About Us
Our Team
The individual personal accomplishments of the PreVision co-founder team are world-class in their respective fields. When combined and working together this team can succeed in anything they are challenged with.
PreVision has six co-founders. All have engineering backgrounds, with three Ph.D.'s and combined experience of over 160 years in leadership of design, construction, testing, and operation of image processing technology, unmanned aircraft systems and engineering management.
Steve Suddarth
Co-Founder
Steve is a retired Air Force Colonel with a 24-year military R&D career involving a wide variety of R&D, management, teaching, and executive functions, as well as research in machine learning, autonomous vehicles and image processing. Notably, Steve started the Angel Fire project, forming its team and leading it through all of its development and initial fielding, figure 11. Steve also performed consulting for Logos Corporation, Rockwell-Collins International, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Raytheon Company. Steve also built and tested several airborne optical sensing systems, unmanned aerial robotics systems, and software systems for large military space programs. He founded Transparent Sky in 2007 to further develop the image processing technology which we are using today in our product line.
Education: Ph.D., Electrical Engineering, Univ. of Washington, 1988; M.S. Electrical Engineering, Univ. of Washington, 1983, B.S. Electrical Engineering, US Air Force Academy 1982.
David Eichhorn
Co-Founder
David (Maj. Gen., USAF Ret.) brings 35 years of experience in aircraft systems, avionics, test, project management and flight operations. As an Air Force officer, he led the Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Command (AFOTEC) with over 650 staff and test oversight of $650 billion in programs at over 12 locations. David also served as Commander of the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards AFB, as well as the Commander of Arnold Engineering and Development Center (AEDC), figure 14. He has over 6,100 hours in more than 47 types of aircraft. His expertise in system design and test guide our path toward both development and test of our products.
Education: M.S. Nat. Resource Strategy, Industrial College of the Armed Forces (Dist. Grad 1999), M.S. Electrical Engineering, Cal State Univ. (1988), AF Test Pilot School (Dist. Grad 1985), B.S. E.E., Univ. of Illinois (1976). Sec. Mgt. Course (2002), Air War College (1994), Joint Force Air Component Commander Course (2000).
Hadi Akbarpour
Co-Founder
Hadi’s develops computer vision algorithms for 3D reconstruction that supports thousands of cameras views in rendering solutions. His algorithms generate large scale point clouds for accurate reconstruction of both urban and rural areas as shown in figure 13. His algorithms also address multi-view aerial image registration, stabilization in the presence of strong parallax, vehicle tracking, and video analytics. In 2010, he was awarded a top prize for excellence in research by Australian Defense Science and Technology Organization (DSTO, which is the Australian analogue of DARPA).
Education: Ph.D., Electrical and Computer Engineering with specialization in Automation, Computer Vision and Robotics, University of Coimbra (Portugal), 2012.
Greg Walker
Co-Founder
Greg has over 30-years of experience in designing, building, testing, and operating Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) worldwide. At PreVision he is leveraging his worldwide experience, figure 12, to deliver the next generation of Imaging, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance technology to the domestic and international markets. Greg’s career includes positions as an Army officer conducting research with both the Army and NASA, industry entrepreneur, and starting and leading a University UAS program. Prior to forming PreVision, his recent experience included a tour as the Chief Operating & Technical Officer at Silent Falcon UAS Systems, and founder of Necessity Systems. In 2014, after creating and leading the University of Alaska’s Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration from inception through to their selection as an FAA Test Site, he returned to industry to make an even greater impact.
Education: M.S. Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University 1988, M.S. Aeronautics and Astronautics, Stanford University, 1988; B.S. Mechanical Engineering, Univ. of Wisconsin, 1986.
Deborah Suddarth
Co-Founder
Deborah is our business manager. She worked in construction management and process design as an engineer and senior engineer for various environmental engineering consulting firms, including Brown & Caldwell, James Montgomery Engineering, and Degrémont (France), figure 15. She brings her management skills to PreVision to handle our administrative aspects, from budgets to personnel, and generally ensuring the team has what they need to flourish in this business.
Education: M.S. Civil/Environmental Engineering, Univ. of California, Davis, 1980; B.S. Civil Engineering, Univ. of California, 1978; PE License, 1982, California (C 32950).
PreVision Corp.
235 Harrison St.
Syracuse, NY 13202
1(907) 322-4048
greg.walker@previsioncorp.com