Dr. Colin Parris is currently the Vice President, Software Research at the GE Global Research Center in Niskayuna, NY and is an Officer of the General Electric Company. In his present role, Dr. Parris oversees the development and application of industrial analytics, artificial intelligence, machine learning and software systems research broadly across the General Electric Company. This portfolio includes GE’s industry leading Digital Twin Initiative, which he created and leads for the company. Along with his present role, Dr. Parris also is a member of the Board of Directors of APTIV. Dr. Parris joined GE in 2014. Previously, he worked at IBM from 1994 to 2014 – 16 years as an IBM executive in roles that spanned research, software development, technology management, and P&L management. He was Vice President, System Research at the IBM T J Watson Research Division; Vice President, Software Development, of IBM’s largest system software development lab (6,000+ developers worldwide); Vice President of Corporate Technology; and the Vice President and General Manager of the IBM Power Systems where he was responsible for IBM’s $5 B+ P&L Unix System and Software business). Colin received a Ph.D. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley, a Master’s in Management from Stanford University (as a Sloan Fellow), and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering at Howard University (B.S.E.E.).