Lieutenant Colonel Adam Hepworth, PhD, serves as Director of the Robotic and Autonomous Systems Implementation and Coordination Office (RICO) for the Australian Army. In this role, he leads the advancement of emerging technology, including robotics, autonomous systems, artificial intelligence and autonomy for the Australian Army.

Throughout his career in the Australian Defence Force, Adam has held roles spanning advanced technology, artificial intelligence and decision-science portfolios. He has earned the Chief of Army Gold Level Commendation as an Operations Research Analyst for exceptional contributions. 

Adam is a Visiting Fellow at the University of New South Wales, School of Systems and Computing, where his research endeavours aim to innovate artificial intelligence system design, with a keen interest in swarm shepherding for human-swarm teaming, activity recognition, and behaviour prediction. 

Adam received the Stephen Fester Prize for his doctoral thesis, which was the most outstanding PhD thesis on an information technology-related topic.

Adam holds a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from the University of New South Wales, a Master of Logistics and Supply Chain Management from the University of South Australia, a Graduate Diploma in Scientific Computation and a Master of Science in Operations Research from the United States Naval Postgraduate School, and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Computer Science from the University of New South Wales. Adam is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors - Company Directors Course (GAICD).