Alexander Naiman
Chief Technology Officer at Merlin Labs- Claim this Profile
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Topline Score
Bio
San Gunawardana
Alex is an enormously adaptable engineer. I've had the pleasure of working alongside him at Stanford as researchers, and also at Exponent as forward deployed engineers supporting the U.S. Army in Afghanistan. Alex's technical expertise spans a broad spectrum. I've seen him develop world class algorithms as a research engineer, and I've also seen him successfully hack together safety-critical hardware/software prototypes while in the field under extreme time & resource constraints. Beyond his strong technical skills, Alex is a selfless coworker who consistently supports the growth of his company: he doesn't hesitate to tackle additional tasks on top of his core responsibilities, rapidly learns new skills to meet emerging needs, and meticulously troubleshoots failures that are slowing the team. What most sets Alex apart from other engineers is his ability to work with closely with clients and to handle even challenging client relationships with confidence. Alex has the capability to bridge gaps across intellectual, organizational, and cultural divides that might otherwise derail projects. Alex also excels at written communication, from detailed proposals to precise and concise final reports. I highly recommend Alex; he would be a valuable and versatile asset to any team.
Christopher Dombrowski
I had the privilege to work with Alex for the past year at TerrAvion, a start-up aerial imagery provider. Working at a lean start-up requires a multidisciplinary approach and great flexibility. Both of which Alex excels. Alex was brought on as the Lead Hardware Engineer with the task of developing our prototype imaging system into a dependable field deployable device, both the hardware and the software / UI. This included refining and redesigning the mechanical framing as well as custom electronics and cabling. Alex is a great communicator. In his roll he had to be able to communicate clearly and concisely not only to the rest on engineering but also operations, sales, and the executives. Externally Alex had to communicate and coordinate with flight schools and vendors. Most notably he was the chief point of contact coordinating our engineering efforts in designing a new instrument with the external supplier providing the housing. Finally the best thing I can say about Alex is his willingness to step in and get things done. Alex would do whatever was needed to get the task done on time.
San Gunawardana
Alex is an enormously adaptable engineer. I've had the pleasure of working alongside him at Stanford as researchers, and also at Exponent as forward deployed engineers supporting the U.S. Army in Afghanistan. Alex's technical expertise spans a broad spectrum. I've seen him develop world class algorithms as a research engineer, and I've also seen him successfully hack together safety-critical hardware/software prototypes while in the field under extreme time & resource constraints. Beyond his strong technical skills, Alex is a selfless coworker who consistently supports the growth of his company: he doesn't hesitate to tackle additional tasks on top of his core responsibilities, rapidly learns new skills to meet emerging needs, and meticulously troubleshoots failures that are slowing the team. What most sets Alex apart from other engineers is his ability to work with closely with clients and to handle even challenging client relationships with confidence. Alex has the capability to bridge gaps across intellectual, organizational, and cultural divides that might otherwise derail projects. Alex also excels at written communication, from detailed proposals to precise and concise final reports. I highly recommend Alex; he would be a valuable and versatile asset to any team.
Christopher Dombrowski
I had the privilege to work with Alex for the past year at TerrAvion, a start-up aerial imagery provider. Working at a lean start-up requires a multidisciplinary approach and great flexibility. Both of which Alex excels. Alex was brought on as the Lead Hardware Engineer with the task of developing our prototype imaging system into a dependable field deployable device, both the hardware and the software / UI. This included refining and redesigning the mechanical framing as well as custom electronics and cabling. Alex is a great communicator. In his roll he had to be able to communicate clearly and concisely not only to the rest on engineering but also operations, sales, and the executives. Externally Alex had to communicate and coordinate with flight schools and vendors. Most notably he was the chief point of contact coordinating our engineering efforts in designing a new instrument with the external supplier providing the housing. Finally the best thing I can say about Alex is his willingness to step in and get things done. Alex would do whatever was needed to get the task done on time.
San Gunawardana
Alex is an enormously adaptable engineer. I've had the pleasure of working alongside him at Stanford as researchers, and also at Exponent as forward deployed engineers supporting the U.S. Army in Afghanistan. Alex's technical expertise spans a broad spectrum. I've seen him develop world class algorithms as a research engineer, and I've also seen him successfully hack together safety-critical hardware/software prototypes while in the field under extreme time & resource constraints. Beyond his strong technical skills, Alex is a selfless coworker who consistently supports the growth of his company: he doesn't hesitate to tackle additional tasks on top of his core responsibilities, rapidly learns new skills to meet emerging needs, and meticulously troubleshoots failures that are slowing the team. What most sets Alex apart from other engineers is his ability to work with closely with clients and to handle even challenging client relationships with confidence. Alex has the capability to bridge gaps across intellectual, organizational, and cultural divides that might otherwise derail projects. Alex also excels at written communication, from detailed proposals to precise and concise final reports. I highly recommend Alex; he would be a valuable and versatile asset to any team.
Christopher Dombrowski
I had the privilege to work with Alex for the past year at TerrAvion, a start-up aerial imagery provider. Working at a lean start-up requires a multidisciplinary approach and great flexibility. Both of which Alex excels. Alex was brought on as the Lead Hardware Engineer with the task of developing our prototype imaging system into a dependable field deployable device, both the hardware and the software / UI. This included refining and redesigning the mechanical framing as well as custom electronics and cabling. Alex is a great communicator. In his roll he had to be able to communicate clearly and concisely not only to the rest on engineering but also operations, sales, and the executives. Externally Alex had to communicate and coordinate with flight schools and vendors. Most notably he was the chief point of contact coordinating our engineering efforts in designing a new instrument with the external supplier providing the housing. Finally the best thing I can say about Alex is his willingness to step in and get things done. Alex would do whatever was needed to get the task done on time.
San Gunawardana
Alex is an enormously adaptable engineer. I've had the pleasure of working alongside him at Stanford as researchers, and also at Exponent as forward deployed engineers supporting the U.S. Army in Afghanistan. Alex's technical expertise spans a broad spectrum. I've seen him develop world class algorithms as a research engineer, and I've also seen him successfully hack together safety-critical hardware/software prototypes while in the field under extreme time & resource constraints. Beyond his strong technical skills, Alex is a selfless coworker who consistently supports the growth of his company: he doesn't hesitate to tackle additional tasks on top of his core responsibilities, rapidly learns new skills to meet emerging needs, and meticulously troubleshoots failures that are slowing the team. What most sets Alex apart from other engineers is his ability to work with closely with clients and to handle even challenging client relationships with confidence. Alex has the capability to bridge gaps across intellectual, organizational, and cultural divides that might otherwise derail projects. Alex also excels at written communication, from detailed proposals to precise and concise final reports. I highly recommend Alex; he would be a valuable and versatile asset to any team.
Christopher Dombrowski
I had the privilege to work with Alex for the past year at TerrAvion, a start-up aerial imagery provider. Working at a lean start-up requires a multidisciplinary approach and great flexibility. Both of which Alex excels. Alex was brought on as the Lead Hardware Engineer with the task of developing our prototype imaging system into a dependable field deployable device, both the hardware and the software / UI. This included refining and redesigning the mechanical framing as well as custom electronics and cabling. Alex is a great communicator. In his roll he had to be able to communicate clearly and concisely not only to the rest on engineering but also operations, sales, and the executives. Externally Alex had to communicate and coordinate with flight schools and vendors. Most notably he was the chief point of contact coordinating our engineering efforts in designing a new instrument with the external supplier providing the housing. Finally the best thing I can say about Alex is his willingness to step in and get things done. Alex would do whatever was needed to get the task done on time.
Credentials
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Professional Engineer
CA Board for Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, and GeologistsDec, 2014- Nov, 2024
Experience
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Merlin
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United States
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Software Development
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1 - 100 Employee
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Chief Technology Officer
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Aug 2022 - Present
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VP of Engineering
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Oct 2020 - Nov 2022
I'm currently leading the engineering team Merlin Labs, where we're building the definitive autonomy system for things that fly. With a focus on safe, robust, onboard autonomy systems and a build-test-fly-often approach, we are moving quickly toward our eventual goal of enabling aircraft to fly safely without a pilot on board.
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Acubed
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United States
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Aviation & Aerospace
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1 - 100 Employee
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Director of Engineering, Wayfinder
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Aug 2018 - Oct 2020
I led the engineering team at Wayfinder, where we built autonomous flight and machine learning solutions to enable self-piloted aircraft operation across all Airbus products. We built a deep machine learning-based computer vision system that helped perform fully autonomous landings of an Airbus flight test A350-1000 in April 2020: https://acubed.airbus.com/blog/wayfinder/closed-loop-autonomous-flight-milestone-video/ Read more about Wayfinder here:… Show more I led the engineering team at Wayfinder, where we built autonomous flight and machine learning solutions to enable self-piloted aircraft operation across all Airbus products. We built a deep machine learning-based computer vision system that helped perform fully autonomous landings of an Airbus flight test A350-1000 in April 2020: https://acubed.airbus.com/blog/wayfinder/closed-loop-autonomous-flight-milestone-video/ Read more about Wayfinder here: https://acubed.airbus.com/projects/wayfinder/
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Senior Integration Engineer, Vahana
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Sep 2016 - Aug 2018
I led integration of a robust autonomous system through the Alpha phase of Project Vahana. This work will enable a whole new class of aircraft to operate safely in the real world. For more about the project, take a look at our project blog: https://acubed.airbus.com/blog/vahana/
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Otherlab
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United States
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Renewable Energy Semiconductor Manufacturing
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1 - 100 Employee
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Aerospace Engineer
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Apr 2016 - Sep 2016
As part of Otherlab's aeronautics research team (aka Flying Things or Sky Machines), I worked on several government and commercially funded projects pushing the limits of possibility for autonomous aerial vehicles. In one project, I led design, integration, and testing efforts for a DARPA project to build a rapidly biodegradable, low-cost glider. Taking advantage of Otherlab's unique rapid prototyping capabilities, I revamped the vehicle design and improved its robustness to enable a… Show more As part of Otherlab's aeronautics research team (aka Flying Things or Sky Machines), I worked on several government and commercially funded projects pushing the limits of possibility for autonomous aerial vehicles. In one project, I led design, integration, and testing efforts for a DARPA project to build a rapidly biodegradable, low-cost glider. Taking advantage of Otherlab's unique rapid prototyping capabilities, I revamped the vehicle design and improved its robustness to enable a 2-week-or-less design-build-test iterative cycle. Show less As part of Otherlab's aeronautics research team (aka Flying Things or Sky Machines), I worked on several government and commercially funded projects pushing the limits of possibility for autonomous aerial vehicles. In one project, I led design, integration, and testing efforts for a DARPA project to build a rapidly biodegradable, low-cost glider. Taking advantage of Otherlab's unique rapid prototyping capabilities, I revamped the vehicle design and improved its robustness to enable a… Show more As part of Otherlab's aeronautics research team (aka Flying Things or Sky Machines), I worked on several government and commercially funded projects pushing the limits of possibility for autonomous aerial vehicles. In one project, I led design, integration, and testing efforts for a DARPA project to build a rapidly biodegradable, low-cost glider. Taking advantage of Otherlab's unique rapid prototyping capabilities, I revamped the vehicle design and improved its robustness to enable a 2-week-or-less design-build-test iterative cycle. Show less
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TerrAvion, Inc.
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United States
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Farming
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1 - 100 Employee
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Lead Hardware Engineer
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Sep 2014 - Aug 2015
As Lead Hardware Engineer at TerrAvion, I was responsible for leading our small team in developing, designing, and integrating all aspects of our flying image collection systems. Each collection system is a set of sensors (high resolution cameras in several bands, position/orientation sensors, and a few others) connected to a control and data collection server in the airplane. I therefore was able to get my hands dirty with just about every engineering discipline covered: -… Show more As Lead Hardware Engineer at TerrAvion, I was responsible for leading our small team in developing, designing, and integrating all aspects of our flying image collection systems. Each collection system is a set of sensors (high resolution cameras in several bands, position/orientation sensors, and a few others) connected to a control and data collection server in the airplane. I therefore was able to get my hands dirty with just about every engineering discipline covered: - Embedded Linux software – C/C++, Bash, and Python - Mechanical design and fabrication – SolidWorks, vendor sourcing, machining, and assembly - Power and data delivery – circuit design, soldering, cable harnesses, and strain relief - User interface design and implementation – Python, HTML, and CSS - Data and database management – SQLite and PostgreSQL In all these areas, I focused on improving the performance, modularity, usability, and reliability of the hardware to increase uptime for operations. TerrAvion’s product requires consistent, high quality imagery and other sensor data that must be collected in a difficult environment. Balancing between technical development, regulatory constraints, operational considerations, and cost tradeoffs provided an exciting challenge every day. Show less As Lead Hardware Engineer at TerrAvion, I was responsible for leading our small team in developing, designing, and integrating all aspects of our flying image collection systems. Each collection system is a set of sensors (high resolution cameras in several bands, position/orientation sensors, and a few others) connected to a control and data collection server in the airplane. I therefore was able to get my hands dirty with just about every engineering discipline covered: -… Show more As Lead Hardware Engineer at TerrAvion, I was responsible for leading our small team in developing, designing, and integrating all aspects of our flying image collection systems. Each collection system is a set of sensors (high resolution cameras in several bands, position/orientation sensors, and a few others) connected to a control and data collection server in the airplane. I therefore was able to get my hands dirty with just about every engineering discipline covered: - Embedded Linux software – C/C++, Bash, and Python - Mechanical design and fabrication – SolidWorks, vendor sourcing, machining, and assembly - Power and data delivery – circuit design, soldering, cable harnesses, and strain relief - User interface design and implementation – Python, HTML, and CSS - Data and database management – SQLite and PostgreSQL In all these areas, I focused on improving the performance, modularity, usability, and reliability of the hardware to increase uptime for operations. TerrAvion’s product requires consistent, high quality imagery and other sensor data that must be collected in a difficult environment. Balancing between technical development, regulatory constraints, operational considerations, and cost tradeoffs provided an exciting challenge every day. Show less
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Exponent
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United States
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Business Consulting and Services
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700 & Above Employee
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Senior Associate
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Feb 2012 - Sep 2014
Developed innovative technological solutions to problems faced by military and other government organizations. My projects at Exponent ranged from mechanical design and 3D printing, to writing firmware, to testing and failure analysis. In 2012, I spent six months in southern Afghanistan as an Expeditionary Engineer, providing engineering expertise, rapid design, and rapid prototyping to solve battlefield problems for the US Army. Projects included covert/overt surveillance systems… Show more Developed innovative technological solutions to problems faced by military and other government organizations. My projects at Exponent ranged from mechanical design and 3D printing, to writing firmware, to testing and failure analysis. In 2012, I spent six months in southern Afghanistan as an Expeditionary Engineer, providing engineering expertise, rapid design, and rapid prototyping to solve battlefield problems for the US Army. Projects included covert/overt surveillance systems, electrical power systems, and vehicle systems that allowed soldiers to operate more safely and effectively. When not deployed overseas, I led testing and failure analysis of electronic identity documents (smart cards, among others), managed a pilot project to build secure electronic credentials, and worked on business development in the areas of 3D printing and unmanned aerial systems. Show less Developed innovative technological solutions to problems faced by military and other government organizations. My projects at Exponent ranged from mechanical design and 3D printing, to writing firmware, to testing and failure analysis. In 2012, I spent six months in southern Afghanistan as an Expeditionary Engineer, providing engineering expertise, rapid design, and rapid prototyping to solve battlefield problems for the US Army. Projects included covert/overt surveillance systems… Show more Developed innovative technological solutions to problems faced by military and other government organizations. My projects at Exponent ranged from mechanical design and 3D printing, to writing firmware, to testing and failure analysis. In 2012, I spent six months in southern Afghanistan as an Expeditionary Engineer, providing engineering expertise, rapid design, and rapid prototyping to solve battlefield problems for the US Army. Projects included covert/overt surveillance systems, electrical power systems, and vehicle systems that allowed soldiers to operate more safely and effectively. When not deployed overseas, I led testing and failure analysis of electronic identity documents (smart cards, among others), managed a pilot project to build secure electronic credentials, and worked on business development in the areas of 3D printing and unmanned aerial systems. Show less
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Education
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2006 - 2011
Stanford University
Ph.D., Aeronautics and Astronautics -
2005 - 2006
Stanford University
M.S., Aeronautics and Astronautics -
2001 - 2005
Princeton University
B.S.E., Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
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