Donna Kocak

Donna Kocak has 35 years of experience in the ocean engineering field supporting scientific and engineering projects involving computer vision, optics, robotics, and communications systems. She has been employed at L3Harris Technologies for nearly 16 years and is a technical Fellow and Strategy Lead in the Space and Airborne Systems Innovation Office. Donna is Past President and Fellow of the Marine Technology Society (MTS), and a Senior member and past Distinguished Lecturer of IEEE Ocean Engineering Society (OES). Her research and development activities have been diverse, resulting in 6 US patents and over 85 publications including two book chapters. Most noteworthy was the invention of a controllable buoyancy, small diameter, underwater fiber optic cable for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) that transitioned into an ongoing US Navy procurement, which was conceived and advanced jointly with the College of Optics and Photonics at the University of Central Florida (UCF).

Donna earned master’s degrees in Computer Science (1997) and Engineering Management (2011) from UCF, an MBA (2008) from the University of Florida, and a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science (1989) from UCF. In addition, she founded her own firm, Green Sky Imaging LLC, specializing in software and processing services for undersea laser and video mensuration. In 2018, she proudly received the Harris “Building a Legacy Award” for demonstrating pride and accountability in developing the next generation of talent; and in 2019 she received the “MTS Outstanding Service Award” for serving in various leadership roles in MTS since joining in 1998.