Tom Cwik
#Keynote, #Speaker
NASA | Innovation

Driven by being a creative leader, my goal is to build tech systems that accomplish the next-to-impossible. Systems that push the limits of what is feasible but meet well-defined goals.
This compels:
- Building high-performance teams, tightly connected that can reach into key networks of expertise and resources to succeed
- Growing team members and leaders who develop ever increasing bandwidth across technical fields, and become conversant with and can assess developments outside their specific expertise
- Building tech systems to the next threshold of capability while maintaining scalability to the very large
- Working with and advising sponsors and a range of stakeholders to raise capital and meet goals
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This has been learned and demonstrated through a range of projects including
- Building the world’s largest parallel computing software system for electromagnetic scattering related to military aircraft, at the time when high-performance computing was in its infancy
- Leading a team to develop the NASA Aquarius flight mission definition and proposal, leading to selection for flight development and on-orbit science operations
- Being a founding member of the start-up company M-Factor (acquired by DemandTec and then IBM), a data analytics company exploiting high-performance computing for optimized marketing investments
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Behind the scenes, I need to be hands-on with at least one project, surround myself with diverse people with a range of perspectives, mentor and learn, and sustain the passion.