Corporate Development
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.
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Ed Solomon has over 25 years of experience in advanced engineering, senior management,
and financing of small companies. From 1993 to 2004, he was Vice President, Advanced Technology for NexRay, where he defined the system architecture for the company's
innovative fluoroscopy imaging system and developed a large intellectual property portfolio of U.S. and international patents.
Ed promoted the company's technology at numerous scientific meetings and corporate partnering discussions, and played a central
role in raising the company's $80 million of venture funding. He recruited the company's scientific advisory board of luminary
interventional cardiologists and imaging physicists and developed a core group of enthusiastic early adopters for the company's
products.
Prior to NexRay, Ed was Vice President of Engineering at Resumix, a developer and distributor of sophisticated resume
processing systems to Fortune 500 companies. From 1986 to 1992, he was a General Partner at Dillon Read Venture Capital, specializing
in technology investments in medical devices, information systems, and semiconductors. Previously, he was a Senior Engineer and
Project Manager at Oximetrix, a manufacturer of patient-monitoring equipment and drug-delivery systems.
Ed holds 14 patents
on a variety of medical devices and has authored numerous technical
publications. He holds BS and MS degrees in Electrical Engineering
from the University of
Cape Town, South Africa, and an MS in Management from the Stanford Business School.
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Peter has over 30 years of experience in Corporate Finance, including Fortune 100 listed companies and venture-backed startups. He has been CFO of MyFamily.com (now Ancestry.com), and served in a variety of financial management capacities at Sun Microsystems, including Division Controller for Software Products and responsibility for Financial Planning & Analysis for Sun's Pacific Rim Operations.
Prior to Sun Microsystems, Peter held domestic and international positions in Financial Planning & Analysis and Internal Audit at ROLM, Ampex and Schering Plough.
Peter earned his BS in International Business from the University of Colorado and a Masters in International Management from the American Graduate School of International Management.
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Philip is responsible for corporate strategy, corporate development, and management of the company's incubation/accelerator business, TRT Innovation Labs.
He has worked in the medical device industry for over 30 years with experience in general management, sales, marketing, corporate strategy, business development, clinical research, regulatory, research, product development, and operations.
He has successfully grown several start-up medical ventures, including Aspect Medical, a $100 million global public company that was acquired by Covidien in 2009. While at Covidien/Medtronic, he was general manager of two business units: Anesthetic Effect Monitoring "BIS", and Sustainable Technologies. Additionally, he was responsible for M&A for the Respiratory and Monitoring Solutions business unit. He has led numerous M&A transactions on buy/sell side totaling over $1B invested.
Philip received his BS and MS degrees in electrical engineering from Northeastern University. He is the author of numerous publications and is an inventor of more than 15 US patents.
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Peter Howard leads Triple Ring's strategic approaches around international partnering, and spearheads our Japan initiative, which was established to facilitate partnerships with corporations and entities from Japan. Having recently been designated by the Japanese government as one of twelve certified venture company accelerators, Triple Ring is both honored and excited about future opportunities and collaborations.
Peter brings a wealth of experience and a particular passion and interest in business formation and the process of creating order and value out of formative chaos. Over the last 30 years, his diverse roles have included entrepreneur/CEO, R&D outsource service partner, investor, and board director. As CEO, Peter founded and successfully grew four companies, leading two to IPOs, one to strategic sale, and another to a major technology license.
Additional interests and accomplishments include playing essential roles during critical times to support the success of dozens of young companies. Peter has also been integral in the creation and launch of over a hundred innovative products as an industry leader in outsourced R&D and manufacturing services businesses based in the US, Japan, France, the Netherlands, Singapore, and China.
Peter holds an MS degree from MIT in Management, and a Professional Director Certification from the American College of Corporate Directors.
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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 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 has considerable 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. He received his BA in Economics from Bates College.
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Rick brings over 25 years' experience in Research, Development and Operations. He has successfully commercialized over 25 products in the Medical Device, Aerospace, Automotive and Consumer industries.
Most recently, he was the VP Engineering and Operations for Spinal Modulation (acquired by St Jude Medical) where he led the development of wireless wearable and implantable neuro-stimulators for pain management. Prior to Spinal Modulation, he was Director of R&D at Guidant (acquired by Boston Scientific), developing disposable devices for cardiac surgery, atrial ablation and vessel harvesting. Prior to Guidant he was founder and CEO of Dreamwings Biomechanics which developed technology licensed to BMW, GM, and several Tier 1 automotive suppliers. Prior to Dreamwings, he was Director of High Voltage Development at St Jude Medical where he developed 3 generations of implantable defibrillators. Prior to St Jude, he was Engineering Manager at Lectus (acquired by Hill-Rom), where he led development of robotic hospital beds for the ICU. Rick served as Captain, US Air Force, where he was Director, Flight Test Engineering on the A-10, F-111 and F-22.
Rick holds 33 patents and patents pending. He received his BS Aerospace Engineering from Clarkson University and an MBA from the University of San Francisco.
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Jack Lloyd has founded and managed several high tech companies in the medical device, medical service and drug delivery areas. Currently he is Founder and Principal in several companies developing drug delivery systems and non-invasive measurement and monitoring. Previously, he was Founder of Alere Medical (monitoring patients at home for heart failure and other chronic diseases - sold to Inverness, now Alere, in 2007), Founder, President and Chairman of Aradigm (developed, manufactured and licensed devices and systems for aerosol drug delivery for systemic effect, including insulin - IPO in 1996), Founder and President of Nellcor Incorporated (anesthesia monitoring, developer of the pulse oximeter. - IPO in 1987, now part of Covidien), owned patents in digital hearing aid (licensed to ReSound and sold to Siemens in 1995), and Founder and President of Humphrey Instruments (ophthalmic instruments - sold to Smith Kline in 1980, now part of Zeiss).
Jack has served on the public boards of Nellcor, Aradigm, Aspect Medical, and Molecular Dynamics and is a director, investor and advisor to several medical device and drug delivery companies. He presently serves as on the advisory committee to the dean of the College of Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley and as chairman of the Bioengineering Industrial Advisory Board at Berkeley.
Jack has a BSME from University of California, Berkeley and holds 30 US Patents.
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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 producer of 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.
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Adam Erlich has 20 years of experience in technology-related business development. Adam was previously VP of Marketing and Business Development at Block Engineering. He was the Founder and President of Igeneco, which provided technology/market analysis and commercialization services. As part of Adam's work at Igeneco, he had a lead role in successful M&A activities for BBN Technologies. Further, Adam was an initial employee at Digital Optics, where he developed the market for lithographically fabricated optics while driving significant revenue growth.
Adam obtained a BS in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University and MA degrees from both George Washington University and Columbia University.
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Ryan was trained in genetics and cell biology at the University of California at Davis. Since 1988 he has worked in several biotechnology companies and as an independent biotech consultant focused on adding value to early stage therapeutic and technology efforts.
Early in his career Ryan worked in teams that applied cutting edge genetic engineering technologies to advance the development of gene therapy and cellular therapeutics. In 2002 Ryan transitioned to research and product development for biopharmaceutical instrumentation, where he held customer-facing positions related to the introduction of novel technologies. In this role, Ryan grew to be a recognized expert in label-free biosensors, presented at numerous international scientific conferences, and was invited to chair several scientific symposia.
Ryan is co-inventor of five US patents, has published multiple scientific communications, developed many applications for the drug discovery market, and lead collaborations worldwide with well-known pharmaceutical research teams from companies like Merck, Amgen, J&J, Novartis and AstraZeneca.
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Laura Vitez has over 25 years of experience in the life sciences industry. Since 2003, she has served as a consultant to small and mid-sized private biotechnology companies, designing and executing optimized business development strategies. Previously, she has held lead business development roles at Signature Biosciences, Schwarz Pharma, Burrill & Company, and Cell Genesys.
Laura has participated in alliances generating more than $2 billion in reported value for her clients and companies. These include the acquisitions of Intellikine by Takeda, and Rinat by Pfizer; profit sharing agreements including Intellikine with Infinity/Purdue, KaloBios with Sanofi-Pasteur, and Rinat with Genentech; and multiple other arrangements including Maxygen with Codexis, Signature with MDS Sciex, Schwarz with Aryx, and Cell Genesys with Hoechst Marion Roussel.
Laura began her career at the bench, working in labs at Somatogen Inc., National Jewish Center for Immunology and Respiratory Medicine, Northwestern University, and Indiana University. She holds a BA in mathematics and chemistry and an MS in Biochemistry, Molecular and Cellular Biology.
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Science
Dr. Brian Wilfley has 30 years of experience leading development efforts for medical device and instrumentation companies. He has held senior scientific and managerial 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. 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 eleven 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.
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Dr. Kate Bechtel has experience in researching and developing optical instruments for analytical and medical applications. Prior to Triple Ring, she worked on trace analysis via cavity-enhanced techniques; non-invasive glucose sensing using Raman spectroscopy; and the detection of early stage breast cancer using Raman, diffuse reflectance, and fluorescence. Since coming to Triple Ring, Kate has worked on a large variety of spectroscopic and imaging systems for different applications. This includes a spectral domain OCT system for a dermatologic application; a catheter-based OCT system for intra-cardiac profilometry; a novel time-domain NIRS system for cerebral oximetry; a wireless handheld tissue oximeter; a light source for photodynamic therapy; a fluorescence lifetime reader; and many more. Kate routinely provides consultations and technical landscape surveys in all areas of biomedical optics. In addition, she is well-versed in obtaining grant funding and serves on an NIH SBIR scientific review panel (IMST), recently as Chair.
Kate is a co-inventor on four patents and has authored several scientific papers. She received her B.S. in Chemistry and Biochemistry-Biophysics 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.
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Dr. Tobias Funk has years of experience in the development of instrumentation for science and medicine. Prior to joining Triple Ring, he worked as a researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and in the Department of Radiology at the University of California, San Francisco.
Tobias is an experimental solid state physicist by training and has focused on utilization of ionizing radiation throughout his career. He developed synchrotron instrumentation for spectroscopy on proteins and ultra-low temperature equipment for nuclear solid state physics. More recently, he worked on SPECT imaging and developed a dedicated cardiac SPECT system that was successfully brought to market. At Triple Ring, Tobias focuses on dose reduction in X-ray systems. His current research is funded by a Phase II SBIR grant to develop a large field of view inverse geometry fluoroscopy system, previous efforts have been grant and partner funded.
Tobias received his MS and Ph.D. from Freie Universitat Berlin, Germany. He has authored over 20 peer-reviewed publications and has over 10 granted and pending patents. He is a reviewer, an associate editor and, member of the editorial board for various peer-reviewed journals and serves on the Board of Directors of a non-profit organization.
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-->Dr. Jeffrey Arthur Schuster has led the development of multiple aerosol drug delivery platforms including microprocessor controlled and all mechanical systems in therapeutic areas including pain management (post-operative and break-through cancer pain) and diabetes management. In addition, he has contributed to the development of needle-free jet injectors, implantable pumps, and flow cytometry systems. Jeff was also the primary investigator on a phase II SBIR grant, in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which resulted in the development of an inhalation based mass vaccination system for measles and other diseases optimized for developing country applications. Jeff has authored several peer-reviewed publications and book chapters on aerosol drug delivery. He is an inventor on 32 issued US patents and numerous foreign cases, in the areas of pulmonary drug delivery and needle free injection. Jeff has managed multiple patent portfolios in these areas encompassing hundreds of U.S. and foreign cases.
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Dr. Roger Tang has spent his entire career bridging the disciplines of biology and engineering in both industrial and academic environments. Currently, he specializes in providing Project Science, Engineering, and Management expertise across a fascinating array of projects spanning Engineering and Biology.
Previously, Roger managed the Research Group and Ideation activities at Molecular Devices, LLC. His industrial career started in 2001 at a biotechnology startup, Signature BioScience, Inc., which developed some of the first label-free assay technologies based on bioimpedance. Signature's technologies were eventually commercialized as the CellKey System. Before his industrial career, he was an Assistant Adjunct Professor in Radiology at the University of California, San Francisco, where his research focused on cancer imaging (primarily using X-Ray, CT, and molecular imaging).
Roger received his PhD in Bioengineering from the Joint Graduate Group in Bioengineering at the University of California at Berkeley and San Francisco. He also holds an MS in Optical Sciences from the University of Arizona and a BS in Applied Physics from the California Institute of Technology.
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Dr. Kim Shultz has years of experience designing systems and algorithms for biological imaging and measurement. She specializes in analyzing complex systems with a full range of methods from fundamental physical laws to black box and statistical models. Prior to joining the Triple Ring team, she worked in data science, algorithm design, electromagnetic measurement and modeling, and medical imaging. She has experience with a broad array of technologies and techniques, including MRI, Raman spectroscopy, machine learning, statistical signal processing, image reconstruction, bioimpedance analysis, RF ablation, RF and digital circuit design, embedded systems programming, and electromagnetic compatibility.
Kim received her B.S. in Engineering from Harvey Mudd College and her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.
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Dr. Christopher Ellenor has experience building experimental systems comprising diverse technical elements. Prior to joining the team at Triple Ring, he worked on laser cooling, imaging and optical design, magnetic trapping of atoms, coil design and ultra-high vacuum (UHV) systems. He has worked on MRI systems, with a focus on RF safety, as well as embedded and wireless electronics for sensing of patient motion and RF current.
Chris received a BSc.E. in Engineering Physics from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, and his Ph.D. in physics (Experimental Quantum Optics) from the University of Toronto. After graduating he completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University.
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Jen Keating brings a wealth of diverse experience to the Optical Technologies team. Prior to Triple Ring, she worked at Grove Instruments and Ora, Inc., as well as several startups in the biomedical space. Jen's background spans biomedical, systems, and electrical engineering, and clinical research. Her expertise is in algorithm development, signal processing, optics, and more. As a multidisciplinary scientist focused on biomedical optics, Jen develops instrumentation from a systems perspective with a passion for scientific and engineering decisions founded upon statistical evaluation.
Jen received her BS in Biomedical Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) with a minor in Electrical Engineering. She received her M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering (Signal Processing) from WPI. Her thesis was entitled, "Relating Arm Muscle Electrical Activity to Hand/Finger Forces for use in Powered Upper-Limb Prostheses and Stroke Rehabilitation Orthotics". Jen has developed and executed more than 15 human subject studies and has co-authored 4 publications in the areas of non-invasive blood glucose monitoring, noninvasive real-time energy expenditure (wearables), and research aimed at finding earlier clinical endpoints for age-related macular degeneration.
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Dr. Scott Hsieh has experience in image processing, medical devices, and X-ray physics. He specializes in image reconstruction algorithms, and has worked on reconstruction projects in both X-ray CT and ultrasound. Prior to working at Triple Ring, he has assisted start-up companies developing medical imaging devices with new modalities. His prior work also includes astronomical work, characterization of nanoelectronics, and software engineering.
Scott received B.S. degrees in Applied Physics and Business Economics from Caltech, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. He has authored 13 peer-reviewed publications and one book chapter and is a named inventor on 6 granted and pending patents.
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Dr. Kuan Lu has experience in developing system theory, design and construction of medical devices. Prior to joining Triple Ring, she worked on developing a new imaging modality, Magnetic Particle Imaging, at UC Berkeley, where she investigated new imaging physics, constructed custom high-power RF electronics, developed algorithms and scanning methods for preclinical applications. She has experience with magnetism, nanomaterials, mechanical prototyping, embedded systems design, and has analytical understanding and research experience of many preclinical and medical imaging modalities (X-ray, CT, MRI, Ultrasound and microscopy).
Kuan received her Ph. D. in Bioengineering from the Joint Graduate Group in Bioengineering at the University of California at Berkeley and San Francisco, and a B.E. degree in Biomedical Engineering from Tsinghua University, China.
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Oleg Konings has a wide range of experience designing and optimizing high-performance algorithms. His particular interest is GPU Computing and he has worked on several novel medical and security applications.
At UCSF he was a member of the Gazzaley Lab where he worked on real-time functional brain imaging. This work resulted in the first GPU implementation of the group lasso convex optimization solver, for both dense and sparse systems. This solver was used in the ‘Glass Brain’ project to compute the degree of connectivity between regions of the brain in real-time. He spoke about this work at the 2014 NVIDIA GTC Conference.
Additionally Oleg presented with Tobias Funk at the 2015 NVIDIA GTC Conference on the topic of Scanning Beam Digital X-ray image reconstruction.
Currently at Triple Ring he works on GPU implementations of algorithms used for image processing, Monte Carlo simulations, and combinatorial optimization. His CUDA application for generating and evaluating all permutations of an array is considered the fastest known implementation.
Oleg earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Menlo College.
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Dr. Yi Liu brings her expertise in computational imaging and optical system and sensor design to Triple Ring. Her research and work at MIT's 3D Optical Systems Group, Maxim Integrated, and Xerox Corporation's Optimal System Laboratory has included biomedical signal and image processing, data synthesis and analysis, and physical modeling. While attending MIT, Yi was a Xerox-MIT fellow following her selection as one of five recipients from the school of engineering to receive a 9-month fellowship for achievements in optical imaging and image processing. She was also named an Outstanding Student Leader while an undergraduate at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC).
Yi holds both an MS and a PhD in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Computer Vision from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She has co-authored 4 publications, given several conference presentations, and is a named inventor on a US patent application. Yi is also a native Mandarin speaker.
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Kevin Limtao is a Bioengineer with a focus on in vitro technologies. In his time at the company, he has worked on several projects including the development of automated immunoassays, instruments for surgical use, and devices for drug and sensor delivery. He contributes to project teams with CAD, instrumentation, and prototyping for early phase product development.
As a graduate from the Biomedical Engineering program at University of California, Irvine, his focus was on the design and manufacture of microfluidic technologies. He was involved in numerous interdisciplinary science and engineering projects, including devices for the capture of circulating tumor cells, small sample Western Blotting, and automated immunoassays to monitor the efficacy of chemotherapy in oncology indications. His contributions have been presented at engineering conferences such as µTAS, ECTC, and BMES.
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Daniel Badali has a range of experience in imaging and diffraction techniques, in particular in using ultrafast electron diffraction to study transient dynamics in matter. This involved the reconstruction of 3D molecular structures by processing large amounts of noisy image data and applying iterative algorithms to address the “phase problem” in crystallography. In addition to the development of such complex experimental systems, he has worked extensively in mathematical modelling, laser science, and single-molecule biophysics.
Daniel received a B.Sc. (with High Distinction) in Biological Physics and Mathematics from the University of Toronto. He was awarded a M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Physics in 2015 from the University of Hamburg for work he did at the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter.
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Alex Margiott comes to Triple Ring with both an academic background in signal processing and experience in optomechanical device design. Prior to joining the Optical Technologies group, he worked as an R&D and V&V engineer at Grove Instruments, which was focused on development of a noninvasive glucometer. His current work includes test setup automation, Monte Carlo optical simulations, product development, and more.
Alex received a BS in Biomedical Engineering (with distinction) from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, where his Major Qualifying Project focused on quantum dot stimulation of hippocampal neurons using a fluorescence microscopy technique. He is a member of the International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE), and the Optical Society (OSA).
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System Architecture
Gus Lowell has over 20 years of experience in systems and software engineering, product specification development, and product planning, with involvement 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, NexRay, and in the military space program for the United States Air Force.
Gus holds three patents and has authored a number of scientific papers. He received his BS in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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Dr. John Heanue has more than 18 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 headed 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 in both Electrical Engineering and Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Masters and Ph.D. degrees in Applied Physics from Stanford University. He holds 45 issued U.S. patents and has authored numerous publications.
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Technology & Product Development
Muslim Tyebjee has over 35 years of experience developing medical and commercial systems for companies ranging from startups to Fortune 500 companies. His experience spans product development, operations, quality systems, and customer support for products ranging from patient life support devices, imaging/patient monitoring systems to space and security 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, eye surgical products and baggage scanners for explosive detection and satellite based video camera.
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.
Muslim has successfully commercialized products which involved UL/IEC/CSA 60601-1 certification, FDA 510(k) approvals, and GMP manufacturing. He 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 a named inventor. He received his BSEE from Northrop University and his MSEE with a minor in Biomedical Engineering from Northwestern University.
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Peter Holst has more than 25 years of experience in R&D and product development in the field of medical devices. He has experience with visual field testers, IV and enteral pumps, surgical robots, cholesterol testers and glucose meters. He is very familiar with drug delivery technologies including aerosol and sub cutaneous methods.
Peter is a strong proponent of data driven design methods known as "Lean Engineering" or "Knowledge Driven Product Development". 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 a background in the design of low volume capital equipment medical mechanisms and systems.
Peter is a named inventor on 9 patents, and has authored and 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.
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Dr. Winston Sun has over 20 years of 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, high-speed optical cameras, infra-red spectrometers 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 the University of California, Los Angeles, and a PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. He holds three patents, and has authored/presented numerous scientific papers.
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Lou Wainwright has over 15 years of experience in leading the development of new products based on innovative technologies. He has a broad technical background with experience in the security, semiconductor and medical device industries.
Prior to joining Triple Ring Lou held a variety of management roles at American Science and Engineering, a leader in X-ray imaging for cargo and aviation security. Most recently he created the Innovation Laboratory, where his team was responsible for technology characterization, rapid prototyping, and developing novel product concepts. In addition he was a Program Manager on many successful government funded R&D programs.
Lou has also held management positions at ion implantation company Axcelis Technologies, and began his professional career as a plasma and thin films engineer at BD Technologies.
Lou holds four patents, has a BSE from Rensselaer and an MSE from the Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison, both in Engineering Physics, and a MBA from Babson University.
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Dr. Jamie Ku has over 15 years of experience in the design, development, and manufacturing of imaging systems and components. He has a track record of completing the product development cycle from concept to production for several radiation imaging systems and optical imaging components. He also has the proven ability to conduct failure analysis and troubleshoot at all stages of product development and in product applications. His areas of expertise include radiation detection, UV-IR light detection, optics, and imaging system engineering.
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. Further, he was on the grant proposal review committee of NIH Vision System. Prior to PerkinElmer, Jamie worked with position sensitive optical detectors, novel optics, and radiation detection systems at Lexitek.
Jamie received his Ph.D. degree in Nuclear Science and Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was a postdoctoral researcher at the Argonne National Laboratory.
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Rene has more than 25 years of experience developing rugged computers, displays, user interfaces, behavioral requirements for embedded software, FPGA logic and circuits for automated machine control and sensor systems. His experience includes shortening the development cycle from R&D, design, test and production. He has contributed to and led both onshore and offshore teams. He has developed functional system architectures and authoring associated technical documents, modeling, analysis and engineering plans. Rene has held Senior Staff Systems Engineering and Staff Electrical Engineering positions at BAE Systems (previously Food Machinery Corporation) primarily focusing on military contracting for the U.S. Army Bradley Fighting Vehicle program.
Rene is a member of the IEEE Computer Society and the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. He received a BSEE from U.C. Davis in Electrical and Computer Engineering, a Certificate in Advanced Studies in High Performance Computing from Santa Clara University and an MSCS in Computer Engineering, Computer Architecture from Santa Clara University.
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Manisha joined Triple Ring Technologies with an in-depth understanding of ISO 13485 Medical devices, Quality Management Systems and Food and Drug Administration's Quality System Regulations (QSR). She has expertise in establishing Quality Management Systems and ensuring compliance with regulatory standards. Manisha's experience spans directing development and implementation of QMS related policies and procedures throughout the organization. She has written design verification protocols, run experiments/tests and wrote reports for medical devices. Additionally, Manisha conducts internal and external audits and creates specialized in-house training.
Manisha's academic career included projects such as: developing self-regulated drug delivery devices, working on MEMS technology for treating Glaucoma, and designing a neural prosthesis that automatically controls the symptoms of Parkinson's disease.
Manisha holds a Bachelors of Engineering in Chemical Engineering from Sarvajanik College of Engineering Technology (S.C.E.T.) in India and a Masters in Biomedical Engineering from University of Southern California. She is also an active member of American Society for Quality (ASQ) and serves as Chair for the ASQ Biomedical Northern California Discussion Group.
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Mara Matsumura has over 25 years of experience in the biotech and life sciences sectors. Having built and managed biotechnology information centers at Cell Genesys and Scios (formerly California Biotechnology), she became fluent in information research and analysis across many disciplines, including: biology; chemistry; medicine; pharmaceuticals; intellectual property; competitive intelligence; market research; product pipelines; education; and general reference. She has organized and characterized bodies of knowledge, developed collections, and implemented tools and systems to manage and retrieve content. Mara's writing and editing skills have supported many projects from research and analyses compilations to strategic plans, grant proposals, marketing copy, SOPs, webpages, product literature, non-fiction, essays, and more. As a consultant, she has worked on various knowledge-based, information-architecture, and writing projects. She has managed medical information research teams, designed databases, restructured taxonomies, analyzed content management systems, established processes, written policies, edited pharmaceutical product literature, and performed analyses of grant funding landscapes. Mara has also taught K-12 students in Writing, Phonics, English, Math, Latin, Librarianship, and Environmental Education, both here at home and abroad. She has set-up libraries and community centers in rural Zimbabwe and South Africa. Lastly, she serves on the team of the African Diaspora Network, as a researcher, writer, and information architect.
Mara holds a BA in Mathematics, Environmental Studies, and Education and completed her studies at Santa Clara University and San Jose State University. She has also completed coursework in Writing and Linguistics at Stanford University.
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Don Fallon has extensive experience in Quality Assurance and Manufacturing. He worked at Applied Biosystems for 25 years in a variety of roles, including QC Chemist, Final Instrument Test Manager, Manufacturing Engineering Manager, Staff Quality Systems Engineer, Production Manager and Senior QA Manager. His experience there included working on both the instrument side (DNA and Protein analyzers) and the consumables side (reagents and oligonucleotides) of the business. He was one of the key players in achieving ISO 9001 for the large Foster City operation. He also provided direct assistance for successful ISO 9001 implementations to two domestic sites as well as the manufacturing site in Japan. Don later served as Director of Quality for 7 years at Thermo Fisher Scientific. He rebuilt the ISO 9001 quality system and drove the 400-person site to a successful ISO 13485 certification, setting the stage for FDA site registration, and for listing one of their Mass Spectrometer/HPLC systems as Class I Medical Devices. Additionally, Don has served as a consultant at two companies where he helped them strengthen their quality system to pass ISO 13485 audits.
Don earned a Bachelor's degree in Biology from State University College at Oneonta, NY. He has attained ASQ certifications as Certified Quality Auditor, Certified Quality Engineer, Certified Biomedical Auditor, and Certified Manager of Quality/Organizational Excellence. Further professional development includes training in FDA QSR, Risk Management, and ISO 13485 Lead Auditing.
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Stephanie has years of experience working in technical, regulated environments. At Agilent Technologies she worked as administrative assistant in the fiber optics communication division with over 100 engineers and managers in the R & D Manufacturing group. Stephanie contributed to product support, RA, and QA efforts at IMPAC Medical Systems (an Eleckta Company). She was promoted to supervise document control and was responsible for the overall coordination of controlled documentation. At Triple Ring she manages a complex array of engineering and quality documentation. She also assists with internal and external audits in addition to surveillance audits for ISO 13485 compliance of the quality management system.
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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 has 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 is a named inventor. He received an MSEE from the University of California, Berkeley, and a BSEE from Rice University.
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Erik Wilmot has 24 years of experience in the design/manufacture/test/service of medical ultrasound machines, durable ultrasound transducers and disposable intravenous ultrasound catheters. Erik's areas of expertise include PCA design/test, FPGA design/test (Xilinx & Altera), embedded C/C++/C# software, embedded Windows XP / 7, embedded microprocessors (Intel, TI, ARM), embedded hardware diagnostics & power-on-self-test (POST), Design for Manufacturability/Testability (DFM/DFT), PCIe bus design/test, IEEE-488 (GPIB) test equipment control (Agilent & Tektronix), LabWindows/CVI data acquisition & motor control, EN 60601 compliance/testing, and Design Verification/Validation in MDD/FDA-regulated environments.
Erik has worked in R&D, Manufacturing, and Field Service for Acuson Ultrasound, Siemens Medical Ultrasound Division, and Boston Scientific Imaging Division.
Erik received his BSEE with a concentration in Microprocessor Systems from California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) in San Luis Obispo, California.
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Pallavi Chakravarty has years of experience in software development in the mobile wireless industry. Her experience ranges from the research and development of innovative algorithms (for wireless networks) to the design and development of the simulators that run these algorithms. At IRI Computer Communication Corp., she developed algorithms for the placement of unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) to enhance the throughput of ad-hoc mobile wireless networks. While there she also developed a product for the Office of Naval Research to simulate different network scenarios and improvements in network throughput with the use of UAVs. The work received commendation from Admiral Mullen, the then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Pallavi holds a BS (with Distinction) in Electrical Engineering from Mumbai University and an MS in Electrical Engineering from University of California, Los Angeles. Her work has been published in IEEE WiMob.
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David Figueiredo has over 25 years of experience in product development primarily within software development in the medical device and semicondutor industries. His background includes development from simple systems that you can hold in your hand to massive semiconductor equipment systems. His expertise includes embedded systems, software architecture, product development, framework development, many forms of software development, as well as software development methodologies, especially agile/scrum for which he is certified.
Within the semiconductor industry, David has worked on both raster and vector based photomask generation tools. He has held key roles as developer, software lead, offsite team management and lead designer. Within the medical device industries, he has worked with ventilation, ultrasound, blood glucose monitors, perimetery and optical coherence topology systems. He has held key roles as software program manager and developer, architect and functional management.
David has held positions with Etec Systems Inc., Perkin-Elmer, Applied Materials, Siemens Medical (Acuson), Coviden, Optiscan Inc. and Carl Zeiss Meditec .
David holds one patent and received his BS in Computer Science from American Sentinel University (formerly American Institute of Information and Computer Sciences).
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Alan Baldwin has over ten years of experience in mechanical design, electronics packaging, and optics. He has acquired skills in creating complex mechanical assemblies, finite element analysis, prototype fabrication, and illumination design.
Alan's experience has touched upon areas including fluorescence detector design, integration of ruggedized electronics in military vehicles, electric motor design, design of fiber optic amplifiers and transceivers, and laser test and measurement.
Alan holds BS (magna cum laude) and MS degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis.
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Dr. Gabriel Chow specializes in macro to nanoscale materials characterization, thin film mechanical analysis, laser ultrasonics, and materials development. He has worked on projects involving biomimetic media, environmentally friendly coatings for wear and corrosion protection, optomechanical characterization of semiconductor materials, thin film batteries, dynamic rigid body analysis, and reliability testing of mechanical systems.
Gabriel received his Ph.D in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Washington. He also holds MS and BS degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Riverside. He is a co-inventor on one patent and has authored multiple journal articles.
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Kevin Dunk has an educational background in the fields of aerospace engineering and applied mathematics. He specializes in test fixture design, manufacturing processes, fluid ingress testing, root cause analysis and reliability analysis. Kevin has also worked on bill of materials, design history files and device master records for MQA processes.
Kevin holds a BS in Aerospace Engineering with a Minor in Mathematics from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo.
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Jacob has a background in mechanical design and computational analysis. He has worked on a variety projects in the aerospace and medical device industries. Most recently, he developed computational methods for measurement of cardiovascular hemodynamics using ultrasound.
Jacob holds a B.E. in Engineering Sciences from Dartmouth College and an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from University of California, Berkeley.
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Michael Berry comes to Triple Ring with an academic background in mechanical engineering and experience in the clean power industry. His interests range from product development to analytical modeling to vehicle dynamics.
Michael holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo.
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Lawrence Smith completed two internships at Triple Ring over the summers of 2012 and 2013 and was hired to a full-time position in 2014. He has enjoyed the opportunity to contribute to a variety of projects in the medical technology field with his analytical skillset.
Lawrence graduated from the College of Engineering at California Polytechnic State University. He earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering with a concentration in Mechatronics.
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Tachi Callas has previously held positions at AngioDynamics, Maquet Cardiovascular and Boston Scientific. He has experience with medical device research and product development, pre-clinical study design and execution, machine and fixture design, and vehicle dynamics.
Tachi has 34 issued or pending patents in the fields of cardiac surgery, cardiac rhythms control, and tumor/ tissue ablation. Tachi earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University, Sibley School of Mechanical Engineering.
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Maw-Lin has over 20 years of experience as a mixed-signal design engineer. His expertise is in architecture and design of precision analog circuits, high-voltage systems for x-ray sources as well as digital controls for instrumentation. He is well versed in diverse areas of PCB design: circuit design, schematic capture, and board layout. His analysis skills include power and signal integrity, as well as instrumentation design for system bring up and debug.
Maw-Lin has an Electrical Engineering degree from National Taiwan University of Science and Technology.
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Willem Ouborg has almost a decade of experience developing and testing products containing cutting edge technologies.
Previously, Willem worked at Intematix where he contributed to a patent pending technique of catalyst and Nafion deposition. At Triple Ring, Willem has been lead designer of numerous complex circuit boards, managing the complete cycle of circuit board design, starting from schematic entry, supervising layout and final bring up and test. Designs Willem has worked on include: a high speed x-ray detector readout board with multiple high pin-count FPGAs, thermo electric cooling of detectors and lasers, power regulation and bio-impedance measurements. Willem was also instrumental in the bring up effort of the Nova Ray X-Ray imaging system, including testing and verification of an X-Ray imaging ASIC as well as all the associated electronics and systems.
Willem is named on one patent. He is an expert user of Altium Designer and OrCAD and is fluent in Matlab. Willem holds a BSEE and MS in EE/MEMS from Universtiy of California, Los Angeles.
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George has 30 years of experience in electronic hardware development for manufacturers of computer peripherals and medical and industrial equipment.
Projects that George was involved with 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, motion picture camera controls and an electric vehicle drivetrain.
His skills include analog signal processing such as photomultiplier amplifiers, ultrasonic bubble sensors and pressure sensors; power electronics such as electron beam deflection amplifiers, three phase IGBT motor drives, battery chargers, piezoelectric print head drivers and servo drives as well as associated digital controls implemented in FPGAs and microcontrollers.
George holds thirteen US patents and graduated with a BSc. Electrical Engineering from the University of Cape Town, South Africa.
Jivko Mihaylov has years of experience in product development of Medical Devices. His background includes systems engineering/integration, multi-disciplinary product development, analog and digital design, and SolidWorks 3D mechanical modeling. In his previous role as a Product Development Engineer at Xoft Inc Jivko acquired valuable skills and knowledge pertaining to X-Ray systems, high voltage equipment, and implantable medical devices. He also led three products from conceptualization and development to commercialization in a short amount of time. In addition, his interest in mechanics and automation along with well-developed hands-on skills in fabrication and welding make him an asset to any engineering organization.
Jivko is a co-author of a study presented at the annual meeting of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (APM) in 2009.
He holds a BS in Industrial Technology with Electronics and Computer Systems concentration with a minor in Business Management from San Jose State University. His studies included analog/digital design with OrCad and MultiSim, C/C++ programming, microcontrollers, semiconductor fabrication, and network management. Jivko also holds an MBA with Technology concentration from Walden University, MD.
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Jeff Collins brings over 14 years of experience in printed circuit board design, FPGA code development, and embedded software development. He has worked in diverse fields, including LIDAR (survey equipment), cellular data communications, government R&D, instrumentation electronics, and defense. He has worked at various sizes of startup companies, worn many hats, and brought numerous products to market.
Jeff comes to us most recently from Sierra Photonics, where as Senior Electronics Design Engineer, he performed PCB design and (electronic) CAD tool setup and component library creation and maintenance, as well as mentoring junior engineers. Prior to that, he developed gamma and X-ray spectrometers and instrumentation electronics at XIA LLC, where he wore PCB designer, FPGA code developer, and CAD tool and library maintainer hats. Further back, Jeff spent 6 years developing electronics for fixed and handheld radiation detectors while working for the US DOE at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. This involved PCB design, FPGA code development, embedded software development, and system architecture design. His efforts culminated in an R&D 100 Award for a radiation detector system aimed at the homeland security market. Earlier still, Jeff developed reference designs (PCB design and FPGA code) for cellular data basestations while working at ArrayComm, bringing their unique, spectrally efficient data communications technology to market. But Jeff's career got its real start at Cyra Technologies (now Leica Geosystems HDS), where he was a key technical contributor (wearing many hats) in bringing two generations of laser radar (LIDAR) systems to market. Cyra's products were pioneering instruments that allowed customers as diverse as oil companies, movie studios, mine operators, and the US Navy to perform 3D scans and capture scenes to generate as-built 3D models of oil fields, movie sets, terrain, the USS Tarawa, etc. The success of the 2nd generation system led to the successful sale of Cyra Technologies to Leica Geosystems for USD$50M.
Jeff holds one patent, one R&D 100 Award, and is a coauthor on over 15 peer-reviewed technical papers. He holds a BS in Computer Engineering from the University of California Davis. He completed coursework for an MS in Electrical Engineering at UC Davis, but Cyra recruited him to join their startup before he finished his MS thesis.
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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. There, he supported 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. Roger has 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.
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Tim Smith has over 30 years of experience in the manufacture, test, and new product introduction of flight simulators, disk drives, network, and video systems. Tim's areas of expertise include prototype/manufacturing debug and analysis, PCA test, Design for Manufacturability/Testability (DFM/DFT), test plan development for low and high volume production, JTAG Boundry Scan, OS imaging processes, networking, and test script development. Tim has held lead roles as a Manufacturing Engineer, Test Engineer, IT Engineer, and New Product Introduction Engineer for Singer Link, KLA/Tencor, Maxtor, Cisco, and Grass Valley Technicolor.
Tim received his BSEE from Missouri Institute of Technology and a Certificate of Networking from UC Berkeley.
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Lena Qin has more than 20 years of experience with mechanical engineering design spanning work with medical devices, semiconductor testing, and consumer product designs - from prototyping to high- volume production. Lena's advanced skills include Solidworks and Creo(Pro/ENGINEER).
Lena holds a BS in Mechanical Design Engineering from Tianjin Polytechnic University in Tianjin, China.
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Program and Project Management
Walt Cecka has over 25 years of experience in the innovation, design, and development of medical devices and drug/device combination products. Mr. Cecka has held senior management and product development positions at Nektar Therapeutics, Bio-Molecular Technologies, Baxter Healthcare Corporation (Novacor Division), Cholestech Corporation, Nellcor, Inc., and Beckman Instruments.
At Triple Ring, Walt continues to lead a diverse set of programs, from the very complex such as the development of an Inverse-Geometry Tomographic Fluoroscopy System for cardiac intervention (recently having performed its first human subject research study), to the simple such as leading technology feasibility analyses prior to more extensive product development. While covering a broad range of medical device practice spaces, his focus has largely been on drug delivery, ophthalmology, and medical device reprocessing.
On the business side, Walt additionally works with Triple Ring's Innovation team seeking to advance both client and TRT proprietary ideas/ technologies into further stages of development. He is active in assisting prospective clients evaluate their ideas in relation to intended clinical applications and markets, as well as advising them on investor pitches and the ever-more intertwined regulatory and reimbursement product development pathways.
Prior to his arrival at Triple Ring, his product development leadership experience includes the development and commercialization of several first-to-clinic and first-to-market products, including Nektar's (now Bayer's) inhaled Amikacin combination product (currently in Phase III studies), the Exubera (tm) pulmonary insulin inhaler (FDA approved), Baxter'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.
Walt has co-authored several peer reviewed posters, has articles published in trade association magazines and newsletters, and has patent applications in respiratory care and pulmonary drug delivery devices pending. He is an active member of IDSA (Infectious Disease Society of America), and finally, he is an engineer! Walt holds a BSME degree from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.
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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).
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Gene has over 20 years of industry experience developing technology platforms, program management and leading multidisciplinary teams in drug discovery, in vitro diagnostics (genomic profiling, protein biomarkers) and overall R&D efforts in oncology and immunology.
Most recently, Gene was Vice President of R&D Operations at Nodality, a biotech company focused on cancer diagnostics and therapeutics where he directed R&D activities and oversaw the company project portfolio. Prior to Nodality, he was Vice President of R&D at Entelos, where he supervised research and collaborations in inflammatory diseases employing Entelos' proprietary in silico biosimulation technology. As Vice President of Project Management and Operations at Iconix Biosciences, Gene directed laboratory operations and collaborations in the area of toxicogenomics. Formerly Director of Drug Discovery at Signature BioScience, Inc. he was responsible for coordinating the activities of interdisciplinary groups involved in Signature's drug discovery efforts. Prior to Signature, Gene established and managed the west coast laboratory of IGEN International, a detection-based technology company. He was a project leader in the allergy and inflammation program at Terrapin Technologies, Inc. (now Telik, Inc.) where he initially established and built the Molecular Biology group.
Gene did his postdoctoral work in molecular neurobiology at UCSF and received his Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology from NYU School of Medicine. Gene earned his BA from State University of New York at Binghamton in Biology and German.
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Dr. Chris Mitchell has more than 25 years of hands-on and leadership experience in the design, development, and characterization of innovative x ray-based imaging systems for medical and industrial applications. Before joining Triple Ring Technologies, Dr. Mitchell served in a variety of positions at Alara, Inc., including VP of R&D and Chief Scientific Officer. While there, he led the development of a patented, award-winning bone densitometer, and several computed radiography-based imaging systems for medical, industrial, and veterinary applications. Prior to Alara, Dr. Mitchell served as Manager, Imaging Technologies, at ARACOR, where he led the development of a number of innovative imaging systems, including high-performance digital radiography, and cone-beam computed tomography for high resolution bone imaging and reverse engineering applications.
Chris received his B.A. in applied mathematics from Weber State University, and MS (bioengineering) and Ph.D. (electrical engineering) from the University of Utah. He holds 3 patents in the fields of bone densitometry and computed radiography and has authored or co-authored numerous presentations and journal articles. He is a member of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM).
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Jessica Warring has over 25 years of experience developing innovative medical devices. She has led cross-functional project teams and brought more than 15 medical device products to market. Jessica's development projects have included laparoscopy devices, implants for neurosurgery, pulse oximetry sensors, acoustic ear couplers, coronary atherectomy systems, vascular access devices, and devices for the delivery of high dose radiation.
Prior to her arrival at Triple Ring, she held engineering and management positions at Natus Medical, Vital Insite, Nellcor and Devices for Vascular Intervention (Guidant).
Jessica has been granted six patents and holds a BSME from California Polytechnic State University and an MS in Engineering Sciences (Bioengineering) from Universtiy of California, San Diego.
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Mark has over 25 years of experience developing complex optical systems in a variety of industries including: semiconductor equipment, aerospace, data storage, and medical device. He has managed a number of multidisciplinary teams in startups and established companies, and has significant expertise in optical systems design, lens design and system analysis, and opto-mechanical engineering. Most recently, Mark held senior management positions at Thorlabs, Inc. and InfraRedX, Inc. As Vice President of Business and Advanced Development at InfraRedX, he led the prototype development of the first combination optical/ultrasound coronary catheter that was successfully demonstrated in a live patient case for the TCT conference in May 2009. He was also instrumental in developing and driving the relationships for sourcing of key technologies and partnerships. In addition, he managed InfraRedX's intellectual property portfolio, including patent prosecution, in-licensing, and strategy.
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Manufacturing & Engineering Operations
Nick Lopez has 25 years of 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 development engineering to production. He has worked in startups and large companies where he has implemented TQM and JIT. Nick 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, Davis.
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Mike Maziarz is retired Naval Officer with 26 years of Operations and Logistics Management experience. He has a dual role with over 20 years of experience in implementing sales, manufacturing and operations programs for software and device manufactures. His primary technical training was in Advanced Aviation Electronics focusing on communications and RADAR equipment. Recently, he was instrumental in establishing and improving the manufacturing process for miniature X-Ray tube assembly. Mike was also key in building several Network Management Software Companies.
Mike specializes in operational improvements. He has implemented SOX, TQM and has expansive knowledge of JIT implementations. He has held senior management positions in the US Navy as well as with multiple startups.
Mike holds an MBA & BSBA from the University of Phoenix. He also holds Certifications in Logistics, Supply Management, and Advance Avionics.
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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. and DZU Corp.
Petre received his BS and MS in Chemical Engineering from the Institute of Chemical Technology in Sofia, Bulgaria. He is co-inventor on four issued patents.
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Cyndy has over 18 years of experience in the customer service and administrative support functions in a variety of industries, including: medical, software, telecommunications, data networking equipment manufacturing, cleantech, energy efficient, and green technologies. Cyndy has worked in startups and large companies where she has supported departments of up to 200 people. Cyndy provides front lobby reception support for all visitors, clients, and vendors, while contributing a high-level of administrative office support and performing clerical accounting duties.
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Quan has over 20 years of experience negotiating and purchasing services, COTS and custom items from a broad spectrum of suppliers. At Triple Ring, she negotiates, places orders, tracks, and places into controlled inventory items worth millions of dollars each year. To support fast-moving technologies, Quan manages quick turn and custom parts. Quan is fluent in English, Chinese and Vietnamese
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Quinn has over 20 years experience as a research and development electronics and engineering technician. He is a graduate of Bay Valley Technical Institute. Quinn's wide span of experience includes high-voltage systems, mixed-signal circuits, as well as x-ray technologies. He as expertise in board bring up, validation testing, and debugging. He had deep understanding of manufacturing procedures for complex electrical, electro-mechanical as well as electro-optical assemblies and can design assembly flow and protocols. He is capable of assembling cables, PCBs, as well as mechanical systems.
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Ty Ta has over 12 years of experience in developing prototypes including mechanical and electrical engineering projects with designers. Ty's skills include performing verification and validation testing, troubleshooting and debugging. He is capable of assembling cables, PCBs, as well as electro-optical/mechanical systems.
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-Legal
Joe Lin has more than twenty years of experience in patents, licensing and corporate law. He has previously 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. (Nasdaq:OIIM), as General Counsel. He has extensive patent prosecution and litigation experience, overseeing the prosecution of domestic and international patent applications and leading successful trial teams in multiple cases.
He has advised on mergers and acquisitions and securities matters. He has also 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.
Joe received his JD from the University of California, Los Angeles, and received a BS with Distinction from Cornell University with dual major in Electrical Engineering and Materials Science. He is a member of the State Bar of California (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.
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Human Resources
Liane is an experienced human resources professional who has crafted and implemented HR outreach, position creation, candidate selection, interview, hiring, onboarding and more. Her previous experiences include a variety of roles in the in the financial industry. She maintains an interest in technology, high-performance teams, and creative workspaces.
Finance
Peter has over 30 years of experience in Corporate Finance, including Fortune 100 listed companies and venture-backed startups. He has been CFO of MyFamily.com (now Ancestry.com), and served in a variety of financial management capacities at Sun Microsystems, including Division Controller for Software Products and responsibility for Financial Planning & Analysis for Sun's Pacific Rim Operations.
Prior to Sun Microsystems, Peter held domestic and international positions in Financial Planning & Analysis and Internal Audit at ROLM, Ampex and Schering Plough.
Peter earned his BS in International Business from the University of Colorado and a Masters in International Management from the American Graduate School of International Management.
John McPhaul has over 15 years of corporate finance experience in high growth companies.
He has a long history supporting the advancement of technology through key financial management and guidance. Before Triple Ring, John worked in the solar and telecommunications industries honing his finance and accounting skills. Along with this expertise, his experience in fiber optics and interest in technology makes him a perfect fit for Triple Ring's diverse and innovative culture.
John received his B.A. in English at George Washington University then went on to obtain an M.B.A. (at University of Phoenix) and a J.D. from the San Francisco Law School.
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Kate has more than six years of experience in public and corporate accounting. During her public accounting experience, most of her clients have been high tech companies in Silicon Valley. Such exposure brought her experience in tax, financial, and business consulting in diverse technology industries. Her combination of accounting experiences will contribute to Triple Ring's company mission to the finance/accounting team.
Kate received her BBA in Accounting at Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas.
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