Staff
David Peterson
Engineer, Office for Fiscal and Regulatory Analysis
David Peterson is from Sulphur Springs, Texas and serves as an Engineer at the America First Policy Institute (AFPI), where he applies his expertise in high-performance computing, machine learning, and advanced software architecture to support policy research and analysis. Over more than two decades, he has pioneered mission-critical innovations in explosives detection, robotics, physical security, and computational shock physics, notably leading the high-performance CTH shock physics codebase at Sandia National Laboratories where he guided a team of over 20 engineers to integrate machine learning techniques into computed tomography data processing.
His transition from national security to combating human trafficking resulted in groundbreaking achievements including the first production-grade multimodal machine learning system for trafficking detection, advanced facial recognition capabilities for the Automated Recognition of Missing Children (ARC) project, and next-generation graph database infrastructure processing over 4.5 billion points of interest.
Peterson holds a Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering with specialization in Explosives Engineering from New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology and has authored nine technical advances and multiple patent applications, including novel ML-driven reconstruction technology. His expertise spans hardware acceleration, secure software engineering, and performance optimization, ensuring robust, scalable solutions for sensitive, high-stakes operational environments. In his free time, he enjoys 3D printing and design, astronomy, paleontology, playing Minecraft and Legos with his daughter, and raising chickens.