Prof. James Hendler   Date Wednesday, November 16, 2011 Title Semantic Web: Reviewing and Renewing the Vision

Short Bio

James Hendler is the Tetherless World Professor of Computer and Cognitive Science, and the Assistant Dean for Information Technology and Web Science, at Rensselaer. He is also a faculty affiliate of the Experimental Multimedia Performing Arts Center (EMPAC), serves as a Director of the UK's charitable Web Science Trust and is a visiting Professor at the Institute of Creative Technology at DeMontfort University in Leicester, UK. Hendler is a Fellow of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence, the British Computer Society and the IEEE. He is also the former Chief Scientist of the Information Systems Office at the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and was awarded a US Air Force Exceptional Civilian Service Medal in 2002. He is the Editor-in-Chief emeritus of IEEE Intelligent Systems and is the first computer scientist to serve on the Board of Reviewing Editors for Science. In 2010, Hendler was named to the "honor roll" of the 20 most innovative professors in America by Playboy magazine.

Hendler also serves as an "Internet Web Expert" for the US government, providing guidance to the Data.gov project.

Gheorghe Tecuci   Date Thursday, October 28, 2011 01:30 PM Title Development of Cognitive Assistants by        Subject Matter Experts

Short Bio

Gheorghe Tecuci is Professor of Computer Science in the Volgenau School of Engineering and Director of the Learning Agents Center at George Mason University (http://lac.gmu.edu). He is also a Visiting Professor and former Chair of Artificial Intelligence at the US Army War College. Dr. Tecuci has followed a career-long interest in the development of a computational theory and technology that allows non-computer scientists to develop intelligent assistants that incorporate their problem solving expertise, and can assist them in problem solving and decision making.

He has published over 175 papers with contributions in machine learning (particularly multi-strategy learning and instructable agents), artificial intelligence, cognitive systems, and their applications. He was elected member of the Romanian Academy and received the Academy's Award (for research excellence on learning systems). He has also received the US Army Outstanding Civilian Service Medal ("for groundbreaking contributions to the application of Artificial Intelligence to Center of Gravity determination"), the lifetime IT&E Outstanding Research Faculty Award, the Best Paper Award at the International Conference on Intelligent Tutoring Systems, and the Deployed Application Award from the American Association of Artificial Intelligence.

Dennis E. Wisnosky   Date Thursday, October 28, 2011 09:00 AM Title Semantic Technology in the Department of Defense,        Business Mission Area

Short Bio

Mr. Dennis E. Wisnosky is the Chief Architect and Chief Technical Officer (CTO) of the Department of Defense (DoD) Business Mission Area (BMA) within the Office of the Deputy Chief Management Officer (DCMO).

As Chief Architect and CTO, Mr. Wisnosky is responsible for providing expert guidance and oversight in the design, development, and modification of the federated architectures supporting the Department's Business Mission Area. This role incorporates oversight of the DoD Business Enterprise Architecture (BEA); the corporate level systems, processes, and data standards that are common across the DOD, in addition to the business architectures of the services and defense agencies.

Mr. Wisnosky is leading the transformation of architecture-driven business systems and services development, and deployment. He ensures that Business Process Models are based on a standardized representation, enabling the analysis and comparison of end-to-end business processes leading to the re-use of the most efficient and effective process patterns and elements throughout the DoD Business Mission Area. A key principle in DoD business transformation is its focus on data ontology and semantic web methods. Mr. Wisnosky also serves as an advisor on the development of requirements and extension of DoD net-centric enterprise services in collaboration with the office of the DOD Chief Information Officer (CIO).

Mr. Wisnosky has over 25 years of experience in manufacturing, Information Technology (IT), engineering, consulting and training, including extensive experience in business process reengineering and enterprise architecture efforts. His specialty is deriving solutions to effectively move organizations from their "as-is" state of inefficiency to their "to-be" state of achieving strategic and tactical objectives. Mr. Wisnosky is recognized as a creator of the Integrated Definition (IDEFs) language, the standard for modeling and analysis in management and business improvement efforts. In addition, he is the author of several books including DoDAF Wizdom, considered the decisive source within DoD and other government organizations for managing enterprise architecture projects. Mr. Wisnosky holds a bachelor's degree in Physics and Mathematics from California University of Pennsylvania, a master's in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh, and a master's in Management Science from the University of Dayton. Mr. Wisnosky has received numerous awards and honors for his work. In 2007 Mr. Wisnosky was a recipient of Federal Computer Week's Federal 100 Award.

Mr. Wisnosky is a PADI certified Rescue Diver and Instrument Rated Private Pilot in Multiengine Aircraft. He and his wife live in Naperville, Illinois. They have three daughters and eight grandchildren.