IEEE - Aerospace and Electronic Systems - September 2023 - 57

Coraluppi
grand time in every way imaginable. Our third child,
Katherine, was born there.
Before I accepted the posting, the Aussies sent
along a rank-ordered list of about ten topics they might
ask me to work on while I was there. The last item was
tracking. I read all such lists in reverse order, an old
habit which is ofttimes very revealing. So it was this
time. Before I went to Australia, to be frank, whenever
I was in a meeting and the subject of tracking came up,
I did my best to leave as quietly as possible. Tracking
was not on my list of interesting topics. Three weeks
after I arrived in Adelaide, however, I realized that by
swapping a space variable for a time variable, the
HMMs I had begun to study back in the states were
models for tracking.
Australia was a watershed. After concluding my
posting to DSTO (Defence Science and Technology
Organisation) in Australia, we stayed on for four more
months in Adelaide. Our house in Connecticut was still
rented, so why return early when we could live in this
idyll in Australia? I had saved a lot of my vacation
time, so I used it. Free and clear-no obligations to
" The Man " for four whole months! Adelaide University
offered me an office (which I declined) and access
to the library and faculty club. I spent my time studying
artificial neural networks (NNs) on my own and
totally self-supported. It was liberating. I moved fast
and in those few months developed what I later turned
into three NN patents, all assigned by me (not the
Navy). It was 1989, and the AI winter was coming but
no one knew that at the time. These NN ideas came
back in a totally unexpected new guise five years later
[the probabilistic multihypothesis tracker (PMHT)].
Stefano: Before continuing the technical discussion, I
would like to ask you to talk to us about your lovely wife
Nancy, who many of us know from her frequent participation
at the FUSION conferences and other events, as well
as your children Adam, Katherine, and Andrew, and their
families.
Roy: Ah, the joy and delight of my life. We had one
and only one opportunity to meet and that singular
moment was in January 1976, in JFK Airport about 3
P.M. Talk about luck. We have been together ever
since. We are very different people united by deeply
shared values of every kind-personal, family, social,
professional, religious, and political. Nancy started
coming to FUSION conferences because of the wonderful
venues. After I retired from NUWC and was
finally able to participate actively in ISIF (International
Society of Information Fusion). Her attendance became
regular and is now expected. We bring our children
when we can, especially Andrew who still lives with
us. It has become a family affair. Our other children
SEPTEMBER 2023
attend when they can, and our grandchildren
(Anna and Clara) will soon be attending their first in
Charleston, SC. Good conferences can be family
affairs. The stronger the bonds, the more productive
the conference.
Stefano: In 2005, you made a significant career move
by leaving NUWC, where at this point you had reached
the level of Senior Executive Service and joined Metron.
Please tell us about this time in your life and what
motivated this transition. Looking back on those days,
do you think this was the right career move for you?
Take this opportunity to talk more broadly about career
choices and what advice you might have for our listeners
and readers.
Roy: LeavingNUWC andmovingtoMetron was absolutely
the right move. I was at NUWC for 35 years, but
it was not as if I had the same job all that time. In fact,
I had at least five very different jobs, and unlike nearly
everyone who works there, I switched departments at
least four times, not counting my two long-term assignments
(Stanford for a year and DSTO in Australia for
almost two years). With each switch, I gained experience
and learned new things. I learned to avoid working
in groups whose supervisor functioned as an administrator
and not a Leader. When I had to choose between
two technical jobs, one that I deemed safe and within
my skill set and another one just outside what I knew, I
learned to make the riskier choice. Not once did I ever
look back with regret.
I stayed in my final position at NUWC for about five
years. I was at the top of my technical career ladder, and
further promotions were not possible. My position was on
the technical side of the SES, which few are aware of, and
it came with little intrinsic authority. I could have stayed
in it for many years, and part ofme wanted to do just that.
It was demanding in several ways. I had to deal with internal
politics, which is hugely important, and I hated it. I
had skillfully managed to avoid it before then. Upper-level
management often does not like change. (John Milton
wrote of one tragic figure who declared, " Better to rule in
hell than serve in heav'n. " ) I also had to engage with a
larger Navy community external to NUWC via a program
called Advanced Processing Build (APB). The best of
APB reminded me of my treasured earlier years in the
Towed Array Group.
I discovered that Milton's tragic figure lives also
on the technical side. Gaining acceptance of new ideas
in established programs to try to meet the larger needs
of the APB program was a challenge. Getting technical
groups to cooperate that have never previously worked
together, and passionately do not want to do so, was
another. In large spiral programs like APB, competing
institutional interests add a special spice to the
IEEE A&E SYSTEMS MAGAZINE
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IEEE - Aerospace and Electronic Systems - September 2023

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