Biographies
President
Dr. Joe Heanue has significant leadership experience in device and instrumentation research & development within interdisciplinary
environments. He previously served as Vice President of Engineering at NexRay and at Signature BioScience.
At NexRay, Joe led the
development of a low-dose x-ray imaging system for interventional cardiology. At Signature, he headed a group that delivered prototype RF and microwave
spectroscopy instruments to a major instrument partner; the first of these instruments was launched in 2005 by MDS Sciex.
Joe’s
extensive research and development experience includes the analysis and design of complex systems, x-ray and gamma-ray detector development, low-noise
analog electronics, data-acquisition systems, signal and image processing, high-speed data-processing architectures, and thin-films failure
analysis.
Joe holds patents for detector and image processing, spectroscopy, and a patent for medical system imaging architecture that is licensed
to a major medical equipment manufacturer. He received a BS in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and earned his Ph.D. in
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California at Berkeley. Joe was a postdoctoral researcher at Xerox PARC, and he has
completed the Stanford University Executive Program for Growing Companies.
Director, Chief System Architect
Gus Lowell has over 20 years experience in systems and software engineering, product specification development, and product planning, with
experience in the medical device field, semiconductor processing, and internet servers.
His background includes expertise in pipelined data
processing, image and signal processing algorithm development, distributed processing, embedded systems, real-time and event-driven systems,
fault-detection and safety-critical systems, and structured analysis and object-oriented design. He has designed high-speed digital imaging processors
and systems; analog/digital, data acquisition, and machine-control interfaces; and sensor interfaces. He is skilled in coding in a number
of assembly languages and C++/C/Pascal/Fortran.
Gus has held senior engineering and project management positions at both Fortune 100 and startup
companies, including Abbott Laboratories, Tetris Systems, and NexRay, and in the military space program for the United States Air Force.
He holds
three patents and has authored a number of scientific papers. He received his BS in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology.
Director, Chief Scientist
Dr. Brian Wilfley has over 20 years of experience leading development efforts for medical device and instrumentation companies. He has held senior
scientific and engineering positions with Resonex, Inc., Park Scientific, Inc., Signature Bioscience, Inc., and NexRay, Inc.
Combining a broad
theoretical background with a highly developed experimental sense, Brian has experience across the full range of challenges encountered in
developing complex measurement-based products. He is able to support the basic research and development of measurement-based equipment,
as well as the detailed engineering required to implement it. His experience ranges from magnetism to x-rays, and includes a broad array of
applications including biotech instrumentation, medical imaging, and optical inspection.
Brian is a co-inventor of six issued patents and has
authored a number of technical papers. He received his AB in Physics from the University of California at Berkeley and his Ph.D. in Physics
from the University of California at San Diego.
Senior Director, Program Management
Walt Cecka has over 25 years of experience in design and development of medical devices and drug/device combination products. Mr. Cecka has held
senior management and development engineering positions at Nektar Therapeutics, Bio-Molecular Technologies, Baxter Healthcare Corporation
(Novacor Division), Cholestech Corporation, Nellcor, Inc., and Beckman Instruments (Spinco Division).
His product development leadership experience
includes the development and commercialization of several first-to-clinic and first-to-market products, including Nektar’s inhaled Amikacin
combination product, the Exubera™ pulmonary insulin inhaler, Novacor’s N-100 bridge to transplant heart assist pump, and diagnostic products
for rapid lipid panels and blood gas monitoring (CO2 and anesthesia agents). His skill sets also include product development planning and
program management in FDA and EMEA/ISO environments, system product design, plastic component material selection and design, and design transfer
for high volume manufacturing.
Walt has co-authored several peer reviewed posters and holds two patents in respiratory care and pulmonary
delivery devices, with additional patents pending. He holds a BSME degree from California Polytechnic State.
Vice President, Business Development
Barclay Dorman has more than 25 years of marketing, sales, and general management experience in a broad range of medical device companies, from
startup to Fortune 10 organizations.
Most recently, he was Vice President and General Manager of a startup company commercializing
new technology for breast cancer detection. Prior to that, he held senior sales and marketing positions at startup companies introducing stereo tactic
radio-surgery for cancer therapy, innovative imaging technology for interventional cardiology, digital recording for medical imaging storage, and
a specialized cardiac MRI system.
Barclay's hands-on experience in building and managing teams, defining clinical needs, scrubbing significant
market and customer issues that impact new technology adoption, and communicating with all the relevant stake holders is useful in his business development
role. He received his BA in Economics from Bates College.
Vice President, Strategic Business Development
Dr. John Bashkin has 18 years of experience in technology, product, and business development for life sciences and medical devices. He has held senior
business development positions at SRI International and, most recently, at Artificial Muscle, Inc.
While at SRI for seven years, Dr. Bashkin headed
up business development efforts for life science and medical device technologies from across the institute as well as led his own NIH-funded research
programs and served on the IP Committee for the Institute. He led contract and out-licensing negotiations for many technology and product development
programs.
At Artificial Muscle, he was responsible for all corporate contract matters as well as business development for the medical industry. Prior
to joining SRI, Dr. Bashkin was a senior researcher at Molecular Dynamics and Amersham, where he led the development of the first high-throughput DNA
sequencing system.
He received his B.S. in Chemistry and Physics from the University of Arizona, his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Indiana University, and
held post-doc positions at the University of Rochester and Johns Hopkins University. In 2000, he received his MBA from Santa Clara University.
Dr. Bashkin is a co-inventor on five issued U.S. patents and co-author on more than 20 publications.
Senior Director, Optical & MEMS Technology
Dr. John Heanue has more than 15 years of experience with design, implementation, integration, and deployment of microfabricated optical systems.
He served as Director of Product Engineering at Santur Corporation, where he led the development of a widely-tunable semiconductor laser module
for optical telecommunications. He previously led a group responsible for opto-mechanical engineering of large port-count MEMs-based optical
cross-connects at Xros Corporation/Nortel Networks. John also has extensive experience in optical data storage systems through positions at Seagate
Technology, Quinta Corporation, and Optitek. Other projects have included high-power fiber lasers, optical imaging for medical applications, and
LWIR imaging systems.
John received S.B. degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in both Electrical Engineering and Physics, and
Masters and Ph.D. degrees in Applied Physics from Stanford University. He holds 39 issued U.S. patents and has authored numerous publications.
Director, Mechanical Engineering
Peter Holst has more than 25 years of design experience, mostly in medical device development including visual field testers, IV and enteral pumps,
surgical robots, cholesterol testers and glucose meters, and various aerosol drug delivery technologies. He has experience leading cross
functional teams in the development of both battery powered and user energized portable devices.
Peter has experience in design for high volume
manufacturing using various component manufacturing methods including plastic injection molding, metal injection molding, casting, powder
metal, sheet metal and machined components. He also has background in the design of low volume capital equipment medical mechanisms and systems.
He has experience in DOE and analysis of experimental data, and brings a disciplined, data driven, approach to the design of complex
mechanical systems.
Peter is a named inventor on 9 patents, with several applications pending, and has authored or co-authored a number of posters
and papers. He has a BSME from Northwestern University and an MSME with a concentration in dynamics and controls from Santa Clara University.
Director, Operations
Nick Lopez has 25 years experience developing systems involving vacuum, high voltage, electron device, and RF/microwave technologies. Nick's
experience includes wafer inspection systems, X-ray fluoroscopy systems, thermal processing and brazing systems, high power electron sources,
megawatt-level microwave sources, lasers, and ultra high vacuum (below 1.0x10-10T).
Nick specializes in transferring products from
engineering to production. He has worked in startups and large companies where he has managed departments of up to 130 people with $4M of
monthly product shipments. He has implemented TQM and has expansive knowledge of JIT implementations. He has held manufacturing and senior
management positions at KLA-Tencor, Varian/CPI, Nexray Medical/Cardiac Mariners, Altair, and Kodak.
Nick holds a BSEE from the University of
California at Davis.
Chief Business Officer
Gurinder Parhar has over 20 years experience in technology-related business development. Prior to Triple Ring Technologies, Gurinder worked at several leading
technology companies in areas of increasing responsibility, including Santur (leading tunable laser supplier) as VP, Business Development and
Marketing, SDL (purchased by JDSU) as Director of Business Development, BCE Mobile (purchased by BCE) as Manager of Strategic Planning, Unitel
(AT&T Canada) as Manager of Capital and Network Management, and Nortel as an Engineer, Digital Switching Division. Gurinder also has experience
in the financial markets as a telecommunications hardware research analyst for several leading investment banks.
Gurinder obtained a Bachelor of
Applied Science, Electrical Engineering from University of British Columbia, and an MBA from the University of Western Ontario (Richard Ivey School of
Business).
General Counsel
Joe Lin has more than fifteen years of experience in both
patent and corporate law. He has held positions at Blakely
Sokoloff Taylor & Zafman, Morrison & Foerster LLP, Silicon
Genesis Corporation (as General Counsel and Vice-President,
Corporate Development), and O2 Micro, Inc. (as General
Counsel).
He has extensive patent prosecution and litigation
experience, having overseen the prosecution of dozens of
domestic and international filings and led successful trial
teams in multiple cases, including invalidation of
competitor’s patent in crucial “bet the company” litigation
(Soitec v. Silicon Genesis Corporation, D. Mass).
While at O2 Micro, he led trial teams in four successful
jury trials obtaining verdict of willful trade secrets
misappropriation, invalidation of all asserted claims of
major competitor’s patents and noninfringement of all
asserted claims (O2 Micro International Ltd. v. Monolithic
Power Systems, Inc., N.D. CA), obtaining verdict of willful
infringement and Court award of attorneys’ fees (O2 Micro
International Ltd. v. Taiwan Sumida Electronics, Inc., E.D.
TX), obtaining verdict of willful infringement (O2 Micro
International Ltd. v. Beyond Innovation Technology Co., Ltd.
et. al., E.D. TX) and obtaining favorable settlement on the
last day of trial (O2 Micro International Ltd. v. Rohm Co.,
Ltd.).
As both an outside counsel and in-house attorney, he has
advised on M&A, Securities, and implementation of
Sarbanes-Oxley compliance. He has represented venture
capital firms and issuers in over 40 venture capital and
private placement transactions, led the securities team in
the initial public offering of O2 Micro International Ltd.
on Nasdaq, and represented underwriters in public offerings
involving Siebel Corporation (Nasdaq: SEBL) and Credence
Systems Corp. (Nasdaq: CMOS).
He received his JD from the University of California, Los
Angeles, School of Law in 1993, and is BS with Distinction
in both Electrical and Engineering and Materials Science
from the Cornell University, College of Engineering in 1987.
He was admitted as a Member of the State Bar of California,
December in 1993 (No. 168,913), registered to practice
before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (No. 38,225),
and admitted to practice before the U.S. Court of Appeals
for the Federal Circuit.
Chief Systems Engineer
Jerry Pretti has over 25 years experience in applying technologies to a wide range of medical, industrial, and government applications.
His broad experience includes complete lifecycle development of complex systems and software as well as lead project engineering roles in system
integration and evaluation, system and software requirements definition, project technical management, and system test planning and design.
Jerry
has held lead project and technical management roles with NexRay, Abbott Labs (now Hospira), GTE Government Systems, and a number of other technology-related
companies.
He received his BS in Engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point and an MS in Computer Science from Johns Hopkins
University.
Vice President, Strategy and Risk Management
Dr. Geetha Rao has over 20 years of experience in high-risk technologies. She has provided advisory services and interim management to medical device,
biotechnology and other life-sciences enterprises with a focus on emerging business challenges and operational excellence that meets best-in-class, international
standards. She is an internationally recognized expert in risk management and liability and has served on several international policy making bodies, and as an
invited expert to regulatory agencies, including the FDA, ISO Technical Committees, GHTF, and European Notified Bodies.
Previously Geetha has consulted
to major multi-nationals in medical devices, pharmaceuticals, and biotechnology, healthcare providers, government agencies, trade associations, non-profit
organizations, venture and investment firms, and law firms. Her focus has been on regulatory and legal problem-solving for submissions, FDA and notified
body inspections and audits, adverse events, and liability. She has addressed numerous industry forums and the press on issues of management of product and process
quality and business risks.
Geetha is on the board of the ASQ Northern California Biomedical Discussion Group. chairs the MIT/Stanford Venture
Lab’s Emerging Business Track for Life Sciences, is guest faculty on Stanford University’s Biodesign Innovation Program, and serves on the Life
Sciences Committee for Astia, the leading organization supporting women-founded and women-led start-ups, and as advisor to several non-profits.
Geetha
is a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras and also holds a doctorate from MIT and a masters degree from Stanford University’s Graduate
School of Business. She has held Professional Engineer licenses in Civil and Mechanical Engineering in the State of California.
Senior Director, Advanced Technologies
Dr. Winston Sun has nearly 20 years experience in systems architecture and algorithm development for imaging, video and wireless communication systems.
His background spans mixed-signal, digital ASIC and RF chips, boards and systems, with specific expertise in mapping real-time signal processing algorithms
into embedded system solutions. GSM basestations, soft switches for VoIP, QAM demodulators for digital set top boxes, CDMA cellular handsets, WiFi chipsets
and X-ray fluoroscopy systems are examples of products he has designed and implemented.
Winston has held systems architect, engineering management,
and business development positions at PMC-Sierra, Atheros Communications, Applied Signal Technologies, Hyundai Wireless and Nexray Medical.
Winston
received a BS in Electrical Engineering from UCLA, and a PhD in EE from the University of California at Berkeley. He holds three patents, and has
authored/presented numerous scientific papers.
Vice President, Instrument Engineering
Muslim Tyebjee has over 25 years of experience developing medical systems for companies ranging from startups to Fortune 100 companies. His experience spans
product development, operations, quality systems, and customer support for products ranging from patient life support devices to imaging/patient monitoring systems.
Muslim's development projects have included anesthesia machines, ventilators, SvO2 monitoring and dual oximetery systems, infusion pumps, low dose X-ray
fluoroscopy systems, heart-lung bypass machines, high speed blood separation devices, and eye surgical products.
Muslim has extensive experience in
project management, design control, SOPs, requirement analysis, fault tree analysis, FMECA, and verification/validation with emphasis on software validation of
complex medical device systems. He has successfully commercialized products which involved UL/IEC/CSA 60601-1 certification, FDA 510(k) approvals, and GMP
manufacturing. Muslim has held senior management positions at BC Tech Inc. as Vice President of Product Development, and at CardioVention as Director of
Instrument Development. Prior to that, he held positions with NexRay, Inc., Abbott Labs (now Hospira), Oximetrix, and Ohmeda.
Muslim is holder of one
patent. He received his BSEE from Northrop University and his MSEE with a minor in Biomedical Engineering from Northwestern University.
Senior Director, Product Development
Christian Walton has 25 years of experience in product development - over half at the director level and above in the field of medical devices. He has managed
large cross-functional teams in the development of various pieces of complex diagnostic capital equipment, as well as performed development functions for injectors,
catheters and other delivery systems, and implants.
Christian is named on over a dozen patents, and has worked closely with radiologists, surgeons,
anesthesiologists, pediatricians, dermatologists and plastic surgeons, cardiologists, and audiologists in the development of numerous successful medical devices.
He has held engineering and executive and management positions at R2 Technology, Natus Medical, Circle Medical Devices, Vital Insite, Raychem Corp (now Tyco),
and Beta Phase. In addition, he has consulted with AorTx/CardiacMD, Aesthetic Sciences, Tympani, and Tessera.
He holds Mechanical Engineering degrees
from Carnegie-Mellon University (BS) and Stanford University (MS).
Vice President, Engineering Operations
Lauren Yazolino brings over 40 years experience in high technology corporate management, engineering management and product development which span an
extremely wide range of technologies and applications.
His work and experience include the development of a Cosmic Ray data acquisition
system for X-raying the Egyptian pyramids and a data acquisition system for particle physics experiments in the upper atmosphere (both while working for Nobel
Laureate, Dr. Luis Alvarez at the Lawrence Berkeley Labs), mini computer peripheral controller development and Optical mark and character recognition systems,
mini computer emulation of the IBM 370, 3D radiology imaging systems, neural technology, pulse oximetery, capnography, a red blood cell mixing and dosing system
for pathogen inactivation, on-demand pay-for-view television systems for the hospitality industry, and an in-home patient monitoring system for congestive heart
failure patients.
In addition, Lauren has co-founded six high technology companies, including Synaptics Inc., the company now well known for its
touch pad technology, where he was its first president. In addition to Synaptics Inc., the companies he co-founded and managed as Vice President of
Engineering and Product Development, include, Decision Inc., Two Pi Corp., Cygnet Technologies, Pacific Pay Video, and Alere Medical Inc. He was Vice
President of Engineering at Nellcor Inc. and Cemax Inc.
He has managed a department of 100 engineers and engineering professionals with as large
a budget as $15M per year (1990) and has participated in venture fund raising for each of his startups. Recently, at Alere Medical, he created and orchestrated
a “virtual engineering” group comprised of engineering design houses and turnkey manufacturing facilities to execute the design and manufacture of Alere’s
DayLink Monitor for CHF patients. Lauren holds 9 patents in communications and computing technologies.
Senior Scientist
Dr. Kate Bechtel has over 9 years of experience in researching and developing optic-based instruments for analytical and medical applications. She has
worked on trace analysis via cavity-enhanced techniques; non-invasive glucose sensing using Raman spectroscopy; and the detection of early stage breast cancer
and atherosclerosis using Raman, diffuse reflectance, and fluorescence. She has broad experience in optical design, analytical methods, and data analysis
(chemometrics).
Kate holds one patent and has authored several scientific papers. She received her BS in Chemistry from Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute, her Ph.D. in Analytical/Physical Chemistry from Stanford University, and was a postdoctoral researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in
the Spectroscopy Laboratory.
Senior Engineer
Steve Burion has over 4 years experience developing software for medical device and commercial applications. He has significant experience with user interface
design, 3D simulation and mobile robotics.
Most recently, Steve was at Litrex, where he worked on the motion interface for high accuracy inkjet printers.
Prior to that, he was a research engineer at Stanford working on 3D simulation of deformable objects for medical applications, and at the Swiss Federal Institute
of Technology working on autonomous mobile robots. He also led the team at the Swiss Institute of Technology which developed a new device for neuro-surgical
operations.
Steve holds a BS and MS in Micro-engineering, with a Major in Robotics from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne.
Staff Hardware Engineer
Leonard Cygnarowicz has over 25 years experience in digital hardware and firmware development for a wide variety of Silicon Valley firms in the area of medical
electronics, industrial controls, instrumentation, robotics, telephony, optical networks, computer peripherals and semiconductors.
Leonard has worked on
a variety of projects, including a full body MRI imaging system, a Gamma camera, a DNA instrument, pick and place and cartesian robots, an instrument for seismic
exploration, large memory system development, manufacturing test systems, T1 and DS3 computer telephony, ATM based network equipment, optical network equipment,
development platforms, microprocessor emulators, video peripherals, computer design, laser printer controllers and computer peripherals for a variety of standard
buses.
Leonard's skills include hardware and firmware development on a wide variety of microprocessors, microcontrollers and digital signal processors;
programming in Verilog, C and many assembly languages; and hardware design from gate level through large complex FPGA's. In addition to direct design activity,
he has managed projects and development departments.
Leonard received a BS degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh, and has
continued his studies at UC Santa Cruz and UC Berkeley. He holds two U.S. patents.
Principal Engineer
George Fellingham has 25 years experience in electronic hardware development for manufacturers of computer peripherals and medical and industrial equipment,
with the last 11 years as a consultant.
Projects include electrostatic and inkjet printers, infusion pumps and other drug delivery devices, ECG
monitors, an X-ray fluoroscope, RF ablation power sources, electron and ion gun sources, blood cell separators and motion picture camera controls. Skills include
analog signal processing such as photomultiplier amplifiers, ultrasonic bubble sensors and pressure sensors; power electronics such as electron beam deflection
amplifiers, piezoelectric print head drivers and servo drives, as well as associated digital controls implemented in FPGAs and microcontrollers.
George
holds 10 U.S. patents. He holds a BS degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Cape Town, South Africa.
Principal Scientist
Stuart Friedman is an industrial physicist and systems engineer who has over 10 years experience developing technologies, capital equipment, and algorithms
for semiconductor inspection and metrology, life science research, and materials characterization. He is also expert at modeling and characterizing the
capabilities and performance of complex instruments and imaging systems, and is effective coordinating and facilitating efficient and productive collaborations
between disparate engineering and scientific disciplines.
Stuart has held senior scientific and systems engineering positions at KLA-Tencor, Signature
Bioscience, MDS Sciex and Etec Systems, and has consulted for a variety of large and small high tech and biotech companies. He has 4 issued patents and has
published technical articles in a variety of fields including electron optics/microscopy, solid state physics and biophysical modeling.
Stuart received
his Bachelor's degree in Engineering Physics from Cornell University, his Master's degree in Physics from Cambridge University and his Doctorate in Applied Physics
from Stanford University.
Principal Physicist
Dr. Tobias Funk is a Principal Physicist on the science
team at Triple Ring Technologies working on dose reduction
strategies in X-ray imaging. He has over 10 years of
experience in the development of instrumentation for science
and medicine.
His focus is in the areas of X-ray imaging, SPECT/CT
imaging, and modeling and simulations of complex systems.
Tobias has worked as a researcher at Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory and in the Department of Radiology at
the University of California, San Francisco.
He received his MS and Ph.D. from Freie Universität Berlin,
Germany and has authored over 20 peer reviewed publications.
Senior Program Manager
Mike Hayden has over 25 years of experience developing complex medical devices and managing multi-disciplinary teams. He has managed major product developments
from inception through first shipments and has extensive experience in requirements definition, software development, systems engineering, product
verification/validation, design controls and project management.
Mike held senior management positions at Zonare Medical Systems, Accuray and Acuson.
As Senior Vice President, Product Development at Accuray, he managed the Engineering, R&D, Manufacturing and Service groups for the image guided, robotically
controlled CyberKnife® radiosurgery system. He was instrumental in procuring the company's first 510(k) approval and completing the third generation system
that supports full body radiosurgery.
Prior to Accuray, Mike spent 14 years at Acuson developing premium quality diagnostic ultrasound products. He was
Project Manager and key contributor for both the revolutionary Sequoia GI512 and CV256 products that have to date generated over $2 billion in revenue.
Mike holds one patent. He received an MSEE from the University of California, Berkeley, and a BSEE from Rice University.
Principal Scientist
Dr. Waldo Hinshaw has over 25 years of experience in the development of medical imaging systems. His experience includes the development of basic science as well
as program management. He is an author of the first MR imaging patent and has written many patents and peer-reviewed scientific papers.
Waldo was an
Associate Professor in the Harvard Medical School with an appointment in the Radiology Department of the Massachusetts General Hospital. He was the program manager
for the early MR imaging program at Technicare (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson). Later, he was the Chief Operating Officer at Biomagnetic
Technologies, a San Diego company that built magnetic brain scanners based on superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDS). He directed the MRI engineering
team at the Toshiba facility in South San Francisco and later the engineering team at Imatron, the company that produced an ultra-fast x-ray CT scanner based on a
swept electron beam x-ray source. Waldo has been a consultant for the last several years working on a wide range of development projects.
Waldo received
a Ph.D. in physics from the University of North Carolina and continued his NMR research at the University of Nottingham in England.
Principal Engineer
Dr. James Hom has over 10 years of experience in the design and development of novel engineering systems and instrumentation. He has the proven ability
to obtain optimal results by bringing together design, theoretical and computational analyses, and experimentation.
James has held senior
engineering positions at several startup companies, Cooligy Inc., Signature BioScience Inc., and Westinghouse Electric Corporation. At Cooligy, which has been
acquired by Emerson Electric Co., he was a lead engineer for the company’s first commercial cooling products. He oversaw the evolution of the products
from the initial phases of development to the final manufacturing phase. Prior to Cooligy, he was responsible for the design, analysis, and testing of the
thermal control systems at Signature BioScience. At Westinghouse Electric, he was the technical lead in fluid systems engineering for a number of nuclear
power plants. His areas of expertise include fluids, thermal, optics, acoustics, and vibrations engineering; and he has published a number of technical
papers.
James received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.
Senior Systems Engineer
Aaron Joseph has over 15 years of experience in instrument development over a wide range of technologies, from capital equipment to disposable devices.
His product development experience includes the following projects: digital x-ray fluoroscopy system, heart-lung bypass machine, robotic catheter system,
microwave bioassay instrument, drug inhaler device, x-ray catheter for brachytherapy, endoscopy instrument with R/F ablation, automated blood separation system,
CAD/CAM system for custom prosthetics, and portable gait monitor.
Aaron specializes in verification and validation testing of medical instruments.
He works with product development teams in designing test plans, developing new test methods, writing and executing test protocols, performing risk analyses,
and refining product requirements. He has extensive experience implementing and managing design controls at small startup companies as well as large
corporations.
Aaron received a BS degree in Electrical Engineering from Rice University and a MS degree in Biomedical Engineering from the
University of Washington.
Principal Engineer
Paul Kahn has over 20 years experience in software development, including specification of software system architecture and design, implementation at all
levels of the software hierarchy, hardware integration, system integration, and software verification. He has developed software for a wide variety of
applications, including gas chromatography, infrared analysis, process control, DNA electrophoresis, medical instrumentation (critical care, imaging, & OTC
devices), scanning electron microscopes [SEM], optical networking, wireless networking, computer peripherals, and hand-held computers (PDAs).
As a
contractor, Paul has worked for many companies, including Bayer Diabetes Care, Abbott Laboratories, NexRay, Centerpoint Broadband Technologies, Symbol Technologies,
Fisher-Rosemount, Beckman Industrial, IBM, Eclipse Intl, ProQuip, GW Electronics, Lab Intelligence, and others.
Paul holds a BS in Computer Science from
the San Francisco State University.
Principal Engineer
Dr. Jamie Ku has over 10 years of experience in the design, development, and manufacture of imaging systems and components. He has a track record of
complete product development cycle from concept to production for several radiation imaging systems and optical imaging components. He has also the proven
ability to conduct failure analysis and troubleshoot at all stages of product development and in product applications.
Jamie has held senior
engineering, project management, and engineering management positions at a startup company and at PerkinElmer Optoelectronics. At PerkinElmer, he worked on
flat panel X-ray detectors, CCD sensors and cameras, CMOS sensors and cameras, and imaging detector read-out ICs. He was on the grant proposal review
committee of NIH Vision System. Prior to PerkinElmer, he was working with position sensitive optical detectors, novel optics, and radiation detection
systems at Lexitek. His areas of expertise include radiation detection, UV-IR light detection, optics, and imaging system engineering.
Jamie received his Ph.D. degrees in Nuclear Science and Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was a postdoctoral researcher at the
Argonne National Laboratory.
Principal Engineer
Mike Lawless has over 25 years experience in R&D and Product Design primarily in the development of high volume Medical Devices, with responsibility for
mechanisms, sensors, actuators, cases, user features, accessories and medical disposables. He was responsible for characterization and optimization of
technologies to meet performance requirements in a variety of domestic and international medical markets and was awarded 27 invention patents for design innovations
to ultrasonic and pressure transducers, mechanisms, disposables and new technology IV pump systems.
Mike has been Team Leader and Manager of cross
functional engineering teams to design, validate and release new Medical IV Pump technologies and corresponding IV sets. His work on all phases of new product
development has emphasized a balanced and disciplined use of design, analysis and targeted concept testing to quickly refine the fundamentals of operation. He
has expertise in design for very high volume (10+ million per year) injection molded of plastics and silicone disposables and required assembly automation.
Mike has a BSME from Santa Clara University and MSME coursework in Simulations and Analytical Optimization methods.
Senior Engineer
Henry Liu has over 7 years of experience developing life science instruments and other technology applications, at both small and large companies.
He has performed extensive testing component and high throughput automated instruments for the biotech industry.
In addition to his product development
experience, Henry held a senior position at Cafepress.com, where he transformed a startup facility to a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility able to accommodate
peak season demands of over 450% from normal, and perfected the art of on-demand printing on dark garments.
Henry received a BS in Chemistry from
University of California, Irvine. He holds one patent in well-based biosensor detecting molecular or cellular events, and another pending patent for adjustable
area platen.
Mechanical Engineer
Daniel Menig has a background in machine design and motion control for semiconductor and machine tool equipment. He lead a small team in the design and
development of a miniature 5 axis CNC mill for MDA Precision. While working at LAM Research’s research and development lab, he participated in developing a
new wafer coating system. Daniel has spent significant time in machine shops prototyping and developing various mechanisms resulting in excellent hands on
skills and intimate understanding of manufacturing processes.
Daniel holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering with a mechatronics concentration from
California Polytechnic State University(San Luis Obispo).
Principal Scientist
Dr. Keith Nishihara has over 25 years of experience in the field of computer vision including extensive work on binocular stereo matching, optical
flow measurement, image registration, shape recognition, 3-D gesture recognition, and real-time processor architectures. He is adept at solving complex
problems and at transforming theory into practical hardware and software implementations. He has applied this technology to problems in medical imaging,
human-computer-interfaces, architectural CAD, security and surveillance, integrated circuit fabrication, and industrial inspection.
Keith has held
senior technical and management positions at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Schlumberger’s Palo Alto Research Laboratory, Teleos
Research, Autodesk, Stanford University, NASA’s Ames Research Center & PhorMax Corp.
Keith received his Ph.D. in Mathematics from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has published widely & has nine issued patents. His academic research has been highlighted in cover articles
in Nature magazine and Technology Review.
Senior Electrical Engineer
Willem Ouborg has 4 years experience developing and testing products containing cutting edge technologies, including applications of carbon nanotubes.
At Intematix, Willem helped develop a carbon nanotube based electrode for hydrogen fuel cell applications, including a patent pending technique of catalyst and
Nafion deposition. At Nonomix, he helped develop gas sensors based on single wall CNTs. He led the prototyping of an ammonia monitor, and
integrated complex FTIR equipment and software to create an ammonia reference sensor.
Willem holds a BSEE and MS in EE/MEMS from UCLA.
Engineer
Manisha Patel has a background in Fluid flow operations, Transport phenomena, Heat & Mass transfer and Thermodynamics. She also possesses strong academic
background in Biomedical Engineering.
She made a stirling engine and explored its possible use as means of waste heat recovery in chemical plants, for
which she was awarded prizes from many universities in India.
She has two years of experience as a teaching assistant at NIT (National Institute of
Technology), India, where she taught core Chemical Engineering subjects and undertook laboratory sessions for different Chemical Engineering subjects.
During her academic career, she undertook many projects like developing self regulated drug delivery devices, working on MEMS technology for treating Glaucoma, and
designed a neural prosthesis that could automatically control the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.
She has indepth understanding of FDA’s
Quality System Regulations (QSR) and ISO 13485 Medical devices -- Quality Management Systems.
Manisha holds a BE in Chemical Engineering and MS in
Biomedical Engineering from the University of Southern California.
Senior Engineer
Mike Pinkney has over 18 years of experience in electromechanical design for medical device and biotech applications. He has worked at Novo Nordisk
Delivery Technologies, Aradigm, Nellcor, and Vista Labs.
Mike has an AA/AS degree in Electromechanical Design, and has participated in a wide variety
of CAD education and certification programs.
Senior Engineer
Camren Spangler has over 6 years of experience developing products and managing product development teams for medical device companies. His expertise is
in the development of analog and digital image processing electronics and control system electronics, as well as the development of embedded microcontroller
and FPGA firmware for these systems. He has successfully managed the design and launch of multi-million dollar medical device design projects, and is a leader in
the development of new video and communications technology for minimally invasive operating room suites.
Camren previously served as a Senior Design
Engineer and then as Engineering Manager at Stryker Communications, where he was responsible for the development of Stryker's flagship product line of Audio/Video
communications equipment for the operating room. Since leaving Stryker Communications, he has designed hardware and firmware for bio-impedance measurement systems,
semiconductor scanning electron microscopes, and operating room communications equipment.
Camren received a Honors Bachelor's of Science degree in
Computer Engineering from Oregon State University, where he graduated Summa Cum Laude.
Staff Systems Engineer
Roger Stenerson has over 25 years of experience in hardware, software, ASIC, and FPGA design primarily in Digital Signal Processing and Reed-Solomon error
correction systems.
Most recently Roger was at BroadLogic Network Technologies supporting customers that used the QAM demodulation and multi-channel
video processing chips, reference design boards, and software developed by
the company. He also developed software and Matlab models for DSP blocks in the
QAM demodulation chip.
He has also held engineering positions at Ampex Corporation, Applied Signal Technology, and Hyundai Electronics America.
Roger holds five patents. He received a B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Oregon State University.
Principal Engineer
Petre Vatahov has over 25 years of experience in product and process development in applications such as hermetic seals (glass to metal, glass to ceramic,
ceramic to metal, metal to metal), thermal processing, ultra high vacuum, high voltage, thin film deposition and processing, and failure analysis.
Most
recently Petre was Principal Engineer at Xoft Inc. where he was involved in the development of a miniature X-ray source, and transferring it into production.
Previously, he held development engineering and management positions at Candescent Technologies Inc. (a flat panel display developer) and DZU Corp.
(a hard disk manufacturer).
Petre received his BS and MS in Chemical Engineering from the Institute of Chemical Technology in Sofia, Bulgaria.
He is co-inventor of four issued patents.
Senior Engineer
Mary Beth Wilson has 25 years experience in the software engineering industry, developing commercial products and government applications and systems.
Her experience includes product development and maintenance, project management, systems verification and validation, software test, quality assurance, customer
support, and quality systems (SEI and ISO).
Mary Beth has worked at startups and large companies. She has held senior management positions at Sageware,
Inc. and General Dynamics (formerly GTE Government Systems) as Director of Engineering. Prior to that, she had project and management responsibilities at other
technology-related companies.
Mary Beth received a BA from Florida State University, with a major in Asian Studies and Multinational Business, minor in
Computer Science.
Senior Engineer
Nathan Woodcock has over 10 years experience in electrical and computer engineering on medical, commercial, and security applications. He has performed product
development, system architecture, board level design, FPGA design, and ASIC design. He has significant experience in audio and video processing, control and
algorithm implementation and verification.
Nathan received his BS degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Minnesota and his MS degree in
Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He has worked for Stryker, Flextronics, Micron, and Honeywell.
