Speakers & Panelists: BRIDGE-ing Big Data Workshop
At this informal workshop, participants will explore how current information related to bridge health, and newly generated information, can be used to continue effectively managing and maintaining our nation’s bridges. We will focus on concepts that utilize Big Data technologies and techniques to optimize bridge management and maintenance processes in an era of increased demand, aging infrastructure and shrinking resources.
The following speakers/panelists are confirmed - others will continue to be added:
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The Honorable Raymond "Ray" LaHood, former secretary
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LaHood served as United States Secretary of Transportation from January 2009 until July 2013. Nominated by President Barack Obama in December 2008, Secretary LaHood’s tenure was marked by landmark efforts to improve safety from aviation and rail to pipelines and automobiles. Under LaHood’s leadership, improvements to America’s infrastructure included building or replacing 350,000 miles of highway, repairing 20,000 bridges and renewing or constructing 6,000 miles of rail track. As Secretary of Transportation, he oversaw an agency with more than 55,000 employees and a $70 billion budget in charge of air, maritime and surface transportation. Prior to serving as Secretary of Transportation, LaHood represented Illinois's 18th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2009. A native of Peoria, Ill., LaHood earned his B.S. at Bradley University.|
Mark van Rijmenam, founder
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A big data strategist, Mark van Rijmenam advises organizations on how to develop their big data strategies and business cases. He is an entrepreneur with a drive for innovative concepts that make a difference and inspire others, including a strong background in online and mobile marketing, strategy, social media and big data. He is the author of the book “Think Bigger – Developing a Successful Big Data Strategy for Your Business”, which was published in April 2014. He is a frequent blogger on Datafloq.com as well as other platforms around the web. Additionally, van Rijmenam is co-founder of ‘Data Donderdag’ a bi-monthly (networking) event in The Netherlands on big data to help organizations better understand big data.|
Nick Bilton, columnist
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Bilton is an award-winning technology columnist, reporter and author of the column “Disruptions” in The New York Times. Bilton writes on technology topics, including the future of technology and the social impact of the Web. Prior to becoming a columnist, he was the lead writer for the Bits blog on NYTimes.com and has been with The Times since 2003. The author of “I Live in the Future & Here’s How It Works” and “Hatching Twitter,” Bilton’s articles and columns for The Times have questioned the FAA’s ban of devices on airplanes as well as privacy in Silicon Valley. In addition to writing for The Times, Bilton’s work has appeared in Wired, Engadget, Scientific America, CNet, O’Reilly Radar and AlleyInsider. He was also an adjunct professor at New York University in the Interactive Telecommunications Program.|
Jack Uldrich, best-selling author
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Uldrich is a renowned global futurist and the best-selling author of 11 books. He is a frequent guest on national media and regularly appears on the Science Channel’s television program, “FutureScape” and the Discovery Channel show “Inside Out.” He is a prolific speaker on technology, change management and leadership and has addressed Fortune 100 corporations, venture capital firms, associations, not-for-profit organizations and state and regional governments on five continents. He lives in Minneapolis, Minn. with his wife and two children.|
Alok Aggarwal, founder/CEO
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Alok Aggarwal founded Scry Analytics in February 2014, a company that codifies different kinds of workflows in various industries and uses artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data mining, as well as statistical analysis to improve their efficiency. He co-founded Evalueserve in 2000, which provides research and analytics services to clients in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific; he served as chairman until 2014. In 2003, along with his colleagues at Evalueserve, he pioneered the concept of “Knowledge Process Outsourcing” (KPO) and wrote the first article regarding KPO. |
Paul Barr, associate professor/interim department head, Civil and Environmental Engineering
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Paul Barr is an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Utah State University and director of the Utah Transportation Center. His research interests have focused on nondestructive evaluation of bridges due to earthquake loads, live loads, changes in temperature, and pre-stress losses. Barr’s recent projects include live load testing of bridges in California, Minnesota and Utah. Other research projects include forensic testing of pre-stressed concrete bridge girders as well as steel girders. He is a licensed professional engineer in the state of Utah.|
Aldo De La Haza, principal/manager
Aldo De La Haza joined Dynasty Group with more than 20 years experience in nondestructive testing (NDT) of structures. He currently serves as principal & manager of NDT Services at Dynasty Group, Inc., and as V.P. of Technical Services for uGRIDD Corporation, a web-based service provider that offers customers a georeferencing platform to show, share and find infrastructure data. He has extensive project experience throughout the U.S. and internationally. De La Haza has applied NDT test methods to solve unique concrete related problems on hundreds of project assignments, including bridge investigations, prestressed/post-tensioned parking garages, facade investigations, historic preservation, structural collapse investigations, criminal forensic investigations, transportation infrastructure, buildings, etc. |
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Don Voelte, retired CEO
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Don Voelte served as managing director and CEO of Seven Group Holdings from 2013 until his retirement in August 2015. He was also chair of Coates Group Holdings and chair of Nexus Energy Limited. Voelte previously served as director of Seven West Media Limited, and prior to the formation of Seven West Media Limited, was with West Australian Newspapers Holdings Limited. His leadership in the oil and gas industry includes managing director and CEO of Woodside Petroleum Limited as well as senior executive positions at Atlantic Richfield Company and Mobil Oil Corporation. A trustee of the University of Nebraska Foundation, UNL recently named its Nanotechnology and Metrology Research Centre for Don and his wife, Nancy. He has a B.S. in Civil Engineering from UNL (1975) and is a member of the UNL College of Engineering Advisory Board.|
Chuck Farrar, director
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Chuck Farrar has more than two decades experience as a technical staff member, project leader and team leader at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Presently the director of The Engineering Institute at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Farrar’s career at LANL has focused on performing experimental and analytical structural dynamics studies for a wide variety of systems, including nuclear power plant structures and weapons components. His research interests focus on developing integrated hardware and software solutions to structural health monitoring problems and the development of damage prognosis technology. Farrar is currently working jointly with engineering faculty at University of California, San Diego to develop the Los Alamos/UCSD Engineering Institute and Education Initiative.|
Rory O’Rourke, CEO
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Rory O’Rourke is the CEO/Owner of DATUM, which he established 16 years ago and has grown and developed to become one of the top UK leading Infrastructure Monitoring Companies in the rail, construction and mining sectors. He has developed a strategic and trusted working relationship with the governmen|
Duane Otter, director
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Duane Otter leads the bridge research team at the Association of American Railroads’ Transportation Technology Center, Inc. He has more than 25 years of experience conducting research and testing in the railroad industry, including track and structures as well as vehicle dynamics. He is an active member of American Railway Engineering and Maintenance of Way Association (AREMA) bridge committees, and is also active in Transportation Research Board bridge and rail committees.|
Paul Thompson, expert/consultant
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Paul Thompson is an internationally-recognized expert in management systems and engineering economics, including research, design, and development of analytical processes for managing transportation assets. He is one of the world’s leading authorities on life-cycle planning of infrastructure investments, including optimal funding and timing to keep roads and bridges in service at minimum cost. He has served as a consultant to transportation agencies at the local, state and national levels worldwide for 35 years, and has authored many of the major AASHTO and international guidebooks on asset management implementation.|
Brett Commander, chief analysis engineer
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Brett Commander, co-founder of Bridge Diagnostics, Inc. (BDI), is a registered professional engineer with over 25 years of experience in structural engineering and evaluating structural performance through load test data. Commander received his M.S. in Structural Engineering at the University of Colorado, and his research activities focused on the Integrated Approach, incorporating measured response data into the development and calibration of structural models. This concept is now performed on a routine basis and is a mainstay of BDI’s services.|
David Connell, vice president of engineering
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David Connell is vice president of engineering for Union Pacific Railroad. He has worked for Union Pacific and predecessor companies for more than two decades, having held a variety of field and staff positions which include AVP- construction, chief engineer - maintenance of way and various track research positions. Currently, Connell directs the design, construction and maintenance of all track, signal and bridge infrastructure in the nation's largest railway. He currently chairs the American Association of Railroad's Heavy Axle Load Committee and is a member of the Railway Technology Working Committee at the Transportation Technology Center, Inc.|
Mark Lafferty, vice president / general manager
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Mark Lafferty is currently vice president/general manager of Concrete Industries, Inc. in Lincoln, Nebraska and is an active member of the Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute, PCI-Midwest, and Prestressed Concrete Association of Nebraska. A licensed professional engineer since 1980, he has been in the concrete industry since 1973, specializing in precast/prestressed concrete. Lafferty began his career with General Testing Laboratory and he has been involved in the structural design of various types of concrete structures using both cast-in-place and precast concrete.|
David Levitan, data scientist
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David Levitan is a data scientist with Microsoft's Customer Data and Analytics team. His research revolves around machine learning and data mining, including topics such as automated user feedback text mining, statistical estimates of populations, and the development of machine learning-based classifiers. As part of one of Microsoft's first data science teams, Levitan advocates for the adoption of rigorous data and statistical methods across the company. An author of more than 20 scientific papers, Levitan received his Ph.D. in physics from Caltech where his research focused on automated data mining and detection of extremely rare stellar events.|
Raj Prasad, chief technology officer
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Raj Prasad brings more than 20 years of success in utilizing people, processes, technology and data to deliver measurable benefits to the top and bottom lines of the companies he has worked with. As the Chief Technology Officer of HDR, he is responsible for increasing the visibility and use of information management and technological solutions such as BIM, CAD, GIS and Projectwise. Before joining HDR, Prasad was the managing partner with Environmental Engineering Consulting in Denver where he provided management consulting services focused on BIM, Engineering application strategies, software commercialization and Data analytics to both public and private clients. He has worked in similar roles with Tetra Tech and MWH Global as well.