Drone TETRA

Giti Javidi, PhD

Associate Professor, Information Technology and Cybersecurity, USF Sarasota-Manatee Campus

Giti Javidi is an Associate Professor of Information Technology and Cybersecurity at the USF Sarasota-Manatee campus College of Business. Her background in research is in human-computer interaction, data visualization, and STEM/Computer Science Education. She will present some of the innovative techniques that she has used in her NSF-funded projects to train K12 students with STEM concepts including computer science and engineering for robotics.

Ehsan Sheybani, PhD

Ehsan Sheybani is an Associate Professor of Information Systems and Decision Sciences at the USF Sarasota-Manatee College of Business. His background in research is in wireless communication systems, digital signal processing, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and STEM/Engineering Education. He will present some of the innovative techniques that he has used in his NASA-funded projects to train robots/drones to map objects in their path, create a 3D image of them, and recognize/classify them.

Karen Holbrook, PhD

Regional Chancellor, USF Sarasota-Manatee campus

Karen A. Holbrook, Ph.D., is the Regional Chancellor at USF Sarasota-Manatee campus, following a year as the Interim President for Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Before assuming the position at Embry-Riddle she worked as a higher education consultant and the Senior Advisor to the President at the University of South Florida, where she was, until recently, the Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation then Senior Vice President for Global Affairs and International Research.

Brett Kemker, PhD

Regional Vice Chancellor for Academic and Student Affairs, USF Sarasota-Manatee Campus

Dr. Kemker is the Regional Vice Chancellor for Academic and Student Affairs at the USF Sarasota-Manatee campus. He has served in a variety of campus leadership positions for more than two decades, most recently at the University of New Orleans and the University of Southern Mississippi. For the past six years, Dr. Kemker has served as the UNO dean of students within the Office of the Provost. As a member of the President’s Executive Cabinet, Dr. Kemker played a lead role in the development of the school’s master plan, which included centralizing all student-related services and re-branding the institution. Dr. Kemker served as assistant provost at Southern Mississippi from 2009-2012, as associate dean of the USM College of Health and chair of the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences. In addition to earning a B.A in communication sciences and disorders at USF Tampa, Dr. Kemker earned an M.A. and Ph.D. in communication sciences and disorders at the University of Florida. He was an assistant professor at Florida State University within the Department of Communication Disorders from 1998 to 2004, and an associate professor at Louisiana Tech University in the Department of Speech from 2004 to 2006. Dr. Kemker has performed extensive research in cognitive functioning as it relates to sensory input; his work has been published in top-tier journals and presented at conferences worldwide.

Thomas E. Becker, PhD

Professor of Management & Interim Dean of the College of Business, USF Sarasota-Manatee Campus

Dr. Thomas E. Becker is a professor of management and the Interim Dean of the College of Business, where he collaborates with faculty and staff to continue building an outstanding school of business and information technology education.  Other key strategic goals include:

• Attracting and retaining first-rate faculty who develop high quality programs that attract excellent students;
• Encouraging and supporting faculty intellectual contributions and innovative research;
• Supporting faculty and student engagement and service to the business and professional communities; and
• Valuing diversity and inclusion among students and faculty.

Dr. Becker received his PhD from The Ohio State University.  He teaches management courses to undergraduate and MBA students and has received awards for excellence in teaching based on his core values of meaningful learning, rigorous standards, enthusiasm for the topic, and genuine concern for students. His primary research interests are employee commitment and motivation, job performance and research methods and statistics.  His work has appeared in top journals in the field and has been cited more than 11,000 times.  He is a fellow of the Society for Industrial & Organizational Psychology and the Association for Psychological Science. 

Dr. Becker has also worked with prominent organizations to improve individual and organizational effectiveness, including Blue Cross Blue Shield, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, McDonald’s, Newport News Shipbuilding, Procter & Gamble, the US Army, and other healthcare, manufacturing and service organizations.

He is unabashedly proud to work with the finest faculty, staff, and students in the world.

Xiaopeng (Shaw) Li, PhD

Associate Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, USF

Dr. Xiaopeng (Shaw) Li is currently an associate professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of South Florida (USF). His major research interests include advanced network system and traffic modeling with applications in connected autonomous vehicles, shared mobility and electric vehicles. He is the first holder of Susan A. Bracken Faculty Fellowship at USF and is a recipient of a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award. He has served as the PI or a co-PI for a number of federal (NSF, USDOT, USDOE), local (e.g., state DOTs, UTCs, I-4 Corridor Program) and industry grants, amounting to a total budget of $7 million. He has published over 50 peer-reviewed journal papers, many of which are in top journals such as Transportation Research series and Operations Research. He has served as a member on the Transportation Network Modeling Committee (ADB30) and the Traffic Flow Theory and Characteristics (AHB45) of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) and an Associate Department Editor for IIE Transactions Focused Issue on Operations Engineering and Analytics. Dr. Li received a B.S. degree (2006) in civil engineering from Tsinghua University, China, a M.S. degree (2007) and a Ph.D. (2011) degree in civil engineering along with a M.S. degree (2010) in applied mathematics from the University of Illinois at Urban-Champaign, USA.

Neirda Thompson-Pemberton

Executive Director, FUNducation Inc

Neirda is the founder of FUNducation, Inc, a 501c3 non profit organization that partners with community organizations to develop and sustain immersive, hands-on S.T.E.A.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) programs. After earning her Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering, she worked with Engineering companies and took part in community outreach programs to encourage today’s children to become tomorrow’s Engineers. Her experiences led her to discover a passion for encouraging kids to get into Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics (S.T.E.A.M.). Neirda is also a WOZ ED S.T.E.A.M. Educator at Palm View School and volunteer leader for FIRST West Florida Robotics. 

Brandon Turk

Director of Transformational Technology, WOZ ED

Brandon Turk spent his childhood living on submarine bases scattered across America. Growing up in a military lifestyle taught him how to adapt to changes in locations and cultures which he has carried into the professional world. Brandon’s experience with a variety of industries allowed him to develop a diverse skill set applicable in today’s ever-changing global society. From law enforcement and the Department of Defense, to Blackberry and advanced technologies, Brandon has seen an increased demand for drones, 3D systems and coding in the workplace. Brandon’s passion is creating inclusive learning environments to equip students to land the most sought-after positions in the STEAM workforce right out of high school. His goal is to develop the best, brightest and safest educational system for students across the globe by providing opportunities that transform the student learning experience.

Mel Rodgers, PhD

Research Assistant Professor, School of Geosciences, USF

Yu Zhang, PhD

Associate Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, USF

Yu Zhang is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of South Florida (USF). Her research and presentation encompasses a few exciting areas in aerial transportation including Transportation Systems Modeling and Analysis, Air Traffic Management and Performance Evaluation, Sustainable Transportation Design and Evaluation, Anutomous Systems Analysis, Logistics and Freight Transportation Management, and Transportation Safety Analysis.

Marvin Andujar, PhD

Assistant Professor, Computer Science and Engineering, USF

Marvin Andujar is an assistant professor of Computer Science and Engineering at University of South Florida in Tampa, FL. His research involves the measurement of engagement and other affects with a Brain-Computer Interface for Human-Computer Interaction. The investigation of novel methods for improving brain-machine control. Dr. Andujar is one of the co-founders and was the leader of the team that invented and hosted the world's first brain-drone race. The event was showcased in more than 550 media new outlets throughout the world including the New York Times, Associated Press, Mashable, USA Today, Discovery Channel (documentary), Engadget, CNet, TechCrunch, and The Verge. Lastly, he along with two of his colleagues received a research grant of $300,000 from Intel directly from the CEO and a Senior Vice-President for BCI work. Dr. Andujar is a member of ACM, IEEE, SIGCHI, BCI Society, and SHPE. His presentation will focus on brain-robot Interaction, personal informatics, ubiquitous computing, and symbiotic interaction.

Warren “Skip” Parish

Subject Matter Expert

Warren “Skip” Parish is a USF graduate. He is a subject matter expert for NATO, US Forces, US Military Red Team, and USSOCOM in Counter Drone, EW, Autonomous Warfare, Future Technology, Directed Energy, and Wargames, with US Patents on Electro Optical Remote Spectrometry. He has been a past “mentor” of us defense advanced research project agency/USC San Diego with original research and proof of concept in “swarm” information technology networking. He is also a consultant in global information technology systems processing financial transactions. His presentation will include some of the state-of-the-art drone projects for military applications from across the world.

Robert Novak, PhD

Professor, Department of Global Health, USF

Robert Novak is a professor of Global Health Education at the University of South Florida College of Public Health, Department of Global Health. His PhD research in Entomology entailed the influence of oviposition site on focality of the inland floodwater mosquito and his N.I.H. Post-Doctoral Fellowship involved Vector Biology and Parasitology. His research interests include Integrated Pest and Disease Management, Vector Ecology, Medical Entomology, Mosquito Biology and Control, Parasitology.

Benjamin Jacob, PhD

Research Assistant Professor, Department of Global Health, USF

Benjamin Jacob has been a Research Assistant Professor of Global Health at the University of South Florida College of Public Health, Department of Global Health since 2011. He obtained his PhD in in 2004 from the University of Miami. He has numerous publications and funded projects in Health, Geographical Information System, and Spatial Modeling.

Seyed Alireza Khoshnevis

Ph.D. Student, Electrical Engineering Program, USF

Seyed Alireza Khoshnevis is a Ph.D. student in the Electrical Engineering program, studying under the supervision of Prof. Ravi Sankar at the University of South Florida. His research revolves around the field of signal processing, where he has published several papers in many distinguished journals and conferences. He is currently working as a teaching assistant at the University of South Florida and will graduate in the year 2021.

Dante Tezza

Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, USF

Dante Tezza is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the USF. He holds a B.Sc. in Computer Engineering and a M.Sc. in Software Engineering from St. Mary’s University, San Antonio, TX. In addition, Mr. Tezza also holds a B.Sc. in Mechatronics Engineering from Universidade Catolica Dom Bosco, Campo Grande, Brazil. He is a member of ACM, IEEE, and SIGCHI. Mr. Tezza is currently a research assistant in the Neuro-Machine Interaction Lab under the supervision of Dr. Marvin Andujar. His research focuses on drone technologies and human-drone interaction. Mr. Tezza previously worked in industry developing military drone systems for the Brazillian Air-Force. Also, during his M.Sc. program, he developed an innovative software architecture that facilitates drone usage in STEM education and research.

The title of his presentation is: “A Discussion on Modularity in Multi-Rotor Drones”. Multi-rotor drones can freely fly and hover in 3D spaces, which provides advantages for a wide range of applications. However, current drones are limited to relatively light payloads and short flight times. For this reason, a single drone is limited to the number of sensors and actuators that it can carry at once, making it implausible for it to be used in applications with widely differing requirements. For instance, a heavy drone designed to carry equipment is not well suited for use cases that require agility and speed. In this talk, Mr. Tezza will present his work with modular drones, which allows users to quickly tailor a single drone for different applications by easily changing parts of the system. Mr. Tezza will discuss how modularity can be explored to allow users to tailor flight characteristics (speed, payload capability, flight time), sensors, and actuators. He will also discuss advantages, disadvantages, special considerations, and use case scenarios for modular drones. He will conclude by deliberating how these drones can impact user experience and how they can affect research in the field of human-drone interaction.

Matthew Harvey

CEO - Owner, Edge Drone Services

Matthew Harvey is USF graduate with over 3 years experience in the drone industry. He has worked in multiple different fields including construction mapping, volumetric analysis, crop scouting with drones, utility power line inspections, search and rescue, drone training and more. He has worked projects all across the country most notably in California with combating wildfires by utilizing drones for power line inspections. He has a won multiple entrepreneurship competitions at USF as well as being a member of the Student Innovation Incubator. He has a strong passion for drone integration in all fields. Please feel free to approach him with any questions you may have. 

Manoug Manougian, PhD

Professor of Mathematics, USF

Dr. Manoug Manougian is a Professor of mathematics, the USF SOAR club’s faculty advisor, and director of USF’s STEM Education Center. He’s been called the “father of the Lebanese space program,” which might not mean much, until you consider he wasn’t some high-level government rocket scientist at the time. He was a 23-year-old math instructor at a tiny liberal arts college who brought together some student enthusiasts in 1960. They started from scratch and launched rockets into space at a time when few countries had done so. It was a feat so outstanding at the time — the first rocket launched in the Middle East — that for a moment, all of Lebanon paid attention. Then other nations including the U.S. and Russia started watching, too. Lebanon even put one of their rockets on a postage stamp. And when it was over, it was like everyone forgot for 50 years.

Lionel Guilbert

Manager, Airport Operations, Sarasota Bradenton International Airport

Mr. Guilbert has been at SRQ for over 27 years and was first hired as intern for the Noise Abatement Office. Mr. Guilbert became the Noise Abatement Officer until he transferred to Airport Operations where he progressed from Operations Officer to Supervisor in charge of Communications and Access Control. Mr. Guilbert earned an A.S. in Computer Science and a B.S. in Aviation Technology, and also holds a Commercial Pilot’s License with Instrument and Multi-Engine Ratings. Mr. Guilbert has been the Airport Security Coordinator for over 15 years and as such has been the point of contact for all drone related questions for the airport.