Presenter

Emily Howard is a Boeing Principal Senior Technical Fellow in Human Engineering with over 37 years of experience, specializing in human information processing, perception and cognition. Her current focus is applying human-centered design to complex systems, insuring safe and effective interaction among hardware, software, people, tools and processes. She has worked on numerous Boeing products including fighters, bombers, tankers, commercial transports, training systems, handheld radios, and various workstations for autonomous systems, command and control, air and missile defense, and space operations. Before her current position, Dr. Howard was the User Experience Architect for Digital Aviation within Commercial Aviation Services, and earlier served as the Chief Engineer for Phantom Works’ Advanced Electronic & Information Solutions, supporting the development of precision navigation, communications and battle management products.
Other key roles included capture lead and program manager for Boeing’s Command Post of the Future technology development program, and architect for the Warfighter Machine Interface Services segment of Future Combat Systems. She served as capture and project lead for the X-31 Agile Warrior helmet-mounted display flight tests, which included the first demonstration of live aircraft telemetry integrated into a distributed interactive simulation network, connected coast-to-coast. She also designed a series of artificially intelligent, decision-support applications for battle management, unmanned aircraft, and other networked systems.
Dr. Howard also previously served as Chair of the Boeing Technical Fellowship and was responsible for identifying and developing opportunities to grow and strengthen the top 5% of Boeing’s technical leaders. In 2014, Dr. Howard received the Prism Award from the Society of Women Engineers for her outstanding technical, professional, and community service leadership. In 2021, she received Boeing’s James Farricker Spirit of Engineering Excellence award, recognizing her for outstanding competence, courage, goodwill, teamwork and service. To date, she holds three patents, one technical replication award, and one meritorious invention award. Dr. Howard earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Franklin & Marshall University, and a master’s and PhD in cognitive psychology, both from the University of California, Los Angeles.