Chris Aden

Sr. Director AI Solutions
LMI Technologies

Chris Aden is the Senior Director of AI Solutions at LMI Technologies. He has extensive experience working with AI-based solutions in the machine vision industry. Prior to joining LMI Technologies, Chris founded FringeAI, an innovative AI and IIoT/5G inspection company based in Boston. The company delivers AI-based solutions that leverage integrated deep learning, dedicated edge devices, and IIoT/5G-connected cloud services. Chris has an MSEE degree and BSEE from Georgia Tech and UF, respectively and a SM in Management and Engineering from MIT. Prior to coming to the computer vision industry, Chris was solving tough modeling problems in the communications and semiconductor industry — long before the chain rule had been rebranded “back propagation”.

Prasad Akella

Founder and Chairman
Drishti

Dr. Prasad Akella, founder and chairman of the Drishti board, is creating his third massive market category that uses technology to extend human capabilities. In the 1990s, Prasad led the General Motors team that built the world’s first collaborative robots (“cobots,” projected to be a $12B market by 2025). In the early 2000s, as cofounder of the social networking pioneer Spoke, he envisioned and helped build the first massive social graph — a category now worth trillions. Today, at Drishti, he is working to combine the cognition of AI with the flexibility of humans in factories in the form of AI-powered production. Prasad is based in Mountain View, California.

Anupriya Ashok Balikai

Global Managing Director
Spookfish Innovations

A well known face in the pharmaceutical and computer vision space, Dr Sudeep Sundaram and Dr Anupriya Balikai, Founder Directors of Spookfish Innovations, have been key drivers of Spookfish’s growth from scratch. Spookfish headquartered in Bangalore India has three offices in the USA, UK and Netherlands and specialise in machine vision solutions in the multi spectral and visual domain and help the pharmaceutical and FMCG sectors.

Both Sudeep and Anupriya completed their doctoral degree at the Universities in the UK University of Bristol and Bath in the field of Computer Vision and Machine Learning before co-founding Spookfish Innovations in 2015.

Sudeep, an early technology driver of sports technologies such as goal line technology spends his time bridging the gap between R&D and high speed inspection solutions for Spookfish and guides the team as the Technical Director. Anupriya spends her days practicing the black art of successfully balancing a technology driven business and holds the title of Global Managing Director.. She has dealt with a diverse set of markets and customers, including pharmaceuticals, FMCG, currency coin manufacturers, paper and steel mills. Spookfish have a goal to help manufacturing companies improve their Quality control processes and ensure 100% of inspection through automated quality control inspection machines.

The company has been awarded several technology awards more recently as Winners of New Age Technology 2022 at the Indian Packaging Awards 2022 coordinated by Informa Markets. Anupriya has also been recognised as being one of the Top 15 Women Transforming India 2019 organized by the United Nations and Niti Ayog, the Entrepreneur of the Year award 2022 in Karnataka and several other achievements in the healthcare and technology sectors.

Bruce Baring

Vice President of Operations
Tompkins Robotics

Bruce Baring is a Vice President with Tompkins Robotics and works with our clients to define requirements, develop solutions, and establish the business case for deploying our tSort solutions. tSort is the world’s first robotic, truly scalable, portable, and intelligently adaptable automated sortation system that is changing the way firms execute in their supply chains. In the role of concept development, Baring brings a practical approach to creating the most flexible automated solution tailored to addressing our clients’ business needs as they evolve and grow to maximize their return on invested capital.

Baring began his supply chain consulting career with Tompkins in 1995 and has recently joined the Tompkins Robotics team after working for several other consulting and engineering firms.

Throughout his career, Baring has helped companies across all industry verticals transform and improve their supply chain performance through network optimization, distribution center design, and the deployment of automated solutions.

Baring has a BSIE in Industrial Engineering from Texas A&M University and an MBA for UNC-Greensboro.

Ian Blasch

Senior Director
Jabil

For over 25 years Ian has spent his career at the intersection of technology, finance, and innovation as an engineer, investment banker, corporate venture capitalist, and entrepreneur. Prior to leading Jabil Optics’ R&D initiatives, Ian founded Micron Technology’s Open Innovation Group, held senior management positions at several deep technology startups, executed financial transactions as an investment banker, and was a Captain in the United States Air Force.

Ian holds an MBA/MSE from Stanford University and a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from MIT. Based on his academic and undergraduate research work at MIT, Ian was awarded a prestigious Marshall Fellowship to study for an MSc in Mechanical Engineering at Cranfield University.

David Bruce

Engineering Manager
FANUC America Corporation

Dave Bruce joined FANUC America Corporation (FAC) in 1997 and is currently an engineering manager for a group of engineers that support FANUC Robot integrators and end users with iRVision and 3rd party machine vision enabled applications. He has a Master’s in Computer Science from Oakland University (Auburn Hills, MI) and a Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering from the University of Windsor (Windsor, Ontario).

Thomas Brukilacchio

President
Innovations in Optics, Inc.

Dr. Brukilacchio is the Founder and President of Innovations in Optics located in Woburn, Massachusetts. He began his career with both a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Optical Engineering from the prestigious, Institute of Optics at the University of Rochester. From college he was recruited into the aerospace industry starting at Jet Propulsion Labs, TRW, and Hughes Aircraft, eventually applying his expertise to his long-time interest in medical optic device development at Bard Critical Care. He subsequently received his Ph.D. from the School of Engineering at Tufts University. Dr. Brukilacchio’s dissertation work was completed at The NMR Center of Massachusetts General Hospital, in affiliation with Harvard Medical School’s Department of Radiology and the Photon Migration Laboratory.

Innovations in Optics produces many thousands of UV Light Emitting Diode (LED) light engines per year, of varying complexity for a range of markets including Semiconductor and Microelectronics, Medical and Life Sciences, Industrial, and Commercial.

Dr. Brukilacchio is a world-renowned leader in advancing state-of-the-art technologies for use with LEDs and has received over 70 US and international patents related to optics and electro-optics. He holds seminal patents in non-imaging and imaging optics used in conjunction with LEDs and other light sources, as well as foundational patents in the use of UV LEDs in the fields of maskless lithography, advanced packaging, and high-speed 3D printing for volume manufacturing.

David C. Bursell

Vice President of Business Development
MoviTHERM

David C. Bursell is passionate about imaging technologies and solutions. For over 23 years, he has been extensively involved with infrared imaging science. He has worked for imaging companies, including Inframetrics, FLIR Systems, and MoviTHERM, where he is currently the Vice President of Business Development. His education includes a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Brigham Young University and an MBA from Boston University. He has also studied Digital Marketing Analytics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. When working with infrared cameras, David enjoys restoring old cars. A current project includes the restoration of a 1977 Toyota FJ40 Landcruiser.

Michael Calabrese

Owner & President
Control System Integrators

Michael Calabrese is the Owner and President of Control System Integrators (CSI), a leading industrial automation firm, which designs and integrates machine vision, robotic and control systems, product traceability and custom industrial IT software solutions for clients across industries. Under his leadership, Calabrese has driven the firm’s strategic expansion across North America. Since assuming leadership in 2016, CSI has built a reputation for superior work in the automotive and material handling sectors.

Georgy Das

Director of Systems and Training
Midwest Optical Systems

Georgy Das is a Systems & Solutions Engineer for Midwest Optical Systems. He’s a self-described “techie” and early adopter of every new gadget under the sun. His passion for teaching and training is surpassed only by his love for optical filters and providing the simplest solutions to the most complex industrial vision applications on a global scale. His worldwide audiences have appreciated his straightforward presentations and easy-to-implement, cost-effective solutions for their toughest vision applications.

David L. Dechow

Vice President of Outreach and Vision Technology
Landing AI

David L. Dechow is VP of Outreach and Vision Technology with Landing AI where he works with cross-functional teams to support LandingLens, the company’s unique deep learning based automated inspection product. He is an experienced engineer, programmer, and entrepreneur specializing in the integration of machine vision, robotics, and other automation technologies, with an extensive career in the industry. He was the founder, owner, and principal engineer for two successful vision systems integration firms. Just prior to joining Landing AI he was Principal Vision Systems Architect with Integro Technologies, and previously served as Staff Engineer for Intelligent Robotics/Machine Vision at FANUC America Corporation.

Mr. Dechow is a recipient of the A3 Automated Imaging Achievement Award honoring industry leaders for outstanding career contributions in industrial and/or scientific imaging. He is a member of the Association for Advancing Automation (A3) Imaging Technology Strategy Board, is a contributing editor for Vision Systems Design magazine, and is a technical advisory board member with Saccade Vision Ltd.

As a key educator within the machine vision industry, Mr. Dechow has participated in the training of hundreds of engineers as an instructor with the A3 Certified Vision Professional program. He also is well known for his frequent informative technical articles, papers, webinars, and conference sessions and classes covering a wide range of technical topics involving machine vision and enabling technologies in industrial automation.

Jumbi Edulbehram

Dir. of Global Business Development, Smart Cities and Spaces
NVIDIA

Jumbi Edulbehram oversees global business development for Smart Cities and Spaces at NVIDIA, where he is responsible for driving revenue for AI computing products by defining and implementing growth strategies for smart city solutions. Prior to NVIDIA, he was the VP of global cloud services at Motorola Solutions, where he was responsible for Avigilon’s cloud products. Prior to joining Avigilon, Jumbi was the Regional President of the Americas for Oncam, a maker of immersive video technology. Jumbi has held leadership positions at Samsung Techwin, Next Level Systems and Axis Communications, and has also worked as a management consultant at BCG and as a chip design engineer at Intel Corp. Jumbi is passionate about the use of AI-based computing technologies for instrumenting smarter spaces.Jumbi Edulbehram oversees global business development for Smart Cities and Spaces at NVIDIA, where he is responsible for driving revenue for AI computing products by defining and implementing growth strategies for smart city solutions. Prior to NVIDIA, he was the VP of global cloud services at Motorola Solutions, where he was responsible for Avigilon’s cloud products. Prior to joining Avigilon, Jumbi was the Regional President of the Americas for Oncam, a maker of immersive video technology. Jumbi has held leadership positions at Samsung Techwin, Next Level Systems and Axis Communications, and has also worked as a management consultant at BCG and as a chip design engineer at Intel Corp. Jumbi is passionate about the use of AI-based computing technologies for instrumenting smarter spaces.

Martin H Ettenberg

President
Princeton Infrared Technologies, Inc.

Dr. Ettenberg is currently the CEO and founder of Princeton Infrared Technologies, Inc., a company dedicated to the commercialization of NIR/SWIR detection technologies. He has been developing InGaAs detectors for over 20 years with previous experience at Sensors Unlimited Inc./Goodrich Corporation. Dr. Ettenberg graduated with a Masters and a Ph.D. degree from the University of Virginia Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering. He also received his BS in Materials Science and Engineering from Cornell University.

Scott Everett

Co-founder & CEO
Eigen Innovations

Scott Everett co-founded Eigen Innovations in 2012 and spends the majority of his time working with the product development team to evolve Eigen’s machine vision solutions and pitching our technology to Tier 1 manufacturers around the globe.

Neil Farrow

Machine Vision Applications Engineer
DataSensing - A division of Datalogic

Neil Farrow has been involved in the design, startup and improvement of control systems for many years. Roles include consulting, systems integration, and process improvement. He has had the privilege of doing machine vision applications for the last seven years.

José Pedro Ferreira

Global Product Director
Neadvance

José Pedro Ferreira is the Global Product Director of Neadvance. He has been in the company since 2005 and started as a developer; he was actively involved in the first systems exported to Europe and APAC region performing several roles, namely project manager, account manager and sales. José Pedro has a degree in electronic and computer engineering from Faculty of Engineering (University of Porto) and an executive MBA from Porto Business School.

Philip Freidin

Applications Engineer
IDS Imaging Development Systems

Philip Freidin is an applications engineer at IDS Imaging Development Systems Inc. He currently supports customers that are developing machine vision solutions with IDS 2D, Ensenso 3D, and NXT embedded cameras. Throughout his 4 years at the company, Philip has helped integrate IDS cameras into applications such as bin picking, palletizing/depalletizing, logistics automation, quality assurance, and sports engineering. He holds a B.S. in aerospace engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Joe Gemma

Global VP Sales & Marketing
Calvary Robotics

Joe Gemma has 35 plus years of experience working in the automation industry in a variety of roles including engineering, project management, business development and sales management. He is currently the Global Vice President of Sales & Marketing at Calvary Robotics where he is responsible for the front end of the business. Joe also serves on the Board of the Association for Advancing Automation.

Ed Goffin

Senior Manager, Marketing
Pleora Technologies

Ed Goffin is marketing manager with Pleora Technologies, a leading provider of machine vision and AI solutions for the industrial automation market. In his role, Ed is responsible for understanding customer requirements and market demands as manufacturers deploy new AI solutions to solve quality issues. Before joining Pleora, he held marketing, investor relations, and corporate communications roles in the semiconductor, managed services, and telecommunications markets.

Tomás Goldaracena

Director of Business Development
Graftek Imaging

Tomás Goldaracena is the Director of Business Development at Graftek Imaging. He is responsible for leveraging Graftek’s technology to solve customer’s needs, as well as advising experienced vision professionals on hardware alternatives to solve complex projects. In addition to the U.S. market, he manages Graftek Imaging’s business operations in Mexico, Central, and South America. Prior to joining Graftek, Tomás focused his research on developing multi-vehicle autonomous systems, and published research papers on the topic. Tomás has a Bachelor of Science in Engineering with a concentration in Mechatronics from the University of the Incarnate Word and is currently pursuing a Master’s in Engineering Management from the University of Texas at Austin.

Krishna Gopalakrishnan

VP of Machine Learning
Elementary Systems

Krishna has spent the last 24 years building AI systems for a broad range of applications and industries spanning industrial automation, defense, logistics and semiconductors. Krishna most recently came from Realtime Robotics where he led the perception team. Prior to that, Krishna was part of the perception team at Amazon Robotics developing solutions for autonomous item manipulation.

Krishna currently heads the Computer Vision team at Elementary Systems, responsible for developing the AI-driven machine vision tools.

Dan Grollman

Principal Engineer
Plus One Robotics

Dr. Grollman leads the research team for Plus One Robotics, where the motto is “Robots Work, People Rule.” With over a decade of experience in productizing Human-Robot Interaction (Vecna Technologies, Sphero Inc, Misty Robotics), his work centers on applying academic research to commercial problems. At Plus One Robotics, his focus is building systems that enable robots and humans to continuously learn from each other. A self-described ‘full stack roboticist,’ Dr. Grollman was a postdoctoral fellow at EPFL, received his Ph.D and Sc.M in Computer Science from Brown University, and his B.S in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Yale.

Kurt Häusler

CEO Sensors & Automation North America
Photoneo

Kurt started to gain extensive knowledge and experience in the fields of robotics, automation, industrial metrology, sensors, and machine vision right after graduating from the University of Linz (Mechatronics) in 1996. He coordinated multi-national R&D projects dealing with automated robot motion planning and programming for complex manufacturing processes based on 3D sensor data input. He had been involved long-term with ATENSOR in Steyr, Austria (a company of the MICRO-EPSILON group) since its foundation in 2003. He was managing the company for several years, focussing on the development and sales of sensor-based robotics for industrial processes.

At Photoneo, Kurt acts as the CEO of the Sensors & Automation division in North America. He utilizes his experience in the field to discover new applications and expand Photoneo‘s business in German-speaking regions and North America. His ambition is to increase machine intelligence and automate processes beyond the state-of-the-art. With his in-depth systems engineering knowledge, he knows how to integrate sensor hardware and software algorithms to push the limits further.

Frantisek Jakubec

Automation & Technology Specialist; Machine Vision
Balluff Inc.

Frank Jakubec is a sales specialist and product manager for Matrix Vision, a brand of Balluff, with more than 10 years of experience in B2B product and solution selling. He is an experienced sales leader and skilled in business development. After the acquisition of Matrix Vision GmbH by Balluff GmbH in 2017, he took the opportunity to move to the United States to establish the machine vision product portfolio and grow the machine vision market in the US.

Mark Jakusovszky

US Business Development Manager
Silicon Line GmbH

Mark has over 30 years' experience developing and promoting analog, optical & wireless integrated circuit solutions. He has worked for industry leaders in both technical and business roles.

In his current role at Silicon Line, he is developing Active Optical Cable solutions which offer world class performance, cost, power consumption and size for video communications applications in consumer, industrial, medical and automotive applications. Silicon Line products support high data-rate communications protocols including HDMI, Display Port, MIPI D-PHY, CoaXPress, PCIe and Optical Ethernet up to 20Gbps per fiber.

Silicon Line technology minimizes cost and offers an AOC solution that is nearly transparent to the user and integrates seamlessly into traditionally copper cabling applications. Mark has a BSEE from Rensselaer and an MSEE from Santa Clara University.

Athinodoros Klipfel

Head of Sales
AT - Automation Technology GmbH

Dr. Athinodoros Klipfel is head of sales at AT – Automation Technology GmbH. His career in the company began 18 years ago as a 3D application engineer developing demanding 3D inspection systems based on laser triangulation, later he became product manager of the 3D cameras of AT and after 5 years he focused in 3D camera sales. In 2020 Dr. Klipfel became head of sales extending his product portfolio with the smart IR cameras of AT. He has an extensive 20 year experience in Machine Vision, especially in 3D laser triangulation sensors and applications.

Hongsuk Lee

CEO
Neurocle Inc.

CEO & Founder, Neurocle Inc.
Business Development, Sualab Co., Ltd.
Strategic Marketing Team, LG Display

CEO of Neurocle, Hongsuk Lee, has exceptional business strategy and operations management skills acquired from experience. During his experience, he acknowledged the need for AI deep learning technology in various fields. Hence, in 2019, with the vision of 'Making Deep Learning Vision Technology More Accessible’, he started his own business on a deep learning vision software for non-experts.

Andy Long

CEO
CYTH SYSTEMS

Andy Long founded Cyth Systems in 1999 after working for several years on test engineering projects large and small. His earliest experience was for the British Aerospace Military in roles of Flight Test, Information Services, and Marketing. He later developed test systems for aerospace, automotive, and biotech applications. Cyth Systems grew rapidly and began developing the procedures, skills, and experience to help customers around the world develop successful Machine Vision applications. Now, thanks to Cyth's AI-based Machine Vision software NeuralVision, clients for the first time ever have total control of their machine vision systems performance without being dependent on an external vision expert and without any prior programming experience. Stop by Andy's presentation to hear more about Machine Vision's move to AI.

Daniel C. Loucks

Sr. Imaging and Measurement Systems Engineer
Corning Incorporated

Dan Loucks is a Sr. Imaging and Measurement Engineer who works for Corning Incorporated developing novel machine vision solutions. In this role, Dan partners with Corning’s businesses to build and sustain Corning’s manufacturing as a differential advantage by deploying measurement systems that support manufacturing process control and inspection of Corning products. Prior to his current role, Dan spent 13 years in the medical device manufacturing industry as a Sr. Manufacturing Engineer. Dan brings his passion, knowledge, and expertise of developing new products, manufacturing processes and custom vision systems from concept to implementation to Corning Incorporated.

Dan has developed machine vision solutions for multiple industries, including Medical Device, Automotive, Aerospace, Defense and Consumer Electronics. At Corning, Dan has developed production machine vision systems for multiple Corning businesses including, Corning Display Technologies, Corning Environmental Technologies, Corning Life Sciences, and Corning Optical Communications. He has also supported numerous internal Research and Development applications. Solutions that Dan has developed for Corning include vision guided CNC machining, polarization camera systems for process control, and inspection systems used in the manufacturing of pharmaceutical vials intended for novel drugs and vaccines, to name a few.

Dan has a beautiful family, including his wife Alenna and their 4 children. Outside of work, Dan’s hobbies include quality family time and adventures, fly fishing, bee keeping and gardening. Dan also volunteers at his church where he coordinates and leads financial education classes as well as walking alongside of others through their own cancer journeys, to support in any way he can.

Dan holds a bachelor’s degree in Manufacturing Engineering Technology from Rochester Institute of Technology.

Alexandre Lussier

Staff Scientist
Resonon

Alex Lussier has a Ph.D. in physics and is currently a staff scientist with Resonon, a Montana-based company that designs, manufactures, and deploys hyperspectral imaging systems. Dr. Lussier’s diverse professional history includes fuel cell research scientist, designer/installer/educator in the solar power industry, business owner, adjunct instructor at Montana State University, and staff scientist in the private sector.

Mathieu Marmion

Lead Application Specialist
SPECIM

Mathieu Marmion hold a double MSc degree in Electrical Engineering (INP Grenoble France and NTNU Trondheim Norway) as well as a PhD in Physical Geography (Oulu Finland). During the past 10 years Mathieu was employed at SPECIM, and has been a Technical Sales Engineer and a Sales Manager, before to be currently a Lead Application Specialist.

Kevin-Carlin

Kevin Carlin

Chief Commercial Officer
Realtime Robotics

Kevin Carlin is the Chief Commercial Officer at Realtime Robotics, since Jan 2022. Before that, Kevin has held a wide variety of roles in the semiconductor industry over the past 25 years, including leading the Industrial Automation, Energy and Industrial AI based SaaS Businesses for Analog Devices. Kevin spent 15 years in Europe leading various sales organizations, including 12 years in Germany. He is fluent in German and holds a Bachelor’s and Master's
degree in Electronic Engineering & DSP from Ulster University. Kevin is originally from Belfast, N. Ireland and currently resides in Boston, MA.

Tad A. G. Newman

Product Manager
Omron

Tad is the Product Manager for Machine Vision, RFID, and Precision Measurement products at OMRON Automation Americas and has previously served as an OMRON Field Application Engineer. Prior to OMRON, he worked for Mitsubishi Electric Automation as an Automation Specialist and at Automatic Engineering Group as a Systems Integrator. He has over 25 years of experience solving and supporting Machine Vision, Robotics, and general automation applications. His educational background includes a Degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Certificate in Engineering Psychology from Georgia Tech. He is a Certified Vision Professional and a GS1 Standards Professional.

Laura Pahren

Senior Machine Learning Engineer
Procter & Gamble

Laura Pahren has been working in predictive analytics for 8 years. For the past 4 years, she has been a machine learning engineer at Procter & Gamble, where her primary responsibilities include standardizing AI workflows and developing software for training and inference at the edge for both traditional and deep learning-based machine vision applications. Laura received her bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from The Ohio State University and her master’s and PhD from the University of Cincinnati. At UC, she studied under Dr. Jay Lee at the Intelligent Maintenance Systems Center and was recently awarded the 2022 SME Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award.

Slawomir S. Piatek

Consultant
Hamamatsu

As a senior university lecturer of physics at New Jersey Institute of Technology, Slawomir S. Piatek, Ph.D., has been measuring the proper motions of nearby galaxies using images obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope. As a science consultant for Hamamatsu Corp. in New Jersey, Piatek has developed a photonics training program for engineers. At Hamamatsu, he is also involved in popularizing the latest photonic technologies by writing and lecturing about it, and by experimenting with the device. He earned a doctorate in physics from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, in 1994.

Mark Peterson

VP Advanced Technology
Theia Technologies

Mark Peterson is a co-founder and VP of Advanced Technology of Theia Technologies. He enjoys investigating new technologies that can improve and advance Theia's line of products and solutions, allowing Theia to be a leader in optics and imaging. Mark believes that understanding a broad range of technologies and bringing together ideas from different areas is fundamental to building exciting new products that allow our customers to accomplish their goals.

Prior to founding Theia Technologies Mark worked in Advanced Development at InFocus Systems. There, he and Mr. Gohman developed the core technologies for creating ultra wide angle low distortion lenses that allowed Theia to spin off.

Mark has over 40 patents and has contributed to conferences in Machine Vision and white papers on optics and lenses. He has BS and MS degrees from the University of Wisconsin and has been working in the optics industry for 25 years.

In his time outside the office, Mark is leader of a pack of three malamutes and puts in lots of miles on his road bike. Mark and his wife, Lynn, are trying to minimize their environmental footprint and recently built a small home on their property in Lake Oswego, Oregon.

Garrett Place

Business Development - Robotics Perception
ifm efector, inc

Garrett started at ifm in 1994. His appetite for advanced technologies led him in 2008 to market ifm’s first 3D imaging camera for material handling/robot machines. From that time to present, as Sr. Product Manager, he has concentrated on 3D imaging for both mobile and fixed arm robotics, specifically targeted towards Logistics Automation.

Andreas Platz

Project Manager Imaging Optics
Sill Optics Gmbh & Co. KG

Andreas Platz has studied ophthalmic optics at University of Applied Sciences in Jena specializing in technical optics. He completed his studies with a degree in Master of Science in 2013. In 2014, he joined Sill Optics in the project management team. Since 2015, he has been responsible for the imaging products, including the product portfolio, lens design and OEM projects. His main focus is telecentric lenses for specific applications and the customized imaging lenses.

Bryan Powrozek

Senior Manager, Industrial Automation
Clayton & McKervey

Bryan Powrozek leads Clayton & McKervey’s Industrial Automation practice, where he focuses on helping systems integrators and manufacturers free up cash flow, maximize R&D tax credits and grow their businesses. This engineer turned CPA is also the host of our podcast, The Sound of Automation, where he advises business owners on everything from taxes and finances to data and transactions.

Erin Rapacki

Senior PMM Robotics & Isaac Sim
NVIDIA

Erin Rapacki-Bishop began as an early product manager in autonomous mobile robots (AMRs). Since then, Erin has been a thought leader and trusted storyteller in the Silicon Valley robotics community where she consulted with, and invested in, several robotics startups including many with successful exits. Now Erin is working with the high-powered team at NVIDIA to bring robot simulation to the masses. Her experience has guided her to advocate for new capabilities that will bring the autonomous robotics industry to the next level.

Kamel Saidi

Group Leader
National Institute of Standards and Technology

Dr. Kamel Saidi is the leader of the Sensing and Perception Systems Group in the Intelligent Systems Division at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Dr. Saidi has been working on developing metrics, test methods, and ground-truth systems for evaluating perception, safety, dexterity, mapping, and autonomy performance of ground, aerial, and aquatic robots for applications in construction, manufacturing, nuclear maintenance and decommissioning, and emergency response since 2002. Dr. Saidi is one of the founding members of the ASTM International Committee E57 on 3D Imaging Systems and has served in multiple leadership positions in the committee since 2006. He is currently the vice-chair of ASTM E57 and has been involved in the committee’s development of multiple industry standards for LiDAR instruments and data. He is also the Associate Program Manager of the Measurement Science for Manufacturing Robotics Program at NIST and has been involved in the development of metrics and tests for evaluating the performance of Unmanned Aircraft Systems, and pilots of these systems, for various applications since 2014 as part of his Vice-Chair role of ASTM Committee E54.09 on Response Robots for Homeland Security Applications. Dr. Saidi is also part of the National Construction Safety Team and is currently working on an investigation into the partial collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium building in Surfside, Florida that occurred on June 24, 2021. He received his Ph.D. degree in Civil Engineering focused on construction automation systems as well as his M.S. and B.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering with a focus on robotics and mechanical systems design from The University of Texas at Austin.

Stephen Se

Senior Research Manager
Teledyne FLIR - Machine Vision

Stephen Se is the Senior Research Manager at Teledyne FLIR Machine Vision with over 20 years of experience in computer vision, video/image processing, deep learning, 3D modeling, mobile robotics, airborne surveillance, etc. He completed a B.Eng. degree in Computing at Imperial College London and a Ph.D. degree in Computer Vision and Robotics at University of Oxford. He then worked as a post-doctoral researcher at University of British Columbia on vision-based mobile robot localization. Subsequently, he led computer vision R&D projects for defense, mining, and terrestrial applications at MDA Corporation. He is a senior member of IEEE and a professional engineer, with over 40 technical publications.

Aaron Smith

Executive Recruiter
Miller Resource Group

Aaron Smith is an Executive Recruiter with Miller Resource Group and started in the recruiting industry for Accounting and Finance back in 2012. Aaron currently recruits salespeople, engineers, and many other positions in the Building Automation and Energy sectors for Miller Resource Group. Aaron has also consulted with numerous businesses to help retain, attract, and hire the right people by also leveraging his experience as a licensed Real Estate Agent with Berkshire Hathaway Verani Realty.

Patrick Sobalvarro

Co-Founder and CEO
Veo Robotics

Patrick Sobalvarro is the co-founder and CEO of Veo Robotics, the creators of FreeMove®, a comprehensive 3D safeguarding system for industrial robotics that enables dynamic human-robot collaboration. FreeMove received safety certification in April 2021, making it a first-of-its-kind technology that deploys dynamic, 3D Speed and Separation Monitoring (SSM) for safeguarding in a manufacturing workcell.

Patrick has more than twenty-five years of experience in computer vision, robotics, and industrial automation. Prior to founding Veo Robotics, Patrick was the first Entrepreneur in Residence at Siemens Venture Capital, focusing on the creation of the vision behind Veo. He also served as the VP of New Growth Platforms for Avery Dennison, building a new business line in RFID-based IoT products; was President of Rethink Robotics; and founded and led the computer vision startup IntelliVid to its acquisition by Tyco International.

Patrick holds a Ph.D., S.M., and S.B. in Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Michael Suppa

Co-Founder and CEO
Roboception GmbH

Dr. Michael Suppa is the CEO and co-founder of Roboception GmbH, a Munich-based start-up providing comprehensive 3D perception solutions for robotic applications. He is a professor at the Institute of Artificial Intelligence of the University of Bremen.

He holds a Master’s and Doctoral Degree from the University of Hannover and spent 14 years at German Aerospace Center (DLR) in research and management positions, including the post of Deputy Director of the Institute of Robotics & Mechatronics.

Jerome Taylor

Application Engineer, NPI
Nortech Systems, Inc.

Educational Background: BSEE Degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Electrical Engineering professional with 20+ years of engineering experience in high speed I/O and Interconnects, hardware board design, and test software design
Applications Engineer at Nortech for 5 years focused on custom cables & interconnect, Research & Development to support Nortech’s Science & Technology initiatives
Current focus is adoption, development and promotion of emerging technologies, engineering services and new product introduction into the manufacturing process

Paul Thomas

Director of Machine Vision and Applied AI
Procter & Gamble

Paul Thomas, PE is the Director of Machine Vision and Applied AI in Global Engineering for Procter & Gamble. He has over 20 years of industrial controls experience as an OEM and End User. Paul is a licensed Professional Engineer in Ohio and Michigan. Paul is also the owner of the newly created Corporate Machine Vision and Applied AI Lab. His focus is to develop and identify innovative approaches for vision applications for robotics, quality inspections and product identification throughout P&G. Some of his recent accomplishments include multiple patents for the use of deep learning in inspection systems, contributing to an ANSI standard for safety of AI in machinery applications and the end-to-end development and deployment of a high-speed, edge-based deep learning solution.

Max Versace

CEO and Co-Founder
Neurala

Dr. Massimiliano Versace is the CEO and co-founder of Neurala. With decades of experience and research in AI and deep learning techniques, Dr. Versace is now focused on making AI more applicable and useful in real-world applications, specifically in the manufacturing and industrial industry. Prior to co-founding Neurala, Dr. Versace co-founded the Boston University Neuromorphics Lab, and worked with government organizations such as DARPA and NASA to develop AI with the ability to learn in real-time, at the edge, and free of traditional constraints of computational hardware.

Dr. Versace has spoken at numerous events, including a keynote at Mobile World Congress Drone Summit, TEDx, NASA, the Pentagon, MIT Tech Review’s Future Compute and IMA Sensing Days. His work has been featured in Forbes, CNN, Fortune, MSNBC, the Associated Press, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, and more.

He holds several patents and two PhDs: Cognitive and Neural Systems, Boston University; Experimental Psychology, University of Trieste, Italy.

Maharajan Veerabahu

Co-Founder
e-con Systems

Maharajan (Maha) has been in the embedded product development space for over two decades. In the early 2000s, he co-founded e-con Systems - a bootstrapped company that has since become a global pioneer in embedded imaging and product development. Still an engineer at heart, Maha continues to play an integral role in product design – having been actively involved in 200+ successful customer products. Committed to incubating a continuous learning environment at the workplace, he builds, mentors, and manages the overall engineering teams at e-con Systems.

Maha is also an in-house entrepreneur - fiercely passionate about new and emerging technologies. He is a key contributor to the company’s new camera product development strategy, focusing more recently on computer vision and AI-powered vision.

Jacob Vingless

Senior Engineer
Prophesee

He has over a decade of experience in designing and supporting industrial and commercial computer vision systems working as an engineer for Basler. Initially focused on traditional machine vision design, he shifted focus towards emerging technologies in the computer vision space. In 2018, He helped run a cutting-edge technology division within the company dedicated to the development of easy-to-integrate embedded vision components and software where he helped design embedded vision systems for large companies focused on emerging commercial markets and the Industrial IOT sector.

In the beginning of 2022, Jacob joined Prophesee as a senior engineer to aid in education and business development in North America. At Prophesee, he also works closely with universities and research labs to further enable the expansion and adoption of neuromorphic computer vision technology.

Masahito Watanabe

Senior Vice Chairman
Japan Industrial Imaging Association (JIIA)

JIIA CoaXPress Standard working group Chairman Since 2016, Adimec Electronic Imaging K.K. Application and support Engineer since 2004

Jim Witherspoon

Product Manager - Fixed Industrial Scanning and Machine Vision
Zebra Technologies

Jim is currently a Product Manager with the Machine Vision and Fixed Industrial Scanning group where he is responsible for the Zebra Aurora software and help getting the best solutions to the market. Jim has more than 19 years of experience within the Machine Vision and Fixed Industrial Scanning Industry and has worked in application engineering, sales, and management. Jim previously worked with many of the world’s top companies to install thousands of machine vision and fixed industrial scanning systems and solutions.

Chris Aden

Sr. Director AI Solutions LMI Technologies

Prasad Akella

Founder and Chairman Drishti

Anupriya Ashok Balikai

Global Managing Director Spookfish Innovations

Bruce Baring

Vice President of Operations Tompkins Robotics

Ian Blasch

Senior Director Jabil

David Bruce

Engineering Manager FANUC America Corporation