Speakers

­Dr. Rob E Smith serves as the DEVCOM Science & Technology (S&T) Advisor to USARPAC.  The science advisors mission is to provide scientific support to Army commanders to unburden their staffs and by reaching back to the S&T enterprises.

Dr. Smith obtained his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan Technological University in 2012.  His dissertation work was focused in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.  He also holds a BS and 2001 MS from the same institution.

Before his current assignment, Dr. Smith was at the DEVCOM Ground Vehicles Systems Center (GVSC) in Warren, MI where he started in 2008.  Overall, he has 20 years of experience in Modeling and Simulation primarily in the area of low observables (visual, infrared, acoustics, camouflage, etc).  He started and was team leader for the Computational Fluid Dynamics and Signature Modeling team at GVSC for nearly 5 years.

Most recently, Dr. Smith served as program manager for Early Synthetic Prototyping, which used commercial video games to virtualize experiments with Soldiers for acquisitions.  Dr. Smith was also part of the AFC Task Force and helped stand up the new organization on the RDECOM side.  Previous to his 12 years of civilian service, Dr. Smith working in industry at Ford Motor Co., Whirlpool Corp. and General Dynamics Land Systems.

Dr. Smith is a named "Mad Scientist" by the Army G2 and 2016 DARPA Service Chief Fellow. Additionally, he holds several patents US 9,347,898 Measuring Thermal Properties of Layered Structure in Situ; US 5,664,339 “Lint Basket for a Lint Storage System” w/ Whirlpool Corporation; US 5,560,120 “Lint Handling System” w/ Whirlpool Corporation.  He has published over 30 peer-reviewed papers and given numerous invited talks.

Dr. Smith currently resides in the Kakaako area of Honolulu, HI.  He is single and enjoys trail running, snorkeling, and attempting to surf.