Alexander Naiman Email & Phone Number

Boston, Ma, Us

Boston, Ma, Us

Boston, Ma, Us

Boston, Ma, Us

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.

Sunnyvale, California, Us

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/

Sunnyvale, California, Us

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/

San Francisco, Us

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.

Hayward, California, Us

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 PostgreSQLIn 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.

Menlo Park, Ca, Us

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.

Ph.D., Aeronautics And Astronautics

M.S., Aeronautics And Astronautics

B.S.E., Mechanical And Aerospace Engineering