Panel Discussion: Future of the Workforce

The Future of Workforce panel will discuss issues and technologies that impact the future of the workforce at the corporate and regional scale as well as addressing effects on individuals in the workforce. The focus will be on economic, technological, ecological, and societal matters. The panel will address categories such as personal technologies, automation, technology infrastructure, and security. Outcomes from 10 globally held workshops engaging high profile individuals from industry, government and academia will be presented, predicting the direction of how the workforce will evolve due to pandemics and beyond. Based on their work, panelists will make recommendations to industry, legislators, and professional organizations regarding what to consider when planning for the future of their workforces.

Dejan Milojicic is a distinguished technologist at Hewlett Packard Labs  [1998-]. He received his PhD from the University of Kaiserslautern (1993); and MSc/BSc from Belgrade University (1983/86). Dejan has over 200 papers, 2 books and 61 patents. Dejan is an IEEE Fellow (2010) and ACM Distinguished Engineer (2008). https://dejan.milojicic.com.

Nita Patel, P.E., is Senior Director, Engineering at L3 Harris Technologies. She is a Director of the IEEE Foundation. She served as Women in Engineering International Chair. She is a senior director with the United States Chess Federation. Nita received her MS Computer Engineering (1998), BS Electrical Engineering (1995) and BS Mathematics (1995) from Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

Tom Coughlin, President, Coughlin Associates is a digital storage analyst and business and technology consultant. He has over 42 years in the data storage industry with engineering and management positions at several companies. Coughlin Associates consults, publishes books and market and technology reports (including The Media and Entertainment Storage Report), and puts on digital storage-oriented events. He is a regular storage and memory contributor for forbes.com and M&E organization websites. He is an IEEE Fellow, President of IEEE-USA, candidate for IEEE President-elect in 2021, and is active with SNIA and SMPTE. www.tomcoughlin.com/ieee.