Robert Whetsel – is a decorated war veteran, Entrepreneur, and AI Researcher that has worked in Information Systems since 1989. He is one of founders of The Open Business Foundation, and has previously functioned as a Fellow for the Executive Guidance Team for the Open Business Foundation, where he acted as a trusted advisor and mentor for senior management. Additionally, Robert had served on the Steering Committee for the Governor’s Workforce Investment Board Information Technology Cluster Initiative for the State of Maryland, and was one of the authors that crafted “Maryland’s Information Technology Industry Workforce Report and Recommendations”, white paper. When he’s not pondering difficult, unmanageable problems, preferably those involving the philosophical debate of the Singularity, he’s pursuing a Doctoral degree in Artificial Intelligence.

Robert has been heavily involved with the Open Source movement since 1993 were he has contributed to numerous open source projects as a developer and mentor. He is considered an Open Source Visionary and a leader in the open source community. Currently, he is the Chief Maintainer for the Open FlightLinux Project and continues to contribute to other open source projects when the opportunity presents its self.

Robert’s day job is that of a Computer Scientist for U.S. Army Research Laboratory at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland. Additionally, he acts as an Adjunct Professor for the Computer Science department at Frederick Community College when he has the time and they have the need.