Speakers

A nationally recognized leader in the engineering and manufacturing industry, Dr. Cesar Maldonado transitioned to a leadership role in higher education in 2008. Today he serves as the 8^th Chancellor of the 50-year old Houston Community College District (HCC), leading a system that stretches over nearly 700 square miles in the nation’s fourth largest city, and serves over 100,000 students per year across 20 locations.

As Chancellor, Dr. Maldonado has focused on unifying the system, leveraging the strengths of individual campuses, and tapping into the needs of students. He has overseen the establishment of 13 Centers of Excellence in technical education, managed the building of new campuses, and created partnerships with numerous four-year universities and private industries. Dr. Maldonado’s leadership led to his being named a finalist as the 2017 nonprofit CEO of the year by the Houston Business Journal’s C-Suite Awards Committee.

To guide the institution for years to come, Dr. Maldonado established Embracing Houston’s Future, a bold vision for the college and the Greater Houston region through its six strategic priorities: student success, diversity and equity, personalized learning, academic rigor, community investment, and college of choice. The strategic plan underpins the college’s innovation and progress for the coming years, and set the stage for Houston Community College’s historic 50^th anniversary celebration of its positive impact on students’ lives and the region’s economy.

Additionally, Dr. Maldonado led the institution through the COVID-19 global pandemic, quickly pivoting operations to provide students ongoing remote instruction and collaborating with community leaders to provide much needed resources to the community at large. These efforts led to the institution’s acceptance of Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s STAR Award in 2021, recognizing Houston Community College for its extraordinary efforts to promote higher education during the pandemic.

Dr. Maldonado is a member of the Texas Education Agency Accountability Policy Advisory Committee and the Texas Association of Community Colleges Executive Committee. Dr. Maldonado also serves on the Council for Higher Education Accreditation Board, the Greater Houston Partnership (GHP) Board of Directors, Hispanic Association of Colleges & Universities  (HACU) Bord of Directors, the GHP Education Advisory Committee, and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s Community and Technical Colleges Formula Committee (CTCFAC).

Dr. Maldonado holds Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in Chemical Engineering from Texas A&M University, a Doctorate in Systems and Engineering Management from Texas Tech University, and is an alumnus of the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business.

As the president of Houston Community College Southwest, Dr. Madeline Burillo-Hopkins oversees all operations at HCC Southwest comprising four campuses that include the flagship Digital and Information Technology Center of Excellence.

A tireless champion of workforce development, Dr. Burillo-Hopkins was appointed vice chancellor for Workforce Instruction at the HCC system in 2020 in addition to her president's role at HCC Southwest. In her new role, she provides strategic planning, oversight and support of workforce development and continuing education programs.

Her leadership extends beyond the college system. Serving on the executive committee of UpSkill Houston, an initiative led by the Greater Houston Partnership, she works to connect Houstonians to careers that increase economic opportunity and stability. She also serves on the University of Houston at Sugar Land Advisory Board to establish public and private partnerships and expand academic programs and student services. Additionally, she serves on the American Association of Community Colleges Commission on Economic and Workforce Development aimed at closing the skills gaps to prepare students for careers and jobs in regional and global economies.  

Over the past two decades, Dr. Burillo-Hopkins has been instrumental in bringing innovative education projects to HCC, including the HCC RigOne Global Oil and Gas Drilling Training Center and a partnership with Apple to teach coding skills using the tech giant’s new Swift coding language curriculum.

Dr. Burillo-Hopkins received the Hispanic Women in Leadership Award for outstanding service in education in 2001. In 2003, she was awarded the HCC Chancellor’s Medallion for Outstanding Service, and in 2010, the HCC Eagle Award for Administrative Leadership. In 2013, d-mars.com selected her as one of the Top 30 Influential Women of Houston. In 2015, Houston Women Magazine recognized her as one of Houston’s 50 Most Influential Women.

Dr. Burillo-Hopkins holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Puerto Rico, a master’s degree in Organizational Management from the University of Phoenix, and a doctorate in Educational Leadership from Sam Houston State University.

Dr. G Raymond Brown began teaching at Houston Community College in 2009 and currently leads the HCC Artificial Intelligence program. His career spans over 25 years teaching physics, computer science, cybersecurity, and AI in colleges and universities. He also spent 17 years in an industry as an atmospheric scientist, meteorologist, consulutant and software engineer and manager. He lead a team to have buillt and launched Texas's first AI AAS program at HCC in 2018. The program is on track to become a bachelor's program in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics with classes planned to begin in 2023. Dr. Brown received his Ph.D. in Physics from Duke University, and is a member of AAAI, USAI Labs, and various Developer Network Programs in the AI industry. He also advises the HCC Computer Science Association student club. For his achievment with the HCC's AI program, Dr. Brown became the 2021-2022 recipient of the Innovater of the Year Award from the League of Innovation.

Dr. Doreen Rosenstrauch is passionate about paying it forward to the next generation of leaders in healthcare and medicine. She is certified in AI and human cognition in medicine and healthcare by the American Board of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine, and is certified in healthcare management by the American College of Healthcare Executives. She is founder and CEO of the DrDoRo Institute, an award-winning healthcare consulting firm. Dr. Rosenstrauch is a 2021 recipient of the Global Digital Healthcare Pioneers of the Year Award in the United Kingdom. She has dual citizen status in Germany and the United States.

Dr. Hong Lin is a professor of computer science at the University of Houston-Downtown. He serves as program director for the Master of Science in Artificial Intelligence program at UHD. He is a senior member of the Association for Computing Machinery.

Dr. Lin's research interests include cognitive intelligence, human-centered computing, parallel/distributed computing, and big data analytics. He is supervisor of the Grid Computing Lab and a co-founder of the Data Center at UHD.

Dr. Lin taught artificial intelligence and machine learning at Georgia Tech Shenzhen Institute in 2021. He is also a guest professor at Shanghai Maritime University.

Dr. Lin received his Ph.D. in computer science in 1997 from the University of Science and Technology of China. Before he joined UHD in 2001, he was a postdoctoral research associate at Purdue University, and an assistant research officer at the National Research Council in Canada.

Dr. Hardik Gohel is assistant professor and director of Applied Artificial Intelligence Lab at the University of Houston at Victoria. His cybersecurity project portfolio includes cyber test automation and monitoring, database and mobile forensics infrastructure and security and privacy of social media. His applied research focuses on developing automated cyber testing solutions for critical infrastructure using state-of-the art AI and machine learning. Dr. Gohel is working on multidisciplinary research in partnership and collaboration with national labs and industry experts to support research in the areas of cyberspace and information assurance, test technology development, and gap analysis. He specializes in six areas of cybersecurity: test and evaluation of cyberspace technologies; malware analysis and penetration testing; real-time monitoring and forensics; malicious software and rootkit analysis; cyber analytics and visualization; and cybersecurity workforce development.

With over 25 years of teaching experience, Dr. Narges DeBary joined the Houston Community College in 2008 as an instructor of computer networking, programming, and AI courses at the Digital Information Technology Center of Excellence. She also brings seven years of industry experience as a website developer and database administrator. Dr. DeBary received her doctorate degree in computer science with the big data analytics concentration from Colorado Technical University in 2017. She holds a master’s degree in Information Technology Management. Dr. DeBary established Houston Community College's Women in Technology (WIT) student club in 2017 and has been involved in the college's STEM summer camps for years as a director and teacher.

Dr. Abo Jin is assistant professor of computer science at the University of Houston at Victoria. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Dalian University of Technology in 2011, a Master of Science degree in electrical engineering from the University of Houston in 2016 and Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Houston in 2021. His research interests include computer graphics, virtual human modeling and animation, and sketch-based modeling.

Dr. Felix Bradbury is the AI practitioner for the MITRE Corporation, an annual $9 billion Federally Funded Research and Development Corporation (FFRDC), a think tank that traces its roots to MIT’s School of Engineering and Lincoln Labs during WWII. The MITRE Corporation sits at the intersection of leading-edge technology, industry and academia with the mission of
“Solving Problems for a Safer World.” Dr. Bradbury is an award-winning data scientist and board-certified health care executive with over 30 years of experience with global health care delivery. He is an registered nurse and holds a Doctor of Science in Health Systems Management and Medical Economics from Tulane University. He serves on the Programs Policies and Services Committee of the Board of the American College of Healthcare Executives. As an associate editor for the Journal of Healthcare Management, he oversees topics relating to AI, advanced analytics, analytic infrastructure, and operations research. He received the Regent’s Award from ACHE in 2005 and 2015, and MIT’s Fire Hose award in 2020 for work in machine learning. He uses data science methods to enable national provider and payer organizations to maximize the value of their existing data and develop flexible and scalable analytic strategies to improve clinical outcomes, reduce avoidable health care spend, reduce unnecessary utilization, and improve their patients’ experiences with health care delivery.

Yan Xu leads a machine learning team at PROS in Houston. She has extensive experience in building data science solutions to solve the real world challenges in pricing and sales for modern commerce. She is also the founder and the leading speaker for a machine learning meet-up group in the Houston area. This nonprofit is dedicated to making machine learning easy and accessible to everyone who has the passion to learn! Ms. Xu earned her Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Houston.

During his 45-year practice as a family physician, Dr. James Phelan has continued to cultivate his lifelong interest in electronics and technology, including 20 years of passion for robotics. He has authored multiple articles for the former Robot Magazine, and served for years as team lead on NASA/JPL Open Source Rover with USAi Labs and a contributor to the Open Source Rover worldwide community. With an extensive experience in the IT fields since high school from computer programming to database management to telecommunications, Dr. Phelan is the current president of USAi Labs. He is currently studying AI robotics at the Houston Community College working to upgrade rover from remote controlled to autonomous driving with the knowledge from his HCC course. As a clinical instructor, Dr. Phelan has taught taught from 1968 through 1990 at Baylor College of Medicine, his alma mater.

Mitesh Patel is a Developer Relationship Manager at NVIDIA, where he collaborates with researchers in academia to execute their ideas using NVIDIA SDK(s) platforms. Before joining NVIDIA, he was a senior research scientist at FX Palo Alto Laboratory, where he worked on developing novel systems using machine learning/deep learning in the domain of robotics, indoor localization, user behavior modeling and activity recognition. Prior to that he was a research scientist at Yahoo! Labs on the Ad Science team. Dr. Patel received a Ph.D. in robotics from Center of Autonomous Systems at the University of Technology Sydney in 2014 where he focused on modeling a wide spectrum of high-level user activities using different probabilistic techniques.

Samir Saber joined the Houston Community College computer science faculty in 2011 as department chair for Computer Systems Networking. He became the dean of Digital and Information Technology Center of Excellence in 202 overseeing all of the instructional, administrative, and industry and community outreach operations for the center. Saber has over 12 years of professional experience in the academia, web hosting, and oil and gas industries. He is also a consultant and entrepreneur. Saber received his Master of Science degree in Information Assurance and Security from Capella University and a Bachelor in Business Administration degree in Information Systems Management from the University of Texas at Dallas.

Gretchen Stewart is chief data scientist for Intel’s public sector working closely with Intel’s ecosystem of software, hardware and partner vendors to develop solutions and programs focused on the convergence of high-performance computing and data analytics. In her solution architecture role, she is building the data analytics/artificial intelligence/machine learning practice at Intel working with federal and state government, research institutions, universities, energy, and advanced manufacturing customers.

Ms. Stewart works closely with customers on ethical and responsible AI. To enhance Intel’s ecosystem with AI solutions and programs, she works with disruptors, start-up and mainstream software vendors to ensure governments, educational institutions and enterprise customers advance research have competitive advantages, build smarter cities and provide enhanced services to citizens.

Ms. Stewart has over 20 years of experience in the technology sector. Her last position prior to joining Intel was account general manager for the USAF, working closely with the AFWS, AFRL and USAF senior leadership to ensure support of the mission. Her extensive background with product life cycle development and bringing new products to market from conception to sales ensured products were delivered on time and under budget. She has led, motivated and managed server sales team that continually meet or exceeded their sales revenue targets.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Wells College and an MBA from the University System of New Hampshire, along with leadership and branding certifications from Harvard and Dartmouth. She graduated with distinction from a data analytics program jointly developed by Harvard Business School, Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and Harvard Faculty of Arts and Science in June 2019.

Outside of work, she mentors young women starting their careers through Women’s Unlimited in Boston; volunteers to monitor water quality; and is past treasurer of the Hanscom Representatives Association.

An entrepreneur looking to make a difference in the health and wellness of human beings. All his time is focused on what technology and products can be developed to enhance the lives of everyone around me, especially children.
An accomplished and effective executive with broad-based skills and experience, including retail operations management, financial analysis, and business development. Successful sales, management, and marketing professional with years of success in starting new businesses and leading them into profitable operations. Reputation for creative problem solving, dedication, drive, and a customer-focused mindset. Exceptional team builder, decision-maker, facilitator, and communicator with a sound understanding of overall business objectives.

Sunil Garg is the founder and CEO of dataVediK, a Houston-based AI and machine learning startup focused on sustainable living and using domain, data science and software engineering expertise to build a Hyper-Converged Data and Analytics Platform for the energy industry. He previously had spent more than 20 years establishing and growing data management, big data and analytics businesses for Schlumberger.

Mr. Garg has deep understanding of oil and gas data, data science and machine learning, and uses the combination to build end user-centric solutions. He is a member of several industry organizations and forums including SPE, AAPG, PPDM, SPDM, OSDU and the Rice Alliance.

Mr. Garg is a sought-after speaker at various industry conferences and conducts big data, machine learning and blockchain trainings for the industry, government entities, and the academia. He is also an active angel investor and a board member of TiE Houston, an organization whose mission is to foster entrepreneurship through mentoring, networking, funding, and incubation.

As a member of the National Small Business Association Technology Leadership Council, he advocates on behalf of all small technology and R&D firms on a wide range of issues, including intellectual property protection, data rights, regulatory reform, cybersecurity compliance and government contracting.

Mr. Garg has deep understanding of Oil and Gas data, Data Science & ML and uses the combination to build end user centric solutions. He is a member of several industry organizations and forums like SPE, AAPG, PPDM, SPDM, OSDU and Rice Alliance.

Mr. Garg is a sought-after speaker at various industry conferences and conducts Big Data, Machine Learning and blockchain trainings for the Industry, the Government, and the Academia. He is also an active angel investor and a Board member of TiE Houston, an organization whose mission is to foster entrepreneurship through mentoring, networking, funding, and incubation.

As a member of the National Small Business Association Technology Leadership Council, he advocates on behalf of all small technology and R&D firms on a wide range of issues, including intellectual property protections, data rights, regulatory reform, cybersecurity compliance and government contracting.

Rajdeep heads GEP’s global data and analytics engineering teams and the development of GEP’s analytics products.
 

He has deep industry experience in building data products and platforms applying Distributed Computing, Internet of Things, Data Lake, Data Mesh, SQL/NoSQL, Data Warehousing, Business Intelligence and Machine Learning paradigms.

Rajdeep has previously worked at Microsoft Corp. in the Azure Data and Artificial Intelligence Cloud Solutions Domain where he spearheaded the architecture and deployment of mission critical enterprise big data, machine learning and advanced analytics workloads.

Prior to that at Hortonworks he architected and deployed multi petabyte scale greenfield/brownfield Hadoop, Spark and MPP Datawarehouse environments on premise, cloud, and hybrid.

He holds a master’s degree in Data Science from Bellevue University and a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from St. Thomas’ College of Engineering and Technology.

Outside of work, Rajdeep is an enthusiastic cook - and an avid lover of fishing, playing pool, cricket and tennis.

He loves to publish reusable code, organize meetups, and speak about Distributed Computing and Machine Learning. Portfolio: https://rajdeepbiswas.github.io/

You can connect with him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajdeepbiswas/

“Data & AI solutions with privacy, security, governance, accuracy, availability and connectivity truly drives digital transformation.”

Paul DeCarlo is a Principal Cloud Developer Advocate for Microsoft and Professor for the Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston. His current technology interests focus on Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, and Edge-to-Cloud Applications. He is an experienced startup founder for WinCoder LLC ( http://wincoder.co ). During time off, he enjoys taking care of his thirteen trees, riding mountain bikes, and taking care of his dog – Chief and cat – Kitty.

Reynaldo Gomez earned his BS in Nuclear Physics from the University of Texas in 2013 and is now earning an MS in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford. He spent three years at Schlumberger WesternGeco as a geophysicist before moving to IBM and eventually landing on the Energy team at NVIDIA. Reynaldo manages the partner ecosystem for the energy vertical with a focus on machine learning, deep learning, and high performance computing.

Peter I. Heyer, is an Elite Certified Recruiting Expert with 30 years of experience. His company, Heyer Expectations, is an executive search firm specializing in the AI/ML space since 2017 and has a track record of helping companies in the IT sector, aerospace/DOD, and accounting finance industries. The firm sources source extraordinary professionals with remarkable skills in their area of expertise, and who exhibit a high degree of character, integrity, and core spiritual values. The company looks seeks candidates with a proven track record of achievement and accountability in prior positions and is passionate in its mission to partner with organizations to meet and exceed their talent acquisition deliverables. They include HP, Hitachi, LinkedIn, Deloitte, Lockheed Martin, Accenture, Northrop Grumman, Stryker, DaVita, and KPMG, to name a few. 

Kenneth Hester leads technology for the energy industry at NVIDIA. He is a solution architect and manager for NVIDIA supporting the energy industry in HPC, AI deep learning and machine learning, and CUDA GPU compute. He is based out of Houston and has been with NVIDIA for almost eight years. Prior to NVIDIA, he worked in energy for over 15 years as an industry expert in data science, software architecture, software design and development. 

At the beginning of 2021, Dianne Eldridge started her current position as Worldwide Business Development Leader at Amazon Web Services (AWS) for Industrial AI/Machine Learning. Before this post, Dianne spent 21 years with Emerson, a global engineering and manufacturing Fortune 500 company, as Executive Director of Strategic Business Unit. Dianne had the global responsibilities of a multi-hundred-million-dollar manufacturing portfolio in the US, China, and Italy. She was part of the executive leadership team of the complete Actuation business. Previously, Dianne also worked as leaders of various functions in different world areas including Application Engineering in Canada, Business Development in Singapore, Operations, and Global Product Management in the US. Dianne Eldridge is a 2011 graduate of the University of Texas at Austin MBA program. She also holds two bachelor's degrees in Biomedical Engineering and Commerce from China and Canada. As 1st generation immigrant, Dianne’s parents are Indonesian Chinese. She grew up in Beijing China; lived and worked in Canada, China, Singapore, and the US; married to a Canadian/IT Executive/Navy officer/MBA husband. She is a full-time working mom of a son and a daughter. Dianne currently is a member of the Advisory Board of Women’s Energy Network(WEN) Houston. Previously, she was the chapter leader of Emerson Women in STEM Houston; served as a member of the UT McCombs MBA Admission Committee, and had been speaker and panelist at various Women Leadership / Engineering Conferences and events including National Society of Women Engineers(SWE) Conference(2021) and Graduate SWE weSTEM conference as closing keynote(2022).

Machuria M. Johnson is a professor and associate chair in the Computer Systems Networking division that includes the AI program at the HCC Digital and Information Technology Center of Excellence. She certifies students with industry and professional certifications recognized locally, nationally and worldwide. Her professional career spanned over 20 years as a database expert in design, development, implementation and administration. Professor Johnson holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of Houston in Management Information Systems and a Master of Business Administration from Rice University. She earned a Microsoft Database Administrator certification and a post-graduate certificate in Data Science and Business Analytics from the University of Texas at Austin. She serves as the organization advisor for the Houston Community College Women in Technology student club.

Chaitanya Vempati is the director of data science at Memorial Hermann Health System. In this role, he leads the data science team at Memorial Hermann and is responsible for infrastructure and developing data science solutions across the organization. He has over 14 years of experience in the oil and gas industry, building digital tools that transform the business through data-driven and model-based approaches. Mr. Vempati holds a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, focusing on product design and innovation, artificial intelligence and neural networks, graph theory and numerical optimization. He has co-authored nine publications and holds 35 U.S. patents.

Becky Thomas is chief operating officer at i2k Connect Inc,, a software manufacturer in Houston delivering i2k Connect AI for Energy. Her work experience spans over 25 years of commercializing technical software products for startup companies. She is responsible for the delivery of i2k Connect’s Artificial Intelligence platform within the energy industry. The i2k Connect AI Platform powers the Society of Petroleum Engineers Research Portal and is embedded AI in Schlumberger’s DELFI cognitive E&P environment. Ms. Thomas holds a Bachelor of Science degree in business management from the University of Phoenix. She volunteers her time with the Society of Petroleum Engineers, Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, and she mentors young professionals from around the world.

Ayman is a technologist, tech strategist, tech speaker, advisor, change leader and cloud architect specializing in big data, modern cloud native application design, cloud infrastructure, high-performance computing clusters and hyper-scale hybrid data center solutions. As an experienced leader, Ayman manages customer success and cloud-born digital transformation for Microsoft customers by leveraging Microsoft Azure, Office 365 and Dynamics 365.

Scott Schlotz is an entrepreneur and healthcare thought leader. During the past 11 years, he has focused on developing innovative approaches to creating enhanced care delivery models to support population health and value-based care. He currently serves as director of Digital Health at Kelsey-Seybold Clinic, where he works to enable patients to have greater access to care and to be more involved in their treatment and wellness plans. Innovative virtual care platforms, coupled with compassionate clinical teams, provide the means to achieve this goal. Mr. Scholtz has served as a technology leader while launching an Accountable Care Organization (ACO); managed product and clinical workflow development to create virtual care platforms to support the closing of high-value gaps in care; and served as program director for the development of an innovative, virtual chronic care management program that allows critically and chronically ill patients to age in place.

Malleswar Yenugu has been living in Houston for the last 10+ years. He holds PhD degree in Geophysics from the University of Houston. He is the CEO of Byte Link Systems, Inc and also serving as the Technology director for ITServe alliance.

Dr. Yenugu offered guest lectures at various prestigious universities like Stanford, Univ. of New Orleans, Univ. of Tulsa, IIT-Bombay, etc. He is currently serving as the Vice-President for ITServe Houston chapter and as an Executive Board member at national level.

Dr. Yenugu also an entrepreneur working on developing advanced medical condition diagnosis tools using Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications. His company is working on developing an AI powered tool (US patent pending) called AIMedScan to diagnose Pneumonia and Covid-19 from X-rays and CT-scans. Dr Yenugu also developing AI tools for Stock Price Prediction and NLP AI chatbots for restaurants.

Aruna is a unique combination of a tech startup and SMB COO delivering growth with fiscal responsibility and a successful VC/PE and angel-investor, having managed over 150 investments across various portfolios. Throughout her career, she has led and developed companies to peak performing organizations with limited resources by creating and optimizing processes in technology and software development, customer-centric delivery, sales and marketing, and finance in sectors including cloud infrastructure and data-centers, SaaS and PaaS based Artificial Intelligence solutions, education, commercial real estate and consumer products.

A lifetime Houstonian, Aruna is a recognized member of the community who continues to give back by serving as a Board Member and Advisor to investment vehicles, educational institutions, non-profits and startups. She has an MBA from Rice University and BS and MS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.

Ramesh Prabhala is the Founder and CEO of IntelliTide Corp. – a Houston based Data Management and Data Science solutions and services provider. IntelliTide’s veteran data scientists and data management experts help global customers across multiple industries to leverage their data “as an asset” using Advanced Analytics, AI and Data Quality and Governance techniques. Prior to founding IntelliTide, Ramesh worked for global corporations like Microsoft and HP as well as startups where he was responsible for engineering and managing applications demanding large transaction volumes and high scalability.

Ariana is a corporate leader-turned-entrepreneur, angel investor and former economist with a passion for innovation and technology. Over the past two years, she has honed her expertise in digital transformation, AI and product strategy at Kellogg School of Management. She currently advises businesses on people-centered innovation through digital transformation and data-driven strategy developments. Her most recent project was for a multi-family developer and construction top company in Brazil. Her corporate experience spans over 20 years at global organizations PWC, London UK, Continental Airlines, and Shell Oil in Houston. She is also a thought leader, speaker, and change-maker. She serves as a board member of prominent civic and philanthropic organizations that focus on diversity and inclusion initiatives and that address strategic business issues locally and globally.

Angle Bush, Visionary, Leader, Founder - Black Women In Artificial Intelligence. After attending an event that did not fully reflect the diversity needed to ensure access and opportunity in the artificial intelligence sector, Angle decided to do something about it. In 2020 she founded Black Women In Artificial Intelligence, an organization whose mission is to Educate, Engage, Embrace, and Empower Black women in the Artificial Intelligence industry. In less than two years, the organization has seen phenomenal growth, becoming a global organization whose members span four continents. In 2021 Angle spearheaded the campaign to create National Black Women In Artificial Intelligence day, which is now celebrated annually on August 1 to amplify the voices of Black women and honor their contributions to Artificial Intelligence. Aligning with the mission to provide access and opportunity the organization has also developed partnerships with some of the top companies in the nation including Amazon, Capital One, Expedia, and NVIDIA. From learning opportunities to mentorship programs, the organization continues to create initiatives that focus on creating spaces for Black Women to thrive. Before starting Black Women In Artificial Intelligence Angle worked in the oil and gas industry for over fifteen years serving in several positions from Process Improvement Manager to Vendor Relationship Manager. She also served as the Executive Producer of Your15Minutes Radio an online podcast that focuses on entrepreneurship. All of which have led her to this mission, this moment. Angle earned a Master’s degree in Administration and a Bachelor of Science degree in Community Development with a concentration in Public Administration from Central Michigan University. She also attended Harvard University where she studied history.

Nathan Chang has held multiple leadership roles in large enterprises leading R&D and innovation.  His time in Xilinx/AMD has been focused on developing the ISV eco-system, solution stacking and creating go-to market strategies for innovative solutions that utilize hardware acceleration to generate market value.  Before joining AMD/Xilinx Nathan led a product focused startup applying AI/ML to subsurface data problems in oil and gas to drive more agile exploration, stronger production and lower investment and safety risks for multiple NOC’s and super majors.  His professional experience spans across energy trading, asset integrity, offshore survey, spatial analytics and oil and gas. 

Andrew J. Lynch, P.E. received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from University of Texas at Austin in 2007 , Masters in Mechanical Engineering from Rice University in 2009 and Masters in Computer Science from Rice University in 2011. His 1st masters work focused on pipe inspection robotics in the Robotics and Intelligent Systems (RiSYS lab) under Dr. Fathi Ghorbel. Andrew's second masters work in computer science was under supervision of Prof. James McLurkin in the Multi-Robot Systems Lab (MRSL). In 2012, Andrew Lynch became a Texas Professional Engineer and continues to work as an engineer.

James Mable Joined HCC in 2017 as the first Director of Career & Job Placement Services at Houston Community College. He has worked in a variety of Career Services environments including the for-profit sector at American InterContinental University where he attained a 91 percent job placement rate as a Career Advisor. Mr. Mable also served as Alumni Career Services Assistant Director at the University of Houston and later served as Director of Career & Calling at Houston Baptist University.

In his current role in the HCC Career & Job Placement Services department, Mr. Mable provides shared oversight of the six Career Centers throughout the HCC System. Hailing from College Station, Texas, he served in the United States Marines immediately after high school and later attained his Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Master of Education both at Sam Houston State University. Mr. Mable is also a certified Professional Resume Writer.

Bobby Hernandez is vice president of Ranger AI Initiatives, where he is responsible for driving the technology for autonomous camera perception utilizing AI and future security technologies, and for defining and accelerating the productization of AI camera technology. Ranger AI & Icetana ASX (ICE) have teamed up to expand proprietary software & GPU server-based integration for fortune 500 companies in the U.S. marketplace.

Chrystal Tyler has been teaching at HCC since 2012. She has been working in the Information Technology industry for 15 years. She started as a software engineer before moving into the learning and development field where she teaches and manages training for the data & AI space. Ms. Tyler graduated from the University of Texas Austin with a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering and from the University of Houston Clear Lake with a Master’s degree in Software Engineering.

Anaïs Schricke is the U.S. project manager for IBM SkillsBuild. In her role, she gets to share the free upskilling platform and strategically implement the SkillsBuild program with IBM’s nonprofit and community college partners throughout the country. She is passionate about helping everyone get access to learning and opportunities, regardless of their background.

JB Groves has been a computer science instructor for Wharton County Junior College since 1999. He has over 20 certifications in the areas Fiber Optics, PC Hardware, Networking, Cybersecurity, and others.

Born in Ft. Worth, Texas, Mr. Groves began working with computers in 1973 at Wharton County Junior College. In 1981 he went to work for Baker Packers (Baker Oil Tools) as a Leadman6 (WWII title), which was a lead computer operator. He supervised the LAN cabling for both copper and fiber in 1991 when the company “real-sized” from a series of IBM enterprise mainframes to an AS/400 mid-range platform, Novell servers, and eventually Windows NT servers. He served on two project teams for Baker Hughes Incorporated; The BEST Project and Project Renaissance where he helped design the Baker Hughes data center. He served on the SAP Tivoli team that migrated the Broken Arrow, Oklahoma plant to SAP from Houston.

His robotics journey started at NASA in 2002 being a community college Point of Contact for the Community College Aerospace Scholars program. He received nine weeks of robotics training from the University 0f Texas Petroleum Extension program at the Institute of Robotics thanks to Senator Robert Dole’s trade adjustment act. This training enabled him to teach robotic curriculum he developed for K-adult students, teachers, and administrators in numerous venues throughout Texas and the United States.

Roy Keyes has worked in data science and machine learning since 2012, building and leading teams at multiple tech startups as well as consulting for clients across a wide range of industries. He is the author of the book, “Hiring Data Scientists and Machine Learning Engineers” (dshiring.com) and the Zefs Guides series (zefsguides.com). He holds a Ph.D. in computational physics, focusing on medical applications. 

David Brunet has over 25 years of experience in financial and supply chain systems analysis, design and implementation. He has performed fit gap analysis, business process prototype/design, testing, end-user training and production support for a wide range of industries and sectors including advertising, financial, government, health care, hospitality, insurance, manufacturing, retail, higher education and K-12. At DLZP, Brunet oversees all consultants and projects to ensure the company is at the forefront of the industry. He recently led the team to leverage the capabilities of AWS serverless technology to provide low-cost solutions to customers. He has conducted over 100 PeopleSoft training classes and helped create educational guides and other materials vital to student preparation. Since 2014, he has been active with Innovation Spark, a nonprofit focused of promoting STEM education in schools in the greater Houston area.

Sherry Wynn leads IBM corporate social responsibility initiatives for the southern U.S. region and leads veteran partnerships nationally. With a background in communications and marketing, Ms. Wynn cultivates nonprofit and government partnerships to support workforce development, STEM education and sustainability programs. She especially enjoys creating opportunities for IBM team members to make a difference in their communities through volunteerism, in-kind expertise, and giving programs.

Ryan Galbraith graduated from Houston Community College in December 2021 with an Associate of Applied Science degree in VR design and development. During his internship with Skanska, he helped create the HCC Central Campus Digital Twin. After graduating from South Houston High School in 2003, Mr. Galbraith worked 15 years in the telecommunications industry as a fiber optic technician and project manager. Today, he is pursuing a career in XR/Digital Twin design and development.

Denzel Wilson is a Houston Community College undergraduate student who is among the first to receive HCC’s artificial intelligence degree. He has been featured on industry news sites and the press. He has conducted research at Rice University where he plans to transfer to complete his education. Mr. Wilson serves as the president of the HCC Computer Science Association student club and initiated the AI and The Future of Houston Conference. He enjoys studying machine learning, deep learning, and neuroengineering as he aspires to build brain-computer interfaces to help people with brain disabilities to regain function. He received the Dean's List award for his AI study and the leadership award for his academic achievement. He is also a recipient of a certificate from NASA's L'SPACE Academy.

Neethi Anand Gangidi serves as the vice president of the HCC Computer Science Association student club and a planner of the "AI and the Future of Houston" conference. She will be among the first to receive the Houston Community College’s associate degree in artificial intelligence in August 2022. An ace student who has been featured on industry news sites and in the press, She received a certificate from NASA's L'SPACE Academy on the NWPEE proposal writing training and is on track to complete training at the Mission Concept Academy this summer. A recipient of the Dean's List award for her AI study, she also has garnered leadership award for her achievement in her coursework in machine learning, computer vision, history, and AI theory. She was nominated for the best Innovation award in artificial intelligence program in HCC.

With a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering, Ms. Gangidi earned her first master’s degree in chemical engineering with research in hydrates flow assurance project, and her second master's in Subsea Engineering while working on a subsea project for Transocean. She has enjoyed a prolific academic life including  well received poster presentations at research and academic conferences. She has also gained industry insights with work experience in oil and gas, chemical engineering, and research labs in both Houston and India.

With a deep interest in machine learning, deep learning, data science, robotics, natural language processing and AI, Ms. Gangidi aspires to become an expert in AI research and development.

Lee, an HCC computer programming graduate, is a talented full stack developer versed in AI, Java, JavaScript, Python, C#, HTML, CSS, Swift and UI/UX Design. She has fully immersed herself into the tech industry and is quickly becoming a valuable resource in her sector. Ms. Lee’s passion is to help bridge the gap in technology for minority women and girls. Before entering the tech industry, she worked in the corporate arena and has experience in training, running and managing operations. Ms. Lee is an immersive media instructor at HCC's Verizon Innovative Learning Program. She is a former president of the HCC Computer Science Association and a former vice president of professional development and technology for the HCC chapter of National Society of Leadership & Success. She also served as a lead project manager for the HCC chapter of the National Science Foundation’s Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participants. She is also a NASA L'SPACE Ambassador.

Paris Garrett is an HCC alumnus and undergraduate student in computer science at Texas Southern University. He is the founder of Learn2Stock.com, a computer vision intern at the NASA Research Center, and an AI and machine learning engineer intern at Apple. Mr. Garrett had worked in a local restaurant before deciding to enter the IT field. RYAN GALBRAITH Alumnus, Houston Community College Ryan Galbraith graduated from Houston Community College in December 2021 with an Associate of Applied Science degree in VR design and development. During his internship with Skanska, he helped create the HCC Central Campus Digital Twin. After graduating from South Houston High School in 2003, Mr. Galbraith worked 15 years in the telecommunications industry as a fiber optic technician and project manager. Today, he is pursuing a career in XR/Digital Twin design and development.

Ngolo Sanogo is a junior mechanical engineering student at the University of Houston. He graduated from Houston Community College with an associate of science in mechanical engineering in 2020. After being introduced to AI, Mr. Sanogo became interested in its application to the space industry.

Mr. Sanogo spends most of his time building CAD models, 3D printing, reading about technology, and volunteering with organizations to promote STEM education. He aspires to pursue a career in the space industry and continue to promote space exploration and STEM education. Mr. Sanogo serves as a NASA Lucy Asteroid Ambassador.

Alfonso Miranda is a robotics aficionado currently enrolled in the HCC Artificial Intelligence degree program. Following his passion for robotics and AI, Miranda has been working on a AI project using the Robotic Operating System and Platform. He aspires to become a robotic engineer and an expert in AI to be part of the next industrial "revolution" that impacts people and the world.