CDCA 2025 Eastern Defense

Luke Overbey

Senior Scientific Technical Manager (SSTM) for Autonomous C4ISR


Dr. Luke Overbey is the Senior Scientific Technical Manager (SSTM) for Autonomous C4ISR at the Naval Information Warfare Center (NIWC) Atlantic. The Autonomous C4ISR SSTM is the senior technical leader and subject matter expert for leading-edge research, engineering, integration, and test and evaluation aimed at revolutionizing C4ISR capabilities through increased autonomy and employment of unmanned systems. The position provides support for and develops strategy for NIWC Atlantic and the broader Navy & Marine Corps robotic and autonomous systems (RAS) initiatives. Dr. Overbey has over 17 years of service leading Department of the Navy and Joint efforts focused on research, development, engineering, and integration in autonomy, unmanned systems, AI, and data science. Prior to his current position, Dr. Overbey was the Deputy Director for S&T and S&T Division Head at NIWC Atlantic. The S&T Division is responsible for all research and development efforts for the Office of Naval Research (ONR), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and the Office of the Undersecretary for Defense, Research and Engineering (OUSD(R&E)), among others. Dr. Overbey has also been the S&T Lead at NIWC Atlantic for AI and Autonomy since 2017. He has previously acted as the lead for NIWC Atlantic’s Autonomy-Enabled Decision-Making Strategic Investment Area (SIA), as well as multiple AI and Autonomy Prize Challenges and Advanced Naval Technology Exercise (ANTX) events. He is the founder of the annual Department of the Navy (DON) CDAO Data and AI Workshop, which began in 2018, and he was the founder and lead for the Analytics Research Center (ARC) from 2015-2020, a NIWC Atlantic initiative to build an interdisciplinary research center of excellence. Prior to moving to the S&T Department, Dr. Overbey worked in the Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance / Information Operations (ISR/IO) Division as a research scientist. In his career, he has focused on a broad range of research and development in data science, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, including in autonomy, assisted decision-making, computer vision, natural language processing, social network analysis, and graph theory. He has acted as principal investigator or technical lead for over 25 data science focused research projects and authored or co-authored more than 40 scientific publications. Dr. Overbey holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Engineering from the University of California, San Diego, where he researched applications of machine learning, nonlinear time series analysis, and chaos theory to mechanical sensor data. He also holds a Masters in Engineering from the University of California, San Diego and a Bachelors in Engineering from the Catholic University of America.

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