Management Team / Advisory Board Bios
Dr. Richard Fontana
Chief Technology Officer (CTO)
40+ years as a mechanical engineer w/ government projects & startups: Kiva Systems (acq. by Amazon Robotics) & Desktop Metal (IPO). Expertise in R&D, program management, & tech to market. Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, MIT.
Dr. Varada Palakkal
Director of Chemical Engineering
Research expertise in materials & technology development for electrochemical separation & energy conversion. Patented 5x published work at Argonne National Laboratories. Postdoc at UT Austin. PhD at Louisiana State University.
Matthew Schwab
Director of Engineering
Experienced engineer with startup and management experience at Oculus (Haptics), Offworld (Autonomous Mining), and General Dynamics (MBSE), and civil engineering in the U.S. Air Force. M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from CSULA.
Aaron Kessler
Business Development
20+ years experience as an entrepreneur across 8 startups, managing client support, sales, marketing, business operations, and human resources. B.S. History from Harvard University, 1998.
Midnight Zero
VP Mechanical Engineering
Expert in 3D printing: researching, inventing, designing, fabricating, & testing solutions for 3D printing with metal powder at high speed. Mechanical Engineering at UMass Amherst, 2014.