After being laid off from Google, DeMarcus Edwards decided to become the founder of an AI company.<\/p>\n
The Howard University alumni, with both a master\u2019s and Ph.D. degree in computer science, has completed residencies at Netflix,<\/a> Apple, Meta, and Google X in order to gain industry experience around adversarial machine learning, per<\/a> The Dig at Howard University. This field is focused on manipulating a machine learning system through malicious inputs to attack or disrupt their function, according to<\/a> Tech Target.<\/p>\n DARE Labs<\/p>\n It was ultimately Edwards\u2019 role at Google, tasked with creating an AI-assisted exoskeleton alongside teammates, that would spark his transition to becoming a founder. He was laid off from the tech company and bootstrapped his own defense-tech startup, Atlanta-based DARE Labs, alongside his best friend Branford Rogers\u00a0in April 2023.<\/p>\n Within this area of work, Edwards also has received guidance from Danda B. Rawat, Ph.D., his mentor and the associate dean for Research & Graduate Studies at Howard University. Dr. Rawat doubles as a full professor<\/a> in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science (EECS). The professor is also founding director of the Department of Defense\u2019s Center of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, where he has secured over $110 million in funding<\/a> from DoD and other agencies for its research efforts around AI security and trustworthiness.<\/p>\n \u201cSupervision means guiding a student<\/a> through their Ph.D. research, but mentorship<\/a> goes beyond that,\u201d Rawat said, according to The Dig. \u201cYou mentor them through other things \u2014 like how to survive in the field, how to develop professionalism, how to apply for funding or write a thesis, and even how to establish a company. All those things extend beyond typical academic supervision.\u201d<\/p>\n DARE Labs is on a mission to \u201credefine intelligence by turning raw data into strategic breakthroughs,\u201d its website states.<\/a> The firm serves defense agencies, governments, and enterprise clients, which include the DoD and Department of Energy, as well as provides AI-powered solutions that will take information from documents and repackage it into knowledge graphs. Additionally, the firm trains new machine learning models.<\/p>\n