Charles E. Vela
President and Chief Scientist

Charles E. Vela is a research and development engineer with over twenty five years of experience leading and managing applications of advanced technologies to large scale and complex systems. For the past twenty years he has supported the federal government in the acquisition, design, development and deployment of large-scale complex, mission critical, telecommunications systems; information, processing and computing systems; and e-Government infrastructures.

As Chief Scientist of Expertech Solutions, Vela leads its R&D program. His areas of expertise include: Enterprise Architecture; Systems Engineering and Integration; Performance Engineering; Mission Assurance and Privacy; IV&V; and Technology Assessment.

Vela has advised IRS executives and managers through the full Enterprise Life Cycle of four of the most critical transformation and modernization projects, including the maintenance and population of the IRS Enterprise Architecture. Also, he has performed IV&V and served as a systems engineer supporting the business case, requirements analysis, logical design, physical design, mission assurance and privacy, performance engineering, release management, and transition to the IRS of four modernization projects: Customer Communications 2001 (CC01); e-Services; Modernized e-File (MeF); and Internet Refund Fact of Filing/Advance Child Tax Credit (IRFOF).

Moreover, Vela oversees Expertech’s contract with the Air Force performing IV&V the Quality Assurance of the Test Program Sets (TPS) for the strategic Airborne Warning and Control Systems AWACS (E3)--the most sophisticated US command and control aircraft; Electronic Reconnaissance Aircrafts RC135, Cargo Transport Aircraft C5; Ground Attack Aircraft A10; Tactical Fighter F15, and Joint Surveillance and Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS) weapons systems.

Recently, he oversaw the development of the privacy strategy and infrastructure for a Fortune 500 IT company. Previously, Vela led the design, development, and implementation a Security Portal prototype for EPA. The portal, a service oriented implementation, provided multiple classes of security services to EPA executives and mangers, security personnel, training personnel, and general EPA staff. Additionally, Vela developed a security posture white paper focusing in the integration of policies, practices and resources.

Previously, Vela served as Senior Science Advisor (Chief Scientist) at the Illinois Institute of Technology Research Institute IRS FFRDC. In this capacity he served in the technical evaluation panel for the selection of the IRS Business Systems Modernization PRIME contractor. He was a leading member of a team tasked by the IRS Commissioner to IV&V the IRS Customer Service. Vela advised the IRS in the re-design of its telecommunication system and the implementation of an ATM infrastructure; the implementation of an intelligent call router system deployed as phase I of the IRS modernization blue print; and the deployment of an enterprise-wide workforce management system, among other projects.

Previously, at the MITRE Corporation, Vela designed and managed the Decision Support Facility Laboratory (DSF Lab), a state of the art, high performance parallel-computing laboratory where he directed R&D in the economic analysis and optimization of the federal telecommunications systems (FTS2000, FTS2001 and DISA). He led MITRE's Telecommunications Support System (TSS) Group, tasked to integrate MITRE's telecommunications resources. Vela played key roles in the design, acquisition, transition management, billing verification and cost containment of FT2000. He was part of the FTS2000 Year Four (1992) and Year Seven (1995) Price Redetermination/Service Reallocation Cost Evaluation Panels. These effort saved the Federal government over 500 million dollars in telecommunications costs. He also played a key role in the FTS2001 RFP development and led the design and development of a complex price evaluation and service vendor allocation system.

Earlier, as Assistant Study Director at the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, Vela led research in the utilization of enabling technologies in the mapping of the brain for scientific research and clinical applications.

Early in his career, Vela conducted R&D in robotics control for metallurgical process; automatic process controls for water production plants; mathematical and algorithmic optimization for storage, production, transmission and distribution of water systems; and mathematical optimization in hydro-thermal power coordination.

Vela is a former Professor of, and Research Fellow in Electrical Engineering at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. He holds advanced degrees in Electrical Engineering from the California State University and in Operations Research from the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

Vela is also President and CEO of the Center for the Advancement of Hispanics in Science and Engineering Education (CAHSEE). For the last fifteen years, and with over a decade of support from NASA, he has pioneered a nationwide comprehensive system of model programs that supports the academic success of Hispanic American and African American students in science and engineering.

Vela has received twenty-seven awards for his technical innovations, and his contributions in science and engineering education, including U.S. Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring, Science Spectrum Trailblazer Award for his contribution to science and technical policy, U.S. Vice-Presidential Re-Inventing Government (Hammer) Award for his contributions to the transformation and modernization of government processes and technical infrastructure, and The Junipero Serra Award for his contribution in science and engineering education of under-represented groups.

Vela has served on thirty-three boards, commissions, committees and studies, including: the Presidential and Congressional Commission on Woman and Minorities in Science; the National Research Council Knowledge Assessment Committee; the National Science Foundation's Model Institutions of Excellence; and the National Academy of Sciences’ Committee to Evaluate the National Institutes of Health Minority Programs.