About the Authors

Ravi Gupta is an entrepreneur who specializes in commercializing technologies that use biological principles to solve a variety of problems. He has designed and built social media platforms, data processing algorithms, and crowdsourcing techniques to help governments and commercial clients bolster disaster relief, improve medical diagnostics, and model crowd behavior in emergency situations. He currently focuses on exploring how insects, neural networks, immune systems, and microorganisms solve coordination and security problems. He then uses the insights from the natural world to tackle human issues ranging from reconceiving cyber security to understanding financial markets to increasing medical access in denied areas. He holds a B.S. in Brain and Cognitive Sciences and a B.S. in Political Science from MIT, and a Masters in Security Studies from Georgetown University. He is available for stalking on Twitter under the user name—@ravistalking—which features sarcastic tweets about science, technology, metal music, and foreign affairs.

Hugh Brooks is a security consultant with clients in the government and private sectors. Hugh's passion is for finding creative and unique solutions for security problems. To this end, he has helped envision, design, and create innovative solutions for crowd-driven applications, poly-agent based modeling, mobile health and education, and cyber security. A frequent world-traveler, bibliophile, and persistent student of many subjects, he has worked extensively on the confluence of social media, terrorism, and illicit activity, and designed social media solutions for a variety of security problems. A former enlisted U.S. Marine Corps Reservist, he received a B.A. in Political Science and African Studies from the University of Florida, and a Masters in Security Studies from Georgetown University. Hugh tweets under the moniker—@Sefu_Africa—where he futilely tries to monitor and address security and technological innovations and issues across the African continent and throughout the globe.