The Blindsight Team

A scientist and entrepreneur, Mark is also a co-inventor on 21 U.S. patents related to image encoding and medical technologies, and has co-founded several technology companies.

He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Harvard University.

Peter has over twenty-five years of hands-on experience in management, strategy and technology. Over the past fifteen years he has co-founded, co-funded and/or co-developed new ventures in healthcare, web services, digital media, finance and oil. Previously, he managed engagement teams at Analysis Group / Integral, where he solved problems in innovation management, disruptive technologies and growth strategy for clients in the communications, computing and life science industries.

Peter is an expert in pattern recognition and artificial intelligence, and has co-authored a book on face recognition. He has taught life science entrepreneurship at the Stanford University School of Medicine and policy analysis at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Peter holds A.B., S.M. and Ph.D. degrees from the Division of Applied Sciences at Harvard University.

Alan wrote his Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics under Stephen Hawking at Cambridge University in 1980. After post-doctoral work at the University of Texas at Austin, The Institute for Theoretical Physics at Santa Barbara, and the Artificial Intelligence Lab at MIT, he joined the Division of Applied Sciences at Harvard University, where he became an Associate Professor. Alan also spent several years as a senior scientist at the Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute in San Francisco.

In addition to working with Blindsight, Alan serves as Professor of Statistics at UCLA with additional courtesy appointments as a full professor in the departments of Psychology, Computer Science and Psychiatry. Additionally, Alan is a co-director of the UCLA Center of Image and Vision Sciences, the UCLA Staglin Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, and the UCLA Center for Computational Biology.

Alan has over one hundred and thirty peer-reviewed publications on vision, neural networks, and physics and has co-authored two books.

Frank brings extensive practical experience leading complex hardware and software R&D projects in Europe, Asia and the US. Taking concepts from initiation to real products, he has supervised the development of products in connectivity and audio solutions.

Frank holds an MBA degree from Henley Business School (UK) in addition to a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering and Technology Management from University of Huddersfield (UK) and Jena University of Applied Sciences (Germany).

Nancy earned a Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of California at Berkeley. She has extensive experience doing research in fields from demographics to frame semantics. After serving as a Senior Researcher at the Rockridge Institute with George Lakoff, she helped to found another think tank focusing on the application of cognitive linguistics to political issues.

She occasionally teaches interdisciplinary courses on linguistic and neuroscientific approaches to cognition and culture at the University of California at Berkeley.

Kevin has been writing software since he was 4 years old. He has designed and built systems in such diverse fields as telecommunications, pharmaceutical R&D,education, mapping, and robotics.

Kevin has a broad set of interests both inside and outside the computer world; he is equally at home in a text editor or a command prompt, in a kitchen or a dojo. Reflective of these interests, he has a B.A. in Psychology from the University of California at Berkeley, and has studied Professional Culinary Arts at the Apicius School of Hospitality in Florence, Italy.

Kaolin Fire is a conglomeration of ideas, side projects, and experiments. Outside of his primary occupation, he also develops computer games, edits Greatest Uncommon Denominator Magazine, and very occasionally teaches computer science.

He graduated with his Bachelors in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from UC Berkeley, with a specialization in Bioelectrical Engineering. He dreams of androids dreaming.

Dave is passionate about working with talented people, understanding complex systems, and building tools and communities that allow for more engagement between people and the worlds they surround themselves with. His excitement for these things has manifested in his Ph.D. research studying plasma turbulence, his community-building work at the L.A. Ecovillage/Urban Soil housing cooperative, the Burningman projects and camps he helps run, and his love of tinkering with motorcycles and bicycles.

He holds a M.S. and Ph.D in plasma physics from U.C.L.A and a B.A. in physics from Swarthmore College. He plans to never stop learning and trying new things.

Pedro graduated with his Masters in Computer Science from University of Illinois at Urbana Champagne. Pedro is a Fullbright Scholar and also has a background in Electrical Engineering.

His research interests are in Computer Vision, Machine Learning and Signal Processing. At Blindsight he brings his expertise in building practical systems to develop new technology solutions for the blind and aging.

Mayur graduated with his Masters in Computer Science and Cognitive Science from Michigan State University. After working as a researcher at the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute at UC Berkeley he joined the team of BlindSight in 2011.

His research interests include – machine learning, computer vision and computational models of cognition. At Blindsight he applies his expertise to develop new algorithms and interfaces to aid the visually impaired, disabled and aging.

Udani Kadurugamuwa is a 4th year undergraduate at the University of California, Berkeley. She is studying Public Health with an emphasis on Health Policy and Management and minoring in Global Poverty and Practice.

She brings practical experience to Blindsight after working as the Resident Assistant for the Disabled Students Program and from her previous work with the Office for At-Risk Individuals, Behavioral Health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Faith is a Certified Orientation & Mobility Specialist. She has over eleven years experience teaching blind and visually impaired students in the public school setting, as well as working with adult learners in the private sector. She has served as a Master Teacher for the San Francisco State University Orientation and Mobility Teacher Preparation Program and is the new Internship Supervisor for the program. Faith is ACVREP certified, (Academy for Certification of Vision Rehabilitation & Education Professionals) and is also a nationally appointed member of the Certified Orientation and Mobility Specialist Subject Matter Expert Committee for ACVREP. She is a contributing author to a book on teaching students who have visual impairments, and she is currently serving her second term as the Chair of the Traffic and Pedestrian Safety Committee for the City of Pinole.

Faith earned her Masters in Special Education, Orientation & Mobility from San Francisco State University in 2000, and holds a B.A. in Biological Psychology as well as in Nutrition and Exercise Prescription.

Hutch Fishman is currently part-time CFO of BiddingForGood, Inc. and Veveo, Inc. He has worked with a number of high-profile emerging and publicly held companies within diverse industries including software, telecommunications, and new media.

Hutch has served as the founding CFO of the following companies: Sonus Networks (Nasdaq-SONS), the FamilyEducation Network (acquired by Pearson), Viaweb (acquired by Yahoo!), Winphoria Networks (acquired by Motorola), and VideoServer (Nasdaq-EZEN). Hutch, a certified public accountant, was previously a senior manager at Deloitte & Touche and co-founder of the Boston office’s High Technology and Emerging Business Group.