Data Science & Artificial Intelligence
Executive Advisory Board
Members of the Executive Advisory Board for Data Science (DS) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) at WPI are technology leaders from industry, government, and academia. These distinguished professionals, together with the WPI DS and AI Steering Committee, play a critical role in ensuring the quality and growth potential of the DS and AI strategy at WPI. Working together, the Advisory Board and the Steering Committee actively develop strategic research and education initiatives in DS and AI, benefitting not only WPI and our graduates and Executive Advisory Board members, but also the economic vitality of our regional, national, and international communities.
Patricia Florissi, Ph.D., chair
Google Cloud
Patricia Florissi, Ph.D., chair
Technical Director, Google Cloud
Dr. Florissi is a Technical Director at the Office of the CTO at Google Cloud. In this role, Patricia engages with strategic customers on collaborative innovation projects, leads research on emerging technologies, and creates thought leadership content.
Paul Pilotte, chair
MathWorks
Paul Pilotte, chair
Technical Marketing Manager, MathWorks
Paul earned both a BSEE and an MSEE in Electrical Engineering from MIT, Cambridge, MA, and an MBA from Babson College Franklin W. Olin Graduate School of Business, Wellesley, MA. An experienced Product Manager in the areas of AI, data science, technical computing, software security, and data communications, Paul leads teams and collaborates with all stakeholders in driving strategy, product lifecycle, partnerships, analyst relations, and business development.
Andreea Bodnari
ALIGNMT AI
As founder and CEO of ALIGNMT AI, Andreea leads a pioneering Healthcare AI risk monitoring and compliance startup that enables healthcare companies to evolve with trustworthy AI. Before her current role, Andreea was a product executive leading Healthcare AI at UnitedHealth Group and Google Cloud, where she spearheaded AI products and evaluation platforms focused on healthcare workforce augmentation. Andreea graduated with a Ph.D. in Machine Learning from MIT and a B.S. from WPI.
Anup Ghosh ’91, Ph.D.
ThreatMate
Anup Ghosh ’91, Ph.D.
CEO, ThreatMate
Experienced CEO of Cybersecurity tech firms helping teams build and scale both shareholder value and customer value. I previously ran Fidelis Cybersecurity and before that was Managing Director at Accenture Security and global lead for managed security platforms. I founded and ran Invincea, a next-gen anti-virus company, until it was acquired by Sophos, in March 2017.
Christopher Gillett
Homesite Insurance
Christopher Gillett
Director, Platform Reliability Engineering, Homesite Insurance
Mr. Gillett was previously Chief Technology Officer of Shareaholic, an award-winning growth toolkit, designed to help websites grow traffic, engagement, and monetization. After earning a BS in CS from Central Michigan University, Chris came east to patent an invention and make his mark in the Cambridge software world.
Pamela Goldberg
Consultant
Pamela Goldberg
Digital Health Leader, Consultant
Ms. Goldberg earned a BA from Tufts University, Medford, MA, and an MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business, Stanford, CA. Pamela is an internationally recognized leader in medical technology innovation and entrepreneurship and leads strategy to effect change for industry and regulators.
Christopher Herrick
Mass General Brigham
Christopher Herrick
Vice President, Research Systems & Technology, Mass General Brigham
Skilled in Management, Informatics, Databases, Business Development, and Analytics with an MBA focused on Entrepreneurship & Innovation from the MIT Sloan School of Management, Cambridge, MA, Chris leads all operational and technical staff who support the collection, consolidation, querying, and dissemination of clinical data from the research patient data registry (RPDR) to investigators across the enterprise. The RPDR holds more than five billion individual data points on close to seven million patients.
Kevin Fitzpatrick ‘90
MassMutual
Kevin Fitzpatrick ‘90
Head of Privacy, Data and AI Governance, MassMutual Financial Group
Kevin serves as the Head of Privacy, Data, and Artificial Intelligence Governance at MassMutual leading a dynamic team of privacy, data governance, AI governance, data protection, records management, and e-discovery professionals in an enterprise-wide program that unlocks enterprise business value by democratizing data, analytics, and AI in a secure and ethical manner for superior customer value, experiences, trust, and loyalty.
Tom Kilkenny ‘82
IBM
Tom Kilkenny ‘82
General Manager, Automotive, Aerospace, and Defense - Retired, IBM
During his 39-year career at IBM, Tom engaged with Industrial/A&D clients and helped them improve enterprise efficiencies and drive revenue growth using various IT capabilities and methodologies for capturing value. Tom continues to enjoy mentoring early career professionals and advising companies on their digital transformation journeys. Tom is best remembered at WPI as being ‘among the all-time greatest wrestlers’ and as such, has been inducted into the WPI Athletic Hall of Fame.
Venkat Kolluri, Ph.D.
Chitika.com and Cidewalk.com
Venkat Kolluri, Ph.D.
CEO, Chitika.com and Cidewalk.com
Venkat is CEO ofCidewalk.com, a mobile marketing company. He also co-founded Chitika, Inc., the parent company of Cidewalk and Krosslink.org, an entrepreneurial program empowering public libraries with the goal of helping to nurture and develop aspiring entrepreneurs across ten thousand Public Libraries by 2025.
Todd Leen, Ph.D.
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Todd Leen, Ph.D.
Program Director, Intelligent and Information Systems, Computer & Information Science & Engineering, NSF
Dr. Leen earned a Ph.D. in theoretical physics in 1982. His primary research was in machine learning theory and algorithm design with applications to signal processing, health care, and large-scale environmental modeling and observing systems. From 2015 to 2018 he directed the Data Science and Analytics graduate program at Georgetown University, Washington, DC and in 2018 he returned to NSF.
Frank Lo
GameStop
Frank Lo
Vice President Engineering, GameStop
Mr. Lo leads growth-driven teams, combining product vision and software engineering to enable new opportunities around personalization, marketing, and operations. Frank founded and led the ML engineering organizations at both Wayfair and DraftKings and is now starting a new platform engineering team at GameStop, Grapevine, TX.
Sagar Mahurkar
Findability Sciences
Sagar Mahurkar
Vice President, Findability Sciences
Sagar leads technology at Findability Sciences, recognized by Fortune amongst America’s Most Innovative Companies for 2023 and 2024 for its accomplishments in Enterprise AI. Specializing in Predictive, Interpretive, and Generative AI, he holds 5 patents and has earned international research awards. Sagar's AI-driven products and solutions deliver value across Fortune 500 sectors, including retail, manufacturing, finance, pharmaceutical, and legal enterprises. His work is featured by NRF, NASA, NASSCOM, TEDx, MIT, and 15+ media outlets. Previously, at Verizon, he advanced Emerging Technologies like 5G, WiFi Sensing, and Augmented Reality. He is passionate about leveraging technology for impactful problem-solving.
Rob Mauceri, BSEE ‘87
Microsoft Corporation
Rob Mauceri, BSEE ‘87
Distinguished Engineer and VP of Data Science, Microsoft Corporation
Rob leads a diverse team of data scientists, analysts, and engineers responsible for driving Windows ecosystem growth, quality, and product improvements for customers with data, insights, and intelligent systems at scale, and informing Microsoft solution areas for Windows, Azure, M365, and Gaming across devices, operating systems, and related products and cloud services.
Shawn Murphy, MD, Ph.D., FACMI
Mass General Brigham and Harvard Medical School
Shawn Murphy, MD, Ph.D., FACMI
Chief Research Information Officer, Mass General Brigham
Professor, Harvard Medical School
Dr. Murphy is Professor and CRIO at Mas General Brigham and co-Director of the Center for Innovation in Digital Healthcare as well as Associate Director of the Laboratory of Computer Science at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA. His current projects include the NIH Researching Covid to enhance Recovery (RECOVER) and the informatics for Integrating Biology and the Bedside (i2b2).
Jim O’Neill, BSEE ‘93
SaaSWorks
Jim O’Neill, BSEE ‘93
Co-Founder and CTO, SaaSWorks
Jim O’Neill is the Founder & CTO at SaaSWorks where he oversees technology, data, and operations for a new product and solution that delivers actionable insights and analytics for growth companies to build better revenue strategies. Previously Jim was the Founding CTO, CIO, and CPO for HubSpot joining pre-revenue and scaling it through $250MM in annual revenue and has held CTO roles in high-growth tech companies prior.
Pavel Ozhogin, Ph.D.
National Grid
Pavel Ozhogin, Ph.D.
Director, Data Science, National Grid
Pavel Ozhogin is a Director of Data Science at National Grid, where he leads a team that focuses on solving business problems through data-driven approaches. Pavel’s passion for finding actionable insights from data has led him to study and utilize statistics, predictive analytics, AI/machine learning, and process improvement. He applies all of these techniques daily to support the transformational changes currently facing the utility industry. While analyzing satellite data and working on his Ph.D. dissertation in Atmospheric Physics at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, Pavel developed and validated a new model of electron densities in the Earth’s plasmasphere.
Barny Sanchez
IBM
Barny Sanchez
Chief Architect Security, Architecture & Automation, IBM Software CISO, IBM
Professor Sanchez oversees the secure development of IBM Software offerings and is an active inventor and developer of innovative solutions that combine state-of-the-art AI and best security practices. He is passionate about teaching applied machine learning, cybersecurity, and mathematics. He has refined his skills in product development, teaching, and leading high-performance teams after 25+ years in companies like Intel, Cisco Systems, Juniper Networks, and IBM.
Les Servi, Ph.D.
The MITRE Corporation
Les Servi, Ph.D.
Chief Scientist for Cyber Security Operations Research, The MITRE Corporation
Dr. Servi earned an Sc.B./Sc.M. in Applied Mathematics from Brown University, Providence, RI, and an MS and Ph.D. in Engineering from Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. Les nurtures the theory and practice growth of Operations Research across communities including National Security and Healthcare. He also runs multiple internally and externally funded projects across multiple divisions of MITRE and Sponsors.
Les was recently promoted to President of MORS.
Hind Taoufiq
Akamai Technologies
Hind Taoufiq
Director Business Applications, Akamai Technologies
Hind has 20 years of experience leading complex programs and system delivery, implementing business process improvement, and demonstrating operational excellence across different industries, functions, and geographies. As a director of Business Applications, her mission is to enable and empower people, teams, and organizations to embrace and thrive in the digital transformation era. She is passionate about creating and implementing effective strategies that align with the business vision and goals, drive user engagement and satisfaction, and enhance performance and productivity.
Ryan Ward
HubSpot
Ryan Ward
Vice President Business Technology, HubSpot
Ryan leads HubSpot’s Employee Experience group, which was assembled by bringing together a handful of independent teams under a new mission: to leverage technology to enable every employee to achieve more by removing interruptions, friction, and manual processes so that each employee has more time, energy, and tools to focus on doing their best work.