Joseph Rios

Dr. Joseph Rios is the Chief Technologist for the Aviation Systems Division at NASA Ames Research Center.  Previously he served as the Chief Engineer for the Air Traffic Management – eXploration (ATM-X) Project after serving in the same role for the UAS Traffic Management (UTM) Project. In those positions he helped develop the novel concept of federated traffic management with FAA and industry collaborators. He joined NASA in 2007 as a civil servant after a summer internship the previous year. His work generally focuses on computational and data issues related to the National Airspace System including research on large-scale optimization models for traffic flow management, data exchange schemas for air traffic, and tools for general aviation pilots flying in remote locations. His most recent work has emphasized the importance of discovering and applying appropriate architectures to a solve problems. Following two years teaching math in Papua New Guinea via the Peace Corps, Joseph obtained his M.S. in Computer Science from Cal State Hayward, followed by a PhD in Computer Engineering from UC Santa Cruz.  He is unclear why he always uses the name “Joseph” when writing about himself in the third person as he never applies it to himself anywhere else.