Dr. Robert Neches
Robert Neches has a long history of research, research management, and government service. His work combines insights from psychology, AI, and computer science in both basic research and advanced applications. These applications have spanned learning and education, logistics, e-commerce, design and engineering, healthcare, command and control, and intelligence analysis.
He holds one of the first undergraduate diplomas in the U.S. identifying AI as the degree’s field, in recognition of his 1976 UCSD Bachelor’s thesis topic, followed by Masters’ and PhD degrees from Carnegie-Mellon University. His 1976-1985 work on human and machine learning continues to receive citations in cognitive psychology literature to this day. His AI work in the 1990s on ontologies and sharing/re-use of knowledge-based systems similarly continues to receive new citations in AI literature.
After nearly twenty years as a researcher, he transitioned to management and oversight roles, serving as a DARPA program manager, Research Division Director at the University of Southern California Information Sciences Institute, Director of Advanced Engineering Initiatives in the Pentagon’s office for Research and Engineering, and Office Director for intelligence analysis research in IARPA. In those years, he obtained approximately $45M for his own research, oversaw more than $200M in government-funded research, and had influence upon another $500M in other government initiatives. At government request, he led several integrative efforts connecting researchers at major universities, among them USC, UC Santa Barbara, UC Berkeley, Stanford, Carnegie-Mellon, University of Maryland, Vanderbilt, and others.
Efforts undertaken in these years included: leading the DARPA Knowledge Sharing Initiative, establishing the first joint research program between DARPA and the Defense Logistics Agency, transitioning logistics technology into the Joint Strike Fighter (now F-35) program, managing planning and scheduling technology tested in action in the second Gulf War, integrating DARPA and NSF research to demonstrate some of the earliest integrations of World-Wide Web and Geospatial Information Systems, hardening and transitioning those demonstrations for use by intelligence analysts in U.S. Pacific Command, and working with Childrens Hospital Los Angeles to embed advanced tools for predicting disaster medical supply requirements in the Los Angeles Counter disaster preparedness network. Dr. Neches’ work for the Pentagon’s Systems Engineering branch encompassed re-envisioning the systems acquisition process from conceptualization to deployment and defining the R&D agenda required to support those changes.
Since retiring at the beginning of 2014, he has primarily focused on providing pro-bono assistance to multiple start-ups and non-profits applying information technology to serve the public good.
