In September, the Wright Information Technology Summit (WITS) 2021 Symposium titled "Technology at the Edge" was held in Dayton, Ohio. The day kicked off with registration and breakfast. Opening remarks were presented by Tim Meixner, conference chair; Margaret Pinnell, interim dean, Bernhard Schmidt chair in Engineering Leadership, Marianist Educational associate, University of Dayton; Yvonne Vermillion, chapter president; and Joe Sciabica, board chair. The keynote speech was provided by Michael Conlin, chief technology officer, Definitive Logic.
Other topics included: Industry 4.0 and the Connected Supply Chain presented by Kenneth "Ken" Loparo, ISSACS: Institute for Smart, Secure and Connected Systems, co-academic director, IoT Collaborative, Department of Electrical, Computer and Systems Engineering, Case Western Reserve University. A panel discussion on 5G-The Backbone of Industry 4.0-was manned by Col. Scott Solomon, USAF (Ret.), director, Air Force & Space Force Strategy and Solutions, AT&T Business - Public Sector and FirstNet; Frank Konieczny, chief innovation officer, Patriot Cyber Defense and principal, Deep Water Point; and Chris Bates, specialist leader, Deloitte. The panel was moderated by Harry Toor, growth and strategy senior manager, Accenture.
The afternoon featured Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Transformational Capabilities by Christopher J. Ristich, Senior Executive Service, director AFRL/RS. Several panel discussions on Everything-IT-as-a-Service. Data-Analytics-as-a-Service was presented by Eileen Vidrine, chief data officer, Department of the Air Force. Enterprise-IT-as-a-Service was discussed by Col. Brenda Oppel, USAF, Air Combat Command; Lead Command for Cyber. Infrastructure-as-a-Service was given by Col. Justin Collins, USAF, senior materiel leader, Enterprise IT and Cloud Capabilities Division. Duong Hang, deputy director, Platform One, presented Platform-as-a-Service, and the moderator was Col. Chuck Destefani, USAF (Ret.), executive and technology advisor, HumanIT.
The late afternoon panel discussion focused on Weapon System Digital Transformation and the speakers were Wayne Ayer, director of Engineering and Technical Management, Air Force Sustainment Center; Chris Garrett, senior leader, technical advisor for Systems Engineering, Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC)/EZ; Jeff Kuhn, principal logistics engineer, Strike Systems Division, AFLCMC/WBS; and the moderator was Shawn Lyman, chief, Enterprise Digital Sustainment, Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Logistics and Product Support.
Defensive Decision Making was the final panel of the day featuring guests Conlin; Janette Steets, director of data science, ILW; Thais Flory, cloud application architect, Booz Allen Hamilton; Andy Lloyd, customer success manager, Physna; and the moderator was Jackie Murray, principal, Booz Allen Hamilton.
The day wrapped up with a keynote speaker, Steven Rogers, senior scientist for autonomy, AFRL, on the topic of How AI is Transforming Industry 4.0.
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