Dr Lorraine Dodd

Areas of expertise

• Defence Info Systems

Background

Lorraine has an Honours degree in Pure Mathematics from Warwick University and MSc in Operational Research & Management Science from University of Warwick Business School. She has collaborated on US/UK work programmes for the past twenty years with colleagues from Los Alamos Labs, US Marine Corps, Virginia Tech, Idea Sciences, Pentagon, Evidence-Based Research, Mitre Corporation and RAND Corporation. She has experience in human and machine learning, pattern recognition and adaptive Command and Control (C2) organisations. She has also applied her skills in the commercial aerospace industry, in the development of military ordnance systems, lecturing in Operational Research at Royal Military College of Science and studying the use of information by decision-makers under stress and uncertainty. She has studied all aspects of decision-support, Information Requirements and Intelligence Systems applied to Command Assessments and has been technically responsible for UK Operational Analysis into design for UK Forces and NATO future HQ systems. She has studied in depth many aspects (and from many perspectives) of adversarial and collaborative cognitive activity, using analogy with complex cellular functions to develop mathematical models of human behaviour and influence activity. She has experience of setting-up and running a leading-edge research and development company; building sophisticated anomaly-spotting software, with much experience in applying for patents, dealing with IPR issues and technology transfer. Lorraine has published extensively in journals and books.

Current activities

Lorraine directs research and lectures in Systems Thinking for Complex Operations in the Decision Support Group, Centre for Information Systems, Department of Informatics and Systems Engineering, Cranfield University at the UK Defence Academy. She is a highly respected international contributor to military Command, Control, Intelligence and Information analysis and research. Her main interests are sense-making, decision-making and the study of information, organizations, society, people and governance under conditions of complexity. Her most recent studies include an application of a multi-perspective approach to Complex Planning problems in Afghanistan and development of decision assessment agents for military training and synthetic environments. She recently co-developed an “open-eyes/open-mind” framework to provide support to strategic leaders when dealing with financial crises and ‘black swan’ events; most recently applied with Swedish CRISMART Strategy unit. She has strong links and collaborations with specialists across UK Government and Defence, also in Australia via DSTO and academics worldwide working in complex adaptive decision systems, organisational agility and information systems resilience studies. Principle current activities:

• Technical Lead for IEDD and C-IED Complex Adaptive Systems research studies
• Discovery of links between human brain and non-linear decision-making
• Decision agent specifications for Stabilisation Operations simulations
• Definition, through major UK programmes, of Information Systems requirements
• Development of a novel approach to complex decision support
• Identification of future requirements for HQ structural design
• Identification of strategic options (e,g, sub-Saharan HIV/AIDS)
• Development of measures of effectiveness for decision systems assessment
• Design of experimental programme for US DOD Agile Organisations
• Lead Systems Thinking education at UK Defence Academy
• Leading open planning & understanding workshops with NATO HQ staffs
• Strategic Analysis address to Higher Command Staff Course
• Develop training materials to support new Military HQ Understanding Function

Clients

• DSTL
• BAE Systems
• UK Ministry of Defence
• US Dept of Defence
• Stabilisation Unit
• NATO ARRC HQ
• BIOSS Foundation
• Bank of England

Publications

• Articles in journals
• Conference papers
• Books