AI Building Blocks

Ms. Lakshmi Raman is currently the Director of Artificial Intelligence Innovation for the CIA where she is working to champion, orchestrate, and integrate AI activities across the organization. She has been an officer in the Agency since 2002, when she entered on duty as a software developer. Since then, she served in various capacities including leading numerous software development efforts in support of the Agency and the IC, directing large-scale data science and business analytics efforts, and promoting and facilitating intelligence integration and information sharing between the CIA and IC partners. Ms. Raman holds a B.S. from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign and a M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Chicago.

Zach Whitman is the Chief Data Scientist and Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer (CAIO) at the General Services Administration (GSA), where he supports the Data Analytics Center of Excellence (CoE) team, and leads cloud migration, data architecture modernization, change management, data and analytics, data management, technology procurement, and strategy formation modernization efforts at external federal agencies.

As GSA’s inaugural Chief AI Officer, Zach is responsible for maintaining awareness of GSA’s artificial intelligence activities, establishing processes to measure and evaluate AI performance, establish and chair AI oversight governing bodies, lead the development of GSA’s AI inventory and other reporting, among many other responsibilities. He played a pivotal role in standing up GSA’s AI Directive.

Zach has over a decade of experience in research and data analysis and has released several research publications. Before joining GSA, Zach served as the Chief Data Officer at the U.S. Census Bureau for over seven years. During his tenure, he worked to make data as accessible as possible and to build trust in data analytics across the US.

He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Geology from Colgate University and a Doctorate in Hazard and Disaster Management from the University of Canterbury.

David Aha serves as the Director of the AI Center at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC. He received his PhD in 1990 from UC Irvine, where he launched the UCI Repository of Machine Learning Databases. His research interests include goal reasoning agents, deliberative autonomy, case-based reasoning, explainable agency, machine learning (e.g., GenAI), reproducible studies, and related topics. David served as a AAAI Councilor, co-organized the AAAI Video Competitions during 2007-2009, received AAAI’s Robert S. Engelmore Memorial Lecture Award in 2017, and received awards for five publications. He has led the evaluation teams for four DARPA programs and one ONR program.

Taka has over 25 years of track record delivering data-centric innovations at scale to empower organizations redefine productivity. As a seasoned Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer, Chief Data Officer, and Chief Data Scientist, his executive leadership is marked by a blending of tech-savvy, risk management, and talent building to create enduring value beyond hype cycles. He was the lead author of the Government Accountability Office’s AI Accountability Framework that applies evidence-based perspectives to responsible implementation of AI solutions. A sought-after speaker and writer on AI, emerging technologies, and innovation practices, Taka is also the founder of Sol Imagination where he helps public and private sector entities use data to effectively tackle complex policy, regulatory, risk, legislative, and operational challenges. Fluent in both Japanese and Mandarin Chinese, Taka brings a global perspective to his work. Outside of his professional endeavors, he is a dedicated classical chamber musician and a competitive tennis player.

Wole Moses is the Chief AI Officer for Microsoft Federal’s Civilian Organization. In his role, Wole leads internal strategy and customer engagement focused on helping Federal Civilian agencies transform responsibly with AI. Wole has over 25 years of experience in the technology industry and during this time has helped both commercial and public sector organizations leverage innovation and best practices to transform. During his career at Microsoft he has led product management teams at Microsoft Headquarters, and led technical sales strategy in various field sales roles. He also spent 4 years working for Microsoft Middle East and Africa (while based in Istanbul Turkey and Dubai UAE) and later led technical sales strategy for part of Microsoft’s business in Latin America.

Dave Erickson is a seasoned expert in emerging technologies with a wealth of experience spearheading large-scale search and analytics projects in business and mission critical use cases across financial services, consumer services, media, and public sector.

Dave brings a unique perspective to the designing and implementation of petabyte-scale data architectures, tackling complex challenges head-on.

Martin Stanley, AI and Cybersecurity Researcher, leads the NIST AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF) efforts at the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology, Information Technology Laboratory. Martin previously led the Emerging Technology and R&D Program at CISA and the Enterprise Cybersecurity Program at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Prior to his federal service Martin held executive leadership positions at Vonage and UUNET Technologies.  Martin co-authored “Digital Health”, an Oxford University Press Publication.