Baltimore Innovation Week 2017

Sarah is Editor and writer for the Baltimore ravens. She is also the Host and creator of the Man in the Crowd podcast which takes an in-depth look at the Harbaugh family and their fascinating and often controversial ultra-competitive “fighter” approach to life. With over 25 interviews with family members, friends, co-workers and reporters conducted over the course of a year and woven into a story told over nine episodes, fans get a glimpse at what makes this family tick.

Brad Hennessie is the CEO of NextStep Robotic Inc., a company whose portable robotic ankle exoskeleton is being developed as the first ever treatment option to reverse foot drop in stroke victims. Foot drop, which occurs in a wide range of neurological and orthopedic conditions, is recognized as the inability to lift the toe during normal walking. He has been working with the inventors of this technology for 8 years, managing multiple grants with Drs. Macko, Roy, and Forrester. He started with the team as a single study coordinator and quickly grew into a leadership role over the past few years, helping manage the day-to-day tasks and long term goals for the Maryland Exercise and Robotics Center of Excellence (MERCE). MERCE is a ~$7M/year research organization originally founded by Dr. Richard Macko that is part of the Baltimore VA Medical Center and the Department of Neurology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Brad’s conception of the business model and commercialization plan led to the team’s successful TEDCO MII Phase I/II submission and attracting their first external investor.

Since transitioning out of the robotics lab and starting full time with NextStep Robotics, he has directed an engineering team with Dr. Gil Blankenship at the Maryland Development Center to create the first prototype of the portable ankle robot.

Brad’s early development as a leader was shaped by his 8 years in the Maryland Army National Guard where he learned the importance of having confidence in the quality of a product by being a parachute rigger.

Le`Rhone is part of the technology leadership at The Archer Group and oversees the front end development and animation disciplines. He also oversees emerging technology research via the Archer Innovations program. This team is currently exploring Virtual Reality, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence, and uses this research to educate internal teams and find new opportunities to create meaningful experiences for Archer's clients.

Le’Rhone’s decade of experience in both design and business helps Archer’s work achieve the right balance between meeting the client’s business goals and creating a digital experience worth talking about. He has applied this knowledge to projects for clients such as Wawa Foods, Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan Chase, DuPont, March of Dimes, and BarclayCard US.

Dr. Greg Walsh is an assistant professor at the University of Baltimore where he is the graduate program director for the MS in Interaction Design and Information Architecture as well as the UX Design program. He is an interaction design researcher who focuses on user-centered design. In his almost 20 years of Baltimore City residency, Dr. Walsh has worked at a number of Baltimore-based interaction design firms and continues to focus on innovation through mentoring start-ups in the art of user-centered design. He is ruggedly handsome and a recipient of a Google Faculty Research Award.

John W. Davis, II, founded Notice and Comment (N&C) in January 2013. He is the former Director of Major Crimes Division and Chief Homicide Prosecutor for the U.S. Department of Justice in the U.S. Virgin Islands, during the Clinton administration. Following his several years of public service, John practiced as a criminal defense attorney, debate coach, and professor of ethics and communications law at George Mason University, Howard University, and Towson University.

John has served as a consultant to numerous federal agencies through Debate Solutions Inc., a Washington, DC-based frm he launched to organize debates between student teams from leading national universities. These venues focused on actual policy issues of the day, eliciting unique insights for regulators as they considered specific rules.

Prior to his policy debate work, John served as Vice President with Northern Trust, based in Chicago, where he spearheaded the bank’s program to attract high-net-worth clients. Until recently he served as chairman of the board of directors of Sharp Dressed Man, a nonproft organization based in Baltimore, dedicated to providing professional clothing to disadvantaged men who are seeking employment.

Michelle Menard is an award wining game designer, published author (Game Development with Unity), and 10-year veteran of the industry. She has previously worked in both the mobile and AAA market, and as a consultant under Artemic Games, LLC, partnering with other companies to provide core system design, itemization, auditing, and documentation. Once she was invited to the White House to blabber about game design and crowd-sourcing for big data. Michelle is currently the lead designer at Oxide Games, and is also a co-founder of Fishwizard Games, a small boardgame company exploring strategy games set in the Gateway universe. Gateway: Uprising, their first title, is due out in stores Q3 of this year.

Michelle also serves as an adjunct professor at UMBC and SCAD, teaching game design, theory, and game history, and has taught intro C# game development courses for the local non-profit Code in the Schools. She holds a double BA in Applied Mathematics and Music Theory from Brown University, and an MFA in Game and Interactive Design from SCAD.

Dr. Jennifer Reynolds is an experienced and entrepreneurial executive with more than twenty years of experience growing companies in start - up/early stage biotechnology and high technology environments. She is currently overseeing the University of Maryland, Baltimore County’s 60+ company incubation/acceleration program in life sciences, cybersecurity and clean technology and has a deep passion and interest in advancing the commercialization of new technologies within diverse high-technology sectors. Previously, she served in a COO capacity at a molecular diagnostics platform company in MD, growing the company from the ground up. She has also served as a DNA Forensics Expert and Crime Laboratory Director at one of the nation’s most prestigious private forensics testing laboratories. Jennifer has a B.S. degree in Biology from Virginia Tech, a PhD in Human Genetics from the Medical College of Virginia (VCU), and an MBA degree from the Executive MBA program at Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland College Park.

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.