About

Summary Bio Mitchell Sipus is an internationally recognized expert on Technology driven Economic Development and Post-War Reconstruction.  His methods have been utilized and scaled by organizations such as USAID, the United Nations, the US National Security Council. As an entrepreneur and consultant, Mitchell has worked extensively on the ground in the worlds poorest and most dangerous nations, building companies to pioneer new technology applications for economic development and the stabilization of civil conflict.  As a 2016 White House Presidential Innovation Fellow, Mitchell was tasked with transforming entrenched government problems and getting results in weeks or months.  In this position, Mitchell supported the US National Security Council, Veterans Affairs, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the US Department of State. Select Initiatives 2016 Presidential Innovation Fellow, The White House.  With Ben Willman, guided the EPA's digital transformation of the Office of Pesticide Programs. Work resulted in widespread process transformation of government contractors, contract design, and  2015: Spatial planning concepts on the public integration of autonomous vehicles appropriated by NASA for 2035 Strategic Planning  2011-2014 Pioneered the first data-driven stabilization initiative in continental Africa. Oversaw all fieldwork, built teams, and generated proof of concept in Mogadishu, Somalia - establishing foundation for continued management by UN Habitat.  Advised USAID and White House Office of Science and Technology in 2016 on replication of methods for public health services in West Africa. 2009 Co-Founded Gang Violence Reduction initiative in Cairo, Egypt.  Organization serviced 254 high-risk youth in violent gangs, and over the course of 3 years, dissolved gangs into sports, music, and education initaitives. 2007 Mitchell created the very first spatial mapping and data collection process for the Dadaab Refugee Camps, the world's largest refugee complex.  This work has since continued for 11 years through UN technical support divisions. Entrepreneurial History - International Consulting and Artificial Intelligence From 2007 to 2014, Mitchell built the consulting firm SSR+D, wherein he provided independent advising and consulting services to to multiple governments including Afghanistan, Norway, Finland, USA, various INGOs (UNHCR, World Bank), NGOs, global technology corporations, universities, venture capital firms, and startups.  Applying the insights of deep fieldwork to technology design, Mitchell's consulting work continued with Carnegie Mellon University in 2014 within the Robotics Institute and the Human Computer Interaction Institute. As a CMU researcher, Mitchell provided research, technology design, and business consulting to global robotics firm Sepro Robotique. Concurrently,  Concurrently, from 2014 to 2016 Mitchell founded the data sciences software company, Symkala. Symkala provided companies the ability to transform their archives of reports into strategic business insights. The software applied concepts from cognitive psychology to workflow and interface design, so that non-technical subject matter experts could utilize advanced machine learning techniques.   Following a 2-year senior executive position with the White House, Mitchell returned to the private sector to lead the formation of a new Research and Development for applied Artificial Intelligence and data science.  Public Speaking Mitchell is a regular speaker at venues such as Columbia University, Harvard University, MIT MediaLab, and Oxford University.  Media Featured in publications such as WIRED, Forbes, Popular Science, ArchDaily, Gizmodo, and publications and reports by the Urban Land Institute, American Planning Association.   Scholarship and Teaching Mitchell has taught graduate and undergraduate students at Carnegie Mellon University, School of Design and Human Computer Interaction Institute; John's Hopkins Carey Business School and Maryland Institute College of Art Joint MBA/MA in Design Leadership; and the American University of Afghanistan, Department of Computer Science & Department of Political Science.  In 2015, Mitchell provided quarterly lectures at National Defense University, Washington DC on Human Factors in Cyber Security and Lean methods in organizational leadership. He has additionally published in Forced Migration Review by Oxford University. Mitchell additionally provides peer review services to the academic journal She-Ji: Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation by Tong Ji University, Shanghai. Mitchell has graduate degrees in architecture and city planning from University of Cincinnati, migration law from American University of Cairo, Egypt, and is PhD ABD at Carnegie Mellon University.  His doctoral dissertation utilizes controlled trials to analyze the impact of design on social ethics within AI companies.