Bio
Lt Col Alexander J. Kamrud is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer and Cyber Science at the United States Air Force Academy. In addition to his academic duties, he also leads a team of over 200 personnel to manage the 70 major graduation events at USAFA, including the commencement and commissioning of 950 cadets and over 22,000 attendees. Previously, Lt Col Kamrud attended Air Command and Staff College (ACSC) in-residence at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama. Before attending ACSC, he was the Deputy Branch Chief for the Systems Engineering Branch of the Spectrum Warfare Division within the AFRL Sensors Directorate. As Deputy Branch Chief, Lt Col Kamrud assisted in leading a team of scientists and engineers for maturing advanced electronic warfare (EW) technologies through modeling & simulation, hardware-in-the-loop testing, and flight evaluations. He was also dual-hatted as the Autonomy & AI (A&AI) Co-Lead for the AFRL Sensors Directorate, where he tracked, promoted, and connected RY A&AI efforts to AFRL and the broader research community. Previously, Lt Col Kamrud graduated with a PhD in Computer Science (CS) from the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT), Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, with a research emphasis on Deep Learning using Electroencephalography (EEG) signals.
Prior to his acceptance to the AFIT PhD program, Lt Col Kamrud completed a 14-month TDY to the White House National Security & International Affairs division within the Office of Science & Technology Policy (OSTP). There he performed Executive Officer duties for the 4-star equivalent Associate Director of his division, a Deputy Secretary level position. In addition to his duties as Executive Officer, as Policy Advisor he furthered the White House’s national security policies in science, technology, and innovation with respect to Counter-UAS (C-UAS), Counter-MANPADS, Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems, Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence, Continuity of Operations, and supported policy work in National Security/Emergency Preparedness Communications. With these duties, Lt Col Kamrud co-chaired the National Security Council C-UAS Technology Working Group, and was acting co-chair for the Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence Subcommittee of the cabinet-level National Science & Technology Council.
Lt Col Kamrud entered the Air Force in 2010 by commission through the Reserve Officer Training Corps. His career includes assignments as an F-15 Systems Engineer, with later promotion to F-15 EW Team Lead, in which he effectively led a team of F-15 Systems Engineers in the urgent reprogramming of mission data for the F-15; a student at the Air Force Institute of Technology, in which he maintained a 3.96 GPA while earning his Master of Science Degree in Computer Science, with a focus on AI; and Deputy Program Manager for the Pilot-Vehicle Interface portion of the $286 million dollar “Autonomy for Loyal Wingman” Initiative within AFRL (precursor to the AFRL Vanguard Skyborg program).
Education
Master of Military Operational Art and Science, Air Command and Staff College, Maxwell AFB, Ala. (2023)
Doctor of Philosophy, Computer Science, Air Force Institute of Technology, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio (2021)
Squadron Officer School, Air University, Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala. (2018)
Master of Science, Computer Science, Air Force Institute of Technology, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio (2015)
Bachelor of Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Minnesota Duluth (2010)
Professional Experience
Assistant Professor of Computer Science, Department of Computer and Cyber Science, United States Air Force Academy, Colorado (June 2023 – Present)
IDE, Air Command and Staff College, Maxwell AFB, Ala. (June 2022 – June 2023)
Autonomy & AI Co-Lead, Sensors Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio (January 2022 – June 2022)
Deputy Branch Chief, Systems Engineering Branch, Sensors Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio (September 2021 – June 2022)
PhD Student, Air Force Institute of Technology, Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton, Ohio (August 2018 – September 2021)
Autonomous Systems Program Lead, 711th Human Performance Wing, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio (March 2015 – August 2018)
Policy Advisor, White House Office of Science & Technology Policy, National Security & International Affairs Division, Washington, D.C. (August 2016 – September 2017)
M.S. Student, Air Force Institute of Technology, Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton, Ohio (May 2013 – March 2015)
F-15 Electronic Warfare Team Lead, 36 Electronic Warfare Squadron, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. (July 2010 – May 2013)
Honors & Awards
Military Decorations
Presidential Service Badge
Joint Service Commendation Medal
Air Force Commendation Medal, Two Oak Leaf Clusters
Air and Space Achievement Medal
Awards
Field Grade Officer of the Year – Engineering Division, United States Air Force Academy, Colo. (2024)
Field Grade Officer of the Second Quarter – Engineering Division, United States Air Force Academy, Colo. (2024)
Field Grade Officer of the Year – Engineering Division, United States Air Force Academy, Colo. (2023)
Field Grade Officer of the Third Quarter – Engineering Division, United States Air Force Academy, Colo. (2023)
Field Grade Officer of the First Quarter – Spectrum Warfare Division, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio (2022)
Inducted as President into National Engineering Honor Society Eta Kappa Nu (top 20%) – Air Force Institute of Technology, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio (2019)
Company Grade Officer of the Year – Airman Systems Directorate, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio (2017)
Company Grade Officer of the Year – Warfighter Interface Division, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio (2016)
Company Grade Officer of the Fourth Quarter – Warfighter Interface Division, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio (2015)
Inducted into National Engineering Honor Society Tau Beta Pi (top 20%) – Air Force Institute of Technology, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio (2014)
Commander’s MVP of the Fourth Quarter – 36th Electronic Warfare Squadron, Eglin Air Force BAse, Fla. (2011)
Research and Scholarly Interests
Artificial Intelligence
Applications of Machine Learning
Deep Learning
Electroencephalography
Sustained Attention Tasks and the Vigilance Decrement
Publications
Journal Articles and Refereed Conference Papers
Kamrud, Alexander, Brett Borghetti, and Christine Schubert Kabban. “The effects of individual differences, non-stationarity, and the importance of data partitioning decisions for training and testing of EEG cross-participant models.” Sensors 21.9 (2021): 3225.
Kamrud, Alexander, et al. “Generalized deep learning EEG models for cross-participant and cross-task detection of the vigilance decrement in sustained attention tasks.” Sensors 21.16 (2021): 5617.
Gallaher, Joshua P., Alexander J. Kamrud, and Brett J. Borghetti. “Detection and mitigation of inefficient visual searching.” Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting. Vol. 64. No. 1. Sage CA: Los Angeles, CA: SAGE Publications, 2020.
Villarreal, Micah N., Alexander J. Kamrud, and Brett J. Borghetti. “Confirmation Bias Estimation from Electroencephalography with Machine Learning.” Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting. Vol. 63. No. 1. Sage CA: Los Angeles, CA: SAGE Publications, 2019.
Kamrud, Alexander J., et al. “Unified behavior framework in discrete event simulation systems.” The Journal of Defense Modeling and Simulation 14.4 (2017): 471-481.
Other Publications and Presentations
Kamrud, Alexander J. “Advancing Proper Dataset Partitioning and Classification of Visual Search and the Vigilance Decrement Using EEG Deep Learning Algorithms.” (2021).
Kamrud, Alexander J. “Unified behavior framework for discrete event simulation systems.” (2015).