Board of Advisors
Brian Wandell, Advisor
Christopher Kaufman, Corporate Counsel
Bernd Girod, Advisor
Oscar (Oz) Pieper, Advisor
Francis Ford Coppola, Advisor
Robert A. Martin, Advisor
Thomas E. Laux, Advisor
Brian Wandell
Advisor
Professor Brian Wandell joined the Stanford University faculty in 1979. His research areas include image systems engineering and vision science. Dr. Wandell co-founded the Stanford Image Systems Engineering Program (www.ise.stanford.edu) and is co-principal investigator of the Programmable Digital Camera program, an industry-sponsored effort to develop programmable CMOS sensors.
For 20 years, Dr. Wandell has served as a consultant to many high-profile Silicon Valley imaging companies. He is the author of more than 100 papers and holds several patents relating to the design of imaging devices.
Dr. Wandell is the author of Foundations of Vision, a textbook on vision science. Dr. Wandell won the 1986 Troland Research Award from the U.S. National Academy of Sciences for his work in color vision. He was a Fellow with the Optical Society of America in 1990 and was given a McKnight Senior Investigator award in 1997. He also was awarded the Macbeth Prize from the Inter-Society Color Council in 2000.
You can learn more about Dr. Wandell's research and teaching here.
Christopher Kaufman
Corporate Counsel
Mr. Kaufman is a partner and founder of the Silicon Valley law firm Latham & Watkins, which has more than 1,000 attorneys in a dozen locations throughout the world. Clients include Advanced Micro Devices, Conexant, Mentor Graphics Corporation, Next Level Communications, The Spectranetics Corporation and several privately held start-up technology companies as well as major investment banks. Mr. Kaufman represented Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing in one of the largest semiconductor initial public offerings ever and the first simultaneous listing of a company on the NASDAQ National Market and the Singapore Stock Exchange. He is a member of the American Bar Association Committees on Negotiated Acquisitions and Federal Regulation of Securities and is listed in The Best Lawyers in America.
Mr. Kaufman graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1970 and appeared in the Harvard Law Review from 1968-70.
Bernd Girod
Advisor
Bernd Girod is a professor of electrical engineering and (by courtesy) computer science in the Information Systems Laboratory of Stanford University. He was Chaired Professor of Telecommunications in the Electrical Engineering Department of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg from 1993 to 1999.
Dr. Girod's research interests include networked multimedia systems, video signal compression and 3-D image analysis and synthesis. Previous visiting or regular faculty positions included MIT, Georgia Tech and Stanford. He has been involved with several startup ventures as founder, director, investor or advisor, among them Vivo Software, Netergy Networks and RealNetworks.
He received a doctorate in engineering from the University of Hannover, Germany, and a master’s degree from Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr. Girod was made a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in 1998 for his contributions to the theory and practice of video communications.
Oscar (Oz) Pieper
Advisor
Oscar Pieper is a true pioneer in the field of automated identity management with special enphasis on biometrics. Pieper founded Identicator Inc. in 1971. He later formed Identicator Technology in 1991, which was the first biometric company involved with fully automated finger and facial ID. The company introduced advanced finger minutiae processing on a PC for under one hundered dollars in 1998 with Compaq. The system included sensor, feature extraction, searching algorithms and application interface software. Identicator Technology merged with Identix in April of 1999, and Identicator Inc. merged with Amor Holdings, a NYSE company, in 2001.
Pieper cofounded the Bio API Group to establish biometric standards with Microsoft, IBM, Novel, and Compaq in 1997. He also cofounded the International Biometric Industry Association.
Francis Ford Coppola
Advisor
Francis Ford Coppola is one of the most respected talents in the entertainment business.
Best known as a five-time Oscar-winning director, writer and producer, he won his first Oscar at age 31 for the screenplay for Patton, which he co-wrote with Edmund H. North. His impressive body of work includes directorial credits for 20 films including epic films such as the Godfather trilogy and Apocalypse Now, The Conversation, Rumblefish, The Outsiders and Bram Stroker's Dracula.
Throughout his career, Coppola has searched for better tools for filmmakers and is considered the pioneer of electronic cinema. Many of the techniques he developed have become industry standards. His San Francisco-based film company, American Zoetrope, develops and produces film projects for both the large and small screen.
His other business interests include the Niebaum-Coppola Estate Winery in Napa Valley, Blancaneaux Lodge and Turtle Inn in Belize, Cafe Niebaum-Coppola in San Francisco and Palo Alto, and Francis Coppola Brands, a line of pastas, organic sauces and olive oil marketed under the Mammarella brand.
Robert A. Martin
Advisor
Robert Martin served for 32 years with the New York City Police Department, retiring as a Deputy Inspector in March 2000. During his last 10 years of service he supervised the New York "Joint Terrorist Task Force" and participated in many high profile investigations. These would include: the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, the Blind Sheik bombing conspiracy, the crash of TWA Flight 800, and the rescue of kidnapped tuxedo manufacturer Harvey Weinstein.
In 1996 Mr. Martin's work in counter-terrorism was recognized by his appointment to the International Association of Chiefs of Police "Committee on Terrorism," a position he still holds. In September of 2002 Mr. Martin was appointed to the Oklahoma City National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism (MIPT). He has been designated a "Terrorism Subject Matter Expert" by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office for Domestic Preparedness and has assisted that office in formulating counter - terrorism strategies. He has traveled around the world lecturing about the threat of terrorism, and served as a consultant on terrorism and security matters with a number of security firms and major corporations.
Thomas E. Laux
Advisor
Thomas Laux has more than 25 years experience in executive management of high tech startups and publicly traded businesses ranging from software to semiconductors. He is actively involved as a strategic advisor to startup companies.
Tom's technical background and fluency in Japanese, coupled with his extensive experience in international and US direct and channel market sales, mergers and acquisitions, marketing and business development have contributed to the success of many companies, such as MIPS Computers Systems, CISCO (Japan), Alias|Wavefront, Extreme Networks, WISchip and Micronas.
In addition to his business activities, Tom is an instrument rated private pilot.
Tom earned his BME at the University of Wisconsin , MBA/MIM from Marquette University and American Graduate School of International Management and BSEET from DeVry University .