM Partial Evaluation and Program Manipulation (PEPM). His research relates to software assurance, cybersecurity, software analysis, and assured safe concurrency. He is a Life Fellow of the IEEE and a Lifetime National Associate of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Scherlis received an AB magna cum laude from Harvard University in applied mathematics and a PhD in computer science from Stanford University, with an intervening year in the Department of Artificial Intelligence at the University of Edinburgh as a John Knox Fellow. Dr. Scherlis led multiple national studies, including the National Academies study that in 2010 produced the report Critical Code: Software Producibility for Defense.

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Report Release Webinar: Digital Transformation in the Department of the Air Force

December 10, 2025

2:00 PM - 3:00 PM (EST)

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About

The Department of the Air Force (DAF) faces a future operational environment characterized by rising complexity, increasingly agile threats, and accelerated innovation cycles. To achieve dominance, the Air Force and Space Force will need to embrace digital transformation to enable rapid design iteration, accelerate development and deployment, and transform sustainment.

A new National Academies’ report explores ways the DAF can strengthen digital leadership and resourcing, expand on successes, support technical workforce development, and build agile and secure digital enterprise infrastructure. Learn more about the new report by joining us for a public briefing webinar on Wednesday, December 10, 2025 from 2-3pm ET. During the webinar, members of the committee will discuss key findings and recommendations from the report and take questions from the audience.

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Digital Transformation in the Department of the Air Force

Report Release Webinar: Digital Transformation in the Department of the Air Force

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Digital Transformation in the Department of the Air Force

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Report Release Webinar: Digital Transformation in the Department of the Air Force

Description

Contributors

Committee

Sponsors

Staff

Parent projects

Air Force Studies Board

Major units and sub-units

Contact

Contact us

Provide feedback

Request materials

More like this

Review of the draft United by Nature assessment

Modernizing Mathematics Education for Grades 9-14

Health Care Financing to Improve Availability of Affordable Contraception: Identifying Promising Practices

An English-Chinese Chinese-English Glossary of Cybersecurity Terms

Computing Research, Technologies, and Systems Program Area

Science and Technology Policy and Law Program Area

Physical Sciences, Systems, and Infrastructure Program Area

Modernizing Mathematics Education for Grades 9-14

Improving Command Climate, Unit Cohesion, and Warfighter Readiness