William Harrod

Biography
Dr. William Harrod is a program manager at the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA). He focuses on areas of scientific research that include strategic computing, trusted microelectronics, nanoscale image reconstruction, and data analytics algorithms. He manages IARPA’s AGILE program, which aims to revolutionize computer architectures for our nation's strategically essential data challenges. The architectures to be developed under the AGILE program are driven by data-intensive graph analytics and artificial intelligence algorithms. He also manages the SuperCables program, which developed egress solutions for cryogenic computers and other electronics to help meet the Intelligence Community’s need for energy-efficient, compact electronics, and sensitive detection systems. In addition, Dr. Harrod manages the RAVEN program, which developed prototype analysis tools for creating images from X-ray tomographic scans of integrated circuits.
Prior to joining IARPA, Dr. Harrod served as the Director of the Research Division in the Department of Energy, Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) Office. Previously, Dr. Harrod was a program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) where he led a series of groundbreaking exascale computing studies that involved leading experts in industry and academia in investigating architectures, system software, resiliency, and applications. These pioneering studies guided a detailed projection of the technical challenges needed to advance supercomputing to the exascale level and the Ubiquitous High Performance Computing (UHPC) program. The research community has recognized the UHPC program as the seed to an HPC revolution towards a 1,000-fold increase in capabilities over the petascale high-performance computers of that time.
Prior to joining IARPA, Dr. Harrod served as the Director of the Research Division in the Department of Energy, Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) Office. Previously, Dr. Harrod was a program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) where he led a series of groundbreaking exascale computing studies that involved leading experts in industry and academia in investigating architectures, system software, resiliency, and applications. These pioneering studies guided a detailed projection of the technical challenges needed to advance supercomputing to the exascale level and the Ubiquitous High Performance Computing (UHPC) program. The research community has recognized the UHPC program as the seed to an HPC revolution towards a 1,000-fold increase in capabilities over the petascale high-performance computers of that time.
Presentations