Brian M. Dennis, Phd Email & Phone Number

Annapolis, Maryland, Us

Chief Data Officer responsible for providing executive leadership in support of the CEO, bridging scientific R&D led by the Chief Scientist into software platforms that accelerate organizational innovation.Currently focused on planning and implementing technical approaches that increase the value of Netrias’ data resources, including models, training and validation data, and other ecosystem artifacts (e.g training observability traces). Overseeing the development of MLOps and DevOps pipelines that support the key harmonization and modeling efforts of the company, while ensuring they are maintainable and able to scale.Providing leadership and mentoring in the areas of DevOps, MLOps, and data engineering along with business development targeting "ARPA" inspired R&D organizationsOther duties as assigned.

Chantilly, Virginia, Us

Built an MVP for an opinionated framework to support data engineering teams with limited resources. The framework design incorporated three tightly coupled principles: data versioning, software-defined dataasset pipelines, and data product delivery via platform as a service (PaaS).The framework was demonstrated against data for three prototypical operational scenarios:* network packet capture data (pcap) processing for defensive cyber operations (DCO)* large CSV files for exploratory ml model development to detect Internet of Things (IoT) cyberthreats* text summarization and geographic information extraction from PDF and HTML files for open source intelligence (OSINT) analysisKey technologies of the framework included: Docker, Docker Compose, Gitolite, DVC, Dagster, DuckDB, Dokku, the OpenAI API, and packages from the Python ecosystem such as unstructured, html2text, sqlite-utils, llm, and fastapi.Initiated the company's journey to achieve CMMI-DEV Level 3 accreditation. Coordinated with an external consulting group to develop an overall process improvement framework for the company, communicate the framework to senior executives, and create the first process document that codified corporate practices for Agile Software Development.Engaged with a large external organization to assess potential technology transfer exchanges. Reviewed and provided feedback on a promising retrieval augmented generation (RAG) platform.

Relaxed, recharged, and reprogrammed myself. Resolved some extant post-pandemic family and health issues. Made room to catch up with friends old and new. Learned enough about generative AI to seriously tinker and be able to call BS on snakeoil salesmen. Hacked on fun personal tech things like music data, sports analytics, generative art, and Rust coding. Got out and about on travel to see the world again.A. B. C. Always Be Curious

Ashburn, Virginia, Us

Provided executive leadership for technical innovation and programmatic execution. Was also responsible for business development, mentorship, and corporate growth.Founding member of the Orion Consortium (orionconsortium.org), an OTA vehicle to support DARPA's Constellation pilot program (https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2022-11-28). Constellation is aimed at getting new cyber capabilities into the hands of cyber operators faster. Orion is a collective of innovative defense contractors that have delivered R&D and transition results with DARPA. I participated in the chartering and organizational structuring of the consortium. I also led the creation of multiple project concepts as part of an initial slate of transition efforts. Two of my concepts were selected for launch in 2023, with anticipated funding well over $10 million.Capture lead for a multiyear, multimillion dollar subcontract supporting the creation of a developer platform for an urgent national security need. At my departure, the effort was approaching $5 million dollars of total contract value with significant head room for future growth. In 10 months, I assembled and organized a team of 10 cleared FTE through a combination of internal recruiting and external hires. The group exhibited high performance via on-site user support at a secured facility and DevSecOps development on a hyperscaler cloud platform. This subcontract enabled Data Machine’s first opportunity to seek government approval and accreditation for a SCIF, a long term corporate strategic goal.

Ashburn, Virginia, Us

Provided senior leadership for technical innovation and programmatic execution. Was also responsible for business development, mentorship, and corporate growth. Other duties as assigned. Engineering and programmatic lead for Data Machines' support of the DARPA Learning with Less Labels (LwLL) program. Sourced and procured GPU dominated infrastructure to enable researcher's development of advanced machine learning algorithms and support government team evaluation of those algorithms. Prototyped elements of an automated end-to-end evaluation pipeline based upon containers and Kubernetes. Executed performer algorithms for evaluation. Integrated public cloud services from AWS. Involved with program from kickoff to program completion report.Technical lead for Data Machines' effort providing evaluation infrastructure for an advanced R&D program developing defensive technologies to prevent social engineering attacks. Hands on application of an on-prem Kubernetes cluster deployment for orchestration of third-party containers during evaluation. Deployment of Apache Kafka as a message delivery backbone to drive evaluation. Refreshed experience regarding modern e-mail infrastructure and tools. Engaged with the program from kickoff meeting to program completion report.Supporting engineer for Data Machines' research, development, and evaluation work on a government program advancing media forensics capabilities. Among multiple tasks, responsible for automating validation of media forensics analytics and working to integrate leading edge image provenance algorithms. Again, exploiting an on-prem Kubernetes cluster for automated container orchestration. Also experimenting with public cloud, hybrid cloud, and HPC platforms to address future scaling requirements.

Supported the founder and CEO in product development by providing informal advice, background research, and occasional software engineering.

Pursued an ambitious agenda to recharge batteries and refresh technical skills through self-defined, mindful, systematic learning. Relied on free or inexpensive online educational resources. Focused on reinvigorating / learning the following topics:* Microservices development, deployment, and orchestration: Kubernetes, Docker, and friends* Stream processing platforms: Apache Kafka, Apache Pulsar, Spark Streaming, NATS Streaming* The Jupyter ecosystem for interactive computing and computational content* Infrastructure monitoring and telemetry tooling* Modern systems programming languages: Go, Rust, Scala* Basics of Machine Learning* Software development with modern tools (integrated development environments, distributed version control systems)This was a short-term, “self-funded" activity (taken on by choice) in advance of starting a new employment position.

Supported DARPA program managers in successfully pitching, launching, and executing ground breaking Research and Development (R&D) programs. Joined Schafer Corporation in August 2016, which was subsequently acquired by Belcan Corporation.Primarily contributed to the Computational Simulation of Online Social Behavior (SocialSim) program in DARPA's Information Innovation Office (I2O). Provided technical advice and execution oversight as the day-to-day point of contact for funded researchers. Similarly assisted in management of a 20+ effort portfolio of Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) projects. Total contract value of this work exceeded $50 million.

Fairfax, Va, Us

Computer science research and development, primarily servicing the science and technology (S&T) research efforts of the defense and intelligence communities.As a senior technical leader, developed strategic "big data" research opportunities for the government services unit of a venture backed startup dedicated to cybersecurity. Primary day-to-day focus was technical performance on the DARPA Plan X cybersecurity program, while generating new business at the intersection of cyber and large scale data analytics. In 2015, led a proposal team that won a multiyear, multimillion dollar, prime contract award for an openly competed DARPA program.

Bethesda, Md, Us

Computer science research and development, mainly servicing the defense and intelligence communities. Assisted Lockheed's government relations organization, supporting the Director for Advanced Science and Technology (S&T) Programs in directly engaging leadership of DARPA. Provided support to the Lockheed Martin CTO office in development of corporate Internal Research and Development (IRAD) projects that spanned multiple business units.As a senior member of the technical staff, responsible for developing, guiding, and executing on contracted and internal computing research programs. This included technology development and overall program management. Directly participated in the writing of over 12 proposals in 7 years. Promoted 3 grade levels and appointed LM Fellow in 5 years.

Appointments in the Computer Science Department and the School of Journalism.Teaching, research, and service as a tenure track faculty member at a premier research university. Conducted an independent program of academic research, publishing peer reviewed papers and mentoring graduate students in research activities. Developed and delivered classroom instruction for underclassmen, upperclassmen, and graduate students. General disciplinary focus was on computing systems (OS, DB, Networking, PLDI, Computer Architecture, Distributed Systems), multimedia authoring, web based ecosystems, social media, and information visualization. Wrote and submitted grant proposals to agencies such as the National Science Foundation and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. In collaboration with departmental colleagues, directly administered over 1.8 million dollars of awarded sponsored research funds across multiple grants.

Doctor Of Philosophy - Phd, Computer Science

Master Of Science - Ms, Computer Science

Bs, Computer Science