2:35 - 3:05 PM PDT: IEEE 802 Standards Committee - Panel Session

Tuncer Baykas, Moderator (IEEE 802.19 Working Group Chair) 

Jyotika Athavale, IEEE Computer Society President

Maris Graube, Originator of the IEEE 802 Standards Committee  

Geoff Thompson, Initiator of the IEEE 802 Standards Committee Milestone, Past Chair 802.3 Working Group

James Gilb, IEEE 802 Executive Committee Chair

Robert Stacey, IEEE 802.11 Working Group Chair

Clint Powell, IEEE 802.15 Working Group Chair

A group of transformative networking standards including Wi-Fi and Ethernet have radically expanded access to the global Internet. The IEEE 802 Standards Committee is responsible for their development. Distinguished members of the IEEE 802 community and IEEE Computer Society will discuss the early days of the group, current standardization activities and the future of IEEE 802 LMSC.

Vinton G. Cerf

Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist

Google

Vinton G. Cerf is vice president and Chief Internet Evangelist for Google. He is the co-designer of the TCP/IP protocols and the architecture of the Internet. He has served in executive positions at ICANN, the Internet Society, MCI, the Corporation for National Research Initiatives and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. A former Stanford Professor and former member of the US National Science Board, he is also the past President of the Association for Computing Machinery, Emeritus Chairman of the Marconi Society and serves in advisory capacities at NIST, DOE, NSF, US Navy, JPL and NRO. He earned his B.S. in mathematics at Stanford and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in computer science at UCLA. He is a member of both the US National Academies of Science and Engineering, the Worshipful
Company of Information Technologists and the Worshipful Company of Stationers.

Cerf is a recipient of numerous awards for his work, including the US Presidential Medal of Freedom, US National Medal of Technology, the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, the Prince of Asturias Award, the Japan Prize, the Charles Stark Draper award, the ACM Turing Award, the Marconi Prize and Marconi Lifetime Achievement Award, the IEEE Medal of Honor, the Legion d’Honneur, the VinFutures Grand Prize and the Franklin Medal. He is a Foreign Member of the British Royal Society and Swedish Academy of Engineering and holds 29 honorary degrees.

Judy Estrin

CEO, JLabs

Judy Estrin is a networking technology pioneer and Silicon Valley leader. Since 1981, she has co-founded eight technology companies, including Bridge Communications, Network Computing Devices and Precept Software, and served as CTO of Cisco Systems. As CEO of JLABS, LLC, she is an advisor and speaker in the areas of entrepreneurship, leadership and innovation as it applies to organizations, national policy and education. Previously, she served on the boards of directors of The Walt Disney Company (1998 - 2014,) FedEx Corporation (1989 - 2010,) Sun Microsystems (1995 - 2003,) Rockwell Corporation (1994 - 1998,) KQED (2015-2017,) and The Medium Corporation (2016-2017.)  She holds a B.S. degree in math and computer science from UCLA, and an M.S. in electrical engineering from Stanford University.

Estrin is the author of the book, Closing the Innovation Gap: Reigniting the Spark of Creativity in a Global Economy (McGraw-Hill; September, 2008). The book explores key concepts of innovation and challenges business, education and national leaders to work together to reignite the sustainable innovation essential for future growth. Her more recent thoughts about the impacts of technology on democracy and society are expressed in Authoritarian Technology: Attention!, The World is Choking on Digital Pollution, Out of Whack! and The Case Against AI Everything, Everywhere, All at Once.

Mei-Lin Fung

Chair and Cofounder of People-Centered Internet, Board Member and Cofounder of Impact Network

Mei Lin Fung, Co-Chair of People Centered Internet which she co-founded with Vint Cerf. An early pioneer of CRM, working with Tom Siebel and Marc Benioff at Oracle, she also worked at  Shell and Intel. Mei Lin studied Finance at MIT under two future Nobel Economics winners. She served as Socio Technical lead for the US government Federal Health Futures, and was finalist in the GSA Citizen Engagement GEAR challenge and chairs the IEEE Technical Committee on Sustainability. She organized “Program for the Future” 2008 with Douglas Engelbart and “40th Anniversary of the Internet” (www.tcpip40.com) in 2014 with Vint Cerf. Fellow of Hasso Plattner-Institute. Mei Lin curates the People Centered Internet’s Digital Cooperation and Diplomacy network and co-authored G7 policy contributions. She initiated and chaired the 3-day series of 60 speakers, including ITU Secretary General Doreen Bogdan Martin, Bob Kahn and Vint Cerf the fathers of the Internet as part of 10 panels on Digital Cooperation, Governance and Regulations at the UN Science Summit in Sept 2023. She is currently organizing with the IEEE History and David Gonzalez, IEEE Ambassador, the 50th Anniversary of the Internet.

Tom Coughlin

2024 IEEE President & CEO

Tom Coughlin, President, Coughlin Associates is a digital storage analyst and business and technology consultant. He has more than 40 years in the data storage industry with engineering and senior management positions at several companies.

An IEEE Life Fellow, Dr. Coughlin has many publications and six patents. He is also the author of Digital Storage in Consumer Electronics: The Essential Guide, which is now in its second edition with Springer. Tom is a regular storage and memory contributor for forbes.com and media and entertainment organizations. Coughlin Associates consults and publishes books and market and technology reports, including The Media and Entertainment Storage Report and an Emerging Memory Report, and puts on digital storage-oriented events.

Tom has served in numerous IEEE volunteer leadership roles, including President of IEEE-USA, Director of IEEE Region 6, Vice President and Board member of the IEEE Consumer Technology Society, Chair of the Santa Clara Valley IEEE Section, and Chair of the Consultants Network of Silicon Valley. He is also active with the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) and the Society of Motion Pictures and Television Engineers (SMPTE).

Kate Wilson

Senior Fellow, People-Centered Internet

Kate Wilson is a Senior Fellow at PCI and the host of the Digital Decisions Podcast. She has spent the majority of her thirty year career at the intersection of global development and technology, dedicated to the idea that everyone in the world should have access to trusted digital tools that make life better. This ethos drove her to found the Digital Impact Alliance, a “think, do, replicate” tank in 2016 that was at the vanguard of encouraging the development sector to take a holistic approach to digital public infrastructure and data over bespoke national systems. Kate stepped down as CEO in January, 2023 and is currently working on a book on the intersection of digital public infrastructure and artificial intelligence.

Prior to founding the Digital Impact Alliance, Kate worked for the global health nonprofit PATH, where she founded and led its Digital Health Solutions group for nine years, working with more than thirty countries, primarily in Asia and Africa, on developing national enterprise architectures and strong policy governance frameworks. Before she joined PATH, Kate worked primarily in the private sector at technology companies including General Electric, Intel and Microsoft where she held various strategy, product and business development roles including introducing the then-new gaming platform Xbox Live to Europe. It was during her eight years at Microsoft where she internalized the value of how a well-built technology platform could be built once and scaled globally. That philosophy – a base of solid engineering, safety, and security upon which multiple innovative, life-enhancing applications can be deployed – is at the heart of the work of global digital transformation.

Kate holds an M.B.A. and an M.A. in Southeast Asian studies from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and a B.A. in International Relations from the College of William and Mary. She grew up on a horse farm in rural Virginia, and with her husband and twin boys, currently calls Seattle, WA home.

David Kirkpatrick

Senior Fellow, People Centered Internet

David Kirkpatrick is a longtime technology and business journalist, author and media entrepreneur, and expert on internet companies and social media. He is writing a book about the climate transition. He has written recently for Time and The Information, and appears frequently on Bloomberg TV and radio as a commentator on tech. 

Kirkpatrick's bestselling 2010 book, The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company that is Connecting the World, was published in 32 languages and was a finalist for FT Business Book of the Year and the Loeb Award for best business book. Kirkpatrick founded and for 12 years led Techonomy Media , which hosted conferences on technology, innovation, business, and social progress. Prior to that he was for many years senior editor for internet and technology at Fortune Magazine. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Sophie Muirhead

IEEE Executive Director & COO

Sophia (“Sophie”) Muirhead became IEEE’s Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer (COO) in January 2023. She manages a US$500+ million business enterprise with a worldwide staff of over 1,100 employees. Prior to becoming the Executive Director and COO, Sophie was IEEE’s General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer for four years, where she served as a trusted business and legal advisor to the organization’s Presidents and CEOs, Boards of Directors, senior volunteer leaders, and global staff.

Before joining IEEE in 2019, Sophie spent two decades at The Conference Board (TCB), a global business membership organization founded in 1917, with a mission to help its members anticipate what's ahead, improve their performance, and better serve society. There she served as TCB’s first-ever Chief Legal Officer, building a legal team and internal legal function from scratch. She also had various operations roles, including leading TCB’s Marketing and Communications Center.

Sophie is a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors, the New York State Bar Association, and the Association of Corporate Counsel. She also serves on the Board of Trustees of the Hunter College Foundation and is a Trustee of the United Engineering Foundation.

Sophie graduated from Harvard Law School, where she was an editor and a contributor to the Harvard International Law Journal. Born and raised on the island of Jamaica, she received a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Hunter College, graduating magna cum laude, and also studied at the University of London and Boston University.

Konstantinos Karachalios

Former Managing Director, IEEE
Standards Association

A globally recognized leader in standards development and intellectual property, Prof. Dr. Ing. Konstantinos Karachalios was until January 2024 the managing director of the IEEE Standards Association and a member of the IEEE Management Council. 

As managing director, he has been enhancing IEEE efforts in global standards development in strategic emerging technology fields, through technical excellence of staff, expansion of global presence and activities and emphasis on inclusiveness and good governance, including reform of the IEEE standards-related patent policy.

As member of the IEEE Management Council, he championed expansion of IEEE influence in key techno-political areas, including consideration of social, environmental and ethical implications of technology, according to the IEEE mission to advance technology for humanity. Results have been rapid in coming and profound. IEEE has
become one of the most innovative organizations of its kind, and the place to go for debating and building consensus on issues such as a trustworthy and inclusive Internet and AI systems, also trailblazing the space of ethics in design of autonomous systems.

Before IEEE, Konstantinos played a crucial role in successful French-German cooperation in coordinated research and scenario simulation for large-scale nuclear reactor accidents. And with the European Patent Office, his experience included establishing EPO’s patent academy, the department for delivering technical assistance for developing countries and the public policy department, serving as an envoy to multiple U.N. organizations.

Konstantinos earned a Ph.D. in energy engineering (nuclear reactor safety) and masters in mechanical engineering from the University of Stuttgart and the title of Professor from the Academy of Science of Indonesia.

Prof. Dr. Ing. Konstantinos Karachalios is currently strategic advisor to Sophie Muirhead, the Executive Director of IEEE.

Pramod Varma

Architect of India Digital Public Infrastructure, Aadhar, UPI, ONDC

Pramod Varma has been the Chief Architect of most of India’s Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) efforts starting with Aadhaar - India’s unique ID system that covers 1.4 Billion people; eSign - an interoperable digital signature protocol; DigiLocker - digital credentialing and wallet system in India which is currently used by 250 million people having nearly 6.5 billion credentials; and UPI - the unified real time payment system that was launched in 2016 currently doing 13.5 Billion transactions a month.

He also played a key role in designing and architecting India’s indirect tax (GST) system, digital health infrastructure, and digital education infrastructure including world’s largest school learning platform DIKSHA.

In addition, he co-founded and created Beckn Protocol, an open source protocol effort that helps create decentralized, peer-peer transaction networks. Beckn protocol is the basis for India’s new efforts such as ONDC (decentralized commerce), Namma Yatri (decentralized mobility), and the newly live decentralized energy network (UEI). Beckn Protocol is also being adopted for various efforts in Europe, Brazil, Africa, US, and other parts of the world.

He is the co-chair at the global Center for DPI (CDPI), and an advisor to many entities and initiatives in India and globally.

He holds a Master’s and Ph.D. degree in Computer Science along with a second Master’s in Applied Mathematics. He is passionate about technology, science, society, and teaching.

Anir Chowdhury

Policy Advisor, a2i, ICT Division/Cabinet Division/UNDP Bangladesh

Anir Chowdhury is the Policy Advisor of the a2i Programmme of the ICT Division and the Cabinet Division of the Government of Bangladesh supported by the UNDP. He leads the formation of a whole-of-society innovation ecosystem in Bangladesh through massive technology deployment, extensive capacity development, integrated policy formulation, whole-of-government institutional reform and an Innovation Fund.

Anir Chowdhury is a frequent keynote speaker at international conferences, addressing topics such as public service innovation, digital financial inclusion, data-driven policy making, civil registration and digital identity management, sustainable development goals (SDGs), youth and community empowerment, educational transformation, and public- private collaborations. He holds key positions in various national committees, including the Prime Minister's National Digital Bangladesh Task Force and the Education Minister's National Blended Education Task Force. Additionally, he
plays an active role in international initiatives, such as the World Economic Forum's (WEF) Regional Action Group for Digital Transformation and the EDISON Alliance, aiming to enhance education, healthcare, and financial services for one billion people worldwide.

Anir Chowdhury graduated magna cum laude in Computer Science and Applied Mathematics from Brown University and did post- graduate work on management, marketing, educational transformation and public sector reform in Harvard, Columbia, Boston, Bradford and Oxford universities.

Sanjay Jain

Director, Digital Public Infrastructure, Gates Foundation

Sanjay Jain leads the foundation’s work to encourage and equip low- and middle-income countries to adopt safe and inclusive digital public infrastructure.

Before joining the foundation in 2024, Sanjay was a partner at Bharat Innovation Fund, which invests in early-stage companies that use intellectual property as a business differentiator. Earlier, at IIMA Ventures, he led efforts at the Bharat Inclusion Initiative to bring more people into the formal economy and workforce in India.

During his career, Sanjay has been responsible for the development of many large-scale, high-impact systems. He was a key contributor to the creation and promotion of a set of government application programming interfaces, collectively referred to as the India Stack, which enables the interoperable identity, data, and payment systems underlying India’s digital public infrastructure. He also led the creation and launch of Google Map Maker, a crowd-sourced mapping product that was responsible for Google Maps data for 170+ countries.

Sanjay has an M.S. in computer science from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a Bachelor of Technology in computer science and engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay.

Tuncer Baykas

IEEE 802.19 Working Group Chair

Tuncer Baykas (SM) is currently senior technical staff at Ofinno. After receiving his Ph.D. degree from the University of Ottawa, he joined the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Japan, in 2007.

During his tenure, he contributed to multiple standardization projects, including IEEE 802.15.3c, IEEE 802.11ad, and IEEE 1900.7. He served as the Chair for IEEE 802.19.1 Task Group. Between 2012 and 2014, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Tohoku University, where he contributed to the development of the IEEE 802.15.4k Low Energy Critical Infrastructure Management Standard. Between 2016 and 2019 he represented NICT in the International Telecommunication Union Radiocommunication Sector, and he was the drafting group Chair of the 1A-3 and 5C-3 groups on WRC-19 agenda item 1.15.

He is currently serving as the Chair of the 802.19 Working Group and the Chair of IEEE 802 Public Visibility SC, corresponding member of the IEEE TAB COS, member of IEEE Region 8 Standards Committee.
He was one of the recipients of the Turkish Academy of Sciences Young Researcher Award, the IEEE-SA Standards Board Award, and the IEEE-SA Certificate of Appreciation. He has served as a Guest Editor for IEEE Communications Magazine and a Board Member for IEEE Comsoc MMTC E-Letters.

Robert Stacey

IEEE 802.11 Working Group Chair

Robert Stacey is the chair of IEEE 802.11, the working group within IEEE 802 that produces the technical standard for Wi-Fi. Robert has been an active participant in the standardization effort and various industry consortia starting with the development of the 802.11n amendment around 2002. For most of that time Robert has been employed by Intel and has worked internally on their Wi-Fi product.

Jyotika Athavale

IEEE Computer Society President

Jyotika is a Director / RAS Architect, Silicon Lifecycle Management at Synopsys, leading quality, reliability and safety research, pathfinding and architectures for data centers and automotive applications. Prior to Synopsys, she was Lead Technologist, Functional Safety Architecture at NVIDIA. Prior to NVIDIA, Jyotika was Principal Engineer (Director) at Intel Corporation leading corporate-wide RAS and Functional Safety architectures. Jyotika also serves as the 2024 President of the global IEEE Computer Society, overseeing overall IEEE-CS programs and operations.

She leads and influences several international standardization initiatives in the area of RAS/safety in IEEE, ISO, SAE and IEC. Jyotika led the development of the IEEE 2851-2023 standard on Functional Safety Data Format for Interoperability. She now chairs the IEEE P2851.1 standardization initiative on Functional Safety interoperability with reliability. For her leadership in international safety standardization, Jyotika was awarded the 2023 IEEE SA Standards Medallion. And for her leadership in service, she was awarded the IEEE Computer Society Golden Core Award in 2022.

Jyotika is an appointed member (Industrial Expert) of the Board of Studies for the Department of Computer Engineering and Information Technology at VJTI, Mumbai. She is also recognized as a Distinguished Alumna by the same university - her alma mater. She has authored patents and many technical publications in various international conferences and journals. Jyotika has also pioneered & chaired international workshops and conferences in the field of dependable technologies.

James Gilb

IEEE 802 Executive Committee Chair

Dr. James P. K. Gilb has over 30 years experience in a variety of areas including: RFIC design, RF system architecture, MAC protocols, and radar absorbing materials. He joined General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. in 2016 as a Principal RF Systems Engineer. 

Dr. Gilb has been a contributor to a variety of international communication standards for over 26 years. He has held a variety of positions in IEEE 802 LAN/MAN Standards Committee and its Working Groups. He is currently the Chair of IEEE 802. 

Dr. Gilb has nine issued patents, been the technical editor of eleven standards and specifications, written three books, and has many papers in refereed journals and at symposia.

Geoff Thompson
Initiator of the IEEE 802 Standards Committee Milestone

Geoffrey O. Thompson is an independent consultant assisting clients with standards projects in IEEE 802.3.  His expertise in Ethernet and networking standards comes from over 50 years of experience in communications and networking while working at the Bell System, Xerox PARC, SynOptics, and Nortel Networks. Geoff's work on the first laser printing systems at Xerox PARC in the 1970s made him arguably the earliest customer of the first Ethernet.  He has been working on and with Ethernet ever since that time.

 

Mr. Thompson was Chair of IEEE 802.3 in 1993-2002, which spanned development of 100 Mb/s Ethernet through 1000BASE-T. He has held numerous other officer positions in 802 and IEEE standards governance. He is currently an active 802.3 voter and the Emeritus Member of the IEEE 802 Executive Committee. Geoff has 14 US patents, and has been awarded the IEEE Standards Medallion and the IEEE-SA Standards Board Distinguished Service Award. He is an IEEE Life Senior Member.

Clint Powell

IEEE 802.15 Working Group Chair

Clinton C Powell is the Director of Global Standards Alliances of PACS Mobile, HID, and Chair of the IEEE 802.15™ Wireless Specialty Networks Working Group.  Clint is also a member of the IEEE 802™ LAN/MAN Standards Committee, Vice-Chair of the 802.15.4ab Task Group, and Acting Chair of the 802.15.14 Task Group. Mr. Powell received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Miami.

 

He has 30+ years of in-depth experience and knowledge in driving leading-edge wireless technologies.  Prior to HID he spent 15 years consulting regularly to Emerging Wireless IoT and Smart Energy Communications Industries, including chip makers, product manufacturers, end customers, and system deployers on various concerns, system definitions, standards clarifications, and real-world product deployment performance issues. Before this, he was the Global Systems Architecture Manager for the Wireless Connectivity Operations, a Member of the Technical Staff, and a Scientific Advisory Board Associate at Freescale (f.k.a. Motorola), developing architectures and generating intellectual property for a variety of wireless and multimedia systems.

 

Mr. Powell has actively participated (as Chair, Vice-Chair, Technical Editor, Contributor, and Reviewer) in the development of numerous 802.15 standards over the last 20 years. During this time, he has held or holds a number of roles within the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA and f.k.a. the Zigbee Alliance). Over the last few years, he has become increasingly involved in UWB technology, including actively participating in the Car Connectivity Consortium (CCC), the Fine Ranging (FiRa) Consortium, and the CSA, with various leadership roles in all three. He has authored many internal papers and several conference papers, given multiple invited talks, and holds 36 US patents in wireless communications.

Maris Graube
Originator of the IEEE 802 Standards Committee

Maris Graube worked at Tektronix from 1976-1985. His work with the IEEE 488 standard for data transfer between the company's instruments led to a curiosity about whether there was a standard that could accommodate longer cable lengths. After working with a group that shared this interest but which had too many corporate interests, he was advised to create an independent committee within IEEE. After a 1980 San Francisco conference proved that indeed the interest in a local area network (LAN) standard was high, he created and then Chaired the IEEE 802 Standards Committee with the Computer Society as its sponsor. Graube dealt with the intense squabbling about the architecture for such a LAN by creating three Working Groups (WGs) within the Committee.

 

Two WGs eventually disbanded, leaving the 802.3 WG's Ethernet as the clear winner. When a Dutch Committee member wanted to standardize a network based on radio transmissions, Maris established the 802.11 Working Group, and this led to Wi-Fi. As the 802 Committee's efforts were not directly related to those of Tektronix, Maris left the company in 1985 and formed his Relcom business where he made components and test equipment for the 802.4 Token Bus network that was being adopted by heavy industry users. Maris is now retired.

Sally Wentworth

Managing Director, The Internet Society

Sally Wentworth is the incoming CEO of the Internet Society, starting September 1, 2024. She currently serves as the Internet Society’s Managing Director, where she is responsible for positioning the organization as a recognized advocate for building and defending the Internet and ensuring that the Internet Society has a strong and effective voice for its mission. 

Since joining the Internet Society in 2009, Sally has focused on building coalitions among developed and developing countries and Internet stakeholders and leading the Internet Society’s work in the development, engagement, and promotion of global public policies that support and enable a globally connected Internet. Sally is particularly passionate about building bridges between Internet technical experts and policymakers. Internet technical experts and policymakers.

Sally came to the Internet Society from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, where she served as Assistant Director for Telecommunications and Information Policy from 2007-2009. There, she represented and advised senior officials and built multi-agency consensus around complex technical and regulatory Internet policies. She had responsibility for the government-wide coordination and implementation of policies related to Internet governance, cybersecurity, telecommunications policy, intellectual property and patent reform, privacy, and other information technology policies.

From 1999-2007, Sally served as the Economic Bureau Foreign Affairs Officer at the U.S. Department of State. As a policy advisor on Internet policy issues, she organized international public diplomacy campaigns and advised senior diplomats on complex negotiations on technology issues. She represented the U.S. on a wide range of foreign policy and technology issues in dozens of international negotiations, including for the UN World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Sally joined the State Department in 1999 as a Presidential Management Fellow.

Sally holds an M.A. in International Political Economy from the Claremont Graduate University (Claremont, California) and a B.A. in Political Science from Westmont College (Santa Barbara, California). She is based in Dayton, Ohio (United States). 

Fei Fei Li

Co-Director, Stanford’s Institute for Human Centered AI

Dr. Fei-Fei Li is the inaugural Sequoia Professor in the Computer Science Department at Stanford University, and Co-Director of Stanford’s Human-Centered AI Institute. She served as the Director of Stanford’s AI Lab from 2013 to 2018. And during her sabbatical from Stanford from January 2017 to September 2018, Dr. Li was Vice President at Google and served as Chief Scientist of AI/ML at Google Cloud. Since then she has served as a Board member or advisor in various public or private companies.

 

Dr. Fei-Fei Li obtained her B.A. degree in physics from Princeton in 1999 with High Honors, and her PhD degree in electrical engineering from California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in 2005. She also holds a Doctorate Degree (Honorary) from Harvey Mudd College.

 

Dr. Fei-Fei Li’s current research interests include cognitively inspired AI, machine learning, deep learning, computer vision, robotic learning, and AI+healthcare especially ambient intelligent systems for healthcare delivery. In the past she has also worked on cognitive and computational neuroscience. Dr. Li has published more than 300 scientific articles in top-tier journals and conferences in science, engineering and computer science. Dr. Li is the inventor of ImageNet and the ImageNet Challenge, a critical large-scale dataset and benchmarking effort that has contributed to the latest developments in deep learning and AI. In addition to her technical contributions, she is a national leading voice for advocating diversity in STEM and AI. She is co-founder and chairperson of the national non-profit AI4ALL aimed at increasing inclusion and diversity in AI education.

 

Dr. Li has been working with policymakers nationally and locally to ensure the responsible use of technologies, including a number of U.S. Senate and Congressional testimonies, her service as a special advisor to the Secretary General of the United Nations, a member of the California Future of Work Commission for the Governor of California in 2019 - 2020, and a member of the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource Task Force (NAIRR) for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) in 2021-2022.

 

Dr. Li is an elected Member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) and American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS). She is also a Fellow of ACM, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), a recipient of the Intel Lifetime Achievements Award in 2023, a recipient of the 2022 IEEE PAMI Thomas Huang Memorial Prize, 2019 IEEE PAMI Longuet-Higgins Prize, 2019 National Geographic Society Further Award, IAPR 2016 J.K. Aggarwal Prize, the 2016 IEEE PAMI Mark Everingham Award, the 2016 nVidia Pioneer in AI Award, 2014 IBM Faculty Fellow Award, 2011 Alfred Sloan Faculty Award, 2009 NSF CAREER award, the 2006 Microsoft Research New Faculty Fellowship, among others. Dr. Li is a keynote speaker at many academic or influential conferences, including the World Economics Forum (Davos), the Grace Hopper Conference 2017 and the TED2015 main conference. Work from Dr. Li's lab have been featured in a variety of magazines and newspapers including New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Fortune Magazine, Science, Wired Magazine, MIT Technology Review, Financial Times, and more. She was selected as a 2017 Women in Tech by the ELLE Magazine, a 2017 Awesome Women Award by Good Housekeeping, a Global Thinker of 2015 by Foreign Policy, and one of the “Great Immigrants: The Pride of America” in 2016 by the Carnegie Foundation, past winners include Albert Einstein, Yoyo Ma, Sergey Brin, et al.

 

Dr. Fei-Fei Li is the author of the book "The Worlds I See: Curiosity, Exploration and Discovery at the Dawn of AI", published by Macmillan Publishers in 2023.

Amandeep Singh Gill

Secretary-General's Envoy on Technology

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres announced on 10 June 2022 the appointment of Amandeep Singh Gill of India as his Envoy on Technology.  The Secretary-General wishes to extend his appreciation and gratitude to the Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Inter-Agency Affairs, Ms. Maria-Francesca Spatolisano, for her dedication and commitment as Acting Envoy on Technology. 

 

Mr. Gill is the Chief Executive Officer of the International Digital Health and Artificial Intelligence Research Collaborative (I-DAIR) project, based at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva.  

 

A thought leader on digital technology, he brings to the position a deep knowledge of digital technologies coupled with a solid understanding of how to leverage the digital transformation responsibly and inclusively for progress on the Sustainable Development Goals. 

 

Previously, he was the Executive Director and Co-Lead of the United Nations Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Digital Cooperation (2018-2019).  In addition to delivering the report of the High-Level Panel on Digital Cooperation, Mr. Gill helped secure high-impact international consensus recommendations on regulating Artificial Intelligence (Al) in lethal autonomous weapon systems in 2017 and 2018, the draft Al ethics recommendation of UNESCO in 2020, and a new international platform on digital health and Al. 

 

Mr. Gill was India’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva (2016-2018).  He joined his country’s Diplomatic Service in 1992 and served in various capacities in disarmament and strategic technologies and international security affairs, with postings in Tehran and Colombo. He was also a visiting scholar at Stanford University.  

 

Mr. Gill holds a PhD in Nuclear Learning in Multilateral Forums from King’s College, London, a Bachelor of Technology in Electronics and Electrical Communications from Panjab University, Chandigarh and an Advanced Diploma in French History and Language from Geneva University.  He is fluent in English, French, Hindi and Punjabi.

Keith Strier

VP, Worldwide AI, NVIDIA; US National AI Advisory Council

Keith Strier, Vice President, Worldwide AI Initiatives and Global Head of Public Sector, has primary responsibility for NVIDIA’s sovereign AI engagements and investments. Keith leads NVIDIA’s AI Nations initiative, spearheading collaborations with governments to advance sovereign AI capabilities and build AI factories that boost local economies. Keith is executive sponsor for public private partnerships and corporate alliances that incorporate all NVIDIA platforms and regions. Keith also concurrently serves in senior policy advisory roles including: Founding Member, US National AI Advisory Committee; Founding Co-Chair, OECD AI Compute and Climate Expert Group; Founding Member, Australia’s National AI Think Tank (only non-Australian appointee); Founding Co-Chair, Commonwealth AI Consortium (covering 2.5B citizens across 56 independent nations). Keith co-authored the OECD’s Blueprint for Building Domestic Compute Capacity as well as the first peer-reviewed journal article on Industrial AI Policy, published in Nature – Scientific Reports: “AI specialization for pathways of economic diversification.” Prior to NVIDIA, Keith was Senior Partner and first Global AI leader at Ernst & Young (EY), and Senior Partner and first global Chief Digital Officer at Deloitte. Keith served as a Guest Lecturer and Forum Facilitator at Harvard Medical School’s Center for BioMedical Informatics for ten years, has a Bachelor of Science with Honors from Cornell University and a Law Degree from NYU School of Law.