Nepomuk Otte is a Georgia Tech Professor of Physics. When not working on his astrophysics research programs, his mind revolves around flying. His passion for flying started at a very early age but never turned into a rating. That was until 2020, when he joined the Yellow Jacket Flying Club (YJFC) and eight months later was an instrument-rated private pilot. Although he never saw himself instructing, his flight instructor and DPE encouraged him, and it turns out he loves every bit of it.
His main research is about understanding the acceleration of charged particles (cosmic rays) in pulsars and using gamma-rays as probes of Lorentz invariance violation but his group also deviates and does other interesting research in the VHE gamma-ray band. They are members of the VERITAS Cherenkov telescope array and participate in the development and construction of the next generation VHE instrument the Cherenkov Telescope Array CTA.
Shamkant B. Navathe is a noted researcher in the field of databases with more than 150 publications on different topics in the area of databases.
He is a professor in the College of Computing at Georgia Institute of Technology and founded the Research Group in Database Systems at the College of Computing at Georgia Institute of Technology (popularly called Georgia Tech). He has been at Georgia Tech since 1990. He has been teaching in the database area since 1975 and his textbook Fundamentals of Database Systems (with Ramez Elmasri, published by Pearson, Seventh Edition, 2015) has been a leading textbook in the database area worldwide for the last 19 years. It is now in its seventh edition and is used as a standard textbook in India, Europe, South America, Australia and South-east Asia. The book has been translated into Spanish, German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean, Greek, and in Arabic.
His research is in the area of bioinformatics. Navathe is working in advisory roles with Indian companies like Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), and Persistent Systems. He is also consultant for companies in information systems and software products design area and is an independent director of GTL Limited, a Mumbai-based telecommunications company.
Sridhar Narasimhan is Professor of IT Management and Co-Director -Business Analytics Center (BAC), Scheller College of Business. The BAC partners with its Executive Council companies in the analytics space and supports Scheller’s BSBA, MBA, and MS Analytics programs. Professor Narasimhan has developed and taught the MBA IT Practicum course. Since 2016, he has been teaching Business Analytics to undergraduate and MBA students at Scheller.
Professor Narasimhan is the founder and first Area Coordinator of the nationally ranked Information Technology Management area. In fall 2010, he was the Acting Dean and led the College in its successful AACSB Maintenance of Accreditation effort. He was Senior Associate Dean from 2007 through 2015.
Cynthia Moore is assistant director for business operations at the Institute for People and Technology. She has over a decade of experience at Georgia Tech, previously serving as director of Institute Diversity's OMED: Educational Services. She provided oversight and leadership of programs and initiatives that address the academic transition, retention, and academic success of underrepresented students in STEM. Moore also oversaw various initiatives at OMED, including the Tower Awards, an annual celebration of student diversity and academic success. She began her Georgia Tech career in Business Services where she was responsible for administrative and financial management.
J. Sukarno Mertoguno, Ph.D., and chief innovation officer for the Information and Cyber Sciences Directorate (ICSD) of Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), has assumed a joint appointment as deputy director of the Institute for Information Security & Privacy (IISP) at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
“I’m pleased to have Sukarno join the IISP as deputy director, where he will assist us with implementing interdisciplinary research, student education, and outreach programs that drive market impact in cybersecurity,” said Wenke Lee, executive director of the IISP and professor of computer science in the College of Computing. “In particular, he will initiate joint research interdisciplinary projects involving faculty from multiple academic units and researchers at GTRI, and help facilitate the collaborative relationships between Georgia Tech, the funding agencies and industry.”
This new responsibility aligns well with Sukarno’s expertise in developing innovative cybersecurity solutions at GTRI. Prior to joining GTRI, Sukarno managed basic and applied scientific research in cybersecurity and complex software for the Office of Naval Research (ONR). He was previously a system and chip architect and an entrepreneur in the San Francisco Bay Area. He received his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from SUNY-Binghamton with a focus on system architecture design. He also earned a degree in theoretical physics from the University of Indonesia.
“A visionary innovator, Sukarno has been a champion for collaborative interdisciplinary research that challenges conventional wisdom to discover new knowledge and to develop new technologies,” said Wen Masters, deputy director at GTRI’s Information and Cyber Sciences. “He is uniquely suited for this joint appointment to assist Wenke in leading the IISP to reach new heights.”
"Sukarno has been a pioneer of cybersecurity from every imaginable perspective - corporate, government, academic, and everything in-between,” said Brendan Saltaformaggio, assistant professor, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “Having worked with Sukarno since his time at ONR, I've seen first hand the creativity and leadership he can bring to a team. IISP will flourish with him on board.
Dr. Taesoo Kim, associate professor, College of Computing, said, “Karno's experience leading huge projects at ONR will help us position IISP in a unique way: directing us to reveal and address government and corporate problems in cyber security.”
This fall, the IISP, a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity Research (CAE-R) will be celebrating its five years at the forefront of creating new cybersecurity solutions with immediate applications in the real world — developing innovative breakthroughs, cutting-edge curriculum, and teaching our next generation workforce in cybersecurity.