Ben Hocking
Senior Principal AI Research Engineer at RTX
Charlottesville, Virginia, United States
Summary
👤
Senior🎓
Top SchoolBen Hocking is a Senior Principal AI Research Engineer with 14 years of experience building safety- and security-critical systems for aerospace, defense, and automotive domains, now leading AI and formal methods research at RTX Research Center. He combines deep expertise in formal verification, safety-case engineering, and system validation with hands-on project leadership as PI on funded work for NASA, AFRL, DARPA, and industry partners like Toyota and Lockheed Martin. His work uniquely bridges formal methods and machine learning—investigating how AI can scale verification and runtime assurance for neural-network controllers—while drawing on a background in quantum physics to explore quantum-enhanced algorithms for verification. A PhD-trained researcher and former adjunct professor, he teaches and applies tools like LEAN and Dafny to make formal verification practical for engineers. Colleagues rely on him to translate rigorous proofs into deployable assurance arguments for the most demanding safety-critical systems.
14 years of coding experience
16 years of employment as a software developer
BS Physics, BS Physics at Georgia Institute of TechnologyMS Physics/Astronomy, MS Physics/Astronomy at Georgia State UniversityDoctor of Philosophy (PhD) Computer Science, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Computer Science at University of Virginia
German
Stackoverflow
7,930reputation
481kreached
91answers
23questions
Github Skills (44)
pvs10
decision-making9
sat-solver9
homotopy-type-theory8
agda8
spell8
spellchecker8
proof-assistant7
checker7
theorem-proving7
doxygen6
sum6
math6
java6
gcc6
Programming languages (8)
Github contributions (5)
kevinsullivan/uva-cs-dm-s19
Jan 2019 - Apr 2019
Contributions:45 commits, 39 pushes in 3 months
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