Players of Commercial Drones in the San Diego Ecosystem
5:30 p.m. - 6:15 p.m. Registration & Networking
6:15 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. Panel
7:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. Post Panel Networking
Sheppard Mullin
12275 El Camino Real
Suite 200
San Diego, CA 92130
$25 online / $30 at the door
Sponsored by Sheppard Mullin
The use of drones in cinematography, commercial production, and more than 300 identified commercial market applications is driving growth in the commercial unmanned aerial systems sector. San Diego is no stranger to unmanned systems, having Northrop Grumman’s UAS Center of Excellence and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems in the area. Inspite of or because of the presence of these companies, San Diego has also given birth to a vibrant entrepreneurial UAS ecosystem. This panel will feature several new starts that are making it in the commercial sector.
PANEL:
Qelzal
Olivier Coenen, Ph.D. is the Founder, CEO and Chief Scientist of Qelzal, which is developing Aircraft Avoidance and Obstacle Avoidance Systems for commercial drones. Qelzal has been DARPA funded and was one of the few companies selected to the EvoNexus Technology Incubator in San Diego.
Olivier was an early pioneer applying brain-inspired processing and modeling to robotic and autonomous systems. Before establishing Qelzal to pursue his true passion, Olivier was the CEO at Inventiva, Inc., a startup focused on a visual system for hand gesture recognition. Earlier at Brain Corporation, Olivier developed neural network “models of the motor control system” and designed “artificial nervous systems for UAVs” on a DARPA project.
Skylift Global
Amir Emadi is President/CEO of Skylift Global, Inc., a leader in heavy-lift UAVs. He is particularly excited to address some of the challenges in the energy industry with Skylift's disruptive technology, reducing cost, risk, and environmental impact.
Emadi has worked for 15 years in operations, marketing, and political advisory. Since his days at the World Trade Center, Emadi's focus has been on addressing infrastructure voids and policy in the Middle East and rural Africa.
Skylift Global aims to build the Model T for the skies. Just as Henry Ford enabled everyone with revolutionary ground transportation, Skylift aims to enable everyone with "freedom in flight." They build heavy-lift aerial vehicles with superior stability, safety, and reliability to replace light-payload helicopters. These short-range transporters are great for logistics and resupply missions, combining the best aspects of helicopter and UAV technologies to provide the utility of a helicopter at the cost and size of a UAV.
5D Robotics Aerial Systems / Aerial Mob
Treggon Owens is the Chief Innovation Officer of 5D Robotics, Inc. Through this acquisition, Treggon will focus on bringing products to market for the commercial deployment of UAS. The marriage of aerospace and robotic families will lead to common efficiencies, innovation and cross-discipline idea sharing. Treggon oversees the implementation of the company’s long and short term plans in accordance with its innovation and strategy.
On April 1, 2016, 5D Robotics, Inc. officially acquired the industrial assets and intellectual property of Aerial MOB, LLC (Aerial MOB). This acquisition has led to the formation of the 5D Aerial division. The division provides precise 3D mapping, photogrammetry, thermal and multi-spectral imagery data, empowering focused analytical solutions to vertical markets which include oil and gas, utilities, construction as well as others.
Aerial MOB remains the leader and pioneer in the aerial cinematography and unmanned systems technology. Treggon remains on the Board of Directors as a partial owner of Aerial MOB, LLC. Before forming Aerial MOB with his Partners in early 2013, Treggon’s 17+ career took him around the world testing, troubleshooting and demonstrating complicated projects in real world environments. These projects include post 9/11 related DARPA, NASA and Department of Homeland Security research.
Planck Aerosystems
Josh Wells is the Founder & CEO. Josh is a former navy helicopter pilot who led the effort to safely integrate unmanned systems into aircraft carrier strike groups. He left the active duty Navy to found Planck Aerosystems. He earned a BS from the US Naval Academy and MS in Product Development from USC Viterbi.
Planck Aerosystems is bringing high performance, autonomous unmanned aerial systems (UAS) to new markets. Our patented technology makes small UAS accessible to vessels moving at sea, without the need for a dedicated pilot or installed hardware. A combination of advanced hardware and cutting edge image processing software enable Planck UAS to tackle pressing problems in the maritime world.
Action Drones
Darryl Anunciado is the CEO, who co-founded the company in 2013, thriving from an interest in aerial hobby remote control devices. Darryl’s entrepreneurial spirit drove him to launch Action Drone USA, backed with an MBA, BA in psychology, banking, property management, real estate, and industrial organization backgrounds. Alongside a great group of engineers, technicians, and business developers that make up the AD team, Darryl’s favorite saying is, "if you're going to design something, design something pretty!"
Action Drone USA is an American drone manufacturer that manufactures modular aerial platforms and payloads, for any commercial application. Action’s drones are easily third-party software compatible. Action works with clients to provide efficient solutions for their specific needs.
NVdrones
Kevin Mukai is the co-founder and COO of NVdrones. Kevin graduated from the University of Southern California with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and M.S. in Product Development Engineering. He co-founded the company in 2014 and has deep experience with various aspects of the commercial drone industry.
NVdrones creates software and hardware for drone operators to manage their drones efficiently, effectively, and safely. NVDash, the company’s newest cloud-based product, allows for end-to-end operational workflow by incorporating pre-flight checklists, dynamic airspace maps, weather updates, post-flight analytics, as well as automatic generation of compliance and client flight reports.