Regina E. Dugan is an American businesswoman, inventor, and technology developer. She served as the 19th Director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). In March 2012, she left government to take an executive role at Google. Just prior to the acquisition, it was announced that she would create, and lead, the Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) group at Google-owned Motorola Mobility. In January 2014, Google announced the acquisition of Motorola Mobility by Lenovo but retained Dugan and her Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) team.[3] In 2016 she left Google and joined Facebook. She will lead a newly formed team called Building 8.[4]
Contents [hide]
1 Education
2 Career
2.1 Google
2.2 Motorola
2.3 DARPA
3 Boards
4 Honors
5 Innovation
6 Other work
7 Potential conflict of interest
8 References
9 External links
Education[edit]
Dugan obtained her Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in mechanical engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) in Blacksburg, Virginia. In May 2013, she was inducted in to the Virginia Tech College of Engineering’s Academy of Engineering Excellence.[5]
Dugan was awarded a PhD by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech); her thesis was titled, “Axisymmetric buoyant jets in a cross flow with shear transition and mixing.” [1]
California State University, Fullerton presented Dugan with an honorary degree in 2011.
Career[edit]
Google[edit]
Dugan’s advanced technology group was not a part of the Lenovo acquisition of Motorola Mobility.[6] In February 2014, Dugan rejoined Google as Vice President of Engineering, Advanced Technology and Projects. ATAP developed Project Tango and Project Ara.
Motorola[edit]
Shortly after the Google acquisition of Motorola Mobility closed, Dugan was tasked with creating the Advanced Technology and Projects group, a skunkworks-inspired team chartered to deliver breakthrough innovations for the company. In an interview with the New York Times, Dugan described ATAP as "a small, lean, and agile group that is unafraid of failure," she said, and that it will "celebrate impatience."[7]
While a part of Motorola, ATAP developed and shipped several products including the Motorola Skip—part of an authentication portfolio that is also exploring digital tattoos and pills[8]—and the augmented reality shorts, Spotlight Stories, which were featured at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. It was there that ATAP announced the development of Project Ara, a free, open hardware platform for creating highly modular smartphones.
Additionally, in an effort to streamline research projects, foster greater collaboration with the university research community, Dugan and her deputy, Dr. Kaigham (Ken) Gabriel, negotiated the Multi-University Research Agreement with, initially, eight leading public and private universities.[9][10]
