Opening Keynote: “What’s Coming with GeoAI?”

Sean O’Brien, Ph.D., was recognized as the 2021 AI Executive of the Year (WashingtonExec Pinnacle Award) for the National Security Industry. His goal is to create the teams, practices, processes, and culture needed to tackle the exploding data and AI challenges facing government and commercial partners. He is Vice President, Intelligent Systems, HRL Laboratories. He previously was the Chief Technologist at Northrop Grumman for their Intelligence, Analytics, and Autonomous Solutions business areas, which depend heavily on artificial intelligence and other advanced algorithms and spent several years leading Northrop’s Algorithmic Warfare Department in Woodland Hills, CA. Before coming to NG in 2005, Dr. O’Brien held multiple positions in academia, including at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, MD, and at Yale University in New Haven, CT. He obtained his B.S. in Physics from Boise State University in 1992 and a Ph.D. in Astrophysics from Iowa State University in 1998.

John P. Wilson, Ph.D., is Professor of Sociology and Spatial Sciences in the Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences at the University of Southern California (USC) where he founded and directs the Spatial Sciences Institute. He also holds adjunct appointments as a Professor in the USC School of Architecture, in the USC Viterbi School of Engineering’s Departments of Computer Science and Civil & Environmental Engineering, and the Keck School of Medicine of USC’s Department of Preventive Medicine. He founded the journal Transactions in GIS in 1996 and has served as editor-in-chief since its inception. He has served on the editorial boards of numerous journals and publications, and also served on the board of directors and as president of the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science (UCGIS). He currently leads the UCGIS GIS&T Body of Knowledge 2.0 project and is an active participant in UNIGIS. His research focus is the modeling of environmental systems and makes extensive use of GIS software tools, fieldwork, spatial analysis techniques, and computer models.

Courtney is one of our outstanding Spatial Sciences Institute alumni, a 2020 graduate with a degree in Geodesign and Applied Analytics. After her brilliant college years with us, Courtney joined Deloitte as a Government and Public Services Strategy and Analytics Consultant working to drive efficiency and innovation in the public sector, starting off on a large technical implementation project supporting COVID-19 response efforts for a prominent federal health client. Her technical background and strategic mindset led her into the Defense, Security & Justice sector. She now supports Department of Defense clients by providing strategic process improvement assessments and supply chain logistic toolsets. Beyond her immediate role, she harbors a deep passion for the transformative potential of leveraging emerging tech in the public sector and envisions smart, sustainable cities of the future, driven by the strategic use of GIS software and leveraging large public datasets for informed decision-making.