The Remarkable People of AURA

Robert (Robb) Pinkerton

Throughout his career, Robb Pinkerton has held leadership positions with Northrup Grumman (NGC), Orbital Sciences ATK, Lockheed Martin, and Motorola, and served as Chief Engineer on the NASA Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope, LandSat 8, and Iridium NEXT programs. Robb was also Lead Power Systems Engineer on the International Space Station, and others including Magellan, a satellite that made a topographical map of Venus. Robb served on the AIAA Space Power Technical Committee for over ten years, in all positions of leadership. He alsoserved in all positions of leadership on the Intersociety Energy Conversion Engineering Conference (IECEC) Committee.Robb has received numerous awards including the NASA Exceptional Public Service Medal, multiple NASA Group Achievement Awards, as well as awards from General Dynamics, NGC, Boeing, and Motorola. He was one of three authors and the Lead Instructor for AIAA Space Power System Design Course, and he served on the National Research Council Thermionic Direct Energy Conversion Study,and the AIAA Mil STD 16400 Rewrite Committee.

Greg Houlgate

Greg Houlgate is an innovator of new technologies in medical, automotive, commercial and consumer products industries. With over 25 years of senior product development, corporate development, sales and marketing experience; Mr. Houlgate has worked for numerous companies including: Analytics Ventures (VC Firm) – portfolio companies CureMetrix and CureMatch (AI Healthcare companies), Oska Wellness – CES 2018 Start-up of the Year winner, DJO’s Global Recovery Science Division (a Blackstone Portfolio Company); Onsite Network, an interactive media company; West Coast Trends, a leading travel luggage and golf bag provider; Porsche Design, and Callaway Golf. His experience has taken Greg to work, travel and live in many markets around the world where he has developed a strong network of government, commercial and media relations across Europe, Asia and the Americas.

As a technology pioneer, Greg has been cited in numerous publications including Huffington Post, Sports and Fitness Tech, VatorNews, The Los Angeles Times, Drug Store News, Inc, Wearable and more.

Mr. Houlgate holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from U.C. Irvine and an MBA in Global Management from the University of Phoenix at Del Mar, CA.

Mark Maxwell

Captain Mark Maxwell retired from the US Navy in 2016 as the military lead for Advanced Manufacturing technology for the Naval Air Command. Capt. Maxwell worked for over 25 years in the maintenance and sustainment of US Navy aircraft. He also worked as a Quality Engineering Manager and Lean SixSigma Blackbelt. He holds certifications as a DAWIA Level III Program Manager, ASQC Quality Engineer, Technician and Auditor, ISO-9000 Auditor, LEAN Bronze (ASME), and several space application soldering standards (NHB5300 and J-STD-001). During his career span, Mark continued his commitment as a Naval Reservist as an Aviation Maintenance Officer. As a Reservist he managed Organizational, Intermediate, and Depot level maintenance providers for H-2, H-3, P-3, and GIV Gulfstream aircraft and then transitioned to NAVAIR as an Acquisition Program Manager and Military Director for Additive Manufacturing & Digital Thread.

Dr. Eric Strong

Dr. Eric Strong is leading AURA’s efforts in the field of applied AI research. His past work includes the development of machine learning algorithms for condition-based maintenance in multiple industries including nuclear plants, naval vessels, aircraft, and industrial plants. Throughout his career, he has led teams in the development of multiple successful AI products, including predictive maintenance. Dr. Strong served as a technical lead for prognostics at the DEI Group, and as a senior data scientist at his former company, Honeywell Aerospace.

Karen Naylor

Karen Naylor, Vice President of Operations for AURA, oversees operations, human resources, contracting, and vendor management. With over 20 years of operations and marketing experience, Ms. Naylor has held positions of increasing responsibility at numerous pharma companies, most recently GlaxoSmithKline.She has extensive experience in the areas of regulatory product and promotional filings, content creation and management, commercial training, budget management, and digital marketing roles. Her skillsets range from process and procedural development, to change management with a focus on the execution and embedment of new information and policies, to coaching and mentoring employees and peers to do their best work.

Dr. Alex Blate

Dr. Alex Blate has over 20 years of experience in Software, Hardware, and Embedded Systems. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the area of low-latency tracking and displays for optical see-through augmented reality. His academic research included significant work characterizing and integrating with a variety of optical and inertial sensors. Prior to UNC, he was Senior Software Architect at CA Technologies (now part of Broadcom) and was responsible for the architecture and design of a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform. Prior to CA, he worked on Tier-1 VoIP and Mobile Applications platforms in the capacity of Systems Engineering, software performance, and scalability.