Dilip Patel recently retired from a 15 year career at General Dynamics Robotic Systems and 17 years at BAE Systems. During his career over the past 30+ years, he was involved in the development of teleoperated and autonomous systems, from small, medium, to heavy wheeled and tracked robotic systems. For the past five years, he managed the Robotics Collaborative Technology Alliance (RCTA) which consisted of the leading robotics academic institutions, government labs, and industry teams. He was instrumental in establishing the dexterous manipulation and unique mobility research strategy, one of the most difficult aspects of robotics.  He challenged his team to solve extremely difficult problems associated with embodied intelligence, integrating advanced perception, intelligent planning, and human-robot-world interaction on human scale robots. One of the key accomplishments of the RCTA program is the transfer of RCTA’s researchers from the academic environment to major robotics programs and driverless car industry, as the appetite for smart roboticists continues. He gravitates toward high risk, high payoff technology development challenges, leveraging his extensive system engineering and program management experience, especially in teleoperated and autonomous robotic systems. He is also an adjunct faculty at Loyola University Maryland and teaches courses in Strategic Planning and Analysis, Global Strategy, and International Management.