Lora Weiss

Biography

Dr. Lora G. Weiss is a Lab Chief Scientist and Technical Director of Autonomous Systems at the Georgia Tech Research Institute. Her research focus is on the design and development of technologies for unmanned and autonomous systems. She has conducted research on systems spanning the domains of air, ground, sea-surface, and undersea. She has chaired technical sessions at professional conferences and has provided over 300 technical presentations. Dr. Weiss was on the Board of Directors for the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI), which is the world’s largest unmanned systems organization. She was on the Technical Advisory Board of the Nation’s Robotics Technology Consortium, and she was an Executive Board Member of the National Defense Industrial Association. She currently chairs the ASTM Committee on Unmanned Maritime Vehicle Autonomy and Control and is a member of the Information Science and Technology Study Group for DARPA. Dr. Weiss was recipient of the Kenneth T. Simowitz Memorial Citation and Award in 1993 and 1995, respectively, she received an Outstanding Publication Award from Penn State in 1995, she was awarded the title of GTRI Technical Fellow in 2007, she was a featured “Scientist in the Spotlight” for the HSCB Program in 2009. In 2012, she was the recipient of the AUVSI Foundation Award for Academic Champion and also Women in Technology’s Women of the Year Award. Dr. Weiss has provided testimonial to the Science and Technology Committee of the Georgia House of Representatives, she developed a video for IEEE Educational Services, and she holds a provisional patent for an underwater vehicle. Dr. Weiss has been Principal Investigator on programs sponsored by offices such as DARPA, the Office of Naval Research, and other DoD organizations.