Featured Session: Breaking Through Barriers to Innovation: Lessons from Space and Earth

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      "details": "DAVA NEWMAN is the Apollo Program Professor of Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Aeronautics and Astronautics  and a Harvard–MIT Health, Sciences, and Technology faculty member. She is the former director of the MIT Media Lab and the MIT Technology and Policy Program. She served as NASA Deputy Administrator (2015-17), the first female engineer in this role, and was awarded the NASA Distinguished Service Medal. Newman’s research expertise is in multidisciplinary aerospace biomedical engineering investigating human performance across the spectrum of gravity. Newman is a leader in advanced space suit design, dynamics and control of astronaut motion, leadership development, innovation and space policy. Newman was the PI on 6 experiments that flew on the Space Shuttle, MIR, and ISS spaceflight missions STS-42, STS-62, MIR (1996-1998), ISS (2015, 2017, 2023) to measure astronaut mental workload and fine motor control, quantify astronaut loads and movement control, and demonstrate advanced suit technology for astronaut exercise and health. Her second skin planetary EVA BioSuit™ spacesuit inventions are now being applied to “soft suits/exoskeletons” to study and enhance locomotion on Earth. Her Earth systems research implements satellite data to accelerate solutions for the dual challenge of energy and climate using machine learning with physics informed neural networks, immersive visualizations, and story-telling. She is a co-founder of EarthDNA. Newman is the author of Interactive Aerospace Engineering and Design and has published more than 350 papers in journals and refereed conferences. She has circumnavigated the world sailing over 50,000 nm. Select honors include: Hon. Doctorates from Dartmouth, the Royal College of Art, and University of Minho, Seneca’s 100 Women, Society of Women’s 35 World’s Most Influential Women Engineers, Robert Fletcher Award, Lowell Thomas Award, AIAA Fellow, AIAA Jeffries Aerospace Medicine and Life Sciences Research Award, and Women in Aerospace Leadership Award. Newman received her PhD in aerospace biomedical engineering and Masters degrees in Aeronautics and Astronautics and Technology and Policy from MIT and a BS in aerospace engineering from the University of Notre Dame. Newman is a member of the Aerospace Corporation Board of Trustees, the SETI Institute Board of Directors, and co-chairs the World Economic Forum’s Global Futures Council on Space Technologies.",
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  "description": "New paradigm-shifting technologies seem to emerge every day, and the leaders that understand how to properly leverage the opportunities that come along with these new technologies can create huge competitive advantages for their organizations. Dava Newman, Ph.D., a futurist and the MIT Apollo Program Professor of Astronautics (as well as the former director of the MIT Media Lab and the first woman engineer to have served as a NASA deputy administrator) will reveal creative strategies for taking advantage of these opportunities. Learn how to make the most from technology breakthroughs in areas such as finding life elsewhere in the universe; climate+energy, and the convergence of artificial intelligence and generative biology. Dava’s mantra of “Love, Act, Discover, Innovate” urges leaders in business, government, and academia to courageously consider how innovation can truly change the way we engage with each other and our planet.",
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