Dr. Laura Freeman
Director, Intelligent Systems Division – National Security Institute and Research Associate Professor, Statistics Department
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Dr. Laura Freeman is the Assistant Dean for Research in in College of Science, a Research Professor of Statistics, and serves as the Deputy Director of the Virginia Tech National Security Institute. Her research leverages experimental methods in the domains of cyber-physical systems, data science, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning to address critical challenges in national security. Previous to this, Dr. Freeman served as the Assistant Director of the Operational Evaluation Division at the Institute for Defense Analyses. She also served as a Senior Technical Advisor to the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E) on matters related to the test and evaluation of all acquisition programs in the Department of Defense. Dr. Freeman’s research areas include: Experimental Design considerations in Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity Analytics. Reliability Analysis and Statistical Engineering. Laura Freeman also serves as a SERC Research Council member providing guidance, with a particular focus in Trusted Systems.
A true Hokie, Dr. Freeman received her Ph.D. and Masters in Statistics from Virginia Tech, with her doctoral thesis on: “Statistical Methods for Reliability Data from Designed Experiments.” She also earned her Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering with a minor in Mathematics from Virginia Tech.