John Sheppard received his BS degree from Southern Methodist University in 1983, and his MS and PhD degrees in computer science from Johns Hopkins University in 1990 and 1997, respectively. He is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. He is a Norm Asbjornson College of Engineering Distinguished Professor of Computer Science in the Gianforte School of Computing of Montana State University. His research interests include extending and applying algorithms in deep learning, probabilistic graphical models, and evolutionary optimization to a variety of application areas, including electronic prognostics and health management, precision agriculture, and medical diagnostics.