Speakers

Thomas McDermott serves as the Deputy Director and Chief Technology Officer of the Systems Engineering Research Center (SERC), a Department of Defense University Affiliated Research Center (UARC) led by Stevens Institute of Technology. In this role, he leads research in digital transformation, education, artificial intelligence, and security, while shaping strategic research directions for systems engineering across the defense enterprise.

McDermott is also the founder of Foresightful Modeling, where he advises organizations on enterprise strategy through systems-based foresight and innovation modeling. With over three decades of experience, he is a leading voice on systems thinking, engineering leadership, and complex sociotechnical systems, regularly teaching at Stevens Institute of Technology, Georgia Tech, and Agnes Scott College.

He is a longtime instructor for Georgia Tech Professional Education and currently serves on the INCOSE Board of Directors as Director of Strategic Integration. A frequent lecturer and consultant, McDermott is known for applying systems approaches to decision-making in enterprise planning, technology modernization, and national defense strategy.