Accelerating through Adversity
  • Victoria Coleman

    Victoria Coleman, PhD

    USAF Chief Scientist
    Senior Advisor to the Director at CITRIS & the Banatao Institute, University of California
    Former Director of DARPA

    Speaking Topic: Countering Digital Authoritarianism

    Biography & Abstract

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  • Masayoshi Arai

    Masayoshi Arai

    Director-General, Commerce and Information Policy Bureau Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), Government of Japan

    Speaking Topic: The role of architecture in achieving Society 5.0

    Biography & Abstract

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  • Lex Hoefsloot

    Lex Hoefsloot

    Co-Founder, Lightyear

    Speaking Topic: How systems engineering made solar cars a reality

    Biography & Abstract

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Dr. Victoria Coleman is USAF Chief Scientist and former Director of DARPA. She serves as Senior Advisor to the Director of the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) at UC Berkeley where she is leading microelectronics technology policy. Prior to DARPA she served as the Chief Executive Officer of Atlas AI P.B.C, a Silicon Valley startup that brings world class AI solutions to sustainable development. By combining satellite data with other data sets, Atlas AI’s proprietary deep learning models create actionable insights for governments, NGOs, and commercial companies. Prior to joining Atlas AI, Coleman was the Chief Technology Officer at the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that supports Wikipedia, where she oversaw the organization’s Technology department and technical roadmap, and was responsible for the evolution, development, and delivery of core platforms and architecture. In this role, Dr. Coleman worked to ensure an accessible and performant technology infrastructure and anticipate scale and capability challenges for the Wikimedia projects.
She was previously a Senior Vice President at Technicolor where she served as the CTO of the Connected Home Business. Prior to Technicolor she was Senior Vice President R&D for Harman's Infotainment Division. As Vice President Engineering at Yahoo! she was responsible for membership services, presentation layer technologies and developer relations. At Nokia as Vice President, Emerging Platforms she led a multi-disciplinary team creating strategic products including the Nokia Z Launcher and the Nokia X line of smartphones. As Vice President, Software Engineering at HP Palm GBU leading the webOS Platform team she built the HP Touchpad. As Vice President with Samsung's Advanced Institute of Technology in charge of the Computer Science Laboratory in San Jose, CA she initiated the development of Tizen and the Samsung Knox line of smartphones. She was previously Intel's Director for Security Initiatives and the Director of the Trust and Manageability Laboratory in Intel's Corporate Technology Group. She joined SRI International in 1998 after 10 years as a tenured professor in the University of London. She became the founding Director of SRI’s System Design Laboratory in 1999. She was a member of the Defense Science Board, a member (and founding Chair) of DARPA's Microsystems Exploratory Council, a member of Lockheed Martin's Technology Advisory Group, a member of Airbus Industries Starboard and a member of Santa Clara University’s Advisory Board for the Department of Computer Engineering. She also served on the Board of Directors of the Public Library of Science.

Mr. Arai is Director-General, Commerce and Information Policy Bureau, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), Government of Japan.
Prior to his current position, he served as Director-General for Policy Planning and Coordination and other two positions in Minister’s Secretariat since 2016, where he coordinated wide range of economy and industrial policies.
Before 2014, he worked for the Information, Communication, and Electronics Division of METI for 2 years. He has contributed to the growth of electrics industries of Japan and expanded its communications and friendships with overseas IT companies.
Before 2012, Mr.Arai was based in Washington DC and New York for 3 years. As representative of METI, his responsibilities included TPP (Trans Pacific Partnership), Natural Gas and nuclear energy cooperation between the U.S and Japan, Iranian sanction, China’s Rare Earth issue, Electric industries, etc..
He also lived in U.S from 1994 to 1996 and earned his M.B.A in finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He also graduated from the prestigious Waseda University in Tokyo, where he earned a Bachelor of Political Science degree.

After long-nights of research and brainstorming, we founded Lightyear in 2016. The company has grown exponentially, we have over 34 patents pending, over 100 early pre-orders, first driving prototypes and working towards production for a first Exclusive Series of cars and setting up the High-Volume Series. Lightyear is prepared to make a dent in the universe by putting a high comfortable 4-seater car on the Earth, free from the grid, enabling clean mobility for everyone everywhere.
In the summer of 2017, I was lucky to be selected as one of the 90 people from all corners of the planet to participate in the Singularity University Global Solutions Program with the goal of accelerating companies that solve climate change. As a participant, I was coached by the world’s best thought leaders, entrepreneurs and investors in leading transformative companies. This leadership program is recognized as one of the most forward thinking in the world and provides access to a network of more than 10,000 highly successful individuals and alumni of Singularity University.
With a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering and a master’s in automotive technology, Lex was the team manager and co-founder of Solar Team Eindhoven. Solar Team Eindhoven has won the last 4 editions World Solar Challenge Cruiser Class by designing, building and competing with most efficient multiple seater vehicles on the planet. More than 35 students helped to get our first car on the road.