Alpha Theta Academy

Many Alpha Thetas go on to do interesting things in their careers and lives. We are fortunate to have four alumni present some of their experiences.

Craig German '87

Deepfakes, AI, and the Future of Artistry in Hollywood

Craig German has spent most of his career in the entertainment industry, and for the past 20 years has held executive positions in post-production and at Hollywood film and television studios, most recently leading the Worldwide Post Production organization at Amazon Studios. He left Amazon six months ago to become CEO of Crafty Apes, a visual effects company that works on Hollywood's biggest blockbuster movies and premier TV shows. AI and deepfake technology are seen as a threat by some and a savior by others in visual effects. Craig will talk about where the artist fits in to this new reality.

Dan Craig '03

The Earth Orbit Economy

Dan Craig thought he had missed the golden age of spaceflight when he graduated Aero/Astro in 2003, but the past twenty years have seen a permanent human presence in space and a blossoming of the commercial space industry. Dan has contributed to this renaissance, first as a software engineer at SpaceX in 2014, back when landing rockets was still science fiction, and now at Varda Space Industries, a startup aiming to build the world's first on-orbit industrial park. Dan will give us a tour of the various parts of the Earth orbit economy and what we can look forward to in the future.

Jon Demerly '92

Autonomous Driving: What Makes It So Hard

Jon is a "car guy" at heart. He loves driving and has been a performance driving instructor for the past couple decades. A mechanical engineer by degrees, his 30+ year career in the automotive industry has taken him on a path that now finds him leading a software development team as Senior Director, Technology for Automated Driving at Qualcomm. When not working he loves sports and spending time with his five kids, which often involves a lot of driving, bringing us back to the topic of his talk.

Bruce Kirch ‘79

Hold my Coffee… The Road from the 2015 Sig Camping Trip to the 2022 World Triathlon Championship Finals

The annual Sig Camping Trip (held annually since the 1980s era) and the Maine State Sprint Triathlon happened to land on the same August weekend in Bethel, ME, inspiring Bruce to rise early, and attempt his first race since the 1980s. Capping seven gratifying years of training, racing and chasing new challenges, he recently competed in the world’s preeminent age group triathlon, in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Bruce will offer insights on his road to the world championships and what it was like to compete internationally on Team USA, mixed with some thoughts on why we engineers might be predisposed to this sort of endeavor.