Author Bios

Emily Bentz, Cyber and SIGINT Division (CSD) Communications Lead, is a recent graduate of Wesley College with a dual English and Music degree. She is a self-published author, and an avid cyclist and kayaker.

Jack was a Machine Learning and Special Projects Intern in the summer of 2019 working with Novetta’s Machine Learning Center of Excellence (ML COE), where he contributed to various projects that apply machine learning solutions to new domains. He is currently pursuing a BSE and an MSE in Computer Science at the University of Pennsylvania with minors in Math and Economics. His interests include machine learning, game theory, and data science. He enjoys soccer, chess, and poker in his free time.

Andrew Chang is an Applied Machine Learning Researcher in Novetta’s Machine Learning (ML) Center of Excellence. Andrew is a graduate from Carnegie Mellon University who has a focus on researching state of the art machine learning models and rapid prototyping ML technologies and solutions across the scope of customer problems. He has an interest in open source projects and research in natural language processing, geometric deep learning, reinforcement learning, and computer vision. Andrew is the author and creator of NovettaNLP.

Jacob Coakwell is an Open Source Analyst in the Novetta Mission Analytics Division focused on Ukraine, Poland, and Russia. Jacob lived abroad for much of his life, including two years in Ukraine. He loves learning foreign languages, as evidenced by the seven that he has studied. Jacob serves on his town's planning commission in Vermont and, in his spare time, enjoys the great outdoors with his wife and two daughters.

Lara Dedic is an Applied Machine Learning Researcher at Novetta's Machine Learning Center of Excellence, where she builds prototypes for customer missions and internal research and development. Lara’s interests lie in applying state of the art approaches in natural language processing and computer vision to cybersecurity.

Patrick Doran is a Technical Director in the Mission Solutions Entity Analytics Division and has been developing applications for the Federal Government for over a decade. His passion for enabling mission users and technology has enabled him to architect big data and cloud systems that solve real-world problems. His interests include solving challenging system scaling problems and implementing SecDevOps.

Laura Drummer is a director in Novetta’s Cyber & SIGINT Division. An employee of Novetta since 2009, Laura is a strong believer in the necessity of continuous research and education to keep ones technical capabilities sharp and relevant to an always changing customer landscape. Laura has over 15 years of experience in analytics, prototyping, and leadership. Laura earned her BA in Mandarin Chinese and History at St. Mary’s College of Maryland and her MS in Information Systems at University of Maryland Baltimore County. She was the winner of the 2015 Novetta Innovation challenge and a recipient of the 2017 DCFEMTECH award for Data Science.

Brandon is an Applied Machine Learning Researcher that works in the Machine Learning Center of Excellence. After serving for 6 years in the Air Force, Brandon studied mathematics and computer science at Arizona State University while doing research in various fields, including machine learning, neuroscience, and robotics. His interests include deep learning, natural language processing, computer vision, and autonomous vehicles. In his free time, he likes to play guitar, go on hikes, travel, and play with his dog.

Jonas is the Director of Operations for Novetta's Open Source Analytics division, and has spent the past twelve years providing analysis and guidance to customers in the areas of national security, human rights, corporate communications, and international development. He is an unreformed news junkie, a musician, and a member of his local school board in the rural Vermont town where he lives with his wife and two young children.

Dr. Kelly Faddis, a Director at Novetta, leads a diverse set of engineering, development, and analytical teams in delivering technical solutions to customers within the Defense Intelligence Enterprise. Kelly previously served at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), managing the Identity Intelligence Research & Development program, where she was an established subject matter expert in identity and biometrics in the Intelligence Community.

Dr. Beach Gray, a Senior Open Source Media Analyst at Novetta, co-leads a reach back team that assesses Russian influence in European media for a U.S. government customer. Beach earned a Ph.D. in Russian Culture, Film, Language, and Literature in 2016 from the University of Pittsburgh. In his free time, Beach serves on the board of Outer Banks Conservationists, a non-profit organization that maintains Currituck Beach Lighthouse in Corolla, NC. He also enjoys skateboarding and surfing.

Ethan Gumabay is a senior at the University of Virginia pursuing a degree in Computer Science, and plans to complete an MS in Data Science following his undergraduate studies. He was a machine learning intern at Novetta's Machine Learning Center of Excellence in the summer of 2019, focusing on Natural Language Processing and Deep Learning.

As the Vice President of Emerging Technologies, Kevin is responsible for big data analytics, cyber solutions, cloud deployments, and software development solutions. Kevin graduated from Miami University with a BS in Management Information Systems.

Matt is a Mechanical engineer by training, digital product manager and analytics expert by profession, passionate innovator and entrepreneur at heart. Matt has a unique ability to translate business needs into valuable technical solutions. Matt’s experience includes global product management, grass roots innovation, big data, full stack development, and cloud architecture. As Director of Cloud Services at Novetta, Matt manages our relationship with Amazon Web Services and works with operational teams on internal research and development (IRAD) projects. Outside of the office, Matt enjoys spending time with his family, playing golf, and spending time exploring outdoors.

Matthew is a senior at the University of Pennsylvania studying Computer Science and Data Science. Matthew's research interests are broadly in Machine Learning and leveraging data to solve complex problems. During the summer of 2019, he was an intern at Novetta's Machine Learning Center of Excellence where he worked on projects with a focus on computer vision. Matthew has been a member of the organizing board for PennApps, the nation's first collegiate Hackathon while a student at Penn.

Rhys O’Neill is an Open Source Analyst in the Novetta Mission Analytics Division and has been supporting DoD and HHS missions for six years. Rhys joined the Novetta team in 2015 and has been supporting the NIH’s clinical trials for Ebola in Africa by providing key insight in challenging environments to drive operational success. He has served in the USMC and US Army and recently attended the 2019 Harvard GIS Institute program.

In 2018, Akshitha Ramachandran was a junior at Harvard University pursuing a joint degree in both Computer Science and Statistics. She interned for Novetta's Machine Learning Center of Excellence, expanding the scope of their entity extraction practices. She was a founding member and Lead Engineer at Harvard Student Agencies - DEV, a start-up focused on developing mobile and web applications for third party clients. Additionally, Akshitha attends Hackathons and has been on the board of Harvard’s Women Engineers Code (WECode) conference.

Kirsten is the Director of Talent Acquisition and has over 20 years of technical recruiting experience. After a short while working as a software developer then help desk manager, while studying Human Resources Management at University of Maryland University College, she combined her love for technology and HR by becoming a Technical Recruiter at a start up ecommerce firm in 1999. She then moved to recruiting in Telecom and has been primarily supporting the Information Security field, mostly for the Intelligence Community, since 2008 before joining Novetta in Sept 2016.

Dr. Shauna Revay is an applied machine learning researcher in Novetta’s Machine Learning Center of Excellence. She utilizes and applies state of the art machine learning algorithms and cloud technologies to lead to innovative solutions to customer needs. Shauna holds an AWS developer certification and earned her Ph.D. in mathematics from George Mason University in 2018.

Brian Sacash is a Machine Learning Engineer in Novetta's Machine Learning Center of Excellence. He helps various organizations discover the best ways to extract value from data through operational prototypes. His interests are in the areas of Natural Language Processing, Audio Analysis, Deep Learning, and Cloud Applications.

Joseph Terrigno is a senior at Columbia University pursuing a degree in Applied Mathematics. He is completing a 3-2 engineering program with Fordham University, where he received a Computer Science degree. He was a Machine Learning and Special Projects intern at Novetta's Machine Learning Center of Excellence during the summer of 2019. In his spare time, Joseph loves playing video games, especially Rainbow Six Siege.

Matt Teschke is an applied machine learning researcher who has demonstrated experience developing solutions to complex problems for government and commercial customers. As leader of Novetta’s Machine Learning (ML) Center of Excellence, Matt directs ML research in NLP (Natural Language Processing), object detection, face recognition, entity resolution, and supervised learning. He is interested in applying open source and cloud technologies to develop practical and innovative solutions for customer problems. Matt also supports some of our largest Novetta Entity Analytics customers.

Shawn is a Diversity Fellow at University of San Francisco (USFCA) Data Institute. He joined the US Army as an airborne infantryman and served two deployments in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. After being honorably discharged, he graduated Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a degree in mathematics, then earned his Ph.D. at the University of California at Santa Cruz. His love of problem solving, exhibited by his studies in mathematics, led him to his work in deep learning.

As a solutions architect in the corporate Business Development division, Brian Uri provides word wizardry and subject matter expertise on proposals and whitepapers. Brian started at Novetta's legacy company (FGM) as a software engineering intern in 2000 and has worked in all sorts of roles since then, with emphasis on service-oriented architectures, government data standards, open-source software, and cloud architecture. He has earned 7 AWS certifications as well as a super relevant Masters degree in music.

Peter is the Director of Cyber Defense programs within the Cyber Defense and Enablement division of Novetta. His team supports customers that require cyber threat analysis, threat hunting, incident response, malware analysis and reverse engineering, digital forensics, and cyber security assessments. Peter holds GIAC certifications for incident handling (GCIH), penetration testing (GPEN), and Windows forensics (GCFE).

Ben is a data scientist and software engineer in the Mission Solutions - Entity Analytics Division, and provides big data, advanced analytics, and cloud computing expertise to multiple Novetta customers and internal research and development initiatives. As a former intelligence analyst in the US Army, he is passionate about creating mission-enabling capabilities and getting them in the hands of users as quickly as possible. In his spare time, Ben enjoys cooking, playing the piano, and spending time outdoors.