About Angela Marano: Angela currently serves as the Vice President of Business Transformation and is responsible for providing a variety of services to the organization that help identify and enable transformation opportunities, including Innovation / Human-Centered Design, Continuous Improvement, Emerging Trends, Data Science, and Automation. More specifically, she focuses these capabilities on modernizing and improving the Southwest Airlines Operation to in order to achieve the Company’s strategic objectives. Angela started her career at Southwest in 1998 in the Technology organization where she held a number of different roles predominantly focused on data and business intelligence. After 10 years in Technology, Angela moved to Corporate Strategy & Innovation and helped to establish new capabilities focused on improving and transforming various aspects of our business. Prior to Southwest Angela worked at Apple and Nissan Motor Corporation. She is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin where she studied Marketing. In addition to her professional life, Angela is married and has two children: a 19 year old daughter and a 21 year old son.

About Alok Aggarwal : Dr. Alok Aggarwal received his B. Tech. from IIT Delhi in 1980 in Electrical Engineering and his Ph. D. from Johns Hopkins University in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in 1984, after which he joined IBM’s T. J. Watson Research Center in New York. Since then, he has published 115 research articles and has been granted 8 patents from the US Patents and Trademark Office. During 1984 and 1993, he also won two innovation awards from IBM. Furthermore, during 1984 and 1996, Dr. Aggarwal served as a program chairman for a number of conferences, including Symposium on Theory of Computing, Foundations of Computer Science, and Symposium on Computational Geometry. He also served as a Chairperson of the IEEE Computer Society's Technical Committee on Mathematical Foundations of Computing and was on the editorial boards of SIAM Journal of Computing, Algorithmica, and Journal of Symbolic Computation. Finally, during the fall of 1988 and 1989, he was on sabbatical from IBM and taught two courses at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and supervised two Ph.D. students. During 1993 and 1996, along with other researchers at IBM, he built and sold a "Supply Chain Management Solution" for paper mills and steel mills. By optimizing schedules for paper machines, trimmers, winders, storage in warehouses, loading of trucks and rail-cars, and transportation, their solution was able to save a typical paper mill around 2% of revenue in operating costs. Hence, they published a seminal paper titled, “Cooperative Multi-objective Decision Support for the Paper Industry,” which won the Daniel H. Wagner prize for Excellence in Operations Research Practice from INFORMS in 1998. In July 1997, Dr. Aggarwal "founded" IBM’s India Research Laboratory, which he set-up inside the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi. This Lab was inaugurated by the Indian Minister for Human Resources, Dr. Alagh, and the US Ambassador to India, Mr. Richard Celeste. Dr. Aggarwal started this Laboratory from "ground zero" and grew it to a 70-member team (with 35 PhDs and 35 Masters in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, and in Business Administration) by July 2000. In August 2000, Dr. Aggarwal became the Director of Emerging Business Opportunities for IBM Research Division worldwide, and in this capacity, his responsibilities included converting technology innovations into business models and taking them to market to create profitable ventures. During 1998-2000, Dr. Aggarwal was a member of Executive Committee on Information Technology of the Confederation of the Indian Industry (CII) and the Telecom Committee of Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). During 2002-2005, he was a charter member of The Indus Entrepreneur (TiE) organization and on the executive board of its New York chapter. In 2008, he received Distinguished Alumnus Award from IIT Delhi. In December 2000, he “co-founded” Evalueserve - a company that provides various kinds of research and analytics services to clients in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific from its five research centers in Delhi-Gurgaon, India; Shanghai, China; Cluj, Romania, Santiago-Valparaiso, Chile; and Raleigh, North Carolina. He was Evalueserve’s chairman until December 2013, and in 2003, along with his colleagues at Evalueserve, he pioneered the concept of “Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO)” and wrote the first article regarding KPO. Today, KPO is a well-known term in the outsourcing industry and is considered a sub-sector on its own with more than 200 KPO companies in India alone; hence, Dr. Aggarwal has been quoted extensively by Wall Street Journal and other newspapers and magazines. In February 2014, Dr. Aggarwal founded Scry Analytics, a company that codifies different kinds of work-flows in various industries and uses artificial intelligence, machine learning, data mining as well as statistical analysis to improve their efficiency with respect to timeliness, quality, money earned, customer experience, compliance and aggregated risks.

About Danny Tobey : Danny is a life sciences partner of global law firm DLA Piper, a medical doctor, and former software entrepreneur. He is a founding member of the Health AI Partnership with Duke and Mayo Clinic. Danny advised the American Medical Association on its AI liability policy and serves as lead AI counsel to several major pharmaceutical and medical device companies. Danny sits on the executive committee of the United Nation’s AI for Good law track and was recognized by the US Library of Congress for his work on law and AI. His clients also include IDx, the first FDA-approved fully autonomous AI diagnostic, and Spectral MD, the FDA breakthrough-designated AI imaging system funded by BARDA. Danny was an invited panelist at the inaugural AI, Ethics, and Society conference sponsored by Google and IBM, and his writing on AI and biotechnology appears in the National Law Journal, the Proceedings of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, American Health Law Association, the Yale Journal of Law & Technology, and Health Law Litigation. Danny led a successful software company from inception to acquisition. His original medical research appears in Pediatric Blood & Cancer and Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology.

About Bill Ferguson: William Ferguson is a Lead Scientist with Raytheon BBN Technologies in Cambridge MA. His interests include artificial intelligence, explainable machine learning, narrative, cognitive science, games and computer-based training.  He is currently principal investigator for BBN’s Symbiant project under SAIL-ON, DARPA’s program on robust behavior in open worlds. The program is trying to build AI systems that can respond reasonably to phenomena that were not anticipated in the system’s design or training. Symbiant uses a meta-cognitive approach based on Kahneman and Tversky’s Fast/Slow paradigm. Before this Mr. Ferguson lead BBN’s EQUAS project under DARPA’s Explainable Artificial Intelligence program. EQAUS explored explanation as a medium for interaction rather than as static information that an AI system might provide. Mr. Ferguson also lead the IMMERSE project under DARPA’s SSIM program, which created an embodied, synthetic environment for practicing cross-cultural social skills. He played a key role in the DARWARS project program to revolutionize computer-based training for the military by exploiting ideas and technologies developed in the commercial gaming world.  In his spare time he also writes strange short stories and has been running a game set in a magical version of 11th century Scotland for the last 15 years.

About Brian A. Ward: Brian Ward is a Sr. Mgr. at Verizon of the Wireless AI Innovation @ Verizon (WAIV) team focused on turning cutting-edge technologies in the field of Data Science into solutions for our Best-in-Class engineering teams. The team focuses on creative uses for AI/ML to provide innovative insights for our engineers, automations so tasks can be handled automatically and creating prototypes that can be hardened into long-lasting Network solutions. The team relies on strong business connections in order to offer innovative changes that may be unexpected through the introduction of new ideas, methods or technologies.Previously, Brian was part of HQ Network roles focused on deep analytics insights around traffic flow of OSI Layer seven packets (Apps, Video, etc), advisement of Network leadership at Super Bowl events, and the design and implementation of HD Voice. Additionally, Brain has had roles focused on device analytics and phone OS Updates, focused on detection of Network-Device bugs. The result of this work pushed many needed fixes into Software Updates for devices to ensure that cell phones receive text messages, make voice calls and transmit data, all as we have come to expect.Brian holds a B.S of Computer Engineering from Harding University and has been awarded/recognized multiple times by Verizon for Innovation and Optimization for improvements on Verizon's Best-in-Class Network.

About Eric N. Haney: Eric Haney is the Chief Technology Officer for Lone Star Analytics and previously served as Deputy CTO and Lead Analyst at the company. In his current role, Eric is responsible for guiding the technical direction of the company. He manages the development and roll-out Lone Star’s core software applications, TruNavigatorTM, AnalyticsOSTM, and TruPredictTM. He also chairs the company’s Advanced Research & Development arm, Cipher Alchemy, which focuses on cutting-edge artificial intelligence algorithms and advanced statistical data processing. His principal goal is to connect customers with the information required to make pragmatic, objective decisions. Eric completed his doctorate in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington culminating in his dissertation, Data Engineering in Aerospace Systems Design & Forecasting. His academic research team’s collaborations with DARPA and NASA have been published in The Aeronautical Journal.

About Alexis Gambino: Alexis Gambino has been working with workforce data over four years. She holds degrees in Applied Mathematics and Applied Statistics. Her focus is on predictive modeling and the application of model results to business outcomes as they relate to the workforce. With current market conditions, her recent efforts target voluntary terminations, unplanned absences, and the impacts of a hybrid work environment. As with any modeling, biases pose unique challenges to results and interpretability. Alexis is a strong advocate for addressing these challenges and the unique legal landscape around HR data. She is active in various women in technology networks and organizations as well as building STEM programs in local middle schools. She is also the co-founder of an employee lead club for hiking, camping, outdoor safety, and equity in the outdoors.

About Connor McLemore: Mr. Connor McLemore is a principal operations research analyst for CANA Advisors and the Chair of National Security Applications at ProbabilityManagement.org. He has over 13 years of experience in scoping, performing, and implementing analytic solutions. He is a published author on artificial intelligence and machine learning in several leading national security platforms, and he holds Master’s degrees from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California and the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. Connor is a former E-2C Hawkeye naval flight officer, Naval Postgraduate School Military Assistant Professor and Operations Research Program Officer, and a graduate of the United States Navy Fighter Weapons School (Topgun) with numerous operational deployments during 20 years of service. His last military assignment was with the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations Assessment Division (OPNAV N81) in the Pentagon.

About Kay-Yut Chen: Kay-Yut Chen is a professor of the Information Systems and Operations Management Department at the University of Texas Arlington. Early in his career, after he received his Ph.D. from Caltech in 1994, he established experimental economics research at Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, a first in a corporation. He is one of the first researchers to apply behavioral economics to business issues in areas such as supply chain contracting, workforce management, sales prediction and management, and human-based forecasting. He won the Management Science 2014 Best Paper Award in Operations Management, and the 2012 INFORMS Revenue Management and Pricing Practice Award. Kay-Yut is a Senior Editor at Production and Operations Management. Aside from publishing in academic journals such as Management Science and Production and Operations Management, his work has been featured in many general publications such as NTX Magazine (2015), Entrepreneur Magazine (2012), Scientific American (2006), Newsweek (2003), the Wall Street Journal (2000), Financial Times (2002) and others. He is the author of the book, The Secrets of the MoneyLab , published by Portfolio in Oct 2010.

About Nabil Raad: Nabil Raad is VP of Data Science at GM Financial. In this capacity, Nabil leads the Development of analytical solutions that support strategic and operational initiatives across the globe. Previously, Nabil was Director of Product Development Analytics at Ford Motor Company. Other positions held at Ford include Director of Enterprise Risk, Managing Director of Ford Credit’s Global Business Center in India, Quantitative Risk Director for Asia-Pacific and Africa, and head of Pricing Optimization. Prior to joining Ford, Nabil held various positions at Citibank and consulting firms in the areas of analytics, quality, and software engineering. Nabil has extensive experience in the field of Complex Adaptive Systems, simulation, and optimization where he has largely focused on developing transformative strategies that shape and shift the behavior of social-technical systems across several businesses. Nabil holds a BS in Computer Science, a MBA, and a PhD in Industrial and Systems Engineering. Nabil has extensive teaching and speaking experience in areas related to data science, computer science, risk management, and leadership. He serves as a global mentor across several organizations and serves in several advisory boards in higher education and business.

About Marcial Lapp: Marcial Lapp is Managing Director of the Revenue Engineering group at American Airlines. His group is responsible for the systems, data, and business processes that power Revenue Management, Network Planning and Customer Insights. The Revenue Engineering team’s responsibilities at American Airlines span across a number of disciplines including yield management & pricing, revenue integrity, passenger automation, distribution technology and partner connectivity, network-level passenger forecasting paired with fleet-assignment, as well as, customer insights. The goal of the Revenue Engineering team is to use algorithms, data, systems along with ingenuity to solve some of the toughest problems across Revenue Management, Network Planning and the rest of the commercial team. Marcial Lapp began his career in 2010 as an intern where he developed the optimizer for the overbooking system, still in use today (it’s been significantly enhanced since then). Following his internship, Marcial joined as Chief Scientist RM where he led the development of an improved network controls model and managed several domestic markets. Following a period managing the Mexico, Caribbean & Latin America region, most recently Marcial had been leading the Operations Research and Data Science group, responsible for the technical implementations of systems that drive revenue outcomes. Marcial earned a doctorate- in Industrial Engineering and Master’s in Business Administration-degree from the University of Michigan. He lives in Arlington, with his wife, Allysen and his son, Otto.