Col Christopher M. Rondeau, PhD
AU DET 1 Commander & AFIT Director of Staff
Col Christopher Rondeau is the Commander, Air University Detachment 1 and Deputy Director, Air Force Institute of Technology, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. As Commander, he is the senior military leader with responsibility over good order and discipline for approximately 1,800 active duty faculty, staff, and students. As the Deputy Director, Col Rondeau leads the strategic vision and tactical decisions of the Institute. AFIT is the Department of the Air Force’s leader for advanced, multi-disciplinary academic education, initial technical and professional continuing education. A component of Air University and Air Education and Training Command, AFIT employs more than 450 military and civilian faculty and staff members and manages a $231M annual budget. AFIT provides professional continuing education for nearly 30,000 students and graduate education to more than 1,000 students annually. In addition, AFIT's Civilian Institution Programs Office manages approximately 2,400 students enrolled in a variety of health profession programs and another 1,100 line and legal officers enrolled in various programs at leading civilian universities and research centers.
Col Rondeau began his career at Robins AFB, GA as a sustainment electronics engineer on common support equipment. He later transferred to Holloman AFB, NM serving as an inertial system test manager working programs that included a variety airframe navigation systems and the gyros on the Hubble Space Telescope. Col Rondeau also served as the 46th Test Group Executive Officer where he continued his role as an airborne test conductor. Next, he was selected to attend the Air Force Institute of Technology and later was selected to attend the Air Force Test Pilot School. Upon graduation, Col Rondeau served as a flight commander, the Chief Flight Test Engineer, and an Assistant Director of Operations for the 419th Flight Test Squadron, performing flight tests on the B-1, B-2, and B-52. While at Edwards AFB, he was trained and qualified as a member of the Joint Combat Assessment Team which provided combat forensic analysis to deployed forces worldwide. He was next assigned to the Special Programs Division, Fighter/Bomber Directorate where he served as the Chief of Test and Program Manager. Col Rondeau next served as a test squadron commander where he led a unit of 130 people and was responsible for a $350M portfolio of ground, air, space, and cyber threat weapon systems.
Prior to his current assignment, Col Rondeau served as the Associate Dean of Students, Graduate School of Engineering and Management, Air Force Institute of Technology, Wright-Patterson AFB, OH. He led more than 1,000 joint, international, and civilian students enrolled in graduate engineering and management programs at the school. Col Rondeau was responsible for all graduate student matters and supervising personnel in support of student services, registrar, and admissions functions.
Across his assignments, Col Rondeau has over 300 flight hours as a flight test engineer in 34 different aircraft with qualifications in B-1B, B-52H, C-12J, HH-60U, and F-16D. In his current role, he is also appointed an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering.
Education
2020 Doctorate of Philosophy, Electrical Engineering, Air Force Institute of Technology, Wright-Patterson AFB, OH
2018 Air War College (correspondence)
2012 Air Command and Staff College (correspondence)
2011 Master of Science, Flight Test Engineering, USAF Test Pilot School, Edwards AFB, CA
2010 Master of Science, Electrical Engineering, Air Force Institute of Technology, Wright-Patterson AFB, OH
2008 Squadron Officer School, (correspondence)
2003 Bachelor of Science, Electrical Engineering, USAFA, Colorado Springs, CO
Awards
Meritorious Service Medal with 2 oak leaf clusters
Aerial Achievement Medal
Air Force Commendation Medal
Air Force Achievement Medal
PATENT AWARD
Rondeau, C.M., Temple, M.A., Lopez, J. & Betances, J. A., Passive Physical Layer Distinct Native Cyber Security Monitor. U.S. Patent No. 11,856,012, Dec 2023.
Publications
McQuagge, J., Rondeau, C., Temple, M. “Image Domain Distinctive Native Attribute Fingerprinting for Image Forgery Classification.” Proceedings of the 58th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, To Appear January 2025.
Rose, A., Schubert Kabban, C., Graham, S. Henry, W. Rondeau, C. “Malware classification through Abstract Syntax Trees and L-moments,” Computers & Security, vol. 148, p. 104082, Sep. 2024, doi: 10.1016/j.cose.2024.104082.
Long, J. D., Temple, M. A., & Rondeau, C. M. “Discriminating WirelessHART Communication Devices Using Sub-Nyquist Stimulated Responses.” Electronics, vol. 12, no. 9, pp. 1973 Apr 2023, https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12091973.
Morse, K. J., Murphy, A. D., Rondeau, C. M., Temple, M. A., Mills, R. F., & Betances, J. A. “Detecting ADS-B Spoofing Devices using DNA-Based Device ID Verification.” Journal of DoD Research and Engineering, July 2021.
Bihl, T. J., Schoenbeck, J., Rondeau, C. M., Jones, A. “Tuning Hyperparameters for DNA-based Discrimination of Wireless Devices”, Proceedings of the 54th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, pp. 6965–6974. Jan 2021.
Rondeau, C. M., Temple, M. A., and Lopez, J., Schubert Kabban, C. “Extending Critical Infrastructure Element Longevity Using Constellation-Based ID Verification.” Computers and Security: A Transdisciplinary Approach Internet of Things Cybersecurity and Risk Management, Special Issue, Oct 2020, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cose.2020.102073.
Rondeau, C. M., Temple, M. A., Betances, J. A., & Kabban, C. S. “Protection of Critical Infrastructure MCOTS Elements using Constellation-Based Distinct Native Attribute Fingerprints.” Journal of DoD Research and Engineering, Oct 2020.
Rondeau, C. M., Temple, M. A., and Schubert Kabban C. “DNA Feature Selection for Discriminating WirelessHART IIoT Devices”, Proceedings of the 53rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, pp. 6387–6396. Jan 2020, http://hdl.handle.net/10125/64524
Rondeau, C. M., Temple, M. A., and Betances, J. A. “Dimensional Reduction Analysis for Constellation-Based DNA Fingerprinting to Improve Industrial IoT Wireless Security”, Proceedings of the 52nd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, pp. 7126–7135. Jan 2019, http://hdl.handle.net/10125/60149.
Rondeau, C. M., Temple, M. A., and Lopez, J. “Industrial IoT cross-layer forensic investigation.” Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Forensic Science, vol. 2018, Dec 2018, https://doi.org/10.1002/wfs2.1322.
Rondeau, C. M., Betances, J. A, and Temple, M. A., “Securing ZigBee Commercial Communications Using Constellation Based Distinct Native Attribute Fingerprinting,” Security and Communication Networks, vol. 2018, Article ID 1489347, 14 pages, Jul 2018, https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/1489347.
Meagher, T., Hefron, R., Jorris, T., and Rondeau, C., Flight Test Challenges & Risks for the X-51A Scramjet Engine Demonstrator Program. Proceedings of the 2013 Society of Experimental Test Pilots. Sep 2013.
Rondeau, C. and Jorris, T., Flight Test Challenges & Risks for the X-51A Scramjet Engine Demonstrator Program. Proceedings of the 2013 Society of Flight Test Engineers Antelope Valley Mini-Symposium. Aug 2013.
Martin, R., Chunpeng, Y., Fan, H., and Rondeau, C., Algorithms and Bounds for Distributed TDOA-Based Positioning Using OFDM Signals. IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing. Volume 59, Issue 3, pp. 1255-1268. Mar 2011.
York, G., Rondeau, C., and Fuller, D., Teaching Real-time Digital Signal Processing (DSP). Proceedings of the 2004 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition. Jan 2004.