CERTAIN AI-native networking for connected health

A multi-institution collaboration

Project team

CERTAIN brings together expertise in healthcare, networking, safety, artificial intelligence, and advanced communications.

Collaborating organizations

Researchers and innovators

George Washington University

Tian Lan, PhD

Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Dr. Lan is a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the George Washington University, which he joined in 2010. He received his PhD in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University, his MS from the University of Toronto, and his BASc from Tsinghua University. He is a member of the Federal Communications Commission's Technological Advisory Council, a fellow at the National Quantum Lab at the University of Maryland, and an IEEE Fellow, class of 2026. He was also selected for a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award for the 2026–2027 cycle.

His research focuses on machine learning, optimization, cybersecurity, and cloud and edge computing, with support from government and industry organizations.

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Inovectrum

Omar Al-Kalaa, PhD

Founder & Principal Technologist

Dr. Al-Kalaa is a leading voice in wireless healthcare innovation, with more than 15 years of experience spanning federal research, standards development, and real-world healthcare deployments. As a Senior Member of IEEE and former senior wireless scientist at the U.S. FDA, Dr. Al-Kalaa has advanced nationally recognized work in 5G-enabled healthcare, electromagnetic compatibility, and wireless coexistence. At Inovectrum, he leads the development of wireless healthcare technologies while applying his expertise in connectivity, electromagnetic compatibility, and regulatory science to accelerate innovation.

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Massachusetts General Hospital

Julian Goldman, MD

Director and Founder, MD PnP Program and Center for SaAMS

Dr. Goldman is an anesthesiology clinician-scientist in the Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Anesthesiology, Founder and Director of the Program on Medical Device Interoperability & Cybersecurity (MD PnP), and Medical Director of Biomedical Engineering for Mass General Brigham. He founded the MD PnP Program in 2004 to advance patient safety through medical device interoperability and systems engineering, developing standards-based approaches for patient-centric integrated clinical environments.

The program's Center for Smart and Autonomous Medical Systems (SaAMS), established in 2023, leads the SaAMS Collaborative Community to enable pre-competitive sharing of technical expertise and safety solutions for advanced medical systems.

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Aarno Labs

Jeff Perkins

Principal Research Scientist

Mr. Perkins is an expert in automatic program repair, dynamic invariant detection, automatic test generation, type inference, and dynamic instrumentation. Before Aarno Labs, he was a full-time research scientist at MIT CSAIL, where he served as program manager and lead researcher for DARPA's Application Communities and IARPA's STONESOUP.

He has more than 20 years of experience designing, developing, and managing software and systems and has published dozens of works in major research conferences.

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Verizon

Michael Sullivan

Associate Director, Verizon Innovation Labs

Michael Sullivan serves as the Associate Director of the Verizon Innovation Labs in Boston where he specializes in bridging research, innovation, and product development. With a 30-year career in the telecommunications industry, his leadership spans strategic planning, cross-functional team management, and technical architecture consulting.

Verizon Innovation Labs

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Martin Rinard, PhD

Professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Dr. Rinard is a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a member of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. His research focuses on software systems and related topics, including computer security, program analysis and compilation, machine learning and programming, approximate computing, and software robustness and reliability.

His research has been recognized with numerous honors and awards, and his students and postdoctoral researchers have gone on to leading positions in academia and industry.

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