GMU Alumni – GMU Cyber Security https://gmucyber.onair.cc George Mason University Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:09:03 +0000 en-US hourly 1 Anup Ghosh https://gmucyber.onair.cc/anup-ghosh/ https://gmucyber.onair.cc/anup-ghosh/#respond Mon, 20 Oct 2025 18:12:36 +0000 http://cyber.onair.cc/?p=1722

Anup Ghosh is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at ThreatMate. Prior to Threatmate, Ghosh was CEO of Fidelis Cybersecurity. An established cybersecurity leader, Ghosh brings extensive senior leadership experience, successfully managing and expanding markets for start-ups and mature cybersecurity companies. Mr. Ghosh’s expertise has been featured on Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Forbes, Associated Press, CNN, Fox News, Federal Times, Market Watch, and USA Today. Ghosh’s charter is to establish Fidelis as the go-to partner for high fidelity adversarial detection and response solutions in the Global 2000 and Government segments.

Ghosh was also managing director and global platforms lead at Accenture Security, where he led strategic technology investments that scaled Accenture Security’s rapid growth in the managed security services business. Previously Ghosh founded and ran Invincea, Inc., a Virginia-based machine learning cybersecurity company, through its acquisition by Sophos in March 2017.

Prior to founding Invincea, he was Chief Scientist for the GMU Center for Secure Information Systems and a Program Manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) where he created and managed an extensive portfolio of cybersecurity programs for the US Government DOD and Intelligence Community.

OnAir Post: Anup Ghosh

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Anup Ghosh is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at ThreatMate. Prior to Threatmate, Ghosh was CEO of Fidelis Cybersecurity. An established cybersecurity leader, Ghosh brings extensive senior leadership experience, successfully managing and expanding markets for start-ups and mature cybersecurity companies. Mr. Ghosh’s expertise has been featured on Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Forbes, Associated Press, CNN, Fox News, Federal Times, Market Watch, and USA Today. Ghosh’s charter is to establish Fidelis as the go-to partner for high fidelity adversarial detection and response solutions in the Global 2000 and Government segments.

Ghosh was also managing director and global platforms lead at Accenture Security, where he led strategic technology investments that scaled Accenture Security’s rapid growth in the managed security services business. Previously Ghosh founded and ran Invincea, Inc., a Virginia-based machine learning cybersecurity company, through its acquisition by Sophos in March 2017.

Prior to founding Invincea, he was Chief Scientist for the GMU Center for Secure Information Systems and a Program Manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) where he created and managed an extensive portfolio of cybersecurity programs for the US Government DOD and Intelligence Community.

OnAir Post: Anup Ghosh

]]> https://gmucyber.onair.cc/anup-ghosh/feed/ 0 Brian Krebs https://gmucyber.onair.cc/brian-krebs/ https://gmucyber.onair.cc/brian-krebs/#respond Fri, 14 Nov 2025 14:52:09 +0000 http://cyber.onair.cc/?p=4268

Brian Krebs worked as a reporter for The Washington Post from 1995 to 2009, authoring more than 1,300 blog posts for the Security Fix blog, as well as hundreds of stories for washingtonpost.com and The Washington Post newspaper, including eight front-page stories in the dead-tree edition and a Post Magazine cover piece on botnet operators.

In 2014, he was profiled in The New York Times, Business Week, NPR’s Terry Gross, and by Poynter.org. More recently, he was invited to an “Ask Me Anything” discussion on Reddit about investigative reporting.

Testing 1, 2, 3

Source: Website

OnAir Post: Brian Krebs

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Brian Krebs worked as a reporter for The Washington Post from 1995 to 2009, authoring more than 1,300 blog posts for the Security Fix blog, as well as hundreds of stories for washingtonpost.com and The Washington Post newspaper, including eight front-page stories in the dead-tree edition and a Post Magazine cover piece on botnet operators.

In 2014, he was profiled in The New York Times, Business Week, NPR’s Terry Gross, and by Poynter.org. More recently, he was invited to an “Ask Me Anything” discussion on Reddit about investigative reporting.

Testing 1, 2, 3

Source: Website

OnAir Post: Brian Krebs

]]> https://gmucyber.onair.cc/brian-krebs/feed/ 0 Shawn N. Purvis https://gmucyber.onair.cc/shawn-n-purvis/ https://gmucyber.onair.cc/shawn-n-purvis/#respond Mon, 02 Mar 2026 10:42:47 +0000 http://gmucyber.onair.cc/?p=8021

Shawn Purvis serves as President and CEO of Sabel Systems, part of the Sagewind Capital Portfolio. As CEO of Sabel Systems, Ms. Purvis is responsible for all aspects of Sabel’s growth, M&A, product development and people strategy. Sabel is a leading provider of digital engineering, acquisition, manufacturing, supply chain and logistics solutions.  Shawn has recently been named as a member of the George Mason University Board of Visitors through June 30, 2029.

Over the course of Shawn’s 30 years of P&L responsibilities, she has led billion dollar organizations in the areas of defense, intelligence and cyber security technical solutions in support of the warfighter and intelligence customers both domestically and globally. Ms. Purvis has in-depth skills in driving strategy, policy, corporate strategic campaigns and financial/non-financial goals across the company. She actively participates in corporate governance in areas of risks, benefits, cyber and policies and engagements with the Board of Directors. She has a passion for customer service and delivery in support of our nation’s most critical missions.

QinetiQ US CEO Shawn Purvis On Robotics, C5ISR & More
Executive Mosaic – 19/09/2022 (07:38)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHGpQhrpnaQ

Purvis shares advice for pursuing the right contracts and making the right decisions around limited capture dollars. Today, evolutions and advancements in modern warfare are driving major shifts in the technologies, weapons systems, and capabilities that defense contractors provide. Now, more than ever, robotics, autonomous solutions and cyber are dominating the defense landscape, and companies like QinetiQ, a United Kingdom-based defense and technology contractor, are using these shifts to steer strategies, investments, and offerings.

Shawn Purvis, president and CEO of QinetiQ U.S. and a two-time Wash100 Award winner, joined the company in February 2022, and in a recent video interview with Executive Mosaic, she spoke about her transition into the role, QinetiQ’s core offerings, new opportunities for expansion and her vision for the future of QinetiQ U.S.

In this executive interview, Purvis discusses the following topics:

✅ How Qinetic is focused on delivering on its core capabilities like C5ISR, robotics, and autonomous solutions.

✅ The new opportunities that are emerging as the Department of Defense rolls out its Joint All-Domain Command and Control initiative, known as JADC2.

✅ Advice for pursuing the right contracts, making the right decisions around limited capture dollars, securing contract wins, and more. 

Timestamps
0:01 Who is Shawn Purvis

1:13 The history of QinetiQ’s parent company goes back to 1918

2:21 Robotics and Autonomous Systems

2:33 QinetiQ won prime contract to build RCV-L for US Army in 2020

2:57 Cyber and Information Advantage

3:33 JADC2: Joint All-Domain Command and Control

4:00 QinetiQ Expansion Areas

4:27 QinetiQ’s 4 Strategic Markets

4:54 PWin: Probability of Winning a contractExecutive interview – Government contracting executive feature news – federal executive news- govcon executive spotlight news- govcon executive spotlight – Executive moves

5:58 Nurture & Maintain Your Network

OnAir Post: Shawn N. Purvis

]]> Summary

Shawn Purvis serves as President and CEO of Sabel Systems, part of the Sagewind Capital Portfolio. As CEO of Sabel Systems, Ms. Purvis is responsible for all aspects of Sabel’s growth, M&A, product development and people strategy. Sabel is a leading provider of digital engineering, acquisition, manufacturing, supply chain and logistics solutions.  Shawn has recently been named as a member of the George Mason University Board of Visitors through June 30, 2029.

Over the course of Shawn’s 30 years of P&L responsibilities, she has led billion dollar organizations in the areas of defense, intelligence and cyber security technical solutions in support of the warfighter and intelligence customers both domestically and globally. Ms. Purvis has in-depth skills in driving strategy, policy, corporate strategic campaigns and financial/non-financial goals across the company. She actively participates in corporate governance in areas of risks, benefits, cyber and policies and engagements with the Board of Directors. She has a passion for customer service and delivery in support of our nation’s most critical missions.

QinetiQ US CEO Shawn Purvis On Robotics, C5ISR & More
Executive Mosaic – 19/09/2022 (07:38)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHGpQhrpnaQ

Purvis shares advice for pursuing the right contracts and making the right decisions around limited capture dollars. Today, evolutions and advancements in modern warfare are driving major shifts in the technologies, weapons systems, and capabilities that defense contractors provide. Now, more than ever, robotics, autonomous solutions and cyber are dominating the defense landscape, and companies like QinetiQ, a United Kingdom-based defense and technology contractor, are using these shifts to steer strategies, investments, and offerings.

Shawn Purvis, president and CEO of QinetiQ U.S. and a two-time Wash100 Award winner, joined the company in February 2022, and in a recent video interview with Executive Mosaic, she spoke about her transition into the role, QinetiQ’s core offerings, new opportunities for expansion and her vision for the future of QinetiQ U.S.

In this executive interview, Purvis discusses the following topics:

✅ How Qinetic is focused on delivering on its core capabilities like C5ISR, robotics, and autonomous solutions.

✅ The new opportunities that are emerging as the Department of Defense rolls out its Joint All-Domain Command and Control initiative, known as JADC2.

✅ Advice for pursuing the right contracts, making the right decisions around limited capture dollars, securing contract wins, and more. 

Timestamps
0:01 Who is Shawn Purvis

1:13 The history of QinetiQ’s parent company goes back to 1918

2:21 Robotics and Autonomous Systems

2:33 QinetiQ won prime contract to build RCV-L for US Army in 2020

2:57 Cyber and Information Advantage

3:33 JADC2: Joint All-Domain Command and Control

4:00 QinetiQ Expansion Areas

4:27 QinetiQ’s 4 Strategic Markets

4:54 PWin: Probability of Winning a contractExecutive interview – Government contracting executive feature news – federal executive news- govcon executive spotlight news- govcon executive spotlight – Executive moves

5:58 Nurture & Maintain Your Network

OnAir Post: Shawn N. Purvis

News

Shawn Purvis honored at Mason’s Celebration of Distinction
Mason News, Martha Bushong – November 8, 2022

Shawn Purvis, (MS, IS ‘99) received the College of Engineering and Computing’s Distinguished Alumni Award at George Mason University’s Celebration of Distinction on Friday, October 21, at the Hyatt Regency Tysons Corner Center.

Purvis is currently President and Chief Executive Officer at QinetiQ US, a multinational defense technology company. She has been a strong supporter of the College of Engineering and Computing and served Mason in numerous ways, including as a graduation speaker for the College of Engineering and Computing in 2018. She shares her Mason experiences and enthusiasm with students, faculty, and alumni and the college is grateful for her support.

The annual celebration recognizes outstanding alumni for their accomplishments and involvement with the university. The College of Engineering and Computing presents the award to an alumnus who has made significant contributions to Mason through their level of engagement within the university, their service to the community, and their professional accomplishments in their field.

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Fundamental Leadership Lessons from a CEO with Shawn Purvis
Janet Ioli / The Inner Edge – February 6, 2023 (27:15)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZUT3KL6M3M

In this episode, I talk to Shawn Purvis. She is the Chief Executive Officer of QinetiQ US and has over 25 years of senior leadership experience at major aerospace and defense companies. You’ll hear Shawn share some of the fundamental lessons she learned throughout her career that are key to becoming a better leader. Letting go of perfection, owning up to your mistakes, listening to and trusting your team, asking for and accepting help, and continually working to learn and develop yourself and your team are all valuable insights she shares. In this episode:

  • The importance of leadership development
  • Enjoying the journey and letting go of perfection
  • “You don’t have to do it all!” Ask for help, receive it and accept it
  • Tips to deal with feelings of self-doubt and inadequacy
  • Fundamental lessons Shawn learned from one of her biggest mistakes
  • Tapping into your experiences to find your leadership voice

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What does it mean to take a full-spectrum approach to cybersecurity?
The Christian Science Monitor, Shawn Purvis – September 28, 2015

How a full-spectrum approach including defensive cyber, active defense and cyber resiliency keeps America ahead of digital threats.

Cybersecurity’s biggest challenge today is straightforward to describe and extremely hard to fix: you can’t see the threat before it hits you. Cyber defenders have little to no warning that an intruder is lurking just beyond their borders.

That’s why we see cyber technology as more than just the passive understanding of protecting our systems. Taking a position of active defense means looking not at just protecting the network, but the protection of the network and the constant monitoring of the network to identify threats. When we talk about full-spectrum cyber, we’re talking about taking it even one step further. Not only are you protecting your environment, you’re monitoring that environment and now when you identify or find an indication that a threat is coming, you can defeat that threat preemptively.

Taking a full-spectrum operations approach is about a very deliberate effort to defeat the threat before the threat comes into the system. We do that in some cases by understanding the attacker’s vulnerabilities and issuing our own cyber initiatives that exploit those vulnerabilities.Simultaneously, we are investing in advanced forms of defense, what we call cyber resiliency. Cyber resiliency looks to not only protect the environment from the outside, that end point of the information sphere, but also how to understand what malicious actors are already inside the network, identifying that threat and then protecting and healing the network as that threat is being removed from the system. Finally, rounding out this picture of understanding where threats are coming from involves looking at cybersecurity from a global standpoint. There’s a greater requirement and a need for us to communicate with our allies because the threat does not focus just on one entity or one country.

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Changing Cybersecurity Landscape
Washington Exec, Lauren Budik – December 3, 2014

Shawn Purvis is the new Sector Vice President and General Manager for the Cyber division of Northrop Grumman’s Information Systems sector and has been with the organization since 2012.

WashingtonExec interviewed Purvis on her new position, the challenges ahead and the changing landscape of cybersecurity. Purvis also discussed CyberPatriot and the importance of mentorship with WashingtonExec.

WashingtonExec: What makes you excited about your new position, and how has the first six months on the job been going?

Shawn Purvis: I continue to be energized by the opportunity, and I am always impressed by the skill and dedication of the men and women of Northrop Grumman to partner with our government customers to secure some of the most high-risk networks and infrastructures in the world.

We are an increasingly cyber-dependent society. Vulnerabilities in our information infrastructure pose significant threats to our economic stability and national security. As a leading provider of full-spectrum cyber solutions to the federal government, we know first-hand how the threats are increasing in sophistication and numbers, and we view each threat as having an impact to our national security.

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About

Biography

Ms. Purvis’ prior roles include President, CEO for QinetiQ US; at Northrop Grumman: Corporate Vice President (CVP), President of Enterprise Services (ES); Chief Information Officer (CIO), Sector Vice President and General Manager for Northrop Grumman’s cyber division, and Vice President for the Integrated Intelligence Systems (IIS) business unit. A leader in these roles, she was responsible for all aspects of the business strategy, growth, customer relationships and program execution – delivering global full-spectrum cyber and security and technology solutions to intelligence, defense and civilian customers. Prior to joining Northrop Grumman, Ms. Purvis held management positions at SAIC and Lockheed Martin.

Ms. Purvis currently serves as a Board of Trustee for Dodge and Cox and previously served on the boards the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering, Northern Virginia Family Services Council and the Board of Visitors for George Mason University. In 2019 she was named to the Black Enterprise™, Most Powerful Women in Corporate America. In 2020 she received the 2020 Distinguished Black Alumni Award from the George Mason Black Alumni Chapter and the 2021 & 2025 Alumni of the year award, College of Engineering and Computing, GMU. She is a WASH 100 award recipient from Executive Mosaic “Top 100 Leaders” in 2021, 2022 and 2023 & 2024.

Ms. Purvis earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Hampton University and a master’s degree in information systems from George Mason University. She attended the Executive Program at Darden School of Business: University of Virginia and earned a certificate from the Accelerated Management Program at Yale School of Management. Ms. Purvis was selected for the 2020 cohort for Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Women’s Global leadership Program.

Source: GMU Board of Visitors

Experience

CEO, Sabel Systems
Sabel Systems Technology Solutions, LLC · Full-time
Mar 2025 – Present
United States · Hybrid

President, CEO QinetiQ US
QinetiQ · Full-time
Feb 2022 – Jan 2025
Tysons Corner, Virginia, United States · On-site

Northrop Grumman- 10 yrs

Corporate Vice President, President – Enterprise Services Sector
Jan 2018 – Feb 2022 · 4 yrs 2 mos
Falls church, VA
Leads Enterprise Services organization; focused on digital transformation, advanced collaboration systems and business applications across Northrop Grumman. Develops strategy for nextgen network, cyber security and digital design for domestic and international employees and locations.… more

Vice President, Chief Information Officer
Jan 2016 – Jan 2018 · 2 yrs 1 mo
Leads and executes all aspects of Northrop Grumman’s IT strategy and related responsibilities, and provides direction as the IT organization partners with customers and suppliers on innovative solutions that contribute to value delivery, user experience, and risk management.… more

VP, General Manager (P&L) – Cyber Division
June 2014 – Jan 2016 · 1 yr 8 mos
Sector vice president and general manager for the Cyber division of Northrop Grumman’s Information Systems. Responsibilities include: delivering cyber and security solutions to intelligence, defense, federal, state and international customers. Key capabilities for the division include global provisioning of full spectrum cyber security to include IT infrastructure and architectural design and services; command and control deployment and operations; intelligence collection; net-centric cloud-enabled data distribution and storage; data analytics and development of intelligence products with web-enabled collaboration and visualization

VP, Business Unit Manager (P& L), for Integrated Intelligence Systems BU
Mar 2012 – Jun 2014 · 2 yrs 4 mos
Chantilly, VA
Vice President of the Integrated Intelligence Systems (IIS) business unit for Northrop Grumman’s Intelligence Systems division. Responsible for all aspects of the IIS’ business operations, including strategy, growth, customer relationships and program execution. IIS is a business with broad capabilities centered on the successful delivery of IT solutions to solve key customer’s PED requirements. IIS BU has a broad depth of technical expertise and continues to expand its market position in the Open Source Intelligence, geospatial intelligence, enterprise IT solutions, national and defense and intelligence applications.

Senior Vice President, General Manager ( P&L) – PED Operation SAIC
Sep 1999 – Apr 2012 · 12 yrs 8 mos
I was responsible for planning, budgeting, maintaining costs and creating standard processes and procedures across the Op. My responsibilities include managing the Op staff, to include all functional components, business development, and program execution. I developed the planning and administration of the organization’s current and long-range business objectives and the strategic vision for the operation. I worked with Op functional organizations to create efficient policy and procedures. I took an active role in all strategic and fiscal year planning to include Plan/Actual financial reviews and quarterly financial forecasts.

ELDP Systems Engineer
Lockheed Martin · Full-time
May 1995 – Sep 1999 · 4 yrs 5 mos
United States · On-site

Volunteering

Board of Visitors, George Mason University
Aug 2015 – Jun 2019 · 3 yrs 11 mos

Member Board Of Directors, NACME
Jun 2017 – Oct 2019 · 2 yrs 5 mos
Science and Technology

Board Of Directors, Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce
Aug 2019 – Sep 2020 · 1 yr 2 mos

Board Member,Technology Business Management Council
Jan 2020 – Present · 6 yrs 3 mos

LinkedIn overview

Shawn N. Purvis is a passionate, solutions-oriented executive driven by an intuitive entrepreneurial spirit and an aptitude for enterprise strategy. Over the course of the past 30 years, Shawn has engaged in senior leadership initiatives aimed to optimize the daily operations and capabilities of the workforce. Shawn has delivered success portfolio management by leveraging new approaches to business development, intelligence, technical integration, and strategic planning to introduce sustainable solutions for clients operating in the intelligence, cyber, information systems, and defense industries. She is confident in her uniquely cultivated skillset, diverse background, and proven track record of success of leading high performing teams to meet their business objectives.

Shawn operates at the intersection of dependability and innovation, striving daily to deliver consistently high-caliber products and services while constantly pushing the boundaries to identify and implement continuous improvements, digital transformation, and operational optimization. Her belief that there is always room for advancement and development, allow her to quickly adapt to the ever-changing landscape and welcome change with a strategic mindset. Shawn thrives in an environment where she can encourage collaborative interactions and build joint success among her team members, challenging them to take ownership of work and strive for excellence. Shawn has led a multitude of high-functioning teams in strategic planning and development efforts for long-range business objectives, driving efficiency and profitability through the expert execution of resource allocation, project management, corporate communications, and professional networking. She has successfully transformed struggling organizations into high performing, fiscally sound businesses as a result of her extensive business acumen and dedication to superior performance, demonstrating unparalleled value as a leader, team member, and professional.

Source: Shawn Purvis

Web Links

Videos

QinetiQ US CEO Shawn Purvis On Robotics, C5ISR & More

(07:38)
By: Executive Mosaic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHGpQhrpnaQ

Purvis shares advice for pursuing the right contracts and making the right decisions around limited capture dollars. Today, evolutions and advancements in modern warfare are driving major shifts in the technologies, weapons systems, and capabilities that defense contractors provide. Now, more than ever, robotics, autonomous solutions and cyber are dominating the defense landscape, and companies like QinetiQ, a United Kingdom-based defense and technology contractor, are using these shifts to steer strategies, investments, and offerings.

Shawn Purvis, president and CEO of QinetiQ U.S. and a two-time Wash100 Award winner, joined the company in February 2022, and in a recent video interview with Executive Mosaic, she spoke about her transition into the role, QinetiQ’s core offerings, new opportunities for expansion and her vision for the future of QinetiQ U.S.

In this executive interview, Purvis discusses the following topics:

✅ How Qinetic is focused on delivering on its core capabilities like C5ISR, robotics, and autonomous solutions.

✅ The new opportunities that are emerging as the Department of Defense rolls out its Joint All-Domain Command and Control initiative, known as JADC2.

✅ Advice for pursuing the right contracts, making the right decisions around limited capture dollars, securing contract wins, and more. 

Timestamps
0:01 Who is Shawn Purvis

1:13 The history of QinetiQ’s parent company goes back to 1918

2:21 Robotics and Autonomous Systems

2:33 QinetiQ won prime contract to build RCV-L for US Army in 2020

2:57 Cyber and Information Advantage

3:33 JADC2: Joint All-Domain Command and Control

4:00 QinetiQ Expansion Areas

4:27 QinetiQ’s 4 Strategic Markets

4:54 PWin: Probability of Winning a contractExecutive interview – Government contracting executive feature news – federal executive news- govcon executive spotlight news- govcon executive spotlight – Executive moves

5:58 Nurture & Maintain Your Network

Fundamental Leadership Lessons from a CEO with Shawn Purvis

February 6, 2023 (27:15)
By: Janet Ioli / The Inner Edge

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZUT3KL6M3M

In this episode, I talk to Shawn Purvis. She is the Chief Executive Officer of QinetiQ US and has over 25 years of senior leadership experience at major aerospace and defense companies. You’ll hear Shawn share some of the fundamental lessons she learned throughout her career that are key to becoming a better leader. Letting go of perfection, owning up to your mistakes, listening to and trusting your team, asking for and accepting help, and continually working to learn and develop yourself and your team are all valuable insights she shares. In this episode:

  • The importance of leadership development
  • Enjoying the journey and letting go of perfection
  • “You don’t have to do it all!” Ask for help, receive it and accept it
  • Tips to deal with feelings of self-doubt and inadequacy
  • Fundamental lessons Shawn learned from one of her biggest mistakes
  • Tapping into your experiences to find your leadership voice

About Shawn Purvis & Cybersecurity

March 18, 2026 (02:00)
By: NotebookLM and this post

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F32ToINuV0g

Sabel Systems

Women at Sabel

Source: LinkedIn

We’re proud to highlight the incredible women who help move our mission forward.

This week, we’re amplifying Abby Carroll and the impact she makes across our organization.

Abby’s commitment to learning and ability to bring clarity to complex challenges reflect the spirit of growth and collaboration that defines Sabel.

From strengthening core systems to guiding teams through major integration efforts, she continues to shape meaningful progress through curiosity, resilience, and excellence.

Abby’s story is the first of several we are sharing this month, each shining a light on the talented women shaping Sabel every day.

Read Abby’s full story here: https://lnkd.in/eKbrSNP8

Data Friction

Source: LinkedIn

Data friction is one of the biggest barriers to modernization across the acquisition lifecycle.

In his latest post, Michael Baker highlights why programs slow down even when the technology is ready. When technical data is fragmented or difficult to validate, engineering teams spend more time finding information than improving systems:

Part III: Modernization Velocity Increases When Data Friction Decreases
In Part I, I discussed the gap between policy and execution.

In Part II, I focused on operational control of technical data under #DoDI500097 and #MOSA. The final piece in this series addresses a question that affects every Program Office and #OEM. Why does modernization move so slowly, even when the technology is ready? The answer is often data friction.

George Mason University

Appointed by Governor Spanberger to serve January 17, 2026 – June 30, 2029

Shawn Purvis serves as President and CEO of Sabel Systems, part of the Sagewind Capital Portfolio. As CEO of Sabel Systems, Ms. Purvis is responsible for all aspects of Sabel’s growth, M&A, product development and people strategy. Sabel is a leading provider of digital engineering, acquisition, manufacturing, supply chain and logistics solutions.

Over the course of Shawn’s 30 years of P&L responsibilities, she has led billiondollar organizations in the areas of defense, intelligence and cyber security technical solutions in support of the warfighter and intelligence customers both domestically and globally. Ms. Purvis has in-depth skills in driving strategy, policy, corporate strategic campaigns and financial/non-financial goals across the company. She actively participates in corporate governance in areas of risks, benefits, cyber and policies and engagements with the Board of Directors. She has a passion for customer service and delivery in support of our nation’s most critical missions.

Ms. Purvis’ prior roles include President, CEO for QinetiQ US; at Northrop Grumman: Corporate Vice President (CVP), President of Enterprise Services (ES); Chief Information Officer (CIO), Sector Vice President and General Manager for Northrop Grumman’s cyber division, and Vice President for the Integrated Intelligence Systems (IIS) business unit. A leader in these roles, she was responsible for all aspects of the business strategy, growth, customer relationships and program execution – delivering global full-spectrum cyber and security and technology solutions to intelligence, defense and civilian customers. Prior to joining Northrop Grumman, Ms. Purvis held management positions at SAIC and Lockheed Martin.

Ms. Purvis earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Hampton University and a master’s degree in information systems from George Mason University. She attended the Executive Program at Darden School of Business: University of Virginia and earned a certificate from the Accelerated Management Program at Yale School of Management. Ms. Purvis was selected for the 2020 cohort for Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Women’s Global leadership Program.

Ms. Purvis currently serves as a Board of Trustee for Dodge and Cox and previously served on the boards the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering, Northern Virginia Family Services Council and the Board of Visitors for George Mason University. In 2019 she was named to the Black Enterprise™, Most Powerful Women in Corporate America. In 2020 she received the 2020 Distinguished Black Alumni Award from the George Mason Black Alumni Chapter and the 2021 & 2025 Alumni of the year award, College of Engineering and Computing, GMU. She is a WASH 100 award recipient from Executive Mosaic “Top 100 Leaders” in 2021, 2022 and 2023 & 2024.

Distinguished Alumni Award

Source: Mason News

Shawn Purvis honored at Mason’s Celebration of Distinction

Shawn Purvis, (MS, IS ‘99) received the College of Engineering and Computing’s Distinguished Alumni Award at George Mason University’s Celebration of Distinction on Friday, October 21, at the Hyatt Regency Tysons Corner Center.

Purvis is currently President and Chief Executive Officer at QinetiQ US, a multinational defense technology company. She has been a strong supporter of the College of Engineering and Computing and served Mason in numerous ways, including as a graduation speaker for the College of Engineering and Computing in 2018. She shares her Mason experiences and enthusiasm with students, faculty, and alumni and the college is grateful for her support.

The annual celebration recognizes outstanding alumni for their accomplishments and involvement with the university. The College of Engineering and Computing presents the award to an alumnus who has made significant contributions to Mason through their level of engagement within the university, their service to the community, and their professional accomplishments in their field.

Overviews from NotebookLLM

Overviews below based on this onAir post and a web search using Google’s NotebookLLM. Note: Shawn Purvis has yet to review and curate this post or the NotebookLM overviews. Also in the “Videos” section, a NotebookLM video was generated from this post.

Some of the fundamental leadership lessons Shawn Purvis shares in her “Inner Edge” interview

  • Let go of perfection: She emphasizes the importance of “letting go of perfection” and “enjoying the journey” rather than being bogged down by it
  • “You don’t have to do it all!”: She encourages leaders to “ask for help, receive it and accept it”
  • Handle self-doubt: She provides tips to deal with “feelings of self-doubt and inadequacy”
  • Own your mistakes: She teaches the value of “owning up to your mistakes” and learning from them as a “fundamental lesson”
  • Find your voice: She suggests “tapping into your experiences to find your leadership voice”

Shawn Purvis shares specific advice for young women and computer science students centered on leadership, personal resilience, and the value of community support.
Mindset and Personal Growth
Purvis emphasizes that the path to leadership involves internal shifts in how one views success and failure:

  • Let go of perfection: She advises young professionals to release the need to be perfect and instead focus on enjoying the journey of their careers
  • Acknowledge you cannot “do it all”: A fundamental lesson she shares is that successful leaders must ask for, receive, and accept help from others
  • Manage self-doubt: She offers strategies for navigating feelings of inadequacy or self-doubt, which can be common when entering high-pressure technical fields
  • Find your unique voice: Purvis encourages students to tap into their own personal experiences to discover and develop their specific leadership voice

Professional Conduct and Resilience
Her advice for navigating the workplace highlights the importance of accountability and continuous learning:

  • Own your mistakes: She views owning up to mistakes as a critical part of professional development and a core leadership lesson.
  • Commit to development: She believes there is “always room for advancement” and encourages a mindset of constant learning for both oneself and one’s team
  • Trust the team: For those moving into management, she stresses the necessity of listening to and trusting your team to achieve collective goals

Networking and Community
Purvis is a strong advocate for mentorship and building professional connections:

  • Prioritize mentorship: She frequently speaks on the importance of mentorship as a tool for career longevity and success
  • Maintain your network: She specifically advises professionals to nurture and maintain their network, as these relationships are vital for long-term career growth
  • Participate in specialized communities: She supports initiatives like “Women in CyberSecurity” and the “GMU Cyber onAir” network, which provide platforms for students to demonstrate their expertise and connect with industry experts
  • Purvis also highlights the current challenges and opportunities for women in the field, emphasizing the need to build “pipelines for the next generation” of cybersecurity professionals.
]]> https://gmucyber.onair.cc/shawn-n-purvis/feed/ 0 Dean W. Ball https://gmucyber.onair.cc/dean-w-ball/ https://gmucyber.onair.cc/dean-w-ball/#respond Mon, 10 Mar 2025 19:58:00 +0000 http://cyber.onair.cc/?p=4238

Dean Woodley Ball is currently a senior fellow at the Foundation for American Innovation (FAI).

Ball was a Research Fellow in the Artificial Intelligence & Progress Project at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center, a Policy Fellow at Fathom, a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Foundation for American Innovation, and author of Hyperdimensional.

His work focuses on emerging technologies and the future of governance. He has written on topics including artificial intelligence, the future of manufacturing, neural technology, bioengineering, technology policy, political theory, public finance, urban infrastructure, and prisoner re-entry.

Source: Website

Humanity’s Next Leap: Thoughts on the Frontiers of Neural Technology
Foresight Institute – 09/06/2024 (49:10)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmaCbsANvHk&ab_channel=ForesightInstitute

Bio: Dean Woodley Ball is a Research Fellow in the Artificial Intelligence & Progress Project at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center and author of "Hyperdimensional." His work focuses on emerging technologies and the future of governance. He has written on topics including artificial intelligence, neural technology, bioengineering, technology policy, political theory, public finance, urban infrastructure, and prisoner re-entry.

His work has been published by National Affairs, The Dispatch, The Hill, the Washington Post, the Orange County Register, Investor’s Business Daily, the Coolidge Quarterly, National Review, the Manhattan Institute, and the Hoover Institution. His paper “Neither Harbour nor Floor: Contemplating the Singularity with Michael Oakeshott” will be part of a forthcoming volume titled Liberalism Revisited, to be published by Palgrave. He is also the author of “Ideas of Another Order: Michael Oakeshott and Confucius in Conversation,” an essay in comparative political theory that was published in Collingwood and British Idealism Studies.

Abstract: Based on engagement with the neuroscience and machine learning literatures, this talk will focus on how technologies such as virtual reality, large language models, AI agents, neurostimulation, and neuromonitoring may converge in the coming decade into the first widespread consumer neural technology. The talk will focus on technical feasibility, public policy, and broader societal implications.

OnAir Post: Dean W. Ball

]]> Summary

Dean Woodley Ball is currently a senior fellow at the Foundation for American Innovation (FAI).

Ball was a Research Fellow in the Artificial Intelligence & Progress Project at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center, a Policy Fellow at Fathom, a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Foundation for American Innovation, and author of Hyperdimensional.

His work focuses on emerging technologies and the future of governance. He has written on topics including artificial intelligence, the future of manufacturing, neural technology, bioengineering, technology policy, political theory, public finance, urban infrastructure, and prisoner re-entry.

Source: Website

Humanity’s Next Leap: Thoughts on the Frontiers of Neural Technology
Foresight Institute – 09/06/2024 (49:10)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmaCbsANvHk&ab_channel=ForesightInstitute

Bio: Dean Woodley Ball is a Research Fellow in the Artificial Intelligence & Progress Project at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center and author of “Hyperdimensional.” His work focuses on emerging technologies and the future of governance. He has written on topics including artificial intelligence, neural technology, bioengineering, technology policy, political theory, public finance, urban infrastructure, and prisoner re-entry.

His work has been published by National Affairs, The Dispatch, The Hill, the Washington Post, the Orange County Register, Investor’s Business Daily, the Coolidge Quarterly, National Review, the Manhattan Institute, and the Hoover Institution. His paper “Neither Harbour nor Floor: Contemplating the Singularity with Michael Oakeshott” will be part of a forthcoming volume titled Liberalism Revisited, to be published by Palgrave. He is also the author of “Ideas of Another Order: Michael Oakeshott and Confucius in Conversation,” an essay in comparative political theory that was published in Collingwood and British Idealism Studies.

Abstract: Based on engagement with the neuroscience and machine learning literatures, this talk will focus on how technologies such as virtual reality, large language models, AI agents, neurostimulation, and neuromonitoring may converge in the coming decade into the first widespread consumer neural technology. The talk will focus on technical feasibility, public policy, and broader societal implications.

OnAir Post: Dean W. Ball

News

Dice in the Air: A look back at 2025, and a look ahead
Hyperdimesional, Dean W. Ball – December 19, 2025

Has my work been too laissez-faire or too technocratic? Have I failed to grasp some fundamental insight? Have I, in the mad rush to develop my thinking across so many areas of policy, forgotten some insight that I once had? I do not know. The dice are still in the air.

One year ago my workflow was not that different than it had been in 2015 or 2020. In the past year it has been transformed twice. Today, a typical morning looks like this: I sit down at my computer with a cup of coffee. I’ll often start by asking Gemini 3 Deep Think and GPT-5.2 Pro to take a stab at some of the toughest questions on my mind that morning, “thinking,” as they do, for 20 minutes or longer. While they do that, I’ll read the news (usually from email newsletters, though increasingly from OpenAI’s Pulse feature as well). I may see a few topics that require additional context and quickly get that context from a model like Gemini 3 Pro or Claude Sonnet 4.5. Other topics inspire deeper research questions, and in those cases I’ll often designate a Deep Research agent. If I believe a question can be addressed through easily accessible datasets, I’ll spin up a coding agent and have it download those datasets and perform statistical analysis that would have taken a human researcher at least a day but that it will perform in half an hour.

Around this time, a custom data pipeline “I” have built to ingest all state legislative and executive branch AI policy moves produces a custom report tailored precisely to my interests. Claude Code is in the background, making steady progress on more complex projects.

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Foundation for American Innovation (FAI)
Foundation for American Innovation , Zach Graves – August 11, 2025

The Foundation for American Innovation (FAI) today announces the addition of Dean Ball as Senior Fellow. He will focus on artificial intelligence policy, as well as developing novel governance models for emerging technologies.

Ball joins FAI after having served as Senior Policy Advisor for Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technology in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). He played a key role in drafting President Trump’s ambitious AI Action Plan, which drew widespread praise for its scope, rigor, and vision.

“We are thrilled to have Dean rejoin the team,” said Foundation for American Innovation Executive Director Zach Graves. “He’s a brilliant and singular talent, and we look forward to collaborating with him to advance FAI’s optimistic vision of the future, in which technology is aligned to serve human ends: promoting individual freedom, supporting strong institutions, advancing national security, and unleashing economic prosperity.”

Prior to his position with OSTP, Ball worked for the Hoover Institution, the Manhattan Institute, the Mercatus Center, and the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation, among other positions.

“President Trump’s AI Action Plan represents the most ambitious U.S. technology policy agenda in decades,” said Ball. “After the professional honor of a lifetime serving in the administration, I’m looking forward to continuing my research and writing charting the frontier of AI policy at FAI.”

He serves on the Board of Directors of the Alexander Hamilton Institute and was selected as an Aspen Ideas Fellow. He previously served as Secretary, Treasurer, and trustee of the Scala Foundation in Princeton, New Jersey and on the Advisory Council of the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue University. He is author of the prominent Substack Hyperdimensional.

The Foundation for American Innovation is a think tank that develops technology, talent, and ideas to support a better, freer, and more abundant future. Learn more at thefai.org.

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Where We Are Headed
Hyperdimensional, Dean W. Ball – March 27, 2025

The Coming of Agents
First thing’s first: eject the concept of a chatbot from your mind. Eject image generators, deepfakes, and the like. Eject social media algorithms. Eject the algorithm your insurance company uses to assess claims for fraud potential. I am not talking, especially, about any of those things.

Instead, I’m talking about agents. Simply put and in at least the near term, agents will be LLMs configured in such a way that they can plan, reason, and execute intellectual labor. They will be able to use, modify, and build software tools, obtain information from the internet, and communicate with both humans (using email, messaging apps, and chatbot interfaces) and with other agents. These abstract tasks do not constitute everything a knowledge worker does, but they constitute a very large fraction of what the average knowledge worker spends their day doing.

Agents are starting to work. They’re going to get much better. There are many reasons this is true, but the biggest one is the reinforcement learning-based approach OpenAI pioneered with their o1 models, and which every other player in the industry either has or is building. The most informative paper to read about how this broad approach works is DeepSeek’s r1 technical report.

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How Should AI Liability Work? (Part I) The “Race to The Top”
Hyperdimensional, Dean W. Ball – February 20, 2025

During the SB 1047 debate, I noticed that there was a great deal of confusion—my own included—about liability. Why is it precisely that software seems, for the most part, to evade America’s famously capacious notions of liability? Why does America have such an expansive liability system in the first place? What is “reasonable care,” after all? Is AI, being software, free from liability exposure today unless an intrusive legislator decides to change the status quo (preview: the answer to this one is “no”)? How does liability for AI work today, and how should it work? It turned out that to answer those questions I had to trace the history of American liability from the late 19th century to the present day.

Answering the questions above has been a journey. This week and next, I’d like to tell you what I’ve found so far. This week’s essay will tell the story of how we got to where we are, a story that has fascinating parallels to current discussions about the need for liability in AI. Next week’s essay will deal with how the American liability system, unchecked, could subsume AI, and what I believe should be done.

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About

Source: Website

His work has appeared in National Affairs, The New Atlantis, Pirate Wires, Discourse Magazine, Understanding AI, AI Supremacy, The Dispatch, The Hill, Tech Policy Press, the Washington Post, the Orange County Register, the Coolidge Quarterly, National Review, and other outlets. He has appeared on CNN, C-SPAN, and many podcasts, and is the host of the AI Summer podcast with Timothy B. Lee. His paper “Neither Harbour nor Floor: Contemplating the Singularity with Michael Oakeshott” will be part of a forthcoming volume titled Liberalism Revisited, to be published by Palgrave. He is also the author of “Ideas of Another Order: Michael Oakeshott and Confucius in Conversation,” an essay in comparative political theory that was published in Collingwood and British Idealism Studies.

Additional Background

Before he joined Mercatus, Dean was Senior Program Manager for the State and Local Governance Initiative at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, where he managed a research program intended to deliver rigorous and evidence-based public policy research to state and local governments across the country, with a special emphasis on economic development, workforce training, and tax policy.

Prior to that role, he served as Executive Director of the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation, based in Plymouth, Vermont and Washington, D.C. In that capacity, he oversaw the Coolidge Scholarship, a full-ride, merit-based undergraduate program that is among the most competitive and prestigious scholarships in the United States, as well as a nationwide middle and high school debate program, the Coolidge Senators program for undergraduates, and a variety of historical, archival, and educational initiatives.

He served as the Deputy Director of State and Local Policy and Manager for Special Projects at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research from 2014–2018, and as director of the Adam Smith Society from 2018–2020. He oversaw the Institute’s Hayek Book Prize, one of the most financially generous book prizes in the world.

He has also worked as an independent consultant, allowing him to focus on projects near and dear to his heart. These have included on-the-ground efforts to reform policing in Argentina and Chile and to recreate, at small scale, the Florentine guild system for sacred liturgical art.

Dean serves on the Board of Directors of the Alexander Hamilton Institute and on the Advisory Council of the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue University. He previously served as Secretary, Treasurer, and trustee of the Scala Foundation in Princeton, New Jersey. In 2024, he was selected as a Fellow in the Roots of Progress Institute’s Blog-Building Initiative.

He graduated magna cum laude from Hamilton College in 2014 with a B.A. in History, and currently lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife Abigail and their two cats, Io and Ganymede.

Videos

Navigating the AI Revolution with Dean Ball

February 6, 2025 (47:28)
By: Let People Prosper Show with Dr. Vance Ginn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPWJi-U_d5s&ab_channel=LetPeopleProsperShowwithDr.VanceGinn

In this conversation, Dean Ball and I explore the transformative potential of artificial intelligence (AI) and its implications for society, economy, and governance. Dean is a senior fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. He shares his motivations for engaging with AI, his journey into the field, and the misconceptions surrounding it.

We discuss the historical context of technological advancements, the impact of AI on labor markets, and the regulatory challenges that arise as states like Texas introduce new frameworks for AI governance. Dean emphasizes the need for a balanced approach to regulation that fosters innovation while addressing potential risks and the connection with energy abundance.

AGI Lab Transparency Requirements & Whistleblower Protections

November 12, 2024 (01:59:00)
By: Cognitive Revolution “How AI Changes Everything”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dolDtuUlpHw&ab_channel=CognitiveRevolution%22HowAIChangesEverything%22

In this episode of The Cognitive Revolution, Nathan explores AI forecasting and AGI Lab oversight with Dean W. Ball and Daniel Kokotajlo. They discuss four proposed requirements for frontier AI developers, focusing on transparency and whistleblower protections. Daniel shares insights from his experience at OpenAI, while Dean offers his perspective as a frequent guest. Join us for a compelling conversation on concrete AI governance proposals and the importance of collaboration across political lines in shaping the future of AI development.

Writing & Media

Source: none

New Legislation

Politics

Source: none

New Legislation

]]> https://gmucyber.onair.cc/dean-w-ball/feed/ 0 Matthew Mittelsteadt https://gmucyber.onair.cc/matthew-mittelsteadt/ https://gmucyber.onair.cc/matthew-mittelsteadt/#respond Tue, 25 Mar 2025 01:26:17 +0000 http://cyber.onair.cc/?p=4239

Matthew Mittelsteadt is a technology policy research fellow at the Cato Institute. His research focuses on the intersection of policy, cybersecurity, and emerging technologies including artificial intelligence and quantum computing. Matthew’s work concentrates on ensuring emerging tech adoption and innovation, enabling robust cybersecurity, and preserving tech market access and international trade. His work has appeared in The Hill, National Review, Noema Magazine and his Substack Digital Spirits.

Prior to joining Cato, Matthew worked as an AI policy fellow at both the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and Syracuse Law School. In the private sector, he developed his tech expertise as a healthcare IT professional. He holds a BA in economics and Russian Studies from St. Olaf College, an MPA from Syracuse University, and an MS in cybersecurity from New York University.

Understanding AI with Matthew Mittelsteadt
Competitive Enterprise Institute – 08/02/2024 (33:44)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVKuMRMT8VQ

February 8th, 2024 – This week we cover Elon Musk’s controversial pay package, protecting children online, and the Biden administration’s slamming the breaks on new natural gas projects. Our interview this week is with Matt Mittelsteadt, a research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.

We talk about artificial intelligence computing applications, what you can do with them, and how the government wants to regulate them. Free the Economy is produced and hosted by Richard Morrison and edited and co-produced by Ryan Kracinski.

OnAir Post: Matthew Mittelsteadt

]]> Summary

Matthew Mittelsteadt is a technology policy research fellow at the Cato Institute. His research focuses on the intersection of policy, cybersecurity, and emerging technologies including artificial intelligence and quantum computing. Matthew’s work concentrates on ensuring emerging tech adoption and innovation, enabling robust cybersecurity, and preserving tech market access and international trade. His work has appeared in The Hill, National Review, Noema Magazine and his Substack Digital Spirits.

Prior to joining Cato, Matthew worked as an AI policy fellow at both the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and Syracuse Law School. In the private sector, he developed his tech expertise as a healthcare IT professional. He holds a BA in economics and Russian Studies from St. Olaf College, an MPA from Syracuse University, and an MS in cybersecurity from New York University.

Understanding AI with Matthew Mittelsteadt
Competitive Enterprise Institute – 08/02/2024 (33:44)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVKuMRMT8VQ

February 8th, 2024 – This week we cover Elon Musk’s controversial pay package, protecting children online, and the Biden administration’s slamming the breaks on new natural gas projects. Our interview this week is with Matt Mittelsteadt, a research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.

We talk about artificial intelligence computing applications, what you can do with them, and how the government wants to regulate them. Free the Economy is produced and hosted by Richard Morrison and edited and co-produced by Ryan Kracinski.

OnAir Post: Matthew Mittelsteadt

News

AI’s Trillion Dollar Cyber Opportunity: Enable AI. Reduce cybercrime. Unleash abundance.
Digital Spritis, Matthew Mittelsteadt – July 21, 2025

Perhaps the biggest near-term AI opportunity is reducing cybercrime costs. With serious attacks unfolding almost daily, digital insecurity’s economic weight has truly grown out of control. Per the European Commission, global cybercrime costs in 2020 were estimated at 5.5 trillion euros (around $6.43 trillion). Since then, costs have only spiraled. In 2025, Cybersecurity Ventures estimates annual costs will hit $10 trillion, a showstopping 9 percent of global GDP. As Bloomberg notes, global cybercrime is now the world’s third-largest economy. This is truly an unrivaled crisis.

Thankfully, it is also an unrivaled opportunity. Given the problem’s sheer scale, any technology, process, or policy that shaves off just a sliver of these cyber costs has percentage point growth potential. Reduce cyber threats, and abundance will follow.

To seize the opportunity, our single best hope is AI. There’s no question human engineers have failed to contain this cost crisis. As threats rapidly proliferate, human labor has remained profoundly limited. Thankfully, a truly promising set of AI technologies is emerging to not only manage the challenge but also significantly reduce total costs. If we play our cards right—and make prudent policy choices—substantial economic possibilities are ours to seize.

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The Risks of AI Isolationism
Digital Spirits, Matthew Mittelsteadt – March 21, 2025

By now, most have heard of Deepseek, the Chinese startup whose namesake AI model surprised the American tech sector with state-of-the-art capabilities delivered at a fraction of U.S. costs.

For those in Washington concerned about potential geostrategic risks of China’s rising tech sector, anxiety was swift and predictable. Since Deepseek’s release, some have fretted that the model’s rock bottom prices might undercut the American market. Meanwhile others have voiced valid data security issues. It’s been noted all user conversations are stored in China and that application code enables direct communication to government controlled servers.

Conclusion
Deepseek and other Chinese AI technologies unquestionably merit scrutiny and skepticism given the geopolitical tensions and conflict of values. Still, any catch-all ban would sacrifice not only general freedom of use, but crucial market dynamism, innovation opportunities, and cybersecurity advantages. By pursuing a measured approach that prioritizes informed use, app store curation and when needed, narrowly scoped regulation, the United States can maintain the technological openness key to both security, and global leadership.

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Breaking Digital Barriers: The Promise and Challenges of Agentic AI
Digital Spirits, Matthew Mittelsteadt – January 22, 2025

Can AI agents solve our digital interoperability problem?

At January’s Consumer Electronics Show, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang boldly proclaimed, “the Age of AI agentics is here.” Just days before, OpenAI’s Sam Altman echoed the chipmaker, blogging “We [OpenAI] believe that, in 2025, we may see the first AI agents “join the workforce” and materially change the output of companies.” AI agents are back in vogue.

For the non-technical, “agents” or “agentic AI” refers to AI equipped with not only intelligence, but the ability to autonomously solve complex, multi-step problems. In short, very smart bots.

For years there have been attempts to create workable agents, yet hype has always outpaced reality. Following the release of ChatGPT came a boom of excitement, yielding frameworks like babyAGI, which were unreliable and used tech that failed often. Today, products, such as Salesforce’s Agentforce and Google’s Agentspace, offer modest improvements enabling agents to field customer service queries and automate business tasks. Still, they only work in highly structured environments and are limited to preapproved tasks.

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About

Bio

Technology Policy Research Fellow
Full-timeCato Institute
Feb 2025 – Present · 2 mos · 2 mosWashington, District of Columbia, United States · On-siteWashington, District of Columbia, United States ·
On-site:  Researching a liberal approach to AI and cybersecurity policy.

Research Fellow Mercatus Center at George Mason University
Full-time Mercatus Center at George Mason University · Full-timeJun 2022 – Present
Scholar for Mercatus’ AI Progress Project
Concentrating on trade, cybersecurity, and the rapid yet responsible diffusion of AI technology.Scholar for Mercatus’ AI Progress Project. Concentrating on trade, cybersecurity, and the rapid yet responsible diffusion of AI technology.

Source: LInkedIn

Web Links

Videos

Understanding AI with Matthew Mittelsteadt

(33:44)
By: Competitive Enterprise Institute

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVKuMRMT8VQ

February 8th, 2024 – This week we cover Elon Musk’s controversial pay package, protecting children online, and the Biden administration’s slamming the breaks on new natural gas projects. Our interview this week is with Matt Mittelsteadt, a research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.

We talk about artificial intelligence computing applications, what you can do with them, and how the government wants to regulate them. Free the Economy is produced and hosted by Richard Morrison and edited and co-produced by Ryan Kracinski.

Research Papers

Source: none

New Legislation

Articles

Source: none

New Legislation

Politics

Source: none

New Legislation

]]> https://gmucyber.onair.cc/matthew-mittelsteadt/feed/ 0 Arman Anwar https://gmucyber.onair.cc/arman-anwar/ https://gmucyber.onair.cc/arman-anwar/#respond Sun, 12 Oct 2025 09:51:23 +0000 http://cyber.onair.cc/?p=1556

AI systems expert with a proven track record of building enterprise-grade intelligent solutions that drive business outcomes. Trusted by organizations like DARPA and Samsung to solve complex problems and deliver real-world impact.

Passionate about next-gen AI—especially systems that demand multi-modal reasoning, precise inference, and knowledge-based thinking.

OnAir Post: Arman Anwar

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AI systems expert with a proven track record of building enterprise-grade intelligent solutions that drive business outcomes. Trusted by organizations like DARPA and Samsung to solve complex problems and deliver real-world impact.

Passionate about next-gen AI—especially systems that demand multi-modal reasoning, precise inference, and knowledge-based thinking.

OnAir Post: Arman Anwar

]]> https://gmucyber.onair.cc/arman-anwar/feed/ 0 Paulo Costa https://gmucyber.onair.cc/paulo-costa/ https://gmucyber.onair.cc/paulo-costa/#respond Wed, 31 Dec 2025 18:03:12 +0000 http://cyber.onair.cc/?p=2260

Paulo Costa has applied his significant experience as a fighter pilot to a career specializing in the field of electronic warfare and flight safety, which in conjunction with his research on probabilistic reasoning has led to applications in cyber and transportation security, heterogeneous data fusion, and decision support systems in healthcare, defense, and other areas. These topics are at the core of his classroom activities at both graduate and undergraduate levels, as well as his research path. Costa leads the research of graduate-level students in understanding security objectives and verification protocols, bringing in the science of probabilistic reasoning and challenging PhD-level candidates to consider theory and methods for building computationally efficient software agents that reason, act, and learn in environments characterized by noisy and chaotic traffic.

Costa is a key researcher in the field of probabilistic ontologies and has developed innovative applications and extensions that aid in the fight against cyber-warfare. In addition to his Mason assignments as Chair of the Cyber Security Engineering Department and Director of the C5I Center, Dr. Costa is Vice President for Securing Automation and Supply Chain Security (cymanii.org). He is a former President and current elected member of the Board of Directors of the International Society of Information Fusion (isif.org), as well as an IEEE Senior Member (SM13).

Degrees

  • PhD, Information Technology, George Mason University
  • MS, Systems Engineering, George Mason University
  • BS, Engineering, Brazilian Air Force Academy

Source: CEC Page

OnAir Post: Paulo Costa

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Paulo Costa has applied his significant experience as a fighter pilot to a career specializing in the field of electronic warfare and flight safety, which in conjunction with his research on probabilistic reasoning has led to applications in cyber and transportation security, heterogeneous data fusion, and decision support systems in healthcare, defense, and other areas. These topics are at the core of his classroom activities at both graduate and undergraduate levels, as well as his research path. Costa leads the research of graduate-level students in understanding security objectives and verification protocols, bringing in the science of probabilistic reasoning and challenging PhD-level candidates to consider theory and methods for building computationally efficient software agents that reason, act, and learn in environments characterized by noisy and chaotic traffic.

Costa is a key researcher in the field of probabilistic ontologies and has developed innovative applications and extensions that aid in the fight against cyber-warfare. In addition to his Mason assignments as Chair of the Cyber Security Engineering Department and Director of the C5I Center, Dr. Costa is Vice President for Securing Automation and Supply Chain Security (cymanii.org). He is a former President and current elected member of the Board of Directors of the International Society of Information Fusion (isif.org), as well as an IEEE Senior Member (SM13).

Degrees

  • PhD, Information Technology, George Mason University
  • MS, Systems Engineering, George Mason University
  • BS, Engineering, Brazilian Air Force Academy

Source: CEC Page

OnAir Post: Paulo Costa

]]> https://gmucyber.onair.cc/paulo-costa/feed/ 0 Todd Gillette https://gmucyber.onair.cc/todd-gillette/ https://gmucyber.onair.cc/todd-gillette/#respond Wed, 11 Jun 2025 15:30:02 +0000 http://gmucyber.onair.cc/?p=7691

Todd Gillette is CTO for onAir Tech, a startup chartered in Virginia building an innovative knowledge sharing platform. Todd is also Chair of onAir Networks, the 501c3 nonprofit overseeing the implementation of the onAir platform for public online networks.

Todd currently serves as a Staff Software Engineer at Northrop Grumman Corporation’s Mission Systems as well as Todd earned his PhD in Neuroscience in 2015 from George Mason University, having researched informatics and data analytics methods applied to neuronal morphology and function. He holds a BS in Engineering and BA in Computer Science from Swarthmore College.

Along with his many years working with software, Todd’s experience includes mission engineering and systems engineering, determining and documenting the key problems to be solved, deriving requirements, architecting and evaluating candidate solutions, and verifying designs and implementations. He has worked with cyber systems and software engineers to address anti-tamper and unintended emissions concerns and to integrate defensive and offensive cyber capabilities.

Todd has also studied and applied artificial intelligence, including machine learning and logical ontology-based techniques. The intersections of AI and biological brains, and how to leverage them to enhance human capabilities in an ethical and human-centered manner, continue to be one of Todd’s primary interests.

OnAir Post: Todd Gillette

]]> Summary

Todd Gillette is CTO for onAir Tech, a startup chartered in Virginia building an innovative knowledge sharing platform. Todd is also Chair of onAir Networks, the 501c3 nonprofit overseeing the implementation of the onAir platform for public online networks.

Todd currently serves as a Staff Software Engineer at Northrop Grumman Corporation’s Mission Systems as well as Todd earned his PhD in Neuroscience in 2015 from George Mason University, having researched informatics and data analytics methods applied to neuronal morphology and function. He holds a BS in Engineering and BA in Computer Science from Swarthmore College.

Along with his many years working with software, Todd’s experience includes mission engineering and systems engineering, determining and documenting the key problems to be solved, deriving requirements, architecting and evaluating candidate solutions, and verifying designs and implementations. He has worked with cyber systems and software engineers to address anti-tamper and unintended emissions concerns and to integrate defensive and offensive cyber capabilities.

Todd has also studied and applied artificial intelligence, including machine learning and logical ontology-based techniques. The intersections of AI and biological brains, and how to leverage them to enhance human capabilities in an ethical and human-centered manner, continue to be one of Todd’s primary interests.

OnAir Post: Todd Gillette

News

Todd Gillette joins the Cyber Advisory Board
onAir Networks – November 6, 2025

Todd Gillette, onAir Tech CEO, has joined the Cyber Advisory Board.

Todd is Board Chair of onAir Networks. onAir Networks is a nonpartisan 501c3 social enterprise that provides technical and management support for focused networks like the Artificial Intelligence and United States network of 50 state hubs.

Todd is a staff software engineer at Northrop Grumman. Todd has a PhD in Neuroscience from George Mason University.

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About

I studied Engineering and Computer Science at Swarthmore College, graduating in 2003, after which I moved to Virginia to work in IT (specifically knowledge managements systems) with Vivakos Inc until 2006. I then entered the Neuroscience PhD Program at George Mason University with a 2-year fellowship from Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study. After the fellowship was over, I became a Graduate Research Assistant under Dr. Giorgio Ascoli at Krasnow’s Center for Neural Informatics, Neural Structures, and Neural Plasticity (CN3) of Giorgio Ascoli. I spent a semester working with Dr. Ted Dumas and helping publish a paper on gene therapy in addressing stress.

In the CN3 as a Graduate Research Assistant under Dr. Ascoli, I used my extensive experience in software development, data management, statistics, data visualization, and bioinformatics. My dissertation research involved bioinformatic pattern searching applied to neuronal morphology, with further interests regarding neuronal networks and their specific information processing roles and capabilities, as well as science policy and educational outreach.

Research

My work centered on neuronal morphology, with a focus in data mining and pattern analysis to determine distinct topological features (i.e. branching patterns) of various neuronal types. Some of my non open access articles can be requested and automatically delivered via my lab’s publications page.

Education

  • PhD Neuroscience
    George Mason University
    2015
  • BS Engineering and Computer Science
    Swarthmore College
    1999 to 2003

Work Experience

  • Board Chair
    Democracy onAir
    2019 to present
  • Software Engineer
    OnAir Networks
    2014 to 2018
  • Sr. Principal Software Engineer
    Northrop Grumman Corporation
    2019 to present
  • Principal Systems Engineer / Future Technical Leader
    Northrop Grumman Corporation
    2016 to 2019

Patents

Download (PDF, Unknown)

Organizations

  • International Council on Systems Engineering (2017 – present)
  • Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (2019 – present)
  • Society for Neuroscience (2007 – 2017)
  • GMU Graduate and Professional Student Association (GAPSA) delegate for Neuroscience (2009 – 2012)
  • Neuroscience Graduate Student Organization – president (2010 – 2011)

Democracy onAir

My long-term goal for Democracy onAir to bring people into the political process by making it easier for them to find information that is directly relevant …then help them to realize how powerful they can be in terms of what happens in their community and states. We want to create an environment where people can discuss without misinformation and disinformation, to engender trust in Democracy onAir and each other. We will promote the posts, people, and comments that build bridges and understanding even while people disagree on the issues and policies.

Web Links

Videos

Todd Gillette (onAir Board Chair) Interview

November 10, 2020 (05:00)
By: Virginia onAir hub

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFkEkBl-LwA&ab_channel=VAGovernmentHub

Shuaib Ahmed interviews Todd Gillette. Todd is onAir Networks Chair.

onAir Networks Activities

Posts Authoring

onAir Networks

Publications

Topological characterization of neuronal arbor morphology via sequence representation: I – Motif analysis
By: Gillette TA, Ascoli GA
BMC Bioinformatics, 16

Topological characterization of neuronal arbor morphology via sequence representation: II – Global alignment.
By: Gillette TA, Hosseini P, Ascoli GA
BMC Bioinformatics, 16

Statistical analysis and data mining of digital reconstructions of dendritic morphologies
By: Polavaram S, Gillette TA, Parekh R, Ascoli GA
Frontiers in Neuroanatomy, 8(138):138

The DIADEM Metric: Comparing multiple reconstructions of the same neuron
By: Gillette TA, Brown KM, Ascoli GA.
Neuroinformatics

Measuring and Modeling Morphology: How Dendrites Take Shape
By: Gillette TA, Ascoli GA
In Le Novere N. (Ed.), “Computational Systems Neurobiology”, pp. 387-428, Springer

Anti-glucocorticoid gene therapy reverses the impairing effects of elevated corticosterone on spatial memory, hippocampal neuronal excitability, and synaptic plasticity,
By: Theodore C Dumas, Todd A Gillette, Deveroux Ferguson et al.
1712-1720. In Journal of Neuroscience 30 (5)

On Comparing Neuronal Morphologies with the Constrained Tree-edit-distance
By: Todd A Gillette, John J Grefenstette
In Neuroinformatics 7 (3).

Quantifying neuronal size: summing up trees and splitting the branch difference
By: Kerry M Brown, Todd A Gillette, Giorgio A Ascoli
485-493. In Seminars in Cell & Developmental Biology 19 (6)

Projects

  • Assisted technically in the art sculpture project Mental Floss, producing a virtual model and assisting with the projects underlying data
  • Researched at University of Central Florida’s Center for Research in Computer Vision (in 2002 as part of an NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates)
]]> https://gmucyber.onair.cc/todd-gillette/feed/ 0 Sai Sriram Uppada https://gmucyber.onair.cc/sai-sriram-uppada/ https://gmucyber.onair.cc/sai-sriram-uppada/#respond Fri, 06 Feb 2026 02:08:30 +0000 http://gmucyber.onair.cc/?p=7987

I am committed to applying advanced analytics to solve high‑impact business problems.

Recent Data Analytics Engineering graduate (GPA: 3.85/4.0) and AWS Certified Data Engineer (Associate), specializing in engineering data pipelines, ML, and LLM-powered analytics. Architected cloud-native solutions on AWS, including operational data stores for eRebate’s transactional infrastructure, intelligent resume–job matching via multi-LLM inference, and crash-severity prediction. Proficient in Python, SQL, PySpark, Big Data, AWS (S3, Glue, EMR, Aurora, Redshift), AI-ML, SnapLogic ETL, and data processing frameworks. Actively seeking data engineering and analytics roles to architect scalable systems and robust data platforms, driving business intelligence and AI transformation, delivering measurable business impact.

OnAir Post: Sai Sriram Uppada

]]> Summary

I am committed to applying advanced analytics to solve high‑impact business problems.

Recent Data Analytics Engineering graduate (GPA: 3.85/4.0) and AWS Certified Data Engineer (Associate), specializing in engineering data pipelines, ML, and LLM-powered analytics. Architected cloud-native solutions on AWS, including operational data stores for eRebate’s transactional infrastructure, intelligent resume–job matching via multi-LLM inference, and crash-severity prediction. Proficient in Python, SQL, PySpark, Big Data, AWS (S3, Glue, EMR, Aurora, Redshift), AI-ML, SnapLogic ETL, and data processing frameworks. Actively seeking data engineering and analytics roles to architect scalable systems and robust data platforms, driving business intelligence and AI transformation, delivering measurable business impact.

OnAir Post: Sai Sriram Uppada

]]> https://gmucyber.onair.cc/sai-sriram-uppada/feed/ 0