Keith Edwards is a professor in the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech, and former director of the GVU Center. His research interests focus primarily on bringing human-centered concerns to core computing infrastructure. For example, he is a pioneer in the exploration of human-centered perspectives on computer networking, cybersecurity, and distributed systems. Lately, his research has expanded into a number of explorations of the social impacts of computing technology, and understanding how technology can support the work of non-profits and NGOs. An ACM Distinguished Scientist, Dr. Edwards has published over 100 scientific articles in major journals and conferences, and is the author of two books. An active inventor, he holds over 50 U.S. and international patents. His research has been widely funded by industry and governmental sources, including Cisco, Intel, Microsoft, Samsung, Google, Symantec, Steelcase, Nokia, Dell, NSF, and NIST. Prior to his appointment at Georgia Tech, Dr. Edwards was a principal scientist at Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center). During his time there, he worked in PARC’s Distributed Systems Group and later led PARC’s ubiquitous computing efforts, where he made key contributions to technology commercialization and licensing activities.

Sherry Farrugia is an innovative health care and med tech executive who excels at driving growth for new products while also creating both a return on investment and mission for stakeholders. Sherry currently serves as the Sr. VP of preclincial services at Veranex (formerly GCMI) where she is focused on working with industry and academia enabling medical device commercialization. In her prior role as CEO of the Global Center for Medical Innovation, she positioned the organization to serve the medical tech industry, in addition to academia, leading to the commercialization of numerous devices. Sherry started her GT career with the Institute for People and Technology and eventually built from the ground up and led for seven years the Pediatric Technology Center (PTC) at Georgia Tech in partnership with Children’s HealthCare of Atlanta (CHOA) and Emory School of Medicine. She and her team created an organization that focused on connecting engineers and clinicians to solve the most difficult problems in pediatrics. Sherry is a seven-time winner of the Georgia Bio Award including the “Industry Growth Award” recognizing individuals who have had incredible impact on Georgia’s life science industry. She was also named Women of the Year in Technology in 2018, and in 2023 was named to Atlanta Business Chronicle’s Power 10 – Top Healthcare Leaders. Sherry is a founding member of the International Society of for Pediatric Innovation; serves as an advisor to both Relational Capital and Atlanta Tech Council. She is also a proud alumni member of the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) Innovation Board, International Society for Pediatric Innovation, and Emory Board of Visitors.

Brian D. Jones is a principal research engineer at Georgia Tech and director of the Aware Home Research Initiative within IPaT. Over a 30-plus-year career, he has advanced interdisciplinary research in accessible technology, healthy aging, inclusive design, and deployment. His work strengthens IPaT’s mission by creating research platforms, partnerships, and student opportunities that translate innovation into practical impact. Brian has led the Aware Home living lab and co-founded the Design and Technology for Healthy Aging (DATHA) initiative. Through the Aware Home, he has employed and mentored students in hands-on research and innovation, enabling them to contribute to projects that move human-centered technologies into practice. He partnered with Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) to establish HomeLab, a testbed of more than 600 older adults for technology evaluation. He leads the SmartBathroom project within the TechSAge RERC, exploring smart and robotic environments that enhance safety and function for older adults aging with disability. He is a co-inventor of the patented GaitRate system, designed for rapid gait-speed measurement as a proxy for functional health. In the Cognitive Empowerment Program (CEP) and AI-CARING initiatives, he has led smart home technology deployments supporting real-time sensing and intervention for individuals with cognitive impairment.

Debra Lam is the founding executive director of the Partnership for Innovation (PIN) at Georgia Tech, a regional public–private partnership advancing innovation, talent, and economic opportunity. Under her leadership, PIN has delivered more than 300 projects across 300 communities and has launched the PIN Fund, an evergreen investment vehicle making early-stage investments in high-potential, research-derived startups advancing community infrastructure, economic opportunity, and locally driven innovation. Formerly Pittsburgh’s first chief of innovation & performance, and a global consultant with Arup, she has worked across the U.S., UK, and Asia. Debra is a nationally recognized author and speaker on innovation and public–private partnerships and co-editor of a leading volume on community-centered smart cities. She holds degrees from Georgetown University and UC Berkeley, and serves on several civic boards, including the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta.

Leigh McCook is the deputy director for the Institute of People and Technology where she previously served as interim executive director. She is also a principal research associate with the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI). She has years of research management, program development, and supervisory experience. Throughout her tenure at GTRI, she has successfully directed research and outreach programs for regional and national centers, and for programs funded by federal, state, and local agencies. Her expertise includes technology transfer, research translation, stakeholder engagement, outreach, and program management. Programs she has led or co-led include projects aimed at emergency preparedness and response, homeland security, community resiliency, and enhancing and building access to STEM education.

Cynthia D. Moore is assistant director of business operations for the Institute for People and Technology (IPaT) at Georgia Tech, where she oversees business operations, including human resources, finance, and organizational planning. With more than 20 years of experience in higher education administration supporting researchers, faculty, staff, students, and the broader Georgia Tech community, Cynthia has built a reputation for operational excellence, strategic problem-solving, and service-oriented leadership. In her previous role, Cynthia provided oversight and leadership for programs and initiatives focused on the academic transition, retention, and success of underrepresented students in STEM. Known for her collaborative leadership style and ability to navigate organizational change, Cynthia brings a strategic, people-centered approach to problem-solving and continuous improvement while ensuring alignment across day-to-day operations. She is committed to developing people and enhancing the employee experience and is passionate about professional growth, organizational innovation, and exploring how leadership and technology are shaping the future of work in higher education.

Jessica Pater is a senior research scientist and manager of the Health Services and Informatics Research Lab at the Parkview Research Center (PRC) in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Her research explores how the use of digital technologies impact health and social norms. Her main focus is the connection of digital traces to everyday health and wellness. Her current portfolio of research includes expanding the concept of digital self-harm and developing tools and processes to support patients with chronic illnesses, including COVID long haul (post-acute COVID), eating disorders, and substance use disorder. Additionally, she is providing scholarly support for the Parkview residency programs in general surgery and gynecology/obstetrics. Prior to joining Parkview, she was a senior research scientist in the Information and Communication Lab at the Georgia Tech Research Institute.

Nicoleta Serban is a professor in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr. Serban’s research record is quite diverse, from statistical learning and mathematical modeling to data analysis using massive datasets, with recent contributions on drawing principled inferences on health services research, health policy, and health population-based public health. She had been the editor for physical sciences, engineering, and the environment for the Annals of Applied Statistics Journal from 2014 to 2021. She has reviewed for multiple funding agencies, including National Institutes of Health, Patient-Centered Outcomes Institute, National Science Foundation, among others. She has been member of multiple state health policy committees, for example, the Georgia All-Payer Claims Database Advisory Committee and the Georgia Behavioral Health Reform & Innovation Commission. To date, she has published more than 80 peer-reviewed journal articles, a collaborative (with Dr. William B. Rouse) book titled Understanding and Managing the Complexity of Healthcare and single-authored book titled Healthcare System Access: Measurement, Inference and Intervention.

Richard Starr joined IPaT in 2014 after many years in industry working in healthcare and telecommunications software development. His experience with healthcare data, privacy, and security made him a natural fit for the newly established HIPAA-compliant Protected Health Data Infrastructure, now the IPaT Secure Data Enclave (SDE). His role has since expanded to include data engineering, software development, and technical leadership across a range of healthcare research initiatives. As the subject matter expert for the CMS Medicaid dataset, Richard provides guidance to researchers on working effectively with large, complex healthcare datasets while helping ensure queries are performant and do not adversely affect other users. He is currently contributing to several highly visible projects with Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta focused on developing reusable methods for AI model deployment. Through collaborations with GTRI and the State of Georgia, he also supports the All-Payer Claims Database, helping make this resource available to researchers while enabling new analytic capabilities for the Department of Community Health and other statewide initiatives. Richard’s previous work includes projects with the CDC and COVID-19 mobile testing efforts with the Georgia Department of Public Health.

Faith Sumpter has been with the Institute for People and Technology since 2019, where she serves as program manager. She builds and sustains campus and industry partnerships, leading the Convergence Innovation Competition Asia, the Future Tech Forum, and the IPaT lending library. Her higher education career also includes roles as Georgia Tech’s staff diversity, inclusion and engagement coordinator and director of student activities at Agnes Scott College. She is a doctoral candidate in higher education leadership and practice at the University of North Georgia, where her research focuses on the career scripts, career shocks, and advancement pathways of Black women professional staff in higher education. Faith holds a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish from Wesleyan College, a Master of Arts in Higher Education and Student Affairs from the University of Connecticut, and a certificate of project management from Georgia Tech. Outside the office, she can be found traveling with family, watching a Bravo show, taking a walk with the best poodle in the world named Coffee, or finding a new dish to cook.

Tim Trent is a research technologist with the Institute for People and Technology at Georgia Tech. He started at Georgia Tech as an undergraduate in 2013 and joined the GVU Center in 2018. During his time with GVU and IPaT, Tim has acted as lab director for the “Innovation Labs.” Initially tasked with running the Prototyping Lab, Tim also revitalized the Usability Lab, developed and opened the Craft Lab, and recently helped launch the Trash Lab. In addition to running these spaces, Tim assists faculty, staff, and student researchers with their projects, providing technical contributions on projects ranging from smart dog toys to micro-scale “bristle” robots to performance art integrating technology. He is also responsible for securing over $600,000 in funds for new and improved equipment across the lab spaces.

Professor Bruce N. Walker has appointments in the School of Psychology and the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech. His interdisciplinary Sonification Lab studies multimodal user interfaces for non-traditional computing environments and complex tasks. Further research interests include technology adoption, mastery, trust in automation, assistive technologies, supporting creativity, and human-technology collaboration. Dr. Walker is also director of the Center for Human-AI-Robot Teaming (CHART) and the Center for Inclusive Climate Communications (CICC). He teaches courses in sensation and perception, engineering psychology, human-computer interaction, research methods, and assistive technology. In addition to academic research leading to over 300 peer reviewed publications, Dr. Walker has consulted for NASA, state and federal governments, private companies, and the military. Dr. Walker is also an active entrepreneur, founding startups and working on projects related to assistive technology, COVID diagnosis, skin cancer detection, mental health monitoring, gun safety, and advanced audio assistants.

Caroline Wood is executive director of the Office of Corporate Engagement (OCE) at the Georgia Institute of Technology where she has dedicated more than 35 years to advancing the Institute’s mission through transformative corporate partnerships. In her current role, she leads OCE’s front-line team of corporate engagement professionals responsible for connecting Georgia Tech’s research and innovation enterprise with hundreds of corporate partners through a structured, multi-channel engagement framework. A long-standing champion of IPAT’s mission, Caroline ensures dedicated OCE engagement with the Institute and maintains a personal working relationship with IPAT’s executive leadership to align corporate partner priorities with IPAT’s people-centered research agenda. Caroline is deeply committed to building and sustaining the cross-campus relationships that make Georgia Tech’s corporate engagement enterprise thrive — working closely with colleges, schools, research institutes, and administrative units to create meaningful, lasting connections between industry and the Institute. A Vanderbilt University graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in Communications, Caroline has been married for 29 years and is the proud mother of two sons.

Ellen Zegura is a Regents’ and Fleming Endowed Professor in the School of Computer Science at Georgia Tech where she has been on the faculty since 1993. Her research interests span computer networking, computing for social good, and undergraduate education. She served as chair of Georgia Tech’s School of Computer Science from 2007 to 2012, and earlier held roles including assistant dean, interim dean of the College of Computing, and associate dean for research and graduate programs. She co-created and led Georgia Tech’s Serve-Learn-Sustain initiative emphasizing community engagement and sustainability across disciplines. She has also held extensive leadership roles in the broader computing community and federal research enterprise: she served on the NSF CISE Advisory Committee from 2005 to 2009, was elected to the Computing Research Association (CRA) board of directors in 2011, and served through 2021, including as board chair from 2019 to 2021, and she is currently on loan to the NSF, initially as division director for Computer and Network Systems within the CISE Directorate before being named acting assistant director for CISE in 2025. She currently serves as NSF’s senior science and engineering advisor for artificial intelligence. She is a fellow of both the IEEE and the ACM.

An environmental psychologist, Craig Zimring is founding director of the SimTigrate Design Center in the College of Design and professor emeritus of architecture at Georgia Tech. He has authored more than 100 publications, directed over $11 million in research funding, and served on numerous national and international boards and committees, including for the National Academies, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Environmental Design Research Association. He recently co-edited the 2026 book Evidence-Based Design for Healthcare Improvement, which examines how better systems and physical environments can improve the experience, outcomes, and cost of healthcare. A strong believer in the power of multidisciplinary research and innovation, he was an early participant in and beneficiary of IPaT, and the relationships built there have continually enriched his research, writing, and teaching. He takes special pleasure in reminding these extraordinary scientists and engineers that the built environment and physical world must be part of their efforts to improve human experience and well-being.