Ernest Smiley is founder and CEO of Georgetown Analytics and one of the speakers on the panel titled AI Is Already in Your Life: What It Is, What It Isn't, and Why It Matters at the AI NEXTGEN America Conference.
The session provides a practical overview of artificial intelligence, helping to dispel common misconceptions and showing the way in which AI affects everyday life.
Smiley has a master's degree in technology management from Georgetown University, an MBA in finance and accounting, a bachelor's degree from the University of Maryland, and a graduate certificate in Data Science from Georgetown University.
His qualifications also include CGEIT, CSA, CISM, CRISC, CPM, CFC, and Certified E-Commerce Consultant.
Smiley has incorporated computer systems for the U.S. Army, the Department of Defense, defense health systems, the Intelligence community, and various commercial organizations.
Because of his leadership and technical knowledge in the areas of data science, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and predictive analysis, he has greatly advanced the field.
Smiley held positions in 17 federal agencies and served as chief data scientist and CTO at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA).
AI Is Already in Your Life: What It Is, What It Isn't, and Why It Matters
As chief data officer at the NGA, Smiley worked with the U.S. Air Force to gather and analyze aerial surveillance data using unmanned systems; this work played a role in important intelligence operations such as the creation of a replica of Bin Laden's compound for SEAL Team Six.
After obtaining his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Maryland College Park in 1988, Smiley joined the U.S. Army in 1990 having previously worked with defense contractors in Washington, D.C.
Within five years he was in charge of more than 40 engineers who provided information technology support for the Department of Defense's Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), an organization which supplies IT services to tens of thousands of military personnel in both Europe and the United States.
In 1996 Smiley was appointed senior data center manager and network engineer with the Department of Energy's Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence, where he led teams responsible for protecting national security information and for supporting key missions in the fields of defense, cybersecurity and energy security.
His duties involved managing the engineers employed by the Department of Energy's nuclear waste program and the design of secure networks for financial and telecommunications systems.
In his role as deputy director and senior security manager at the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Smiley gave technical assistance with IT security certification and accreditation.
He also carried out network security tests on sensitive systems in Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan.
He received the award of Scientist of the Year at the BEYA STEM Conference as a result of his contributions to system integration for the Department of Defense and the intelligence community.