Four page summary resume, Robert Neches

1. Robert T. Neches
Office Personal
Office, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense - Systems Engineering 4712 Admiralty Way, #283
3040 Defense Pentagon, Room 3C160 Marina del Rey, CA 90292
Washington, DC 20301 310 722-8818
571-256-7031 RNeches@earthlink.net
Robert.Neches@osd.mil
PROFILE Technical manager, research scientist and program manager. Strong experience across
basic and applied information technology research and development, from point solutions
to integrated systems and concepts of operation. Academic standing for many years
among the most frequently cited authors in computer science, with publications in
cognitive modeling, software engineering, data and knowledge management, human-
computer interaction, collaborative work, and decision support systems. Strengths: big
picture thinking; eclectic mindset; ability to identify creative uses of organizational
technology assets to go from problem to solution via envelope-pushing approaches;
emphasis on collaboration and team building; record of producing ahead of expectations.
EXPERIENCE
1/11 - present Department of Defense, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for
Research and Engineering (ASDR&E) - Washington, DC (salary $199,861)
Director of Advanced Engineering
Responsible for DoD-wide planning and coordination of all science and technology
programs bearing on conceptualization, design, production and testing of complex
cyber-electro-mechanical systems, including FY13-22 definition and planning for
Engineered Resilient Systems, designated by the Secretary of Defense as a top
science and technology priority, worth approximately $450M/yr over 60 programs.
Responsible for program planning for approximately $110M in funds in FY13-17
Presidential Budget plans directly administered through ASDR&E.
7/97-12/2010 USC Information Sciences Institute – Marina del Rey, CA
Director of Collaborative Systems and Research Associate Professor (from 6/2010)
Computational Systems and Technology Division (salary $199,861)
Special assignment to develop new directions and new business in decision
support, forensic computer security, and computational social science
Director and Research Associate Professor (6/2000 - 5/2010)
Distributed Scalable Systems Division (salary $199,861)
Recruited, trained and managed researchers in planning and scheduling, decision
support, extremely large-scale information management, and cybersecurity;
continuously maintained funding between $2-4M/yr and a group size of 14-20
Defined novel concepts of operation for technology applications in military
operations, maintenance and logistics, intelligence, education, and healthcare
Ran a research and development effort on planning and scheduling technology
which went from research proposal to fielded prototype aircraft operations and
maintenance system (i.e., from Technology Readiness Level 1 to Technology
Readiness Level 6) in under five years, producing a spin-off company, a positive
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2. Military Utility Assessment from the US Marine Corps, and technology
transitions to the USMC and the Joint Strike Fighter Program.
Established award-winning coordinated multi-agent planning efforts which
outperformed conventional technologies by margins of 60-80% in over 97% of
test cases independently defined and evaluated by DARPA
Senior Project Leader for Distributed Collaborative Enterprises / Research Associate
Professor (7/97 - 9/2000)
Enterprise Integration Systems Division
Wrote the founding charter for the Division
At request of DARPA, led GeoWorlds, a consortial effort of the top ten projects
of the DARPA/NASA/NSF Digital Libraries Initiative, producing one of world's
first integrations of Geospatial Information Systems and the World Wide Web
1994-1997 Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency – Arlington, VA
Program Manager
Handled program definition, technical/financial plans, project selection and management
Managed DARPA's Planning & Decision Aids program, refocusing it toward
plan repair/adaptation and collaborative planning. Initiated technology transfer to
USTRANSCOM. Selected and funded new efforts worth over $24M.
Co-developed DARPA's Advanced Logistics Program on concurrent control of
military operations and logistical support, leading program definition of
technology and demonstrations in supply, procurement, and electronic
commerce. Architected concept of plan sentinels, an early warning system for
plan breakdowns. Selected and guided contracts valued over $50M.
Advised the Defense Logistics Agency on creating its first R&D program, valued
at $40M, and negotiated and managed its coordination with DARPA investments
Managed elements of the Human-Computer Interaction, Agile Manufacturing,
and Intelligent Integration of Information programs, valued over $25M. Moved
all three programs toward focus on network information access and composing
separate research results into a comprehensive system.
1982-1994 USC Information Sciences Institute – Marina del Rey, CA
Project Leader / Research Assistant & Associate Professor (7/86 - 6/94)
Intelligent Systems Division
Established the 8-person INtegrated User-Support Environments (IN-USE)
research group on individual and collaborative information management systems,
emphasizing reusable component technology. Efforts included basic work on
knowledge-based systems, intelligent interfaces and collaboration, as well as
applied work on intelligent logistics and electronic commerce. Maintained a
funding stream between $1-2M/year throughout this period.
Wrote winning proposals obtaining approximately $5M of funding for e-
commerce work performed in a separate USC ISI division, enabling founding of
the second operating e-commerce service in the country (FASTXchange), which
won awards for support of Operation Desert Storm and is now among the oldest
e-commerce businesses still in operation.
Led the ARPA Knowledge Sharing Effort, a consortium of over 20 academic,
industrial and government R&D centers on tools and protocols for sharing and
reuse of knowledge-based systems. A strong example of high funding leverage,
with a budget less than $200K/year over three years, the effort's reports on
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3. knowledge representation languages, reusable ontologies, and agent
communication languages have since been cited in over 500 academic papers.
Research Computer Scientist, Software Engineering (8/82 - 6/86)
Researched, developed and demonstrated a paradigm for maintainable expert
systems capable of explaining their reasoning steps.
Developed and published some of the earliest work in the field on friendly,
object-oriented computing OSs, tested via adoption and operational use of
advanced email and collaboration aids by ISI's software engineering staff.
1/81 - 8/82 University of Pittsburgh Learning Research & Development Center – Pittsburgh, PA
Post-Doctoral Research Fellow
Developed cognitive simulations, machine learning programs and programming
architectures for cognitive modeling (since validated and still recognized today).
EDUCATION
Ph.D. Carnegie-Mellon University, 1981
Cognitive Psychology (Thesis Title: Models of Heuristic Procedure Modification)
M.S. Carnegie-Mellon University, 1977
Cognitive Psychology
B.A. UC San Diego, 1976
Independent Studies in Artificial Intelligence and Education Technologies
(very possibly the first Bachelor's diploma in the country in Artificial Intelligence.
Bachelor's Thesis Title: Intelligent Educational Dialogue Systems)
PUBLICATIONS
Over 90 refereed journal, book chapter and conference publications; one edited book.
Publications span psychology, computer science, healthcare, education and logistics.
Among the top 1% of most frequently cited authors in Computer Science, based on
data from inception to 2010 in the CiteSeerX index of computer science literature.
18 additional technical reports, on subjects ranging from policy recommendations
produced at the request of DARPA for the Federal E-Commerce Task Force, to
descriptions of advanced logistics technology utilized by the GAO in evaluating
efficiency in military logistics, to study group recommendations leading to founding
of DARPA research programs.
RECENT SERVICE ACTIVITIES
Informatics Director, (9/2007-ongoing)
Pediatric Disaster Research and Training Center, Childrens Hospital Los Angeles
Defined strategy underlying the Center, initially funded at $5M by DHHS (see
www3.isi.edu/div2-ppt-systems_social_resilience_healthy_communities.ppt)
Combined over $800K in PDRTC and Los Angeles County Department of
Health Services funding to build the Pediatric Emergency Decision Support
System (PEDSS), a tool combining geospatial, demographic, epidemiological
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4. and clinical knowledge for preparation and rapid decisionmaking known as,
"TurboTax for disaster planning." (http://think-fast-decisions.blogspot.com)
Participation in National Level Studies
Lead Coordinator for Defense Department -wide Science and Technology
Priority planning studies on Engineered Resilient Systems (2011)
Contributor, Defense Department -wide Science and Technology Priority Area
planning studies on Counter Weapons of Mass Destruction (2011)
Reviewer, CDC National Committee Report on Emergency Mass Critical Care in
Pediatrics (2010)
Participant, National Academy of Science Institute of Medicine Workshop on
Regionalized Medical Care (2010)
Committee member and co-author, National Academy of Science Computer
Science and Technology Board study on Improving Disaster Management: The
Role of IT in Mitigation, Preparedness, Response, and Recovery (2007)
Institutional Level Activities
Chair, University of Southern California Information Sciences Institute
Undergraduate and Masters Student Intern Mentorship Committee
University of Southern California Information Sciences Institute Representative
to the World-Wide Web Consortium Advisory Group
MEMBERSHIPS
International Council of Systems Engineers (INCOSE)
National Defense Industrial Association
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM):
Special Interest Group on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work
Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction
Special Interest Group on Mobile Computing
TECHNICAL INTERESTS
Information Technology: Distributed software systems engineering, information
management, human-computer interaction, computer-supported cooperative work, resource
management, decision-making and decision support.
Technology and policy: Enablers for cost-effective and efficient delivery of services,
resilience of social, physical and technological systems.
Government and civilian applications of command, control, computing, communications and
intelligence: New concepts of operation utilizing information technology to enhance effective
situation assessment and decision making, applied in both traditional operational settings
(military operations, national intelligence, homeland security) and non-traditional operational
settings (design, systems engineering, manufacturing, healthcare, enterprise management).
OTHER PERTINENT INFORMATION
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5. Native-born U.S. Citizen
Clearance level: TS SCI, with multiple compartment clearances
References available upon request
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