Robert J. Szczerba, Ph.D.

Lockheed Martin Corporation
Mail Drop 0906
1801 State Route 17C 
Owego, NY 13827 

Phone: (607) 751-3624 
Fax: (607) 751-3136
E-mail:  robert.j.szczerba@lmco.com
Web:  http://home.stny.rr.com/szczerba

Profile

  • Doctorate in computer science & engineering with an in-depth understanding of applied information-based technologies and their military and commercial applications
  • Significant experience assessing, developing, and adapting cutting-edge technologies and accelerating their transition into practice
  • Technical project manager and principal investigator on collaborative research and development projects between industry, government, and academia
  • Proven history of innovation and publication

 

1.0 Research Interests / Experience

  • Mission Management / Battle Management Applications
  • Unmanned Systems / Autonomous Systems
  • Situational Awareness / Data Fusion
  • Human Machine Interfaces / Operator Workload Management
  • Applied Artificial Intelligence
  • Routing, Navigation, and Guidance Algorithms
  • Robotics and Automation
  • Decision Support / Knowledge Management Systems
  • Computational Geometry / Graph Theory
  • Data Mining / Data Cleansing Technologies
  • E-Commerce (B2B, B2C, etc.) Applications
  • Supply-Chain / Logistics
  • Parallel Processing / Distributed Systems

 

2.0 Education

University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, Indiana

  • Ph.D.  Doctorate in Computer Science and Engineering
    • Dissertation Topic:  Complex Route Planning Algorithms
  • M.S. Master of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering
    • Thesis Topic:  Autonomous Robotics
  • B.S.  Bachelor of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering

 

3.0 Professional Experience

1996-present:   Lockheed Martin Corporation (Owego, NY)

Current Position:  Lockheed Martin Fellow

  • The Lockheed Martin Fellows Program is a Corporate-wide initiative to recognize and encourage the highest levels of technical accomplishment within Lockheed Martin
  • Designation is based on exceptional record of sustained technical achievement; demonstrated technology leadership with significant business impact
  • First Lockheed Martin Fellow designated from the LM Systems Integration organization

 

Current Responsibilities / Activities:

  • Technical Lead for Net-Centric Mission Management Research and Development Activities
    • Demonstrate feasibility/benefits of new approaches, lead pilot programs, and develop technology transition plans in the areas of
      • Battle Management Systems / Decision Support Systems
      • Mission Planning / Dynamic Mission Replanning
      • Advanced Situational Awareness / Data Fusion
      • Unmanned Vehicles / Autonomous Systems
      • Human Machine Interfaces (HMI)
      • Operator Workload Management
      • Applied Artificial Intelligence Applications
      • Team-Based Operations (Heterogeneous Vehicle Team Collaboration)
    • Provide technical investment planning and management to ensure a discriminating technology base
    • Lead Strategic and Tactical Independent Research and Development (IR&D) efforts
    • Responsible for assessing, developing, and adapting new technologies and accelerating their transition into practice
  • Member of Lockheed Martin Aerospace Technical Advisory Council (TAC)
    • Provide technical investment planning and management to ensure a discriminating technology base
    • Provide technical guidance supporting new business acquisition and program performance management for the $2B / year Lockheed Martin Systems Integration - Owego organization
  • Project Manager and Principal Investigator on collaborative research and development projects/proposals between industry (Lockheed Martin, Draper Lab, General Motors, General Electric, etc.), academia (Notre Dame, Georgia Tech, Carnegie Mellon, RPI, Cornell, etc.), the Department of Defense, and national research organizations (DARPA, Army Research Labs, Sandia National Labs, etc.).
    • Define and manage all aspects of assigned projects, including objective, schedule, resources, teaming, and customer relations
    • Consistently accomplish objectives within committed resources and schedule
  • Senior technical consultant on proposals and programs across Lockheed Martin worth more than $10 billion
  • Provide technical direction and mentoring to junior-level engineers / scientists
  • Active in technical recruiting
  • Active DoD Top Secret security clearance
  • Significant experience with the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) Level 5 environment - the highest (optimizing) level awarded for Systems Engineering, Software Engineering, Integrated Product and Process Development, and Supplier Sourcing.  Lockheed Martin - Owego was the first company in the world known to have attained a Level 5 rating against the full scope of the CMMI model.
  • One of the youngest ever to attain the Lockheed Martin Fellow designation
  • Recent Job Levels
    • Lockheed Martin Fellow
    • Principal Research Scientist -  Engineering Level 6
    • Senior Staff Research Scientist – Engineering Level 5
    • Staff Research Scientist – Engineering Level 4
    • Senior Research Scientist – Engineering Level 3
    • Post-Doctoral Research Associate – Engineering Level 2

 

  • Professional Technical Publication / Intellectual Property Activities
    • Over the past 12 years, one of the most prolific inventors / technical authors at Lockheed Martin Corporation
    • Author of more than 100 technical publications (journals, conferences, invited articles, etc.)
    • Presented technical papers worldwide (Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, North America, etc.)
    • Holder of more than 30 patents / patents pending
    • Member of Lockheed Martin Intellectual Property Review Board (IPRB)
      • Extensive experience with intellectual property issues and development
      • Technical reviewer for Lockheed Martin invention disclosures and patent applications
    • Lockheed Martin Business Area technical reviewer for external publications (conferences and journals)

 

  • Principal Investigator / Technical Project Management Activities

Project Manager and/or Principal Investigator on cutting-edge research and development projects in the following technology areas:

    • Mission Management / Mission Systems Applications
      • Mission Management Engineering IPT lead on the Unmanned Combat Armed Rotorcraft (UCAR) program (Phase I/II). Responsibilities include leading a multi-company team on the development of advanced Mission Management technologies, including: Mission Planning, Situation Awareness, Predictive Battlespace Awareness, Autonomous Operations, Human Machine Interfaces, Intelligent Multi-Vehicle Collaboration, and Advanced Communications Management.
      • Developed intelligent Mission Management systems used on the Army's Rotorcraft Pilots Associate (RPA) program
      • Developed autonomous multi-vehicle team coordination algorithms (route, sensor, and communications planning) for intelligent reconnaissance and surveillance operations involving both manned and unmanned air and/or ground vehicles
      • Developed intelligent sensor deployment algorithms for anti-submarine warfare applications
    • Enterprise Data Methods and Systems
      • Developed a suite of intelligent algorithms in the areas of data integrity / data cleansing, data fusion, and data mining.  Such algorithms include: intelligent parsing of data streams, accurate correction and validation techniques, elimination of duplicate records, efficient merging of databases from different sources, etc.
    • E-Commerce / E-Business Applications
      • Developed application/ business-to-business (A/B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) information technology prototypes involving information portals, knowledge management systems, and intelligent agents
    • Supply-Chain Optimization / Management
      • Developed intelligent systems for supply-chain routing and logistics applications.
      • Developed data warehouse prototypes for enterprise-wide stock out analysis of spare/service parts.
    • Material Handling / Distribution Technologies
      • Developed innovative optimization and scheduling algorithms for the automation of mail tray distribution for the US Postal Service.
    • Other research efforts involved the following technologies: applied artificial intelligence, computational geometry, graph theory, and autonomous intelligent systems

 

 

 

Previous Experience

 

  • 1996 (concurrent): Post-Doctoral Fellow, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASA) / University of Notre Dame
    • Co-Principal investigator, with Dr. Peter M. Kogge, on NASA-JPL's Remote Exploration and Experimentation (REE) Phase I project.  Developed ultra low-power, high performance, fault-tolerant computer architectures to be used in the next generation of NASA space exploration missions.
    • Responsible for the development of new parallel algorithms for complex, real-world autonomous systems where data may be both faulty and time-varying, especially in the areas of constellation management, object tracking, flyby and rendezvous planning, as well as micro-rover navigation for planetary exploration.    

 

  • 1996 (concurrent): Post-Doctoral Research Associate, Lockheed Martin Corporation (Owego, NY)
    • Responsible for developing and implementing highly parallelizable route planners for combat rotorcraft for the Army's Rotorcraft Pilot's Associate (RPA) program.  In particular, these algorithms enable routes to be planned based on such factors as threat visibility, natural and man-made environmental features, terrain exposure, as well as aircraft performance limitations.

 

  • 1993-1996: Adjunct Professor / University Instructor, University of Notre Dame (Notre Dame, IN)
    • Full responsibility for an undergraduate course and laboratory in Microcomputer Systems.  Developed lectures, coursework, tests and laboratory experiments, as well as coordinated teaching assistants (1993).
    • Directed numerous junior and senior level undergraduate engineering research projects.  Developed and planned projects, supervised activity, and coordinated research in the areas of algorithm design, optimal motion planning, robotic sensing and scanning, and computer graphics. (1993-1996)

 

  • 1991-1998 (concurrent):  Founder / Senior Consultant - Mercury Consulting (South Bend, IN and Endicott, NY)
    • Independent consultant for information technology start-up companies.  Provided advice on technical (interactive web sites, decision support tools, etc.), operational (staffing, equipment, etc.), and financial (employee compensation, etc.) matters.

 

  • 1990-1996: Research Associate - Artificial intelligence Laboratory, University of Notre Dame (Notre Dame, IN)
    • Graduate Director in charge of the Notre Dame Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Coordinated research between undergrad/graduate students and faculty.
    • Designed and developed state of the art robotic motion planning algorithms for autonomous navigation in unknown environments.  Simulated ultrasonic and infrared robotic sensor systems for autonomous robot navigation.
    • Worked with faculty to integrate engineering design tools into undergraduate design courses.  Designed, developed, and wrote tutorials and technical support documentation.

 

  • 1990-1995: Teaching Assistant, University of Notre Dame (Notre Dame, IN)
    • Lectured in both laboratory and classroom environments.  Designed and prepared coursework and laboratory experiments for courses in: Artificial Intelligence, Discrete Mathematics, Computer Architecture, Computer Architecture Laboratory, Microcomputers, Microcomputer Laboratory, Logic Design and Sequential Circuits, Logic Design Laboratory, Analysis of Algorithms, and Neural Networks.

 

  • 1990: Software Engineer, Harris Corporation (Rochester, NY)
    • Completely designed and implemented graphical user interfaces supporting off-line programming of long range radios and adaptive controllers. The interfaces enabled instructions to be entered either manually or over a communications link. Responsible for designing, coding, and testing the entire interface.
    • Wrote comprehensive interface support documentation along with complete programmer's guide and reference manual.

 

 

4.0 Honors and Awards

  • Received more than 90 formal Lockheed Martin Recognition Awards for outstanding technical contributions (1996-2007)
    • Includes awards for technical publications, invention disclosures, patents, proposal / program performance
  • Lockheed Martin Systems Integration Innovator of the Year Award (2005)
    • Team-Based Mission Planning Technology Development
  • Awarded Military Operations Research (MOR) Journal Publication of the Year (2005)
  • Designated a Lockheed Martin Fellow (2004)
  • Lockheed Martin Saving Money and Recognizing Teams (SMART) Award (2003)
    • Innovative Approach for Program Risk Reduction
  • Lockheed Martin Systems Integration Innovator of the Year Award (2002)
    • Data Mining Technologies Technology Development
  • Lockheed Martin Systems Integration Outstanding Contract Performance Award (2002)
  • Promoted to Senior Member of Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (2002)
  • Received 8 Lockheed Martin Technical Vitality Awards for outstanding technical contributions (1997-2004)
  • Nominated for National ASEE-ERM Apprentice Faculty Fellowship (1996)
  • Awarded William D. Mensch Fellowship for Excellence in Computer Science and Engineering (1995)
  • Named to College of Engineering Dean's List - University of Notre Dame (1986-1990)
  • Named to Outstanding College Students of America (1988)
  • Awarded Pott Foundation Scholarship for Academic Excellence (1988-1990)
  • Awarded Daley Memorial Scholarship for Academic Excellence (1988-1990)
  • Member, Eta Kappa Nu (Electrical Engineering Honor Society) (1988-present)
  • Designated Notre Dame Scholar (1986-1990)
  • Awarded Indiana Bell Scholarship for Electrical Engineering Excellence (1986-1988)
  • Awarded New York State Regent's Scholarship (1986)

 

5.0 Professional Activities / Affiliations

  • Member, Industry Advisory Board for State University of New York (SUNY) at Binghamton, Electrical Engineering Department
  • Senior Member, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA)
  • Senior Member, Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE)
    • Senior Member, IEEE Robotics and Automation Society
    • Senior Member, IEEE Computer Society
    • Senior Member, IEEE Aerospace and Electrical Systems Society
    • Senior Member, IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society
    • Senior Member, IEEE Vehicular Technology
  • Member, American Helicopter Society (AHS) - The Vertical Flight Society
    • Member, AHS Uninhabited VTOL Aircraft and Rotorcraft Committee
  • Member, Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems Integration (AUVSI)
  • Member, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
  • Member, Association of Old Crows (AOC) - Electronic Warfare Operations
  • Member, Eta Kappa Nu (Electrical Engineering Honor Society)
  • Member, Lockheed Martin Intellectual Property Review Board (IPRB)
  • Member, Lockheed Martin Technical Advisory Council (TAC)
  • Technical Publication Reviewer for Lockheed Martin (conferences and journals)
  • Technical Book Reviewer for ACM SIGSOFT
  • Conference Session Chair for IEEE, AIAA, and AHS technical conferences
  • Technical Paper Reviewer for IEEE, ACM, AIAA, etc. conferences and journals

 

6.0 Personal  /  Other

  • Citizenship:  United States
  • Birthplace:  Rochester, New York
  • Security Clearance:  Top Secret
  • Computer Languages:  C, C++, JAVA, Pascal, FORTRAN, XML, HTML, ColdFusion, Assembler (x86), MIPS, LISP, etc.
  • Computing Platforms:  Windows 92000/NT/XP, Unix, Linux, MAC OS, IBM VMS, etc.

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Page Owner:  Robert J. Szczerba
E-mail: robert.j.szczerba@lmco.com
Last Modified: 12/15/2006