Gershon Weltman, Ph.D.
Gershon Weltman, Ph.D.
Principal Scientist and Vice President of Perceptronics Solutions
Dr. Weltman is Principal Scientist and Vice President of Perceptronics Solutions, Inc. an R&D company specializing in the application of Artificial Intelligence technology for productive task work, including computer-based systems for support of collaborative planning and decision making, for enhancing human interaction with autonomous unmanned systems, and for maintaining performance in stressful situations (www.percsolutions.com). At Perceptronics Solutions, Dr. Weltman is responsible for R&D studies in the area of human and team performance as well as for the design, development and delivery of innovative and complex training systems; these include the Stress Resilience Training System (SRTS®) a comprehensive mobile app for alleviating the negative effect of stress and using its positive effects productively. Most recently, Dr. Weltman has been managing a project on ethical decision making for lethal autonomous weapons, a topic of major interest to the US Department of Defense. Dr. Weltman is also a Lecturer in the UCLA School of Engineering and Applied Science, where he teaches the course “Engineering. Ethics and Society,” which deals with professional and ethical considerations in the practice of engineering, the interrelationship of technology and society, the development of societal and personal ethical values, and the analytical consideration of ethics and societal factors in engineering projects and decision making.
Prior to helping found Perceptronics Solutions in 2002, Dr. Weltman’s was the long term CEO of Perceptronics, Inc., a high technology R&D and manufacturing company, where he shared executive and technical leadership with Dr. Amos Freedy, President. Together, they directed over $250 million in R&D and production projects for DOD and other defense and commercial agencies and organizations. These included the PGTS family of portable videodisc-based gunnery trainers, which first brought advanced computer-based training capabilities to dispersed units at a reasonable cost, as well as the SIMNET system for combined arms training, which pioneered the use of large-scale virtual reality networked simulation and effectively changed the way the world’s military forces train. Dr. Weltman also directed the successful transition of Perceptronics’ defense related technology into a number of commercial products and services, including software for real-time Internet collaboration, with applications in entertainment, e-commerce, education and business communication.
Dr. Weltman was a six-year member of the U.S. Army Science Board, where he participated in studies focusing on training and simulation, and chaired studies on human behavior in combat and on the small arms production industry. He was also a member of the Defense Science Board Task Force on Training for Future Combat. From 1963 to 1969 Dr. Weltman was a faculty member at the UCLA School of Engineering, and taught courses in machine and environmental biotechnology and in humanities for engineering students. Dr. Weltman has published well over 150 scientific, technical and strategic papers and three books, including the online textbook “Engineering, Ethics and Society,” published by Great River Learning.
