Rob Robless

Dr. Rob Robless is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science. He earned his D.Sc./Ph.D. from George Washington University, School of Engineering and Applied Science. He is recently retired after a nearly 40 year career in technology leadership positions in major corporations and technology consulting firms. During his career, he held executive positions in Software Engineering and Enterprise Architecture at global companies such as Globant, United Airlines, GMAC Financial Services, and Lockheed Martin. A few years ago, he helped build a local custom software development company, Small Footprint Inc., which was eventually acquired by Globant. In each of these positions, he built and led highly successful and motivated software engineering teams that leveraged in-house and outsourced talent to build innovative enterprise software products delivered on cloud, mobile, and web platforms. Dr. Robless was once named one of InfoWorld’s Most Influential CTOs for his work in standardizing information sharing in the travel industry and identity management.

Based on this career, Dr. Robless’ research interests are in identifying effective software engineering skills and practices that overcome current socioeconomic challenges. With the growing acceptance and ease of doing business nearshore with remote software development teams, and with the rise of AI-based code generation, domestic Software Engineers will need to evolve different skill sets to remain relevant in the industry. His research and teaching focuses on identifying practical skills, tools, and practices to adopt so that local talent can help propel software product development. 

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Teaching

Classes taught:

• CSC 371 and 671 – Artificial Intelligence
• CSC 331 and 631 – Software Engineering
• CSC 101 – Overview of Computer Science

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Research

Evolution of domestic Software Engineering skills