Nemertes [Next] – Nashville 2025

Adaptive Leadership Training Workshop: Telling Tech Stories for Fun and Profit

You’re a scientist, an engineer, a medical researcher – a technical professional. You’re working on something new. The details are technical, but the details are also where the breakthroughs are happening.

Inevitably, you find yourself needing to get more people on board with your project, and suddenly you’re facing your investors, your clients, or even your own executives. These people don’t seem interested in the details. They want you to tell them, ideally in thirty seconds or less, what you’re doing, why it matters, and how it effects the things they care about.

In this workshop, facilitated by physicist and award-winning science fiction author Erin Bow, you’ll learn how to inspire these stakeholders, and explain your work without sacrificing accuracy and nuance. The key? Storytelling.

Bio

Erin Bow is a science writer, storyteller, and author with three volumes of poetry and six novels in print – the most recent of which won a Newbery Honor and was longlisted for a National Book Award. She was the storyteller attached to Generation Energy, the Government of Canada's effort to reimagine power generation. She opened for Margaret Atwood's on-stage conversation on "feminism, technology, and the future." She is currently working with the Amelia Earhart estate to re-center Earhart's work as a feminist to a generation that knows her only as a vanished pilot. Her current passion is helping scientists and other highly technical professionals learn to tell better stories.

Electronically Integrated Autonomous Microscopic Robots

What would we be able to do if we could build electronically integrated machines the at a scale of 100 microns? At this scale, semiconductor devices are small enough that we could put the computational power of the spaceship Voyager onto a machine that could be injected into the body. Such robots could have on board detectors, power sources, and processors that enable them to sense, interact, and control their local environment. This talk will describe several cutting edge technologies the Cohen Lab is developing to achieve this vision.

Bio

Professor Itai Cohen studies the physics of matter in motion. At Cornell, his research has focused on building microscopic robots, controlling the shear thickening behavior of microscopic and nanoscopic particles suspended in a fluid, exploring the mechanics of materials ranging from biological tissues to origami inspired metamaterials, discovering the aerodynamic and neuromuscular mechanisms used by insects during flapping flight, and determining how audiences at heavy metal concerts coordinate their movement. Understanding how emergent behaviors arise from the microscopic rules governing these systems remains one of the biggest challenges in Physics.

Professor Cohen received his BS in Physics from the University of California at Los Angeles, and his PhD in Physics from the University of Chicago. Following his graduate studies, he was a Post-doctoral fellow in Physics and the Division of Engineering and Applied Science at Harvard University. In 2005 he joined Cornell and is currently a professor of Physics. Professor Cohen is an NSF Career grant recipient, he is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, and is the recipient of the Kappa Delta Ann Doner Vaughn Award for his work on cartilage mechanics. He has served as a Feinberg and Braginsky fellow (2012) and the Rosi and Max Varon Visiting Professor at the Weizmann Institute (2021) and the van der Waals Visiting Professor at the University of Amsterdam (2022). He has published over 110 research articles, given nearly 300 invited seminars, colloquia and conference presentations, and co-authored the book Finding Your Research Voice: Story Telling and Theater Skills for Bringing Your Presentation to Life. His work has been covered by various outlets ranging from the BBC, to Scientific American, NPR, and the NYTimes.

How to do AI Without a Computer

Neural networks in the brain and artificial neural networks (ANNs) in silico are both able to learn complex functionalities. While each artificial neuron is updated based on global information, using a central processor (CPU) and memory, each real neuron in the brain updates itself without external CPU. This talk will describe laboratory realizations of such self-learning without use of CPU or memory. The experimental systems consist of a network of identical variable-resistive elements that self-adjust using a local rule based on the voltage drops they experience under contrastive boundary conditions. As such, they have many brain-like advantages over ANNs and enable study of learning as a bottom-up emergent process.

Bio

Douglas Durian obtained his A.B. degree in Physics from the University of Chicago in 1984 and his Ph.D. degree in Physics from Cornell University in 1989. After a postdoctoral fellowship at Exxon Research and Engineering, he joined the physics department at the University of California - Los Angeles in 1991. In 2004 he moved to the University of Pennsylvania, where he is now the Mary Amanda Wood Professor of Physics. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is co-founder and associate director of the Penn Center for Soft and Living matter, is former chair of the APS Division of Soft Matter Physics, and is currently in the chair line of the APS Topical Group on Statistical and Nonlinear Physics.

Accurate, Secure Alternative to GPS Using Quantum Timing

For five decades, GPS has set the standard for global position, navigation and timing (PNT) and become foundational for our modern lives. But it's widespread availability has made it a target for malicious actors that are jamming and spoofing its weak signal. This talk will discuss a new alternative PNT architecture that leverages quantum timing technology that is orders of magnitude more accurate and secure, enabling 6G, self-driving vehicles, industrial robotics, and more efficient and resilient networks and power grids. A live hardware demo will show the technology's potential.

Bio

David Mitlyng is the CEO of Xairos, a startup building a global timing service to expand beyond GPS. David has three decades of experience in the space industry, including Hughes Space and Communications, Orbital, Maxar, and BridgeComm. David has a BS in Aeronautical Engineering from Cal Poly SLO, a MS in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford University, and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Deploying Digital Twins for Proactive Medical Care

Digital twin technology is transforming healthcare, enabling proactive medical care by reshaping how diseases are predicted, diagnosed, and treated. This talk will explore the use of digital twins in creating personalized vascular simulations, addressing challenges such as large-scale data management and computational demands. High performance computing enhances model accuracy, while wearable data integration refines predictions and virtual reality improves clinician interaction. Ultimately, digital twins have the potential to shift healthcare from reactive to proactive care, driving better patient outcomes through advanced computational and digital health innovations.

Bio

Amanda Randles is the Alfred Winborne Mordecai and Victoria Stover Mordecai Associate Professor of Biomedical Sciences and Biomedical Engineering at Duke University. She has courtesy appointments in the Mechanical Engineering and Material Science, Computer Science, and Mathematics departments and is a member of the Duke Cancer Institute. Focusing on the intersection of high performance computing, machine learning, and personalized modeling, her group is developing new methods to aid in diagnosing and treating diseases ranging from cardiovascular disease to cancer.  She has received the ACM Prize in Computing, the NIH Pioneer Award, the NSF CAREER Award, and the ACM Grace Hopper Award. She was named to the World Economic Forum Young Scientist List and the MIT Technology Review World’s Top 35 Innovators under the Age of 35 list and is a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. Amanda received her Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Harvard University as a DOE Computational Graduate Fellow and NSF Fellow. Before that, she received her Master’s degree in Computer Science from Harvard University and her Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Physics from Duke University. Prior to graduate school, she worked as a software engineer at IBM on the Blue Gene supercomputing team. She has contributed to over 100 peer-reviewed papers, 121 granted US patents, and has about 75 pending patent applications.

Crossing the Chasm in 2025: Innovating at the Pace of Technology

The information about the package is as important as the package itself.” This quote could have come from any of today’s AI startups, but it was Mr. Frederick W. Smith, founder of Federal Express, who said so back in 1978. A data startup before there was such a thing as a data startup, Federal Express has leveraged technology to deliver on Mr. Smith’s vision and driven business value of data for Operations and our Customers ever since. This talk picks up the company’s innovation journey in 1994, outlines how to innovate in a corporate environment at the speed of change, and shares a framework for spotting what comes next.

Bio

OP Skaaksrud leads the Operations Technology Innovation team in redefining FedEx’s shipment custodial control and operational visibility via Internet of Things solutions. Throughout his tenure he’s leveraged technology into game changing business value including the ubiquitous FedEx shipping label, and the collaborative IoT platform, award-winning SenseAware® (CIO 100 2023), and the data-driven learning sensor network, SenseAware ID. His human-machine collaboration and world-class machine-vision systems have contributed millions of dollars to the bottom line.

With over 280 US domestic and international patents, OP is a prolific innovator across a broad spectrum of technology areas including artificial intelligence, machine vision, sensor technologies, the Internet of Things, and robotics.

OP holds an MBA from the Purdue Krannert School of Management with dual concentration in Operations Management and Management Information Systems, and a BSc in Chemical Engineering from the University of Wyoming.

Embracing and Supporting Neurodivergence in the Workplace through Technology

This talk gives examples of exciting new technologies and platforms that are supporting the transition of autistic and other neurodiverse adults into independence and employment, supporting talented individuals into meaningful careers and helping employers better tap into the next-generation workforce.

Bio

Stassun holds the Stevenson chair in Astrophysics, and holds secondary appointments in Computer Science and in Management, at Vanderbilt University, where he was previously the recipient of an NSF CAREER award, a Cottrell Scholar award from the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, an HHMI Professor award from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and a Ford Foundation Diversity Fellowship from the National Academy of Sciences. Stassun is a deputy lead investigator for NASA’s Ultraviolet Explorer (UVEX) mission, co-investigator for NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission, chairs the executive committee of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, serves on the National Academy of Sciences Space Studies Board, and recently served on the National Academy of Sciences Decadal Steering Committee for Astronomy & Astrophysics. An elected Fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Astronomical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Sigma Xi, and an elected Member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, his research on stars and exoplanets has appeared in more than 600 peer-reviewed journal articles, with an emphasis on developing new data-driven methods for making precise measurements of the fundamental physical properties of stars and planets. From 2004 to 2015, he served as founding director of the Fisk-Vanderbilt Masters-to-PhD Bridge Program, which has become one of the nation’s top producers of PhDs to underrepresented minorities in the physical sciences. Having trained more than fifty PhD students and postdoctoral scholars from diverse backgrounds, Stassun is a leader and advocate for broadening participation of individuals from underrepresented groups in STEM fields, especially underrepresented minorities, women, and persons with disabilities. He has served on NSF’s Committee for Equal Opportunity in Science and Engineering, chaired the American Astronomical Society’s Committee on Minorities, is a recipient of the American Physical Society’s Nicholson Medal for Human Outreach, has been named Mentor of the Year by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and has been honored with a Presidential Award for Excellence in Science Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring. Stassun currently serves as founding director of the Frist Center for Autism & Innovation in Vanderbilt’s School of Engineering, focused on advancing science and engineering through the engagement and workforce development of autistic individuals and those with other forms of neurodiversity. In 2023, Stassun was appointed to a six-year term on the National Science Board by President Joseph R. Biden, and in 2024 was named a MacArthur Genius Fellow.

How to Do Ambitious Research in the Modern Era

Computers keep getting faster, but it's not clear that our experiences are getting better. It seems clear that there are major opportunities for improvement, but it's not clear how to address them. The golden age of large-scale, long-term government and corporate research funding is past. Universities are ill-positioned to influence industry, and startups are a vehicle for scaling technology into the market rather than a venue for developing it.

Ink & Switch is an independent, industrial research lab structured around solving important problems and creating maximal impact on our field. For almost a decade we've been experimenting and refining an approach to high-impact research on a modest budget. We'll talk about our mission, our research, and how our approach continues to evolve.

Bio

Peter van Hardenberg has worked as an Arctic oceanographer, a game developer, wrangled a (literal) million Postgres databases, and is now Executive Director of Ink & Switch where he plots the future of tools for thought.

The Journey of Humans and AI: Insights from AI in Robotics and in Finance

Humans and AI both benefit when engaging symbiotically. This is true both for embodied AIs (robots) and those that operate solely in informational spaces like finance. In this talk, Dr. Veloso will discuss symbiotic autonomy by drawing on her career at CMU as a robotics researcher as well her current role leading JPMorganChase's AI initiative.

Bio

Manuela Veloso is Head of AI Research at JPMorganChase and Herbert A. Simon University Professor Emerita in Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. Veloso pursues research interests in core AI as AI robot and digital agents with perception, cognition, and action. She further aims at a seamless human-AI symbiotic interaction. Veloso is a member of the National Academy of Engineering for “her contributions to artificial intelligence and its applications to robotics and to the financial domain.” She is a past president of AAAI, and a co-founder of RoboCup. Veloso is a fellow of AAAI, IEEE, ACM, and AAAS. She has a BSc. and MSc. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from IST, an MA in Computer Science from BU, and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from CMU. Veloso has doctorate honorary degrees from the Catholic University of Portugal, University of Bordeaux, ISCTE, and University of Orebro. See www.cs.cmu.edu/~mmv for detailed information.

Fully Autonomous Robotic Surgery

This talk will cover the origin story and future of a new kind of surgical robot that not only dramatically reduces surgical invasiveness but also is poised to bring the power of artificial intelligence into the operating room. Starting with the process of discovery and invention in university research, we will see how surgeon–engineer collaboration is the key to formulating and advancing transformative new ideas. The tale will also follow the twists and turns involved in getting the technology from napkin sketch all the way to patients, from interactions with big companies, to founding a startup, to doing the hard work of making complex systems safe for patients. Lastly, this talk will discuss the lab’s current work to create “self-driving” robots analogous to self-driving cars, that can learn from human surgeons interactively, just like a medical resident or fellow would, from descriptions and demonstrations. Initially, robots will help make average surgeons as good as the best. But in the longer term, the dream is to endow elite surgeons with superhuman capabilities. This session will provide some examples of work toward that goal in laboratories at Vanderbilt and with collaborators across the country today.

Bio

Robert J. Webster III is the Richard A. Schroeder Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Vanderbilt University. He received his B.S. in electrical engineering from Clemson University in 2002, and his M.S. and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the Johns Hopkins University in 2004 and 2007. In 2008, he joined the mechanical engineering faculty of Vanderbilt University, where he currently directs the Medical Engineering and Discovery Laboratory. He founded and serves on the steering committee for the Vanderbilt Institute for Surgery and Engineering, which brings together physicians and engineers to solve challenging clinical problems. He is the founder and President of Virtuoso Surgical, Inc. and EndoTheia, Inc. which are commercializing technologies invented in his laboratory, and have raised over $30M in private capital and grant funding, and received FDA Breakthrough Device designation. Prof. Webster's research interests include surgical robotics, medical device design, image-guided surgery, and continuum robotics. He is a recipient of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Early Career Award, the National Science Foundation CAREER award, the Robotics Science and Systems Early Career Spotlight Award, IEEE Volz award, and the award for Excellence in Teaching from Vanderbilt University. In addition to his primary appointment in Mechanical Engineering, he holds appointments at Vanderbilt in Electrical Engineering, Otolaryngology, Neurological Surgery, Urologic Surgery, and Medicine at Vanderbilt. Twelve of his prior trainees are now in faculty positions. He directs the Mid-South REACH Hub, a large NIH entrepreneurship center and was recently awarded an ARPA-H grant of up to $12 million for his collaborative project on transforming autonomous capabilities in surgical robots.