Invention-Con 2022: Inspiring and redefining the innovative mindset

Robbie Cabral is the Inventor, CEO and Founder of BenjiLock, the world’s first traditional padlock with fingerprint technology. The lock is a hybrid—you can easily open it with your fingertips but also with a set of conventional keys. What's interesting about Cabral's story is that he never intended to create a product or start a business. However, life hits you with the unexpected, and that's what happen to Cabral.

Cabral says the standard lock hasn't changed in over 100 years, and since the introduction of the key, the BenjiLock invention has become the most significant innovation in its category

Today, Cabral's fingerprint technology is expanding into a portfolio of products, including an upcoming line of bike locks, next-generation padlocks, drawer closets, cabinet locks, and a brand-new line of smart home door locks.

William (Grant) Corboy III joined the Office of Enrollment Discipline as a Patent Attorney in 2016. As a member of the Patent Pro Bono Team, he is dedicated to making sure that all inventors, including those who are financially underresourced, have access to the patent system. In addition to his Patent Pro Bono responsibilities, Corboy also serves as a Staff Attorney investigating discipline and enrollment matters. Corboy was a Primary Patent Examiner for the USPTO and, prior to joining the USPTO in 2010, he worked for 15 years in industry as a design engineer, project manager, and government contracts manager with DuPont and Lockheed Martin.

Corboy is a member of the Maryland State Bar Association, and he is registered to practice before the USPTO. He graduated, cum laude, from the University of Baltimore School of Law, and received a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering and his Master of Science in structural engineering from the University of Delaware.

Elliott Eddie is Chairman and CEO of DM Media, Inc., an author of six published books, a worldwide distributed independent filmmaker, four‐time Virginia Public Speaking Champion, two‐time Internationally Awarded Public Speaker, and Toastmaster International’s 2016 World Championship of Public Speaking Finalist.

Eddie is a recent star of The History Channel's "The Toys That Built America” as author and inventor of the world's first and only STEM-accredited entrepreneur board game titled "The Entrepreneur Game." Eddie has garnered accolades from top publications and organizations, including the BEST IN STEM 2021 Award from Newsweek Magazine (November 6, 2020 issue) and the Creating Excellence Award in Career Technical Education from the Virginia Department of Education. He has been featured in Black Enterprise, Forbes Magazine, Yahoo Finance! and many more.

As an entrepreneur, Eddie has built a corporation that boasts eight small businesses, all of which operate in the black, including a tax preparation business, a real estate investment business, and a thriving professional speaking business named EESpeaks. In addition to these, Eddie has also released his own brand of springform cheesecake baking pans (The Grand Toque) a line of potato ricers under the brand HomeBasicsPro, and an entrepreneurial clothing line. He has also created a 501(c)(3) organization, DreamChild International, though which he invests in student financial literacy and entrepreneurship training for under-served communities.

NaThanya Ferguson serves as the manager of the USPTO’s Office of Innovation Outreach, which focuses on outreach to independent inventors, small businesses, entrepreneurs, and underrepresented communities of innovators across America.

Ferguson joined the USPTO in 1989. During her 32-year tenure at the agency, she has worked as a contracting officer representative, lead patent analyst for the Patent Process Reengineering initiative, strategic planning project manager for the Office of the Commissioner for Patents, and project manager for the National Council for Expanding American Innovation (NCEAI).

Ferguson has received numerous awards, including a Department of Commerce Gold Medal in 2015 for her contribution to the innovative and collaborative implementation of the First Inventor to File statutory provisions of the America Invents Act, a Department of Commerce Distinguished Career Award in 2011 for continued outstanding service, and a Silver Medal Award in 1999 for her contribution to the development and implementation of the Patent Process Reengineering initiative.

Ferguson holds a Bachelor of Science degree in business and management from Johns Hopkins University and a Master’s Certificate in project management from Management Concepts and Regis University.

Louis Foreman is the Founder and Chief Executive of Enventys, an integrated product design and engineering firm. Foreman graduated from the University of Illinois with a degree in economics. His interest in starting businesses and developing innovative products began while he was a sophomore, with his first company founded in his fraternity room. Over the past 34 years, Foreman has created 10 successful startups and has been directly responsible for the creation of over 20 others. A prolific inventor, he holds 10 U.S. patents, and his firm is responsible for the development and filing of hundreds more.

The recipient of numerous awards for entrepreneurial achievement, his passion for small business extends beyond his own companies. Foreman is an Assistant Professor of the Practice at the Wake Forest Center for Entrepreneurship. He is an Adjunct Professor and the Entrepreneur in Residence at the McColl School of Business and was the 2013 Distinguished Visiting Professor at Johnson & Wales University, where he continues to teach. He also teaches IP for Entrepreneurs at Central Michigan. He is a frequent lecturer and radio/TV guest on the topics of small business creation and innovation and is frequently invited by universities and national trade associations to be a featured speaker on the topic of entrepreneurship and innovation.

In addition to being an inventor, Foreman is also committed to inspiring others to be innovative. Foreman was the creator of the Emmy® Award-winning PBS TV show, Everyday Edisons, and served as the executive producer and lead judge. The show won two Emmys in four seasons and appeared nationally on PBS. In 2007, Foreman became the publisher of Inventors Digest, a 35-year-old publication devoted to the topic of American innovation. In 2009, his first book, “The Independent Inventor’s Handbook,” was published by Workman Publishing. In 2015, Foreman was awarded the Intellectual Property Champion Award by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Foreman currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the James Dyson Foundation. He is a board member of the Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO), the Federal Reserve Bank Industry Roundtable, Beyond Campus Innovations, Cryptyde, the Intellectual Property Owners Educational Foundation (IPOEF), and the advisory board of Park National Bank. In 2013, Foreman was appointed by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) administrator to serve on the National Office of Small Business Development Centers (SBDC) advisory board until the end of 2024.

In 2008, Foreman was appointed to serve for a three-year term on the nine-person Patent Public Advisory Committee (PPAC) of the USPTO. In 2011, he was appointed to serve an additional three-year term.

Taryn Omran is an inventor and the owner of Now That’s An Idea LLC based in Denver, Colorado. Together with her husband, who serves as Creative Advisor, she has successfully invented and licensed multiple products across industries in exchange for royalties. Omran brings comprehensive writing and research skills, technological aptitude, and unparalleled people skills together in a winning combination that produces innovative products relevant for today’s consumer.

Omran is co-inventor of the Interior Clean/Dirty Dishwasher Sign that hangs on the dish rack inside dishwashers — out of sight and away from the reach of curious children and pets — and StopCart, which prevents shopping carts from running away as you load and unload children and groceries into and from your car, and which was recently brought to e-market. Other inventions are in development.

Omran studied product licensing through InventRight and InventTribe, where she learned to write her own provisional patent applications, market her own products to potential licensees, and negotiate her own licensing contracts. Seeing a gap in customer relations management (CRM) tools geared towards innovators to track communications with potential clients, Omran partnered with Less Annoying CRM to create an inventor’s template based on the process she employs to close licensing deals.

Now That’s An Idea LLC is a recipient of services through the USPTO Patent Pro Bono Program, filing multiple utility and design patents with the help of pro bono attorney Shireen Marshall of Elevated IP, LLC.

Omran lives with her husband and three children (one of whom has special needs) in Denver. She has a master’s degree and is a Project Manager for the state of Colorado.

Carlos Gutierrez started his career with service in the United States Marine Corps working in the field of logistics. He completed two tours overseas, one of which was in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in the Persian Gulf. Subsequently, Gutierrez held roles in the private sector, including several years as an Executive Team Leader with Target retail stores and Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship at The University of Texas – Rio Grande Valley.

Additionally, Gutierrez holds a U.S. patent, was the founder of several companies, and has served as an advisor for several nascent-stage tech startups. He has written and managed grants that have been awarded a total of $1.73 million.

Gutierrez has served with several agencies within the federal government, including the Department of Energy, the Minority Business Development Agency, and the Small Business Administration. Gutierrez also previously served as the Director of the Texas Veterans Business Outreach Center.

Gutierrez has a background in business development and program management in the private sector, state government, federal government, academia, and non-profit spaces. He holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in management from The University of Texas – Rio Grande Valley, a Master of Business Administration from the University of Phoenix, and a Master of Science in technology commercialization from The University of Texas at Austin.

Eric Ingram is the Founder and CEO of SCOUT Inc., a U.S.-based company developing orbital products and services to enable a new era of space safety and transparency. He is a board member at the Space Frontier Foundation, is an Organizing Team Member and Ambassador for Mission: AstroAccess, and he serves on the Advisory Committee on Commercial Remote Sensing (ACCRES).

Previous to SCOUT, Ingram served as an aerospace engineer for the Licensing and Evaluation Division of the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Office of Commercial Space Transportation, where he gained valuable expertise in the regulatory environment of commercial spaceflight. Prior to this, he worked as an engineer for Deep Space Industries’ Special Projects Division, where he designed cubesat (a class of nanosatellites) subsystems for testbed missions.

Ingram holds a Bachelor of Science in physics from Old Dominion University, most of a Master of Science in electrical engineering from the University of Houston, a sport pilot certificate, and is working towards his SCUBA certification.

Outside of the space industry, Ingram proudly served as the President of the United States Wheelchair Rugby Association (USWRA) from 2016 – 2020, leading the USWRA to its largest budget surplus in its more than 30-year history. Ingram has competed in the sport of wheelchair rugby for more than 15 years, competing domestically for several club teams and internationally with the U.S. Developmental Team.

John Kirkpatrick is a Patent Pro Bono Team member and staff attorney at the USPTO. He is dedicated to making sure that all inventors, including those who are financially underresourced, have access to the patent system. He works with patent pro bono programs across the nation to guarantee pro bono coverage in all 50 states pursuant to the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA).

Previously, Kirkpatrick served as a patent examiner and was employed by a private intellectual property firm. Kirkpatrick received his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from Villanova University and graduated, cum laude, from The Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law. He is a member of the Virginia Bar.

Laura Larrimore leads the USPTO’s Digital and Creative Services Branch, coordinating the digital operations at the USPTO, including the agency’s website and social media accounts. She advises agency leaders on the strategic use and development of digital communications tools and explores new technologies for their potential to help the agency meet its communication goals at lower cost with less staff time.

For six months in 2017 and 2018, Larrimore was on special assignment at the Department of Commerce as the Deputy Director of Digital Strategy, providing advice to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce and Department of Commerce bureaus navigating the presidential transition.

Prior to joining the federal government, she worked in university communications for a decade, most recently as Director of Digital Strategy at the George Washington University School of Public Health.

Larrimore is passionate about using technology to communicate in ways that are practical, useful, and fun.

Shireen Marshall is a patent attorney, scientist, and entrepreneur. She has been helping inventors obtain patents for almost twenty years at both large and small law firms. In 2016, Marshall founded Elevated IP, LLC to provide personal service and top-notch legal services to clients without the bulky overhead and formal trappings of a prototypical law firm.

Her areas of specialization include chemistry, materials science, nanotechnology, mechanical devices, and sporting goods.

She has been a volunteer attorney with the Pro Bono Patent Program, administered through the Mi Casa Resource Center in Denver, since 2017.

Sherrill Mosee, inventor and designer of MinkeeBlue bags, set out to solve a problem she calls the “overload bag syndrome.” Like many women, Mosee carried two or three bags while commuting to work. She wanted to create an organizational fashion bag for busy women whose role changed throughout the day — from mom to executive. MinkeeBlue bags are organizational travel and work bags that eliminate the need to carry multiple bags while traveling from place to place.

Mosee, an engineer by profession, received her undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from the University of Maryland and a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Drexel University. She worked at Lockheed Martin for a number of years before taking a detour to start a nonprofit organization. She founded Family Care Solutions to promote higher education among low-income student-parents in college. The organization awarded over $3 million in childcare scholarships to help women with children stay in school and earn a college degree. While working with the moms, Mosee noticed many struggling to carry their diaper and book bags. She realized the she, too, was carrying two and three bags while taking the train into the city for work. Shortly after launching her business, Mosee was accepted into the Philadelphia Fashion Incubator, a 12-month residency program that teaches the business of fashion.

Mosee put her engineering degree to work and has received two utility patents. She designed the inconspicuous, compartmented bag with a patented folding shelf in the middle to separate shoes, lunch, a change of clothes, laptop, and purse essentials.

MinkeeBlue has been featured on the Today Show and the Katie Couric Show; in Buzz Feed, Forbes, Cosmopolitan, and People Magazine; and sold on QVC. Mosee recently won a $100,000 purchase order with Macy’s on the premier show of “America’s Big Deal,” which aired on the USA network.

Mosee describes MinkeeBlue as a reflection of “who we are” and “what we do” in our daily lives – “Your day is in the Bag.”

Sue Munro is the ProBoPat Program Administrator at Mi Casa Resource Center in Denver. ProBoPat refers qualified under-resourced inventors with registered patent practitioners for patent preparation and prosecution legal services on a pro bono basis. Munro has been with ProBoPat since 2020.

Munro has been a social worker for 25 years. She earned her master's degree in social work at New York University in 1997 and has worked at non-profits in Philadelphia, Manhattan, San Francisco, and Denver.

Heath Naquin joined the Science Center in 2021 as Vice President of Government and Capital Engagement. Naquin is also a Managing Partner and Co-founder of International Innovation Associates, a boutique consultancy firm focused on practice areas in healthcare innovation; angel and venture capital fund creation; diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) support programming; global venture creation; and strategic economic advice. He has advised numerous national-level foundations and nonprofit entities on strategic initiatives related to entrepreneurial advocacy, fund creation, and deployment of best-in-breed programming to accelerate ventures.

Naquin has been a part of large-scale national and international technology transfer, commercialization, and fund creation efforts for nearly 20 years. Recent work includes serving on the National Institutes of Health RADx Initiative on the External Commercial Partnerships team. Internationally, he has served as a subject matter expert and key advisor for the European Investment Fund and, for nearly a decade, he led the U.S. Department of State Global Innovation in Science and Technology program, which focuses on nation-building efforts in more than 130 countries by advancing economic development through the translation of research into commercial outcomes in conjunction with capital development and deployment. Previously, he served as Executive Director in the Office of the Vice President for Research at the University of Texas at Austin, managing the National Science Foundation (NSF) SW I-Corps Node, the Next Generation PV NSF IUCRC, and a host of international technology transfer and commercialization efforts that spanned the globe.

Naquin is active in the investment space as an accredited investor himself and an active participant in the Angel Capital Association as well as other relevant TBED organizations.

With a global and unique perspective on everything, Tiffany Norwood often creates years into the future and has been a pioneer in multiple industries, including digital broadcasting, broadband internet, digital music, ed-tech, esports, and more. Her startups have impacted billions of people in more than 150 countries. She is known worldwide as a changemaker. Norwood was recently named the 2022 Entrepreneur of the Year by Cornell University, the first black woman to receive this lifetime achievement award in its nearly forty-year history.

Norwood first became a CEO while a junior at university, filed for a patent at the age of 19, licensed her first software code for a multibillion-dollar bank merger at the age of 24 and, by the age of 27, Norwood did something that no other entrepreneur has done since – she raised over $670 million dollars to fund a start-up called WorldSpace. As early space entrepreneurs, WorldSpace used that money to launch three satellites into space; build the first-ever global digital radio platform, including XM Radio; support the development of MP3/MP4 technologies; and, at the request of then-President Nelson Mandela, invest in a new generation of solar-powered satellite radio receivers to help in his campaign for truth and reconciliation.

Norwood is one of few global serial entrepreneurs and one of the first successful black female tech entrepreneurs. With a career spanning 35 years, eight start-ups, and multiple exits, she has personally worked in more than 50 countries. Currently, Norwood is transforming education and disrupting sports as the Founder and CEO of Tribetan and a Co-founder of SimWin Sports. Using technology, music, video, and animations, Tribetan is teaching the world how to be more innovative and entrepreneurial for success in business, school, and life. SimWin Sports is a digital sports league platform, with tokens, online betting, and esports fantasy tournaments. SimWin announced its new platform at the 2022 Super Bowl.

Norwood is a highly respected and sought-after global speaker on entrepreneurship, innovation, and leadership. She has spoken around the world at venues including the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the Newseum, the European Parliament, Cornell University, Yale University, the Italian Parliament, Platform Summit, Intel, the Creative Business Cup, KPMG UK, Georgetown Law School, the United Nations, ABC News, and many others. Her most iconic performances are “The Power of We,” “The ROI of Faith,'' and “Hermione Rising”. These talks make the business case for unity, trust, and practice.

Norwood has a bachelor’s degree in economics, with a concentration in statistics and computer science, from Cornell University, and she rowed varsity crew her freshman year at Cornell. She has an MBA from Harvard.

Dahlia Rizk lives with her thee kids, two cats, and a dog in New Hampshire, where winter is long and cold.

She invented car seat coats to make kids safer and parents’ lives a whole lot easier in the winter time.

Outside of Buckle Me Baby Coats, she's also a mental health counselor – running a mental health private practice she founded 14 years ago – where she treats adults with post-traumatic stress disorder.

When she's not working on coats or bugging her kids, she enjoys escape rooms, Netflix binge watching, theater, long books, and scrabble.

Vijay Sekhara serves as Director of Partnerships for MassChallenge, a non-profit, zero-equity, startup accelerator with over three hundred partners that has graduated three thousand alumni across the globe since its inception in 2009. There, he manages custom accelerator programs for IBM and the U.S. Air Force as well as defense innovation partnerships with a multitude of industry primes with the shared mission of solving the nation’s greatest security challenges. His other focuses include artificial intelligence, clean energy, and space commercialization.

MassChallenge efforts over the past thirteen years have resulted in over $8.6 billion in funds raised, $3.6 billion in revenue generated, and over 180,000 jobs. Prior to his current role, Sekhara worked for Linde plc, supporting their industrial gas sales and business development initiatives in the United States, first with nitrogen services for midstream and downstream operations and, afterward, helium services for healthcare and space applications. He was born and raised in Wallingford, Connecticut and attended the University of Connecticut, where he studied chemical engineering. For the past nine years, Sekhara has since resided in Houston, Texas. His interests include hiking national parks, cycling, and caring for the overabundance of houseplants he purchased during the pandemic.

Jacob Sendowski is an entrepreneur and the co-creator of the Souper Cubes® line of freezing trays. He has a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the California Institute of Technology and previously worked in Silicon Valley at both large companies and startups in fields varying from integrated photonics to cyber security. In 2017, Sendowski and his girlfriend (now wife) had a conversation about making and freezing chicken stock that highlighted the need for something like Souper Cubes® to solve what they felt was a problem in the storage of individual food portions. Four years later, their products are on the shelves of national retailers like Williams Sonoma, Sur La Table, and Bed Bath and Beyond, and they have been featured in magazines like Real Simple, Better Homes and Gardens, and Eating Well. Sendowski and his wife and business partner Michelle pitched Souper Cubes® on ABC's Shark Tank in February of 2021 and received an investment from Shark Lori Grenier.
 

As the Regional Director of the Texas Regional United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Hope Shimabuku carries out the strategic direction of the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO, and is responsible for leading the Texas regional office. Focusing on the region and actively engaging with the community, Ms. Shimabuku ensures the USPTO’s initiatives and programs are tailored to the region’s unique ecosystem of industries and stakeholders.

See full biography.

Zandra Smith started at the USPTO in June 1996 as Patent Examiner in Optical Measuring and Testing in Technology Center 2800, Semiconductors/Memory, Circuits/Measuring and Testing, Optics/Photocopying, Printing/Measuring and Testing. Prior to coming to the USPTO, Smith obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in physics from Virginia Tech.

In 2005, Smith became a trainer in the Patent Training Academy and trained new Patent Examiners as they were hired. Later that same year, she became a Supervisory Patent Examiner in the semiconductor art area, where she supervised more than 20 Patent Examiners who worked on a variety of patent applications related to semiconductors and the method of making semiconductors. Smith has also worked on creating career development opportunities for the Patents Technical Support Staff and currently serves as the Pro Se Assistance Center Coordinator assisting in the development of programs designed to help pro se applicants through the patent application process.

Smith is currently a Patent Training Advisor in the Office of Patents Stakeholder Experience.

Deborah Stephens is the Deputy Chief Information Officer for the USPTO. In this role, she is the principal advisor to the Chief Information Officer (CIO), is responsible for managing day-to-day Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) operations, and has significant oversight on information technology (IT) stabilization and modernization efforts. Stephens guides continual improvements in IT delivery at the USPTO for maximum value to all stakeholders.

Stephens has served the USPTO for over 30 years in multiple leadership roles. Prior to joining OCIO, she was the Associate Commissioner for the Office of Patent Information Management and provided strategic direction and administration on matters related to the improvement and enhancement of electronic end-to-end processing of patent applications. While in this role, Stephens worked collaboratively with the CIO and other executive stakeholders across the USPTO to increase and improve the automated tools and informational resources that facilitate patent examination, the technical processing of patent applications, and automation training for Patents employees.

Stephens received a Bachelor of Arts degree from George Mason University and a master’s degree in human resource management from the George Washington University.

Tom Turner is a librarian for the Patent and Trademark Resource Center (PTRC) program. Turner joined the USPTO in 2001, having completed five years as the PTRC representative at Arizona State University's (ASU) Noble Science and Engineering Library. At ASU, Turner held positions as engineering librarian, acting head of science reference, and patent/trademark librarian. From 1998 to 1999, he was the 16th Fellow to the PTRCP. Previously, he was the librarian for the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography in Savannah, Georgia, from 1986 to 1996. Turner has given numerous presentations promoting PTRC services to librarians and inventor groups. He served on the editorial board for Science & Technology Libraries from 2002 to 2006.

Turner received the Department of Commerce Bronze Medal Award in 2013. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in education and a Master of Library Science degree, both from Louisiana State University. Turner is a current member of the American Library Association. Turner retired from the USPTO in 2016 and returned in 2020. During his “retirement,” he worked for the Newseum and as a contractor for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Warren Tuttle oversees the Open Innovation product programs for publicly traded Lifetime Brands in the housewares and table top arenas (Farberware, Kitchen Aid, and 40 other brands) and Merchant Media in the Direct Response Television category (Smart Spin, True Touch, and many other brands). For many years, he also helped Techtronic Industries (Ridgid and Ryobi power tools) in a similar role. Tuttle was also the person behind the launch of several highly successful direct to market consumer products including MISTO, the Gourmet Olive Oil Sprayer, and the SmartSpin Storage Container System. Tuttle personally interacts with many thousands of inventors every year and has initiated over 100 new consumer product licensing agreements that have collectively generated over a billion dollars in retail sales. Tuttle is also helping the startup company MarketBlast launch a revolutionary new interactive platform linking independent innovators with larger companies searching for outside innovation.

Tuttle is a well-known advocate for inventor rights. He served for 12 years as the President of the United Inventors Association, a national 501c3 non-profit with high ethical standards that helps inventors through education, advocacy, and the sponsorship of inventor booth pavilions at several industry trade shows, most notably the National Hardware Show. Tuttle also serves as a board member of both the National Pro Bono Patent Advisory Council and the Department of Commerce’s Council for Inclusive Innovation (CI2). Additionally, he co-chairs the Creators Committee for the United States Intellectual Property Alliance (USIPA). He is the author of “Inventor Confidential: The Honest Guide to Profitable Innovation.” He lives with his wife Lynn in Southern Connecticut and has three wonderful daughters, all well-educated and pursuing exciting careers. He enjoys skiing, motorcycling, golf and travel.

Kathi Vidal serves as the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) – America’s Innovation Agency.

As the chief executive of the USPTO, she leads one of the largest intellectual property (IP) offices in the world, with more than 13,000 employees and an annual budget of more than $4 billion. She is the principal IP advisor to the President and the Administration, through the Secretary of Commerce, and is focused on incentivizing and protecting U.S. innovation, entrepreneurship, and creativity. She leads an agency whose mission is to help American workers and businesses compete and collaborate, especially in ground-breaking technologies and across all demographics. As Director of the USPTO, Vidal is working to expand American innovation for and from all, and to bring more ideas to impact, including serving as the Vice Chair of the Council for Inclusive Innovation (CI²), alongside Secretary of Commerce Gina M. Raimondo and the council members.  

See full biography

Alexandr Wang is the founder and CEO of Scale AI, a data platform accelerating the development of artificial intelligence (AI). Wang founded Scale as a student at MIT at the age of 19 to help companies build long-term AI strategies with the right data and infrastructure. Over the past five years, Scale has grown to become the market leader in autonomous vehicles and serves customers across industries from the U.S. Air Force to PayPal, Pinterest, and General Motors.

Wang grew up in Los Alamos, New Mexico, where he began his journey with a deep passion for coding. He quickly developed a knack for it as a teenager, winning national computing and physics competitions, including the USA Computing Olympiad. He enrolled at MIT at 17, where he excelled in graduate machine learning (ML) coursework as a freshman, before dropping out to found Scale in 2016.

“Our aim with Scale, even from the early days, was to be the company that was able to renew American industries with AI capability and make it so that, all of a sudden, we empower these businesses to be able to build with AI, whereas otherwise it would be really difficult.”

His technical expertise, combined with a laser focus on data quality and accuracy, has led Scale to rise above the competition and meet the demand for intelligent software. Scale is currently valued at $7.3 billion and has raised over $620 million.

Wang believes that high-quality data, with the right tools and infrastructure, will enable enterprises to deploy AI as easily as they deploy code. Scale is an AI readiness partner, helping teams manage their entire ML lifecycle from dataset management, data selection, data annotation, to model development - all in one place.

Scale is led by Wang’s conviction that the future of AI is American-driven. As a first-generation American whose parents are both Chinese scientists, he is committed to advancing the future of the federal government with deployment-ready ML solutions. Scale empowers the U.S. Department of Defense, as well as several other U.S. government agencies, to leverage AI and ML in their most important workflows through process automation, enhanced decision support, and insight generation. Wang understands that the future of AI is at stake, and Scale is proud to work with the U.S. government to realize AI’s potential, ensuring U.S. investments lead to successful deployments and advance the next generation of new technologies.

Sean Wilkerson works in the Office of Innovation Outreach at the USPTO creating intellectual property (IP) awareness programs and managing outreach services to independent inventors, small businesses, entrepreneurs, makers, and universities. Wilkerson previously worked as an outreach coordinator for the programs leading up to the opening of the USPTO’s Silicon Valley and Texas Regional Offices. He also spent a year as part of the New York engagement team that developed the 2015 Future of Urban Innovation Startups Summit in coordination with Columbia University and the USPTO.

From 2011–2013, he served as the program manager of the inaugural Select USA Summit, developing the program, structure, and outreach efforts of a U.S. government-wide program housed in the International Trade Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce. As an education program analyst in the Global Intellectual Property Academy from 2008–2011, he managed international programs focused on providing IP training related to enforcement of patents, trademarks, and copyrights and the U.S. patent and trademark system. Prior to working for the federal government, he served as the Director of Events for the National Association of Homebuilders in Washington, D.C. and as the Ideas Exchange Manager for Accenture in Reston, Virginia.

Eric Adolphe is a technology-savvy executive with over thirty years of success building high-growth firms focused on mission impact, revenue, and margin attainment. He leverages expertise in deep technology, including artificial intelligence/machine learning, quantum encryption, and blockchain/distributed ledger technology to solve complex social, public safety, and national security challenges. Adolphe collaborates effectively with key stakeholders, including CEOs, historically Black colleges and universities, government agencies, regulators, legislators, corporate boards, independent auditors, and suppliers. He is a National Capital Business Ethics, Fed100, and Service to the Citizens award winner, and he is a National Inventor’s Hall of Fame Honoree. Adolphe is also the winner of one of NASA’s highest civilian honors, and he is the first African American Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Tibbett’s award winner.

Dr. Aadeel Akhtar is the CEO and Founder of PSYONIC, a company developing advanced bionic limbs that are accessible to all people with limb differences. Akhtar received his doctorate in neuroscience and masters in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2016. He received an masters. in computer science in 2008 and a bachelors in biology in 2007 from Loyola University Chicago. In 2021, he was named as one of MIT Technology Review’s top 35 Innovators Under 35 and one of Newsweek’s America’s Top 50 Disruptors.

Oleg Asanbayev is a Special Program Examiner with the International Patent Legal Administration (IPLA) at the USPTO. At the IPLA, Asanbayev develops and provides training to patent examiners for both international and national stage applications filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), gives seminars on the PCT to both examiners and external intellectual property (IP) organizations, and participates in a number of PCT-related special projects for the USPTO. He began his tenure at the USPTO in 2008 as a patent examiner in communication technology, specializing in wireless/wired signals transmission and interactive video distribution. Between 2014 and 2015, Asanbayev served as a detailee with the Small Business Administration (SBA), Office of Investment in Innovation. While at the SBA, Asanbayev provided IP expertise for the SBIR/STTR programs, advised on IP policy initiatives to enhance commercialization for small businesses involved in federally funded research and development, worked on implementing an interagency agreement between the USPTO and the SBA, and developed IP training webinars to help SBIR/STTR companies navigate the legally complex IP landscape and understand the importance of IP protection. Prior to working at the USPTO, Asanbayev worked as a Hardware Engineer at Kyocera Wireless. In his free time, Asanbayev enjoys spending time with his wife and two boys, swimming, biking, hiking, camping, traveling, and grilling in his backyard.

Scott Baldwin is a Senior Staff Attorney in the Office of Trademark Quality Review and Training (OTQRT) at the USPTO. Prior to joining the OTQRT, he was an Attorney in the USPTO’s Global Intellectual Property Academy (GIPA), where he conducted capacity-building programs in the United States and around the world on intellectual property protection and enforcement. Prior to that position, he served as a Trademark Attorney with the USPTO’s Office of Policy and International Affairs, where he handled policy matters relating to trademark issues in the United States and abroad and provided technical assistance to foreign governments that wanted to develop or improve their trademark systems. Baldwin has also served as a Trademark Examining Attorney at the USPTO. In private practice, he worked as an Attorney with the law firm of Fulbright & Jaworski in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Amy Beaird directs the Florida High Tech Corridor’s Cenfluence program, an initiative of The Corridor and Orange County Government to strengthen Central Florida’s economy and spur job creation in technology and technology-enabled industries. One of only 20 formal clustering programs of its kind in North America, Cenfluence accelerates the growth of Central Florida’s innovation ecosystem by cultivating collaboration among businesses and support organizations in four industry clusters with potential for significant growth: Energy and Environmental Sciences; Gaming, Entertainment and eSports; Life Sciences; and Learning Sciences and Human Performance.

Beaird leads a team with decades of experience in business development, grant writing, research and development, technology transfer, and commercialization to provide a personalized support for cluster member companies and elevate their visibility in the U.S. and abroad. Following an internationally recognized framework and proven practices for managing industry clusters, Cenfluence has recruited more than 70 cluster member companies and helped them identify and apply for more than $4 million in funding.

In 2021, Beaird also led The Corridor’s efforts in the U.S. Small Business Administration’s inaugural Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Catalyst Competition, established to recognize model partnerships addressing the gaps for underrepresented entrepreneurs nationwide. She drives The Corridor’s collaboration with four university-based entrepreneurial support organizations to maintain a statewide network of women mentors and role models, equip women entrepreneurs to develop competitive SBIR grant applications, and streamline commercialization pathways for their science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) innovations.

Prior to joining The Corridor, Beaird was a research director at two advanced materials startups. After learning how few minority-led tech startups were securing non-dilutive funds, she started a consultancy to help them identify opportunities and submit compelling applications. Her consultancy has helped 15 clients earn more than $3 million from the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Defense, and other sources. She has also advised innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem programs on strategy and grant submission, supporting applications for more than $15 million.

Beaird is a first-generation college student with a doctorate in chemical engineering from the University of South Carolina and a Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering from the University of Florida. She is a passionate advocate for minority STEM professionals and entrepreneurs, serving as a role model, mentor, speaker, and facilitator for programs that increase access to critical resources and elevate the voices of talented people who are underrepresented in technology, research, and innovation.

Suzanne Borders is the CEO and Founder of BadVR, the world's first immersive data analytics platform. With her background in psychology, she previously led product and user interface design teams at 2D data analytics companies, including Remine, CREXi, and Osurv. She is the recipient of a Magic Leap Independent Creator’s Program grant and several grants from the National Science Foundation, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and more, and was named an IEEE Rising Star in 2019. Borders thrives at the intersection of product design, immersive technology, and data.

In her spare time, she travels for inspiration (75 countries and counting), and is proud to be a published poet and punk rocker. Her creative hero is Alejandro Jodorowsky, who has inspired Borders to take a completely unique and innovative approach to all of her work. She also has 19 tattoos, and is a big believer in the artistry of technology and the technicality of art.

Felicia Brown is the AARP Senior Advisor for Entrepreneurship. Brown is responsible for the creation of educational tools and resources. She oversees strategic direction, including national partnerships that foster entrepreneurship and improve outcomes for women and persons of color. Among her accomplishments, she launched the AARP “Meet the Founder” series and the “How She Did It” podcast that captures the entrepreneurial journeys of older small business owners. She also led the development of the Small Business Development Resource Center for people over 50. Brown has over 20 years’ experience implementing and managing programs that address the needs of consumers and the community. She holds degrees in marketing and training and development, is a current member of the advisory committee of the Women's Business Center of Richmond at Virginia Union University, and is an active member of the North Carolina A&T D.C. Alumni, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., and other community organizations.

Tricia Compas-Markman is a Senior Program Officer for VentureWell's early-stage innovator programs, ranging from supporting teams in initial customer discovery to investment readiness. Previously, Compas-Markman was the Founder and CEO of DayOne Response, Inc., a startup focused on providing clean drinking water solutions to vulnerable communities. During her tenure, she built a company with international reach, executed strategy, developed key partnerships, invented and scaled drinking water technologies, and secured financing to exceed milestones, resulting in DayOne having a global reach in over 35 countries and saving lives. She is an Unreasonable Institute fellow, a North America Finalist for the Cartier Women's Initiative Awards, a Toyota-USA “Mother of Invention,” an Intel Environment Award Laureate for the Tech Awards, a Chivas Venture Top 10 Global Finalist, and a Toyota Vehicle of Change for the Environment winner. Her time as an entrepreneur and building a science and technology startup provides her with insights and real-life experiences that she enjoys sharing with other entrepreneurs making an impact. She received her Bachelor of Science in civil engineering and Master of Science in civil/environmental engineering from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. She is based in Oakland, California, and enjoys being outside hiking, backpacking, and kayaking with her husband and two children.

William (Grant) Corboy III joined the Office of Enrollment Discipline as a Patent Attorney in 2016. As a member of the Patent Pro Bono Team, he is dedicated to making sure that all inventors, including those who are financially underresourced, have access to the patent system. In addition to his Patent Pro Bono responsibilities, Corboy also serves as a Staff Attorney investigating discipline and enrollment matters. Corboy was a Primary Patent Examiner for the USPTO and, prior to joining the USPTO in 2010, he worked for 15 years in industry as a design engineer, project manager, and government contracts manager with DuPont and Lockheed Martin.

Angel Cornelius is the Founder and CEO of Maison 276, a leading brand for the diverse community of middle-aged women (aka “Silveristas”) who want to address the changes in their bodies with clean and innovative formulations while also celebrating the beauty and vibrancy of their lives. Maison 276’s 3-Step System for Silver Hair has revolutionized premium hair care for Silveristas of all hair textures without the use of purple dyes used by most competitors.

As a winner of QVC’s “The Big Find," a nationwide search for new, innovative brands, Cornelius debuted the 3-Step System on-air on QVC in February 2020, and it quickly became a QVC Best Seller. Cornelius has also received national acclaim for her entrepreneurial journey, including features in The TODAY Show, Vogue, USA Today, People, ESSENCE, AARP’s “How She Did It” podcast, and J.P. Morgan’s “Women on the Move” podcast.

Prior to founding Maison 276, Cornelius enjoyed a career in healthcare management and financial services. Which included stints at Texas Children’s Hospital, the nation’s largest pediatric healthcare system and ranked as the #3 children’s hospital in the U.S. by U.S. News and World Report and Arthur Andersen. She was born and raised in New Orleans, which provides the inspiration for the company’s name. She obtained her undergraduate degree from the University of Houston.

Deepak Dashairya works in the Office of Innovation Outreach at the USPTO creating intellectual property (IP) awareness programs and managing outreach services to independent inventors, small businesses, entrepreneurs, makers, and universities across the nation. Dashairya is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) with over 19 years of federal service.

Before joining USPTO in June 2020, he served in leadership roles at the U.S. Department of State and the Department of Commerce, both in Washington D.C. and the Detroit Metropolitan Area, where he currently resides. Dashairya received a Bachelor of Science in statistics and a Master of Science in applied statistics from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

As the Eastern Regional Outreach Director for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Elizabeth Dougherty carries out the strategic direction of the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO, and is responsible for leading the USPTO's East Coast stakeholder engagement. Focusing on the region and actively engaging with the community, Ms. Dougherty ensures the USPTO's initiatives and programs are tailored to the region's unique ecosystem of industries and stakeholders.

Andrew I. Faile is Acting Commissioner for Patents, where he manages and leads the Patents organization as its chief operating officer.

Mr. Faile's permanent role is Deputy Commissioner for Patents, where he is responsible for managing and leading the Patent Business Unit’s Workforce Management, Financial Management, and Planning and Data Analysis divisions, providing business unit executive leadership for workforce management matters, financial management oversight and planning, as well as data analytics. Mr. Faile also provides executive oversight over patent-examining functions in technology centers that examine in the technologies of computer architecture and software, networking, multiplexing, cable, and security, as well as the Project Management Office.

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Brian Fried is a serial inventor, Inventor Coach, and sought-after celebrity guest speaker with multiple inventions sold at major retailers. He has been inventing for over 20 years, is the recipient of the prestigious Innovator of the Year award, and recently received his 13th issued patent.

Fried has been helping other inventors realize their dreams with advice about product development for more than 15 years. He also represents inventors as a licensing agent to secure deals. Corporations have hired him as a guest speaker and expert on innovation to inspire their executive teams and employees. Through his virtual Learn How to Make Money with Your Invention course, he presents a step-by-step process to show inventors how to bring their ideas from inception to licensing or manufacturing.

Fried is the Founder and President of the National Inventor Club, one of the largest in the nation. Guest speakers focus on patents, trademarks and copyrights; crowdfunding; prototyping; manufacturing; and licensing in various industries.

He has been featured in media, including the New York Times, Inc. Magazine, Inventors Digest, CBS News, and Nicole Richie's “Candidly Nicole" VH1 show, and he has been a guest judge and host for various TV shows and pilots. He is a regular guest speaker at major trade shows, schools, and the USPTO. Fried was an on-air guest on QVC representing his own inventions and those of others.

As host of “Got Invention Radio,” he interviewed over 150 high-profile, successful inventors and experts, including “Shark Tank’s” Lori Greiner and representatives of the USPTO. Fried is the author of several books, including "You and Your Big Ideas," "Inventing Secrets Revealed," and, in May 2022, he released his most recent book, "How To Make Money With Your Invention Idea."

Fried is the Chief Invention Officer of Inventor Smart.

Eugene Goryunov is a partner in the Chicago office of Haynes and Boone, LLP. He is an experienced trial lawyer who represents clients in complex patent matters involving technologies from consumer goods, high technology, networking, and wireless telephony to medical devices and therapeutics. He has extensive experience and regularly serves as first-chair trial counsel in post-grant review trials on behalf of both Petitioners and Patent Owners at the USPTO. Goryunov is also deeply involved as trial counsel in all aspects of cases in federal courts around the country (including the Eastern and Southern Districts of Texas, Northern District of Illinois, District of Delaware, District of Minnesota, Northern District of Alabama, Northern and Southern Districts of California, Northern District of Georgia, Western District of Missouri, and Southern District of New York), Section 337 investigations at the U.S. International Trade Commission, and in appeals at the federal circuit.

Dr. Ximena Hartsock is a technology entrepreneur and the Founder of BuildWithin, a technology application used to unleash the power of technology apprenticeships in the U.S. Hartsock previously co-founded Phone2Action, a private equity-backed grassroots advocacy and public affairs technology company, in 2012. Roughly 25 percent of the email that reaches Congress runs through Phone2Action. Organizations such as the American Heart Association, Ben & Jerry’s, Expedia Group, Lyft, and hundreds of others use Phone2Action to run public policy campaigns and engage with community members. In 2020, Phone2Action acquired the legislative tracking company GovPredict and the data company KnowWho.

Under Hartsock’s leadership, Phone2Action won many technology awards, including the SXSW Interactive Accelerator Award and Reed Awards for the past four years. Hartsock was named a Washington, D.C. Tech Titan by Washingtonian Magazine on three occasions. She has also appeared in Fortune, Forbes, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and many other publications.

In the 2018 midterm elections, Hartsock was listed by Forbes as one of five women in the U.S. mobilizing people to vote. In January of 2019, she was listed as one of Washington’s “new guard” of business leaders by the Washington Business Journal. Most recently, Hartsock was featured in Forbes Magazine’s 50 Women-Led Startups That Are Crushing Tech.

Currently, Hartsock is working on a technology to support the expansion and implementation of apprenticeship programs in the United States. Prior to founding Phone2Action, Hartsock served in the executive cabinet of former Washington, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty, both as Deputy Chief for Teaching and Learning and Director of the Department of Parks and Recreation.

Hartsock currently serves on the boards of the Washington Economic Club, the Consumer Technology Association Board of Industry Leaders, the Migration Policy Institute, and DC Vote. She sits on the Board of Advisors of DC2026, which is working to bring the soccer world cup to Washington, D.C., and the Center for Innovative Technology of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

A native of Chile, Hartsock holds degrees in Spanish literature and philosophy and a doctorate from George Washington University.

Joann J. Hill, a native of Columbia, South Carolina, is presently serving as the Chief of the Office of Business Development for the United States Department of Commerce, Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA); she leads the Office of Business Development and has oversight of this division. She has served at MBDA for two decades. As federal program officer, she leads the nationwide network of 75 MBDA Business Centers, programs and initiatives including export centers, advanced manufacturing centers, federal procurement centers, enterprising women of color, Equity Multiplier, Entrepreneurship for the Formerly Incarcerated, Minority Serving Colleges and Universities, and American Indian, Alaska Native & Native Hawaiian programs. She is responsible for strategies, programs, and initiatives that support the growth and global competitiveness of women- and minority-owned businesses in the areas of contracts, financing, and domestic and global supply chains. These programs resulted in $8 billion in awarded transactions for MBDA clients in fiscal year 2020.

Additionally, Hill has served as Acting National Field Director for the U.S. Commercial Service (CS) in the International Trade Administration (ITA) of the U.S. Department of Commerce. In this role, she had oversight of the U.S. Field, leading 106 U.S. Export Assistance Centers. She provided strategic direction and communication of strategy and priorities to all staff in the U.S. Field.

Hill also served as Senior Policy Advisor on the ITA Federal and State Export Promotion Strategic Plan that is now institutionalized and has worked with the ITA Trade Promotion Coordinating Committee, SelectUSA, and CS field and headquarters staff on various export promotion and FDI initiatives over the past two decades.

Prior to joining MBDA, she worked in the areas of operations management, banking, and finance.

Hill holds a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration from Benedict College and a Master of Business Administration degree from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. She is a graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government Senior Executive Fellows Program and a member of the Senior Executive Service.

Barry W. Johnson, Ph.D. is the Division Director for the Division of Translational Impacts within the Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (TIP) at the National Science Foundation (NSF). He also served NSF as the Division Director for the Division of Industrial Innovation and Partnerships from March 2015 to January 2019. He holds the position of L.A. Lacy Distinguished Professor of Engineering at the University of Virginia.

In 2001, Johnson co-founded the biometric security company Privaris, Inc., where he served as Chairman of the Board of Directors and, for nearly four years, as President and Chief Executive Officer. In 2014, Privaris’s patent portfolio was acquired. Johnson was also the Founding President and Executive Director of the Commonwealth Center for Advanced Manufacturing, an applied research center and not-for-profit public-private partnership comprising industry, academia, and government. He has been a consultant to more than a dozen companies and government agencies, including Biocore, Harris Corporation, Martin Marietta, the Naval Research Laboratory, Ovenaire, Inc., Union Switch and Signal, Inc., the U.S. Department of the Navy, and Vianix, Inc.

Johnson earned his bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering at the University of Virginia. He has published more than 150 technical articles, written several books, and is an inventor on more than 40 issued patents. Johnson is a Class of 2016 National Academy of Inventors Fellow for his contributions to invention and innovation in computer system safety and security, including biometric-based identity verification. He is also a Fellow of the IEEE for his contributions to fault-tolerant computing.

Dr. Bill Kedia is the Co-founder and CEO of MedAir Labs, whose mission is to improve quality of life through healthcare innovation. Founded in 2020 during the COVID pandemic, MedAir Labs aims to provide solutions to enable early and accurate detection of Sars-CoV-2 and its variants as well as innovative technologies to combat transmission of the virus. As part of this mission, Kedia and his partners have invested significant resources and collaborated with partners globally to bring to market advanced antigen testing kits that are currently in clinical trial.

Prior to MedAir Labs, he established a successful multi-state medical company and continues to serve on the board. Kedia is passionate about clinical research and has extensive experience in research medicine, with a focus on cancer and diabetes. He has published multiple peer-reviewed papers and has also served as Associate Professor of Medicine at Northeast Ohio Medical University since 2010.

Kedia received his Bachelor of Arts in history from the University of Michigan and his M.D. from KMC Manipal, India. After completing postgraduate research and residency at the Cleveland Clinic and Akron General Medical Center in Ohio, he started practicing as a family physician in northeast Ohio. His family practice has grown significantly over the years and currently serves over 30,000 patients in the greater northeastern Ohio area, which he calls home. Kedia is a member of the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Family Physicians. Kedia routinely provides free medical care to disadvantaged patients, volunteers at local shelters, and supports numerous humanitarian initiatives.

As the Acting Regional Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Silicon Valley Regional Office, Steve Koziol carries out the strategic direction of the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO and is responsible for leading the USPTO's West Coast regional office in Silicon Valley. Focusing on the region and actively engaging with the community, Mr. Koziol ensures the USPTO’s initiatives and programs are tailored to the region's unique ecosystem of industries and stakeholders.

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Kedma Ough has helped thousands of small business owners and inventors, with credit scores ranging from 450 to 820, gamify the business funding path toward success. As a respected authority on small business funding, Ough has advised more than 10,000 businesses, leveraging $100 million in funding access. For two decades, Ough worked in Small Business Administration leadership roles with the Women’s Business Center Program and Small Business Development Centers. Her best-selling book, “Target Funding,” is a navigation system to identify targeted grants and funds for innovators and inventors. Ough is a proud fifth-generation entrepreneur, and her great-great-grandfather peddled various products throughout Ireland.

Dr. Armin Tahmasbi Rad has been the CEO and Co-founder at Encapsulate, a company that develops automated precision diagnostics for personalized cancer therapy, since the company was established in 2018. He received his undergraduate degree in biomedical engineering and a Master of Science in organ and tissue engineering from Tehran Polytechnic in 2007 and 2011. He received his Ph.D. in biomedical engineering, with an specialty in cancer nanomedicines, from the University of Connecticut in 2018.

Since 2010, he has published 33 peer-reviewed journal articles and has presented his scientific achievements at tens of conferences internationally. Moreover, he has two patents in the field of oncology.

Rad and his team have built an automated tumor-on-a-chip technology that creates therapeutic response profiles of patients for oncologists to administer life-saving treatments. Encapsulate is one of only two companies that have been recently awarded the Technology in Space Prize by NASA to deploy their technology in the space station to study micro- and zero-gravity effects on cancer treatments.

They have also received awards from the National Science Foundation and several other national and international organizations for their revolutionary products.

His team is currently running clinical studies in partnership with Hartford Healthcare in Connecticut.

An investment banker turned three-time award-winning Latina entrepreneur from Bolivia, Carolyn Rodz serves as the Co-founder and CEO of Hello Alice. A free multi-channel platform powered by artificial intelligence (AI) technology, Hello Alice guides business owners by providing access to funding, networks, and services. Through a network of over 800,000 companies in all 50 states and across the globe, Hello Alice is building a community of business owners while tracking data and trends to increase owner success rate.

During her time at Hello Alice, Carolyn was recognized as one of “17 Women to Watch,” by Inc. Magazine, in 2020 was named Hispanic CEO of the year by the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, has testified before the U.S. Congressional House Small Business Committee, and was featured in a U.S. Senate report by Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire titled, “Tackling the Gender Gap: What Women Entrepreneurs Need to Thrive.” She was also selected by Mayor Turner of Houston to co-chair the Women and Minority Small Business Task Force in 2019.

Jena V. Roscoe is the Senior Vice President, Government Relations and Public Policy at Operation HOPE, Inc. In her role, Roscoe concentrates on developing, growing, and sustaining international, federal, state, and local government partnerships and alliances in support of Operation HOPE programs and initiatives. She also monitors and participates in public policy forums on financial literacy, financial inclusion, economic education, economic empowerment/development, small business/entrepreneurship education, and economic disaster preparedness resiliency, and she leads the organization’s public policy campaigns.

Roscoe is a member of the Urban Financial Services Coalition, National Bankers Association, Association of Black Foundation Executives, The LINKS, Inc., Black Women’s Roundtable, U.S. Women’s Chamber of Commerce, Women in Housing and Finance, Inc., French – American Chamber of Commerce, and the United Nations Association of the National Capital Area. She enjoys being a part of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development O.N.E. Environment Network and MyUSPTO. She is also an Advisory Member for REACH Project, UMISCORE, the Cabel Foundation, and the Overweb.

Born in Washington, D.C., and raised in Camp Springs, Maryland; Fayetteville, North Carolina; and Kershaw, South Carolina; Roscoe currently resides in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. She is an undergraduate alumnus of the Howard University School of Communications and a graduate of The American University of Paris study abroad program.

Keegan Royal-Eisenberg has a passion for the arts and the law. He most enjoys working with creatives and helping them protect their rights with regard to their works.

Currently the director of California Lawyers for the Arts' Lawyer Referral and Information Service, he assists artists and people with arts-related legal issues in getting connected to attorneys for their legal needs. He also facilitates the California Inventors Assistance Program, or CIAP, on behalf of the USPTO, connecting pro bono inventors from California, Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada, and Oregon with pro bono patent attorneys.

Royal-Eisenberg has had the opportunity to work in both the United States and in Japan on copyright and trademark protection issues. He has also had experience working with the USPTO in the Southeast Asia region, educating foreign customs officials on trademark enforcement and the importance of anti-counterfeit measures.

Royal-Eisenberg speaks Japanese and in his free time enjoys traveling, music, and video editing.

Dr. Chris Sasiela has over a decade of experience educating and enabling academic innovators and small businesses engaged in therapeutic, device, and diagnostic product development programs. As the Innovator Support Team Lead in the Small Business Education and Entrepreneurial Development (SEED) Office at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Sasiela coordinates the activities of a team of seasoned professionals with experience in business strategy, business development, fundraising, partnerships, reimbursement, and regulatory affairs. Sasiela is passionate about enabling NIH’s innovator community to progress their discoveries as far as science and human biology permit. Starting her career as a basic science researcher, Sasiela quickly decided to get closer to human impact in her work and engaged in drug discovery, development, and improvement with several employers before moving even closer to human impact as a regulatory professional. Throughout her tenure at NIH, Sasiela has worked at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, and is currently in the Office of the Director. Sasiela and her team provide project-focused consultations, deliver educational seminars, and develop regulatory resources for internal and external stakeholders supporting solution development addressing a full spectrum of human disease and disorders.

Dr. Jennifer Shieh works to build an inclusive innovation ecosystem from the Small Business Administration’s Office of Investment and Innovation, where she previously served as Chief Scientist of America’s Seed Fund for technology commercialization, the Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) programs. Throughout her federal career, Shieh has built cross-sector partnerships and coordinated interagency policy, including as Assistant Director for Entrepreneurship at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Prior to joining the SBA, Shieh managed the Small Business Programs for the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and served as a Program Director at the National Cancer Institute SBIR Development Center, having joined as an American Association for the Advancement of Science Science and Technology Policy Fellow. She was also involved in product and customer development in precision-medicine and mobile games startups. Shieh studied brain and cognitive sciences at MIT, then earned her Ph.D. in neurosciences at Stanford University.

Samantha Snabes is Co-founder and a Catalyst for re:3D, where she facilitates connections between others printing at the human scale or using recycled materials to access locally-driven manufacturing in 53 countries. As a serial entrepreneur, she currently volunteers as the Global Chair of the IEEE Entrepreneurship Steering Committee. Previously, she served as the Social Entrepreneur in Residence for at NASA headquarters and Deputy Strategist supporting the NASA Johnson Space Center’s Space Life Sciences Directorate after selling a start-up for a DARPA-funded, co-patented tissue culture device. Snabes holds a Bachelor of Science degree in biology, Bachelor of Arts degrees in international relations and Hispanic Studies, an MBA with concentrations in supply chain management and international relations, is an actively serving Air Force Officer, and holds certifications as a firefighter and EMT-B.

Judge Stacey G. White is a Lead Administrative Patent Judge with the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board and was appointed to the Board in 2013. She received a Bachelor of Science in computer science from Michigan State University and a Master of Science from DePaul University in human-computer interaction. White received her Juris Doctor, magna cum laude, from University of Illinois College of Law, where she served as Editor-in-Chief of the University of Illinois Journal of Law, Technology & Policy. She clerked for the Honorable Barbara M.G. Lynn of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas and then practiced patent and trademark litigation at Jones Day and Alston & Bird in Dallas, Texas. Prior to law school, White was a software engineer for Motorola. She is a Master and Past President of the Honorable Barbara M.G. Lynn American Inn of Court and a former member of the Honorable Patrick Higginbotham American Inn of Court. White has been awarded the Linn Inn Alliance Distinguished Service Medal and honored with the Hidden Figures Award as one of Dallas-Fort Worth’s Top African Americans in STEM. She is a member of the Texas and Illinois State Bars.

Atchison’s background includes technical project management for large-scale IT companies and designing technical solutions and concepts of operation for large and small federal contractors. With strong IT experience and a Bachelor of Science in computer science from the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, she has developed solutions for large and complex programs in the areas of IT modernization, biometrics, cloud computing, and cybersecurity. She is adept at designing solutions, establishing operational parameters, identifying risks, developing financial plans, and leading technical teams.

In addition to her executive management responsibilities, Atchison and her teams are engaged in advanced technologies. She recently served as a cloud architect and led the successful cloud migration and refactoring of a mission-critical biometric system (Near Real Time Identity Operations) for the U.S. Army PM Biometrics, which resulted in a 60% decrease in round-trip time to support biometric matching. Currently, her teams at the USPTO support critical enterprise services, including single sign-on service, robotic process automation, virtual agents, and operational bots that rely on artificial intelligence to better serve internal and external USPTO customers.

In December 2020, her team at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency began conducting research on a methodology and model to identify vulnerabilities in the software and firmware of medical devices. The research attempts to show how lightweight formal methods and machine learning can facilitate post-market independent verification by using model-based testing, which automatically runs a barrage of model-generated tests against real-world medical hardware and uses correlations to intelligently update and inject binary code with event traces. Accomplishing this will unlock great reductions in testing costs and uncover critical flaws in medical devices before they are released to market. While the research focuses on a specific automated external defibrillator (AED) from a medical vendor partner, Altrix Medical, her vision is to create a framework that will support any type of medical devices.

Scott Beliveau currently serves as Co-Lead Product Owner of the USPTO’s Enterprise Data and Analytics product and Director of Enterprise Data Architecture and Chief of Enterprise Advanced Analytics in the Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO) at the USPTO. Beliveau began his career at the USPTO in 2002 as a Patent Examiner in the Interactive Video Distribution area. With an eye towards empowering public innovation and improving USPTO operations, he co-founded the USPTO’s award-winning data efforts, delivering a data platform comprising one of the world’s largest collections of open innovation, spanning over 200 years. Beliveau has constructively used USPTO data in a variety of ways, including operational use of artificial intelligence to achieve its mission at a lower cost, use of advanced analytics to span disparate data silos, and improvements in customer service through the use of cognitive assistants. He continues to promote industry partnerships and public innovation to empower entrepreneurs to innovate and grow new opportunities.

Beliveau received his Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from Brown University and his Master of Business Administration from the University of Rhode Island. He lives in Alexandria, Virginia, with his wife Rachel, his son Sam, and his loyal greyhound Fiona.

Angelica Brown started Data Storage Science after years of hands-on technical execution and progressive leadership roles. She has more than 25 years of experience in storage operations and data center management, vendor relationships, and C-Level leadership. She’s a trusted consultant and resource to many industry-leading manufacturers and provides testing, reviews, and inputs into key industry products in use today.

Brown is distinguished by her passion for innovation, analysis, meeting customer demands, and quality products. She began her career in the healthcare industry as a mainframe programmer. In 1996, she joined AOL as a Principal Administrator. She was promoted to Director of Storage Operations, responsible for managing diverse applications with 100% data availability, such as search, email, and instant messaging. She managed a team of technical experts who conceived, designed, and implemented architecture for a global first- and second-generation data storage infrastructure and distribution cloud. She has a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science from the University of Maryland University College. Her team at the USPTO supports Storage Administration and Engineering Services and Backup-as-a-Service and Engineering for the Server and Storage Services Branch. Her passion for operational efficiency allows her team to simplify the backup infrastructure, integrate stored data, automate complex data collection, maintain a configuration management database, and provide storage engineering operational support and leadership.

She values employees, customers, and results and believes that to realize daily success, the company’s focus should be on those three pillars. Work-life balance is important to Brown, and she makes it a point to be on her yoga mat regularly. She enjoys volunteer work, online gaming, hiking, scuba diving, visiting beaches, and playing with her dog Hugo.

Prior to her appointment to the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences, now the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) in 2012, Judge Lynne H. Browne served as a Primary Examiner and Acting Supervisor in the Central Reexamination Unit Electrical Group, an Appeals Practice Specialist in Technology Center 2100, Computer Architecture and Software, and a Supervisory Patent Examiner in Technology Centers 2100 and 3600, Transportation, Construction, Electronic Commerce, Agriculture, National Security and License and Review.

Browne began her career at the USPTO in 1990 as a Patent Examiner. She examined applications involving medical devices, education devices, exercise equipment, and tobacco products for eight years. During that period, she served on a detail to the Office of Patent Legal Administration, externed at the International Trade Commission Office of Unfair Import Investigations, and was awarded the Department of Commerce’s Bronze Medal for Superior Federal Service. During her career in management, Browne served on a work assignment to the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences, participated in an intellectual property law exchange in China through the People to People Ambassador Program, served as Chair of the Supervisory Patent Examiners-Classifiers Organization, served as a representative of the Office of the Independent Inventor Programs, and received an Exceptional Career Award from the USPTO.

Before joining the USPTO, Browne worked for the United States Air Force Logistics Command at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, as a Contracting Officer’s Technical Representative. Browne holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in mechanical engineering (with a concentration in electrical engineering) from Wright State University and a Juris Doctor from George Mason University. Browne is a member of the Virginia Bar Association and the American Association of Patent Judges.

Portia L. Deans has been employed at the USPTO since January 2017. She currently serves as an Innovation Outreach Program Specialist in the Office of Innovation Outreach. Prior to joining the USPTO, she supported multiple federal agencies, including the Defense Threat Reduction Agency; Headquarters, Department of the Army; the Office of Small Business Programs - Pentagon, and the National Guard Bureau.

Deans has over 20 years of acquisition and program management experience within the Department of Defense and civilian agencies. Her acquired knowledge, skills, and abilities include the career fields of contracting, program management, contracting officer’s representative, small business specialist, and industry liaison.

Santia Deck is a history-making professional female football player and social media influencer with over 2 million loyal and engaged followers. A former track and field collegiate athlete, Deck recently made history by being offered the highest paid contract in women’s football history. Deck is a published author, a fitness model, TV personality, social media consultant, public speaker, and TV host. She also maintains her fitness trainer certification and offers a variety of services to celebrity clients and her wide-ranging community of online supporters.

Most recently, Deck added Successful Start-up CEO to her long list of wins with the launch of TRONUS, where she made history a second time by becoming the first female athlete to own a shoe company. The innovative footwear brand has been experiencing impressive growth since its launch in the summer of 2020. Despite the pandemic, Deck led TRONUS to record sales, celebrity praise, and a dedicated base of customers. The company continues to expand.

Deck was born in Greenville, South Carolina, and raised in Houston, Texas. She now resides in Atlanta, Georgia, and travels often. Deck has been running full speed after her dream of success since childhood. Now, she works tirelessly to inspire and empower young people, women, and others with her determination and passion.

Dan Delisle is a husband, father of three daughters, professional structural engineer, author, entrepreneur, fitness enthusiast, and construction technology product and building envelope specialist.

Delisle is the creator of several inventions and products and holds several patents, patents-pending, and trademarks in the fitness industry and building envelope categories. He has co-authored patents for curtain wall and cross-laminated-timber building systems and self-authored several domestic and international patents in the fitness industry – the PushX3® fitness product was initially launched as a successful crowd-funding campaign.

Delisle provides thought leadership and product development and deployment for his business in the fitness industry, covering intellectual property, social media management, website design, eCommerce, and product sales and marketing, and he provides industry-respected construction product and project management, and exceptional solutions for many types of prefabricated and modular building systems.

Delisle is also a technical author whose works include several technical papers and presentations and the "PassthecivilPE Guide Book," which helps people to pass the Civil Professional Engineering (PE) Exam. He has also authored a children's book titled "Climb On, Yosemite!" about exploring and rock climbing in Yosemite National Park.

Delisle received his Bachelor of Applied Science in civil and environmental engineering from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California. He is a registered Professional Engineer in California, Washington, D.C., Virginia, and Maryland. He is a registered LEED AP BD+C with the U.S. Green Building Council and a Certified Scrum Master via Scrum, Inc.

Ken Erwin is widely considered an expert in the areas of cloud architecture, strategy, operational intelligence, and agile methodologies, with a career and expertise in technology spanning 15 years and covering a wide variety of complex and evolving environments. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in informatics and an MBA with a minor in entrepreneurship. He is often sought out for his knowledge, experience, and vision in developing proven and reliable business solutions at scale for Fortune 100 companies.

With a special love for developing interesting, innovative, and thought-provoking projects on the blockchain, Erwin developed PixelMap. Created in 2016, PixelMap is considered the second-oldest historical non-fungible token (NFT), the first "billboard-style" NFT on Ethereum, and the oldest verified collection on OpenSea. It provides tile owners the unique ability to create, display, and immortalize artwork directly on the blockchain. Today, Erwin has one of the most active and engaging communities in the NFT space, with many members contributing to the recent creation of his NFTArchaeology.io website. Erwin is considered an early Web3 pioneer in the world of NFTs, and he enjoys spending spare time with his partner Samantha, their three dachshunds and one flat coat retriever, running, contributing to open-source software, and diving into other innovative NFT contracts.

NaThanya Ferguson serves as the manager of the USPTO’s Office of Innovation Outreach, which focuses on outreach to independent inventors, small businesses, entrepreneurs, and underrepresented communities of innovators across America.

Ferguson joined the USPTO in 1989. During her 32-year tenure at the agency, she has worked as a contracting officer representative, lead patent analyst for the Patent Process Reengineering initiative, strategic planning project manager for the Office of the Commissioner for Patents, and project manager for the National Council for Expanding American Innovation (NCEAI).

Ferguson has received numerous awards, including a Department of Commerce Gold Medal in 2015 for her contribution to the innovative and collaborative implementation of the First Inventor to File statutory provisions of the America Invents Act, a Department of Commerce Distinguished Career Award in 2011 for continued outstanding service, and a Silver Medal Award in 1999 for her contribution to the development and implementation of the Patent Process Reengineering initiative.

Ferguson holds a Bachelor of Science degree in business and management from Johns Hopkins University and a Master’s Certificate in project management from Management Concepts and Regis University.

Judge Ryan H. Flax was appointed an Administrative Patent Judge at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) of the USPTO in February 2016, and  is now a Lead Judge. Flax presides over America Invents Act (AIA) post-issuance proceedings and ex parte appeals proceedings. Flax earned a law degree from Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law and a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from Wake Forest University. Flax served as a Research Scientist at R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company prior to entering law school. Upon entering private practice, he served with the law firm Dickstein Shapiro LLP (now Blank Rome LLP). Prior to joining the PTAB, Flax served as General Counsel and Managing Director for Litigation Consulting at A2L Consulting. He is also an author for the National Institute of Trial Advocacy and has taught as Adjunct Professor at American University’s Washington College of Law.

Judge Cynthia M. Hardman is an Administrative Patent Judge at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) at the USPTO. She joined the PTAB in 2019 and focuses on ex parte appeals and patent trials under the America Invents Act.

Before joining the PTAB, Hardman was a partner and patent litigator at two U.S. law firms. She has nearly 20 years of experience litigating patent disputes before U.S. district courts, the ITC, and the PTAB.

Hardman holds a Juris Doctor from Boston University School of Law and a Bachelor of Science degree, cum laude, in molecular biology from the University of Pittsburgh.

Rishab Jain is a 17-year-old scientist and researcher from Portland, Oregon. Jain has been conducting research in the areas of computational biology, biomedical engineering, and artificial intelligence for the last four years. He is currently a student researcher at the Department of Radiology at Oregon Health and Science University and in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT.

Jain's work has focused on the application of deep learning to solve biomedical problems. He has worked on improving image-guided radiotherapy for pancreatic cancer patients, tumor mutation classification from pancreatic cell biopsies, sarcopenia detection for head and neck cancer patients, and improving synthetic gene design through smarter codon optimization.

He is most notable for his award-winning research in improving pancreatic cancer treatment, for which he was named America's Top Young Scientist and one of TIME Magazine's 25 Most Influential Teens in 2018. In 2020, Jain was named one of Insider's 16 Teens of this Decade. Jain was a top winner of the 2022 Regeneron International Science and Engineering Expo – the world's largest high school science competition – for his research on utilizing recurrent neural networks to address the codon optimization problem.

Jain has also been an active science communicator and has given talks on his research at various venues, including TEDx, the European Society for Radiation Oncology, and the International Giuseppe Sciacca Foundation. In addition, he runs a non-profit organization – the Samyak Science Society – which aims to spread scientific curiosity and a passion for STEM, especially among today's youth.

Besides his research and endeavors in STEM, Jain enjoys running, making YouTube videos, running his online business and, of course, being a teenager!

Steve James is an experienced executive who is currently President and Chief Operations Officer for Integrated Systems Solutions, Inc. (ISS), a service-disabled, veteran-owned small business (SDVOSB) that provides high-value professional services in program management, communications and outreach, IT services, requirements management, systems engineering, and technical services for government agencies. James also served in the Air Force for 20 years as an IT professional, where he achieved the rank of Colonel and served across the conflict spectrum, including tours of duty ranging from special operations to the White House. He enjoyed three command assignments, where he led organizations that ranged in size up to 600 people. Upon leaving the Air Force, he spent almost six years at the EMC Corporation directing sales/business development activity in support of Air Force and Department of Defense clients. He moved from there to take over as President and Chief Executive Officer of TKC Communications, a 350-person IT services contractor with an extensive counter-intelligence, counter-terrorism customer portfolio. James has a Bachelor of Science in zoology from the University of Massachusetts, a Master of Arts in business management from Central Michigan University, and a Master of Science in national security policy and information strategy from the National Defense University.

James is a member of the Small and Emerging Contractors Advisory Forum, the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association, and the Professional Services Council.

Eric C. Jeschke is an Administrative Patent Judge at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. Prior to joining the Board in 2014,  Jeschke served as a law clerk to the Honorable Alvin A. Schall at the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Jeschke also practiced at Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner LLP, where he focused on automotive, medical device, and consumer electronics products in litigation before district courts, the International Trade Commission, and at the Federal Circuit. Jeschke began his career in the United States Air Force as an aircraft maintenance officer charged with maintaining a squadron of B-1B bombers, and later as a developmental engineer overseeing various aspects of the Atlas V satellite launch program. Jeschke graduated with honors from Princeton University with a B.S.E. in mechanical engineering, and he received his juris doctor from the George Washington University Law School.

Daniel Joseph is a Principal Special Effects and Illusion Development Designer at Walt Disney Imagineering, where he helps to conceive, design, and install a range of special effects and illusions for Disney Parks around the world. Joseph is listed as an inventor on over 30 Disney pending and issued patents.

He was one of the key team members who brought the Hatbox Ghost back from the “afterlife” for the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland’s 60th Anniversary. The late Disney Legend Marty Sklar wrote about Joseph in all three of his books: “Dream It! Do It!: My Half-Century Creating Disney's Magic Kingdoms,” “One Little Spark! Mickey’s 10 Commandments and the Road to Imagineering,” and “On the Road in Search of Disney Dreams.”

Joseph has been an inventor and tinkerer his whole life. From a very young age, he would take things apart and create new inventions and art pieces. This hobby eventually turned into creating elaborate haunted houses in his parents’ basement each year at Halloween that featured homemade fog machines, mirror effects, and other original inventions.

Joseph is from Wilmington, Delaware, and attended the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, where he majored in industrial design. He won first prize in Walt Disney Imagineering’s Imaginations Design Competition in 2006. From there, Joseph has enjoyed over 15 years with Walt Disney Imagineering in Glendale. Five years ago, he relocated from California to Orlando, where he leads a team of designers and the Illusion Development Lab at Walt Disney Imagineering Florida. Though located in Florida, he gets to work on all 11 of Disney’s theme parks worldwide! Joseph enjoys his magical Florida life with his wife, his seven- and two-year-old boys and, of course, his floppy-eared basset hound!

Jason Lott is the Attorney Advisor for Trademarks Customer Outreach at the USPTO, where he specializes in helping small business owners understand trademarks and the federal trademark registration process through live presentations, creative videos, and other multimedia platforms. He has been with the USPTO since 2000, previously serving as an examining attorney, and is a recipient of multiple career service awards. 

Jennifer McIntosh is a National Outreach Partnership Specialist at the in the USPTO’s Office of Innovation Outreach. In this capacity, she works with partnership institutions like the National Academy of Inventors, the National Inventors Hall of Fame, and the Smithsonian Institution leveraging resources and helping to expand the innovation ecosystem. She has worked on many programs highlighting inventors and entrepreneurs and is currently part of the team that manages the National Medal of Technology and Innovation for the USPTO.

Prior to the joining the USPTO, she worked at various educational organizations doing archaeology and teaching, and she worked in communications at PBS. Early on, as an Explainer at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, she became hooked on working in informal learning environments. Since then, she has earned a master’s degree in secondary social studies education, with teacher certification, at George Washington University, and she has focused on creating experiential learning opportunities for volunteers and visitors alike in various museum settings, historical institutions, academic organizations, and federal agencies.

Thomas T. Moga is a partner with the law firm of Dykema Gossett and has over 30 years of experience in domestic and international intellectual property portfolio development and enforcement. He is an experienced patent prosecutor in the mechanical, chemical, biochemical, and pharmaceutical arts and has testified as an expert witness in patent disputes.

As an intellectual property portfolio developer, Moga’s experience includes the development of domestic and foreign patent portfolios, the acquisition of registrations for trademarks and copyrights, licensing, and policy development.

In the arena of intellectual property rights enforcement, Moga manages patent enforcement and anti-counterfeiting actions in Asia, including overseeing initial counterfeit product investigation, selecting and working with local investigators, selecting and working with local counsel, preparing administrative and judicial documents, and participating in raids.

A pioneer in protecting and enforcing intellectual property rights in China, Moga has represented foreign companies in that country since the 1980s. He was a Fulbright Scholar in China, where he taught patent law at Jilin University and acted as a foreign advisor to China’s patent office. Moga was a visiting foreign expert in law at Xiamen University, China, and worked as a foreign legal expert for a patent and trademark law office in Taipei.

He is a member of the Industry Trade Advisory Committee on Intellectual Property Rights (ITAC 14), a trade advisory committee co-administered by the Office of the United States Trade Representative and the U.S. Department of Commerce. Additionally, Moga is past board member of the American Intellectual Property Law Association, the Fulbright Association, and the Fulbright Academy. Moga is the author of "Patent Practice and Policy in the Pacific Rim”, a multi-volume treatise on patent law and practice in Asia, and "China’s Utility Model Patent System: Innovation Driver or Deterrent." In 2021, he was appointed Special Assistant Attorney General for Intellectual Property for the State of Michigan. Moga is an adviser to both Equalize Health, a not-for-profit medical technology company, and the Association Internationale pour le Développement de la Propriété Intellectuelle.

Dr. Merry Lynn Morris, a professor at the University of South Florida (USF), applies her movement expertise and arts perspective in novel and diverse ways, pursuing interdisciplinary endeavors that yield innovative products. Her interdisciplinary work includes disability studies, design, architecture, engineering, and health sciences. Morris’ artistic and scholarly research often explores the interface between human bodies and external, material structures – the tension through which agency and power is negotiated in these relationships and the way identity is de-constructed/reconstructed. This interest coalesced with her work in disability, leading her to re-conceptualize the design of assistive technology from a dance perspective.

The Rolling Dance Chair invention grew out of combined experiences as a choreographer, dance educator, and caregiver for her disabled father. She designed her mobility devices to allow for more natural interactions with loved ones and to enhance creative movement for people with disabilities. With several engineering collaborators, Morris has developed multiple versions of her chair, which uses a wireless control that responds to body motion. Morris has been featured and interviewed by MSNBC, PBS, CNN, NPR’s Science Friday, Reader’s Digest, and Inventor’s Digest (cover story). Her invention has been featured at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., where she has also been a guest speaker and a profiled inventor (2018 – 2019).

She has earned five U.S. patents with her collaborators, and her research scholarship appears in journals such as the Journal of Technology and Innovation, Medical Problems of Performing Artists, Research in Dance Education, and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R).

Morris is active in the dance and disability community at local, regional, national, and international levels through teaching, research, leadership, and activism. She collaborates frequently with Arts4All Florida, a statewide arts and disability organization, and serves in Dance/USA’s Deaf and Disability Affinity Group.

Morris’ other interdisciplinary work includes spearheading dance medicine/science initiatives, coordinating the Dance Medicine and Science Certificate Program, and serving in the USF Performing Arts Medicine Collaborative. Morris is co-editor and author of the book “Perspectives in Performing Arts Medicine Practice: A Multidisciplinary Approach (2020).”

Shawn Moye is the Founder of The Moye Group, LLC, a company that empowers inventors and entrepreneurs through counseling while providing high-quality products and services to consumers. Moye developed an interest in inventing at a very early age and created his first invention at the age of 16. When he first started working on protecting his idea, Moye didn't have the funding needed, but he didn't make excuses; he adjusted. Moye saved money by single-handedly preparing a provisional patent before filing a utility patent on his own. The firsthand experience and knowledge he gained along the way has given him the awareness to know exactly which direction to take when providing consumers with the highest quality of products, customer service, and support.

When Moye’s son, Elijah, showed an interest in basketball, they went to the park to practice how to shoot a basketball properly. Moye didn’t want him to develop bad habits a coach would have to correct later. While at the park, he looked around and saw other kids using improper shooting form, so he asked himself how he could make sure his son was using proper form even when he wasn’t around. That’s when Moye’s latest invention, the E-Sports Trainer (Elijah's Sports Trainer) was born.

The E-Sports Trainer product line takes the everyday athlete through the process of becoming better by helping them develop proper muscle memory and offers three levels of training in each sport to grow with the user. The device is an interactive tool that measures performance in real time. As users shoot with the basketball version, the device tells them the results of their shooting form with phrases like “keep your elbow tucked in.” It will also give them tips like “keep your feet shoulder-width apart, knees bent, and shoulders square.” Proper shooting form will result in an affirmation from the unit like “good shot.” When users are finished, they can tap the on/off button once and get the low and high ratings for that practice session. The device slips right into its stylish compression sleeve and is ready to be worn no matter the practice situation. Speaking phrases in seven different languages (English, French, German, Italian, Russian, Chinese, and Spanish), the E-Sports Trainer is here to help give confidence no matter the use. The golf version of the E-Sports trainer is in development.

Moye was featured on the television program “America's Big Deal,” which appeared on the USA network in December of 2021. It's a show created and produced by one of America's most celebrated entrepreneurs, Joy Mangano. Moye’s product has been written up in Inventors Digest, the Charlotte Post, and Currents Magazine, to name a few. Moye has also been a featured guest on entrepreneur podcasts and radio programs like the “Got Invention Show” with Brian Fried.

“Continuous improvement” is Moye’s mantra as he strives to be a better leader, mentor, and innovative thinker.

With a background in engineering, education, and music, Chris Prendergast calls himself an "ace of all trades." Doing camp counselling in his youth led him into teaching after studying engineering at McMaster University in Hamilton. He quickly released his thirst for innovation, which brought him into the ed-tech sector, where he helped bring coding and robotics into the classroom. Now, after being full time at Jamstack for several years, Prendergast's zone of expertise includes product development, system and processes, and creating great content.

Dasia “Thee Head Nerd” Taylor is a young innovator, researcher, and STEM advocate. As a researcher, Taylor has shared their journey widely on platforms such as CBS, Disney Channel, AfroTech, and the U.S. Department of Defense.

Taylor began their innovative journey by developing a surgical suture capable of infection detection. This led to several national and international awards, including the Glenn T. Seaborg Award, recognizing and encouraging research and education in STEM; the 2022 Rising Star Award, awarded to women 25 and younger who have boldly broken ceilings to create pathways for the next generation to achieve greatness; and “Ellen’s Science Fair for People Named Taylor who are Changing the World with Great Inventions,” presented by Ellen DeGeneres.

Taylor has spoken widely across the nation, beginning at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education Alumni of Color Conference. Since electrifying the audience with Generation Z ideas and innovation, they have performed a plethora of keynotes to educators, corporate stakeholders, and most importantly, students around the nation. Topics such as “Researcher 101” and “Gen Z innovation Changing the World” are notable keynotes and panel discussions that transform people’s perspectives on science, technology, engineering, and math education and innovation.

Their work has been featured on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, PBS NewsHour, CNN, and The Washington Post.

Robert Trowers was born in Brooklyn, New York. He developed an interest in the trombone from listening to the music of the swing era. Among the bands that sparked his interest in jazz were those of Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Glenn Miller, and Artie Shaw.

He did his first European tour as a member of Abdullah Ibrahim's band Ujammah in 1979. This group began the tour with a Carnegie Hall appearance and ended with a concert at New York's Public Theatre.

In 1982, Trowers got a call to play with jazz legend Lionel Hampton and stayed for the next three and a half years. After a year freelancing in New York and teaching in the public school system, he did a European tour with another jazz legend, Illinois Jacquet. Shortly after this tour, he was hired to play trombone in the Count Basie Orchestra, under the direction of Frank Foster. He would stay in this band for the next eight years, leaving in 1995 to pursue other opportunities.

The years with those stellar bands put him onstage with some of the greatest names in jazz, including Sarah Vaughn, Dizzy Gillespie, Billy Eckstine, Nancy Wilson, Ella Fitzgerald, Cab Calloway, Jay McShann, Sonny Stitt, Benny Carter, Al Grey, Frank Sinatra, Joe Williams, Tony Bennett, and many others.

During his hectic Basie years, Trowers recorded two albums under his own name for Concord Records: "Synopsis"(1983) and "Point of View" (1985). Critics described his sound as "vibrant and pointed," "smooth, warm, and inviting," and "one of the best."

After the Basie years, Trowers toured with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra under the direction of Wynton Marsalis and later with the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band under Jon Faddis. Notable freelancing activities include a short tour with T.S. Monk playing the music of his father, Thelonius Monk.

In addition, Trowers (along with Basie band colleagues Derrick Gardner and Frank Foster) started a New York nonprofit arts organization named Progressive Artistry. Progressive Artistry received numerous grants from the Brooklyn Arts Council and presented numerous jazz concerts and lecture/demonstrations in inner-city neighborhoods up until 2004. In this period after the Basie years, Trowers was also a member of the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra (originally known as the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra), and played their traditional Monday nights at the Village Vanguard, also doing a short tour of France and Tunisia with them. This period also saw him as a member of one of the late editions of Frank Foster's Loud Minority big band.

Trowers is currently on the faculty of North Carolina Central University (NCCU) in the Jazz Studies area. NCCU boasts an award-winning jazz faculty and a jazz band that has consistently had a high percentage of its members in the historically black college and universities (HBCU) all-star band in its years of participation. He was also the last regular trombonist in the late Randy Weston's African Rhythms Quintet.

Joyce Ward is the Director of the USPTO’s Office of Education (OE). Her work provides K-12 educators and students with unique learning experiences and resources that integrate knowledge of invention, innovation, entrepreneurship, and STEM. Her office also encourages the creation and protection of intellectual property.

Under Ward’s direct leadership, the OE successfully conceived and implemented numerous projects that have garnered national recognition for the USPTO, including the Science of Innovation series, a collaboration between the USPTO, the National Science Foundation, and NBC Learn; the exemplar National Summer Teacher Institute on Innovation, STEM, and Intellectual Property; an intellectual property patch with the Girl Scouts organization; and the first USPTO Inventor Trading Card series.

Prior to her current position, Ward was the Director of Program Support and Intellectual Property for the National Inventors Hall of Fame (NIHF). Before going to NIHF, she served as a trademark examining attorney and later as an education specialist in the Office of Public Affairs at the USPTO. Ward received her undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her law degree from the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C.

Kevin Wideman is CEO of Koniag Government Services (KGS), with over 30 years of experience in leadership positions. As CEO, Wideman manages a portfolio of wholly-owned subsidiaries focused on providing the federal government with solution-oriented information technology (IT) and professional services.

Wideman focuses on revenue growth, strategic planning, operational excellence, and customer delivery. He specializes in building a business culture based upon high-quality customer service, recognition of outstanding employee performance, and the common pursuit of company goals. This has allowed Wideman to position KGS as a leader and sought-after partner within the Government Information Technology Services industry.

Since joining KGS in September 2018, Wideman has led the company's growth from performing U.S. $100+ million in annual revenues to U.S. $500+ million projected for fiscal year 2022, with corresponding net profits that are growing exponentially. Under his leadership, the company also grew from 130 employees to an incredible team of more than 2,000 today.

James O. Wilson, Assistant Regional Director of the Elijah J. McCoy Midwest Regional Office, has been an employee of the USPTO since January of 1989. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in zoology from Howard University in 1984 and Master of Science degree in cellular and molecular biology from the University of Michigan in 1987.

Wilson has served on the Executive Board of the Patent and Trademark Office Society and continues to be an active member of the organization. As a primary examiner, Wilson served as a Chemical Representative in the Patent Office Professional Association. Wilson became a supervisory patent examiner (SPE) in Technical Center 1600 in 2002. In 2007, Wilson served as a managerial detailee in the Office of the Commissioner for Patents.

Over the years, Wilson has been an instructor for several classes in the Patent Examiner Initial Training Program and has served as a SPE Instructor in the Office of Patent Training. Wilson has also had the distinction of serving as an Acting Director in Technology Center 1600 from November 2013 through March 2014, as well as the Acting Director of the Elijah J. McCoy Midwest Regional Office from October 2018 through September 2019.

Conrad Wong is an Attorney-Advisor with the China Team in the Office of Policy and International Affairs at the USPTO. He specializes in American and Chinese intellectual property law and enforcement matters, helps formulate and promote U.S. intellectual property policy, and works with rights holders to protect their intellectual property assets.

From 2007 to 2012, and again from 2019 to 2022, he represented the Patent and Trademark Office as the Intellectual Property Officer with the United States Consulate General in Guangzhou, China. He was responsible for American intellectual property issues in southern and southwestern China as well as the Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau.

He has 29 years of experience in intellectual property matters in the United States government and the private sector. In 1993, he joined the USPTO as a Trademark Examiner, later became a Senior Attorney, and then joined the Office of Policy and International Affairs. His prior experience includes clerking at a Maryland state trial court and litigation practice in insurance defense matters in Washington, D.C. He has served as a government relations representative for a trade association, representing the automotive and vehicle aftermarket industry.

A native of Palo Alto, California, he is a graduate of The Johns Hopkins University and Georgetown University Law Center. Fluent in Cantonese, he is admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia and the State of Maryland.

Adelle Jia Xin Yong is a rising senior at Westlake High School from Austin, Texas. She is a highly driven student seeking to make an impact on her community. Her journey of innovation began in 2018 with her invention, Smart Mobile Labs. This is a microscope and diagnostic tool designed for detecting blood parasites like malaria and dengue fever. She entered her innovation into the regional science fair, won first place in the Biomedical category, and was a semi-finalist in the Broadcom Masters International Science Fair Competition. In 2019, she addressed the high school vaping culture by studying the abstinence-induced withdrawal behavior of planarians with various vaping liquids. She presented her work to her peers and teachers and received the Dell Center Healthy Living Health Innovation Award. In 2020, she designed the Smart Vision Labs, a low-cost ophthalmoscope and diagnostic tool capable of diagnosing various eye conditions like diabetic retinopathy, and was a finalist in the BioGENEius Challenge. In 2021, she began designing the Smart Leukemia Labs, a low-cost microscope and diagnostic tool capable of diagnosing acute lymphoblastic leukemia. She won Best of Fair and First Place in the Computer Science: System Software Category and advanced to both state and nationals. At the 2022 International Science and Engineering Fair, she won three special awards, including a Drexel University $200,000 Full Paid Scholarship, Third Place in The IEEE Foundation Presidents’ Scholarship Award, and an INCOSE Certificate of Honorable Mention.

She is passionate about encouraging female participation in the STEM field and has provided leadership and organizational skills to these efforts. She founded Girls in Science, Technology, and Research (G.STAR) to encourage girls to participate in STEM in the Texas and New Mexico communities. Leading G.STAR, she held interviews with women with careers in male-dominated areas to share their journeys and advice. She spoke at elementary STEAM day events to fuel young girls’ interest before their own classmates discouraged their passions. She partnered with Cirrus Logic’s Women Leadership Team to host summer science camps annually that sparked an interest in science.

She is also a dancer on her school’s varsity dance team, an avid science blogger, president of the Biology Tutoring Committee, and an animal lover. In her free time, she enjoys coordinating with nurses and faculty of the Grace House of Assisted Living to organize outside lunches and dance and art classes for the elderly residents.