Stephen Edward Cross is the executive vice president for research (EVPR) at the

Georgia Institute of Technology The Georgia Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Georgia Tech, GT, and simply Tech or the Institute) is a public university, public research university and Institute of technology (United States), institute of technology in Atlanta, ...

(Georgia Tech), a position to which he was appointed in 2010. As EVPR, Cross coordinates research efforts among Georgia Tech's colleges, research units and faculty; and provides central administration for all research, economic development and related support units at Georgia Tech. This includes direct oversight of Georgia Tech's

interdisciplinary Interdisciplinarity or interdisciplinary studies involves the combination of multiple academic disciplines into one activity (e.g., a research project). It draws knowledge from several fields such as sociology, anthropology, psychology, economi ...

research institutes, the

Georgia Tech Research Institute The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is the nonprofit applied research arm of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, United States. GTRI employs around 3,000 people, and was involved in nearly $1 ...

(GTRI), the

Enterprise Innovation Institute Enterprise (or the archaic spelling Enterprize) may refer to: Business and economics Brands and enterprises * Enterprise GP Holdings, an energy holding company * Enterprise plc, a UK civil engineering and maintenance company * Enterprise ...

(EI²) and the

Georgia Tech Research Corporation The Georgia Tech Research Corporation (GTRC) is a contracting organization that supports research and technological development at the Georgia Institute of Technology. History The GTRC, then named the Industrial Development Council, was founded i ...

(GTRC). Prior to this position, he served as director of the

from 2003 until 2010, director and chief executive officer of

Carnegie Mellon Carnegie may refer to: People *Carnegie (surname), including a list of people with the name **Andrew Carnegie, Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist * Clan Carnegie, a lowland Scottish clan Institutions Named for Andrew Carnegie * ...

Software Engineering Institute Software Engineering Institute (SEI) is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1984, the institute is now sponsored by the Uni ...

from 1994 to 2003, and an officer in the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

from 1974 to 1994. He is an

IEEE Fellow , the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and ot ...

, a former editor-in-chief of ''

IEEE Intelligent Systems ''IEEE Intelligent Systems'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed academic journal published by the IEEE Computer Society and sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), British Computer Society (BCS), and European As ...

'' and former associate editor of the '' Journal of Information, Knowledge, and Systems Management''. He is a recipient of the

Defense Superior Service Medal The Defense Superior Service Medal (DSSM) is a military decoration of the United States Department of Defense, which is presented to United States Armed Forces service members who perform superior meritorious service in a position of significant ...

. Cross has published more than 60 research papers in computing, and has provided expert testimony to the United States Congress.

Education and Air Force

Cross attended

Madison High School Madison High School may refer to: * Madison County High School (Alabama), Gurley, Alabama * Madison High School (Idaho), Rexburg, Idaho * Madison Consolidated High School, Madison, Indiana * Madison High School (Kansas), Madison, Kansas * Kentucky: ...

Madison, Ohio Madison is a village in Lake County, Ohio, United States. The population was 3,435 at the 2020 census. Madison was incorporated as a village in 1867. Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of , ...

, from 1965 to 1969. Cross earned a Bachelor of Science in

Electrical Engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

from the

University of Cincinnati The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati, informally Cincy) is a public university, public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1819 and had an enrollment of over 53,000 students in 2024, making it the ...

in 1974 and subsequently joined the

. While in the Air Force, he received a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from the

Air Force Institute of Technology The Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) is a postgraduate institution and provider of professional and continuing education for the United States Armed Forces and is part of the United States Air Force. It is in Ohio at Wright-Patterson ...

in 1977 and a Ph.D. from the

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. Established in 1867, it is the f ...

in 1983. Cross also graduated from

United States Air Force Test Pilot School The U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School (USAF TPS) is the Air Force's advanced flight training school that trains experimental test pilots, flight test engineers, and flight test navigators to carry out tests and evaluations of new aerospace w ...

's Flight Test Engineer Program, the

Air War College The Air War College (AWC) is the senior Professional Military Education (PME) school of the U.S. Air Force. A part of the United States Air Force's Air University (United States Air Force), Air University, AWC emphasizes the employment of air, ...

, and the

National Defense University National Defence (or Defense) University (or College) may refer to: :''Alphabetical by country'' University * Marshal Fahim National Defense University, Afghanistan * National Defense University (Azerbaijan) * People's Liberation Army National Defe ...

. While in the Air Force, Cross wrote

embedded software Embedded software is computer software, written to control machines or devices that are not typically thought of as computers, commonly known as embedded systems. It is typically specialized for the particular hardware that it runs on and has tim ...

for F-15s and F-16s. His experience also touched on software for cruise missile navigation, logistics, and air traffic control. Cross was a program manager for the

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. Originally known as the Adva ...

(DARPA) from 1989 to 1994; he was also a member and chairman of DARPA's Information Science & Technology panel. He retired from the Air Force in 1994.

Academic career

In 1994, Cross joined the faculty of

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

, becoming a principal research scientist in its

Robotics Institute The Robotics Institute (RI) is a division of the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. A June 2014 article in ''Robotics Business Review'' magazine calls it "the world's best robo ...

and Institute for Software Research. In 1996, he became director and CEO of Carnegie Mellon's

. While at Carnegie Mellon, Cross promoted more reliable

software development Software development is the process of designing and Implementation, implementing a software solution to Computer user satisfaction, satisfy a User (computing), user. The process is more encompassing than Computer programming, programming, wri ...

practices such as

code reuse Code reuse is the practice of using existing source code to develop software instead of writing new code. ''Software reuse'' is a broader term that implies using any existing software asset to develop software instead of developing it again. An as ...

. In late 2003, Cross was chosen to serve as director of the

, an applied research arm of the

. He is also a professor in Georgia Tech's School of Industrial and Systems Engineering and an adjunct professor in the College of Computing and the

Scheller College of Business The Scheller College of Business is the business school at the Georgia Institute of Technology, a Public university, public research university in Atlanta, Georgia. It was established in 1912 and is consistently ranked in the top 30 business pr ...

. Cross was appointed Georgia Tech's executive vice president of research in 2010, assuming the position on May 1, 2010. In June 2012, Cross and David S. Stephens (vice president for research of the Robert W. Woodruff Health Sciences Center) published an

op-ed An op-ed, short for "opposite the editorial page," is a type of written prose commonly found in newspapers, magazines, and online publications. They usually represent a writer's strong and focused opinion on an issue of relevance to a targeted a ...

in the ''

Atlanta Journal-Constitution ''The Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' (''AJC'') is an American daily newspaper based in metropolitan area of Atlanta, Georgia. It is the flagship publication of Cox Enterprises. The ''Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the result of the merger ...

'' supporting biomedical research.

Memberships and awards

In 2010, Secretary of Defense

Robert M. Gates Robert Michael Gates (born September 25, 1943) is an American intelligence analyst and university president who served as the 22nd United States secretary of defense from 2006 to 2011. He was appointed by President George W. Bush and retained b ...

named Cross to a three-year term on the

Defense Science Board The Defense Science Board (DSB) is a committee of civilian experts appointed to advise the U.S. Department of Defense on scientific and technical matters. It was established in 1956 on the second Hoover Commission's recommendation. Charter The B ...

. Cross previously served on the Defense Science Board's Task Force on Defense Software. While at Georgia Tech, Cross has joined several research advisory boards, including the Health Systems Institute, the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience, the Strategic Energy Initiative and the Tennenbaum Institute. Cross is a member of the

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE has a corporate office ...

(IEEE); he was named an

in 2003 "for the development and use of modern software engineering techniques in advanced systems". He was editor-in-chief of ''

'' from 1994 to 1997, and associate editor of the ''Journal of Information, Knowledge, and Systems Management'' from 2003 to 2011. In 1991, Cross was awarded the

; in 2002, he was named a

University of Cincinnati College of Engineering A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Univ ...

Distinguished Alumnus; and in 2010, ''Irish America'' magazine named him a Star of the South.

Selected publications

* * * *

References

External links

Official profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cross, Stephen E 1951 births Living people Georgia Tech Research Institute people Georgia Tech faculty University of Cincinnati alumni Air Force Institute of Technology alumni Grainger College of Engineering alumni Fellows of the IEEE Recipients of the Defense Superior Service Medal American chief executives of education-related organizations