Baltimore Innovation Week 2017

Param first experienced the inefficiencies of today’s manufacturing when setting up fabrication pipelines for orthopedic devices in rural India. Through his nonprofit, he provided orthopedic treatment to children with muscular disorders to change the stigma against disability. He turned his experiences there into FactoryFour, a software company creating the Internet of Manufacturing to enable manufacturers to take advantage of the future’s digital technologies.

Gary is a Data Engineer at Arena.io. He dabbles in UI and knows way too much Clojure. He has applied FP languages (currently OCaml) and approaches to problems for over 6 years in Baltimore.

Le`Rhone is part of the technology leadership at The Archer Group and oversees the front end development and animation disciplines. He also oversees emerging technology research via the Archer Innovations program. This team is currently exploring Virtual Reality, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence, and uses this research to educate internal teams and find new opportunities to create meaningful experiences for Archer's clients.

Le’Rhone’s decade of experience in both design and business helps Archer’s work achieve the right balance between meeting the client’s business goals and creating a digital experience worth talking about. He has applied this knowledge to projects for clients such as Wawa Foods, Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan Chase, DuPont, March of Dimes, and BarclayCard US.

Darius Irani is a sophomore at Johns Hopkins, currently studying Computer Science and Applied Mathematics & Statistics. Originally from Upstate New York, Darius has found his home in Baltimore through involvement in his social start-up Project Charmify that does community development, educational programming, and vacant space activation in neighborhoods across Baltimore. Darius would like to combine his passion for social justice issues and technical interests and skills in STEM, by using Big Data and Machine Learning to have social impact in cities and influence social policy.

Martijn Nuijten is Attaché for Innovation, Science and Technology at the Netherlands Embassy in Washington, D.C. As of 2016 he is also Sr. Advisor for cybersecurity at the embassy on behalf of the Ministry of Security and Justice. His work focuses on developing strategic partnerships between US and Dutch industry, academia and government related to research, innovation and policy. His areas of expertise are high-tech systems and IT, cybersecurity, smart cities and mobility, advanced manufacturing and blockchain tech. Martijn has a BA and MSc degree in astrophysics from the Technical University of Delft and Leiden University in The Netherlands. Before joining the embassy in 2012 he worked at the Ministry of Economic Affairs in The Hague where he was responsible for managing innovation programs and developing innovation policy, public-private partnerships and international cooperation. Martijn started his career as management consultant at Accenture in Amsterdam working on (IT) strategy and development for multinational companies and government agencies.

Tom Kraak is a JavaScript developer at Oath, a subsidiary of Verizon, which houses 50+ media and technology brands including AOL, Yahoo, and HuffPost. He is passionate about learning, teaching, and the web platform. Tom combines these passions in frequent contributions to his favorite open source projects on GitHub. Besides the long-standing Academy course at Betamore, he teaches and mentors at Thinkful, Baltimore NodeSchool and various local meetups for junior web developers.

Brad Hennessie is the CEO of NextStep Robotic Inc., a company whose portable robotic ankle exoskeleton is being developed as the first ever treatment option to reverse foot drop in stroke victims. Foot drop, which occurs in a wide range of neurological and orthopedic conditions, is recognized as the inability to lift the toe during normal walking. He has been working with the inventors of this technology for 8 years, managing multiple grants with Drs. Macko, Roy, and Forrester. He started with the team as a single study coordinator and quickly grew into a leadership role over the past few years, helping manage the day-to-day tasks and long term goals for the Maryland Exercise and Robotics Center of Excellence (MERCE). MERCE is a ~$7M/year research organization originally founded by Dr. Richard Macko that is part of the Baltimore VA Medical Center and the Department of Neurology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Brad’s conception of the business model and commercialization plan led to the team’s successful TEDCO MII Phase I/II submission and attracting their first external investor.

Since transitioning out of the robotics lab and starting full time with NextStep Robotics, he has directed an engineering team with Dr. Gil Blankenship at the Maryland Development Center to create the first prototype of the portable ankle robot.

Brad’s early development as a leader was shaped by his 8 years in the Maryland Army National Guard where he learned the importance of having confidence in the quality of a product by being a parachute rigger.

Milt Reder is VP of Engineering at Yet Analytics, where he and his team use Clojure(Script) to model human experience, learning and performance. He is a co-organizer of the Baltimore Clojure meetup, now in its 4th year.