AIAA CTO Summit

The Honorable
Michael Cadenazzi
Assistant Secretary of
War for Industrial Base
Policy
Carissa Christensen
Founder and CEO,
BryceTech
Timothy Costa, Ph.D.
Vice President and
General Manager,
Industrial and
Computational
Engineering, NVIDIA
The Honorable Joseph
Jewell, Ph.D.
Assistant Secretary of
War for Science and
Technology
Jon Lusczakoski
Partner, AE Industriall
Aalok Mehta, Ph.D.
Director, Wadhwani
AI Center, Center
for Strategic and
International Studies
Michael Thacker
Senior Vice President of Engineering, Pratt & Whitney

The Summit will be conducted under the Chatham House Rule to encourage candid and open dialogue.

The 2026 AIAA CTO Summit is an exclusive, invitation-only, 1.5-day gathering of Chief Technology Officers, Chief Scientists, and senior technology and business leaders from across the aerospace enterprise. The Summit brings together technology executives, customers, investors, and innovators to address a defining question for the aerospace industry.

How do we both achieve technology superiority and scale production faster?

The 2025 CTO Summit themes of AI, Autonomy, and Digital Thread have continued to advance at a remarkable pace. Yet over the last year, the challenge facing aerospace CTOs has accelerated dramatically and become more complex. Technological superiority alone is no longer enough. Across national security, space, and civil aviation, the pressure to scale production, compress timelines from concept to fielding, and build more resilient supply chains has intensified. Venture capital, private equity, and broader capital inflows are reshaping where innovation originates, how quickly it advances, and how rapidly it transitions to mission impact. Lessons from adjacent sectors, including artificial intelligence, semiconductors, and advanced manufacturing, have become increasingly relevant to aerospace leaders.

At the Summit, participants will exchange hard-earned lessons, engage directly with key stakeholders, and help prioritize approaches to adopt and actions that will be taken to support the ecosystem in a candid, non-attributable environment designed for open discussion and collaboration.

Attire: Business casual.

Hotel: Archer Hotel Tysons Corner, the closest hotel to the venue. Please book your accommodation directly via the hotel's website. Join us for a reception, dinner, and networking event on 9 September at the Archer Hotel Tysons Corner.

Travel and Parking: Complimentary parking is available at MITRE Building 4 from 7 a.m.–6 p.m. Driving directions and Metro information are available here. The Archer Hotel Tysons Corner offers valet parking for $16 per vehicle for event attendees.