Bio
Master Sergeant Thomas Hastings is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer and Cyber Science at the United States Air Force Academy.
Sergeant Hastings enlisted in the Air Force Reserve in 2008. He holds a PhD in Engineering from the University of Colorado Colorado Springs. He has served in various assignments across different space missions, including flight chief of engineering and satellite vehicle and systems operator at the 6th Space Operations Squadron, initial cadre of the 379th Space Range Squadron, and as an additional duty first sergeant and flight chief with the 7th Space Operations Squadron. Additionally, Sergeant Hastings has worked in industry for major contracting companies and start-ups as a software engineer, solutions architect, and director.
Education
Space 100, Vandenberg AFB, California (2008)
Airman Leadership School, Maxwell AFB, Alabama (2012)
Non-Commissioned Officer Leadership Development Course, Peterson AFB, Colorado (2012)
Associate of Science, Space Operations Technology, Community College of the Air Force, Maxwell AFB, Alabama (2012)
Bachelor of Science, Information Systems Management, Colorado Christian University, Denver, Colorado (2013)
Space Control Tactics Course, Advanced Space Operations School, Peterson AFB, Colorado (2014)
Space 200, National Security Space Institute, Peterson AFB, Colorado (2014)
Noncommissioned Officer Academy, Maxwell AFB, Alabama (2016)
Master of Engineering, Software Engineering, University of Colorado Colorado Springs (2018)
Doctor of Philosophy, Engineering, University of Colorado Colorado Springs (2024)
Professional Experience
Military Experience
Trainee, Basic Military Training, Lackland AFB, Texas (June 2008-August 2008)
Space 100 Student, Vandenberg AFB, California (August 2008-September 2008)
Staff Instructor, 6th Space Operations Squadron, Schriever AFB, Colorado (September 2008-February 2013)
Range Operator, 379th Space Range Squadron, Schriever AFB, Colorado (February 2013-March 2016)
Satellite Systems Operator, 7th Space Operations Squadron AFB, Colorado (March 2016-November 2017)
Flight Chief, 6th Space Operations Squadron, Schriever AFB, Colorado (November 2017-December 2019)
Curriculum Developer, Commandant of Cadets, United States Air Force Academy, Colorado (December 2019-February 2024)
Assistant Professor, Department of Computer and Cyber Sciences, United States Air Force Academy, Colorado (February 2024-Present)
Industry Experience
Staff Technologist, Booz Allen Hamilton (August 2014-February 2015)
Software Engineer, Millennium Engineering and Integration (February 2015-January 2017)
Senior Software Engineer, Polaris Alpha (January 2017-August 2018)
Lead Member of Technical Staff, MITRE Corp (August 2018-February 2021)
Manager Software Engineering, Rise8 (February 2021-May 2021)
Site Reliability & Cloud Platform Engineer, Parsons Corp (June 2021-September 2022)
Senior Cloud Developer, Amazon Web Services (September 2022-May 2024)
Director of Infrastructure, Onebrief (May 2024-Present)
Honors & Awards
Meritorious Service Medal Air Force
Commendation Medal with one oak leaf cluster
Air Force Achievement Medal with one oak leaf cluster
Research and Scholarly Interests
Secure Software Engineering
Cloud Development Environments for Education
Learning Strategies Strategies of Effective Teaching for Computer Science
Publications
Thomas Hastings and Kristen R. Walcott, “Continuous Verification of Open Source Components in a World of Weak Links,” 2022 IEEE International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering Workshops (ISSREW), Charlotte, NC, USA, 2022, pp. 201-207, doi: 10.1109/ISSREW55968.2022.00068. October 2021.
Thomas Hastings and Kristen R. Walcott. “User Interaction Metrics for Hybrid Mobile Applications.” In the Proceedings of the 16th Int’l Conference on Software Engineering & Research and Practice (SERP ‘18). July 2018.