Baltimore Innovation Week 2017

Darius Irani is a sophomore at Johns Hopkins, currently studying Computer Science and Applied Mathematics & Statistics. Originally from Upstate New York, Darius has found his home in Baltimore through involvement in his social start-up Project Charmify that does community development, educational programming, and vacant space activation in neighborhoods across Baltimore. Darius would like to combine his passion for social justice issues and technical interests and skills in STEM, by using Big Data and Machine Learning to have social impact in cities and influence social policy.

Robert Lord is the Co-Founder and President of Protenus, an analytics platform that leverages artificial intelligence to detect data breaches in healthcare. Protenus protects the nation’s top healthcare systems, ensuring trust for tens of millions of patients, and was named the 2016 International Association of Privacy Professionals’ Privacy Innovator of the Year.

Robert is a sought-after speaker and commentator in the fields of artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, healthcare analytics, and data privacy. He has been invited to speak at premier industry conferences like the HIMSS17 National Conference, to brief at the U.S. Senate, and to provide insight to national, state, and local leaders on cybersecurity preparedness. His insights have been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The Hill, Forbes, The Baltimore Sun, and a wide array of other publications.

Robert is a Fellow at the Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology and teaches courses on entrepreneurship at Johns Hopkins. He has been named to the Baltimore Business Journal’s “Tech 10” and to Becker’s Hospital Review’s “Healthcare Entrepreneurs to Know.”

Before co-founding Protenus, Robert was an MD candidate at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Robert received his A.B. in Social Studies, magna cum laude, from Harvard University.

Sarah Jennings started building things as soon as she was big enough to hold a hammer, and hasn't stopped since. As the Creative Director of Brand and Ad Innovation at OATH, she is obsessed with making the advertising world a better place for consumers of content. Sarah came to Oath through AOL and Millennial Media, where she built mind blowing creatives for big brands on every kind of small screen since phones had internet. She was named one of Business Insider's 30 most creative people in mobile advertising, and loves sharing her excitement about the power of technology with anyone who will listen. Sarah's previous life was as a propsmaster and costumer, graduating from UVA and working at opera houses and other theaters around Europe and the United States. Sarah learned how to build pretty much any physical object during that time, but became more and more interested in what could be built on computers. She got her masters in Publication Design from the University of Baltimore and started working in ad tech. Sarah always tries to bring an element of spectacle to every project, digital or otherwise. When she's not getting paid to play on her phone, she spends her time with the best thing she ever made - her daughter Riley.

T.J. Tate is the Web Director of Agora Financial where he oversees the company’s technology stack.  Prior to his five years at Agora Financial he held a position at Blackboard as Senior Manager of Interactive Design where he oversaw web design, web development and web personalization efforts for many and vertical marketing teams. Over the past 10 years T.J. has architected, developed and designed technical solutions for a wide range of businesses from fortune 500 companies to Silicon Valley startups and even a well-known local brewery in Frederick MD. He is passionate about User Experience Strategy, Personalization, Data Science, and Predictive Analysis and is a huge music nerd.

In November 2015, Stacia became the creator and producer of Baltimore: The Rise of Charm City, a radio and podcast series that tells intergenerational stories of place and memory in Baltimore City. Baltimore: The Rise of Charm City is part of the Association of Independents in Radio (AIR)’s 2015 Finding America: Localore project and is produced in partnership with WEAA 88.9.

Stephen Auvil is the senior vice president for technology transfer and commercialization at the Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO). In this role, he is responsible for overseeing TEDCO’s funding programs. He is also responsible for other programs that foster the transfer of technologies from universities and federal laboratories into the commercial sector. From 2008 - 2010, Mr. Auvil served as the assistant vice president for research at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) where he assisted UMBC’s vice president for research in his effort to build and support UMBC’s research enterprise. He was also responsible for supporting UMBC’s economic development mission as it relates to research, technology transfer, and new venture creation. Mr. Auvil, who was one of the architects of UMBC’s ACTiVATE® and INNoVATE™ programs, served as a co-principal investigator on the National Science Foundation grants that supported these programs. From 2000 - 2008, Mr. Auvil served as the director of UMBC's Office of Technology Development (OTD). During his tenure, he oversaw significant growth in OTD’s active license agreements, intellectual property portfolio, and licensing revenues. He actively promoted UMBC’s research capabilities and helped to build ties with Maryland companies. Before arriving at UMBC, he worked as an assistant director in the Office of Technology Licensing at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine where he evaluated inventions and negotiated license agreements for a variety of technologies. He has successfully negotiated dozens of license agreements including many agreements involving equity and faculty initiated start-up companies. Prior to working at Johns Hopkins, Mr. Auvil worked for two small medical device companies where he had a variety of responsibilities ranging from rebuilding medical devices under GMP to setting-up and networking computerized accounting systems. He began his career as a laboratory technician studying ion channels in membranes. Mr. Auvil graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology and Engineering Science from Loyola College in Maryland, and went on to earn a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Baltimore and a Masters of Science in Biotechnology from the Johns Hopkins University.

Moss Amer works at the Maryland Venture Fund, where he serves as a board observer for several portfolio companies, including Aledade, Fugue, and Harpoon Medical.

Prior to joining the Fund, Moss worked as a Senior Analyst at TCP Venture Capital, where he helped to build a 10-company portfolio with significant positive write-ups. Select investments include RedOwl Analytics (acquired by Forcepoint), WellDoc, and ZeroFOX.

Moss graduated magna cum laude from Brown University, where he studied entrepreneurship and technology management. He is a 2013 Venture for America fellow.

Deepak Jain is the founder of AiNET. His career of 30 years has produced dozens of patents in computer science and electrical engineering, as well as innovative technologies to solve the world’s most challenging problems. AiNET helps businesses secure their data, streamline their information technology systems, and modernize their systems to drive business goals: to mitigate risks, to drive efficiencies, to create value, to comply with complex regulations, and to compete more effectively.