Stephen E . Cross Stephen Edward Cross is executive vice president for research ( EVPR ) at the Georgia Institute of Technology ( Georgia Tech ) , a position to which he was appointed in 2010 . As EVPR , Cross coordinates research efforts among Georgia Tech ' s colleges , research units and faculty ; and provides central administration for all research , economic development and related support units at Georgia Tech . This includes direct oversight of Georgia Tech ' s interdisciplinary research institutes , the Georgia Tech Research Institute ( GTRI ) , the Enterprise Innovation Institute ( EI ) and the Georgia Tech Research Corporation ( GTRC ) . Prior to this position , he served as director of the Georgia Tech Research Institute from 2003 until 2010 , director and chief executive officer of Carnegie Mellon ' s Software Engineering Institute from 1994 to 2003 , and an officer in the United States Air Force from 1974 to 1994 . He is an IEEE Fellow , a former editor - in - chief of " IEEE Intelligent Systems " and former associate editor of the " Journal of Information , Knowledge , and Systems Management " . He is a recipient of the Defense Superior Service Medal . Cross has published more than 60 research papers in computing , and has provided expert testimony to the United States Congress . Education and Air Force . Cross attended Madison High School in Madison , Ohio , from 1965 to 1969 . Cross earned a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati in 1974 and subsequently joined the United States Air Force . While in the Air Force , he received a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology in 1977 and a Ph . D . from the University of Illinois at Urbana – Champaign in 1983 . Cross also graduated from United States Air Force Test Pilot School ' s Flight Test Engineer Program , the Air War College , and the National Defense University . While in the Air Force , Cross wrote embedded software for F - 15s and F - 16s . His experience also touched on software for cruise missile navigation , logistics , and air traffic control . Cross was a program manager for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency ( DARPA ) from 1989 to 1994 ; he was also a member and chairman of DARPA ' s Information Science & Technology panel . He retired from the Air Force in 1994 . Academic career . In 1994 , Cross joined the faculty of Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania , becoming a principal research scientist in its Robotics Institute and Institute for Software Research . In 1996 , he became director and CEO of Carnegie Mellon ' s Software Engineering Institute . While at Carnegie Mellon , Cross promoted more reliable software development practices such as code reuse . In late 2003 , Cross was chosen to serve as director of the Georgia Tech Research Institute , an applied research arm of the Georgia Institute of Technology . He is also a professor in Georgia Tech ' s School of Industrial and Systems Engineering and an adjunct professor in the College of Computing and the Scheller College of Business . Cross was appointed Georgia Tech ' s executive vice president of research in 2010 , assuming the position on May 1 , 2010 . In June 2012 , Cross and David S . Stephens ( vice president for research of the Robert W . Woodruff Health Sciences Center ) published an op - ed in the " Atlanta Journal - Constitution " supporting biomedical research . Memberships and awards . In 2010 , Secretary of Defense Robert M . Gates named Cross to a three - year term on the Defense Science Board . Cross previously served on the Defense Science Board ' s Task Force on Defense Software . While at Georgia Tech , Cross has joined several research advisory boards , including the Health Systems Institute , the Parker H . Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience , the Strategic Energy Initiative and the Tennenbaum Institute . Cross is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers ( IEEE ) ; he was named an IEEE Fellow in 2003 " for the development and use of modern software engineering techniques in advanced systems " . He was editor - in - chief of " IEEE Intelligent Systems " from 1994 to 1997 , and associate editor of the " Journal of Information , Knowledge , and Systems Management " from 2003 to 2011 . In 1991 , Cross was awarded the Defense Superior Service Medal ; in 2002 , he was named a University of Cincinnati College of Engineering Distinguished Alumnus ; and in 2010 , " Irish America " magazine named him a Star of the South .