Neil Siegel has made many important contributions to systems engineering and aerospace, including his work on the U.S. Army’s first unmanned aerial vehicle.
Neil Siegel, IBM Professor of Engineering Management in the Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, has been announced as one of the 2021 Fellows of the Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association (AAIA).
The AAIA is an interdisciplinary organization of leading scientists in the artificial intelligence field, aiming to build a broad AI industry to promote the development and application of AI in science and technology. The association’s mission is to enhance the development and application of AI around the world through academic research, academic exchanges, science education, exhibitions, academic conferences and more.
Siegel said he was honored to become a Fellow of the organization.
“I believe that artificial intelligence is an increasingly-important topic, and that east Asia is one of the centers of this emerging technology,” Siegel said. “I hope to be able to collaborate with some of the experts in this field from this geographic area.”
Siegel has had a distinguished career at the leading edge of systems engineering, working on major military, intelligence and commercial projects, including the U.S. Blue-Force Tracker, the U.S. Army’s first unmanned aerial vehicle, as well as the Forward-Area Air Defense system.
He joined the USC faculty in 2016, after a career as a senior executive in the aerospace industry, including 18 years as a vice-president of Northrop Grumman, retiring as sector vice-president / chief technology officer at the end of 2015. Siegel’s previous positions included vice-president and division general manager of the company’s Tactical Systems Division, vice-president and director of their UK subsidiary, and sector vice-president / chief engineer.
In addition to his contributions to national security through his work for the U.S. defense department and the U.S. intelligence community, Siegel’s work has led to significant advances in consumer electronics and healthcare. Nearly every smartphone and tablet computer in existence makes use of concepts for which he is the recognized patent-holder. Most drug prescriptions in the U.S. are checked for safety through systems of a type that Siegel helped pioneer. Almost every movie screen in the country uses a secure digital distribution system for which Siegel is a cited co-inventor.
Siegel has received numerous other awards and honors, and in 2021 was also announced as a Fellow of the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE). He has been elected to the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, and is a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors and the IEEE. Siegel has won the IEEE Simon Ramo Medal for Systems Engineering and Systems Science, the iCMG award for system architecture, the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award, membership in the U.S. Army’s Order of Saint Barbara, and many others.
He holds more than 40 patents worldwide.
Siegel is also the author of a recent textbook on Engineering Project Management.
All three of his degrees are from USC, including a Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering at USC Viterbi.
Published on September 20th, 2021
Last updated on September 20th, 2021
