Trent Yang, Director, CU Cleantech, University of Colorado, Boulder

Jean Koster, President of Tigon Enertec and Professor of Aerospace Engineering

Board of Advisers:

Tim Gardner, CEO (interim, part time)

Mr. Gardner has 25 years of operating experience with technology, manufacturing, and financial service companies. Tim is currently CFO and Vice President, Business Development at Boulder Ionics, a specialty chemical manufacturer providing electrolytes for advanced energy storage. Prior to joining BI, Mr. Gardner was a partner with Cache Creek Partners, a consulting partnership that accelerates growth and profitability for midsize companies. Prior to joining Cache Creek, Mr. Gardner served as COO and CFO in the turnaround and sale of Compositetek a contract manufacturer of carbon fiber components and a former subsidiary of StorageTek. Served as Vice President of Sales for Global Commerce Systems, an e-commerce software company. Previously Mr. Gardner was Vice President of Marketing at Safesport Manufacturing Company where he was responsible for managing the company’s national team of independent sales representatives and its key relationships with distributors and large retailers. He is currently Chairman of the board of the Southwestern Foundation. He received his Bachelors degree from the University of Colorado and his M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Tim Gardner

Tim Sherwood, VP Business Development and Operations

Tim is the Vice President of Business Development and Operations for Tigon. He has over 20 years of business experience in business development, marketing, real estate and operations. Tim was previously COO for two separate start-up companies in Seattle, WA. He has a tremendous amount of experience in international business having lived and worked in Moscow, Russia (1994-1997) and Sichuan, China (1988).

Tim Sherwood

Jean N. Koster, President and Professor

Pioneered and developed novel experimental technologies (optical and radioscopic). He has 25 years of experience teaching at university level focusing on development of a hands-on curriculum for sophomore students in aerospace engineering, and a new rigorous senior design curriculum emphasizing systems engineering and teamwork (http://aeroprojects.colorado.edu/). Being interested in aircraft and alternative energies he initiated in 2009 the HELIOS project to develop a hybrid multi-torque propulsion system for aircraft (JNK-Projects).

He receved the "New Inventor of the Year 2010" award from the University of Colorado Office of Technology Transfer for the hybrid propulsion technology for aircraft. He also received the "Educator of the Year 2011" award from the AIAA Rocky Mountain Section for the Hyperion aircraft project.

Jean Koster

Pierce Taylor Martin, Systems Engineer

Pierce is a graduate student in Aerospace Engineering Sciences studying at the University of Colorado at Boulder with an emphasis on automatic controls systems. As an undergraduate student, Pierce gained significant software experience working at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). He has also worked as an intern at Insitu Inc. as a propulsion engineer. Here he learned valuable skills in the analysis, design, and test of engines for the ScanEagle UAVs that are in use all over the world. Additionally, Pierce was the lead controls engineer for the Sample Targeting and Retrieval Rovers Senior Design project which was sponsored by the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Currently Pierce is working as the lead propulsion engineer for the Hyperion 2.1 Project at CU. This involves work with a novel Hybrid Propulsion System that will be used to promote green aviation.

Pierce Martin

Gaurav Soin, Systems Integration and Test Engineer

Gaurav is a graduate student at the University of Colorado Boulder studying Aerospace Engineering Sciences, focusing in Spacecraft Control Systems and Structures. As an undergraduate at the university, he lead the SOLSTICE senior design project as the Systems Engineer, designing and building the first clutch-less coaxial drive hybrid engine for UAV’s. He also led their control software team, developing a novel control system to operate the hybrid engine in independent or hybrid flight modes as well as remotely restart the SOLSTICE system in mid-flight. The team worked under the graduate project Hyperion which was developing the blended wing body aircraft for SOLSTICE.  Gaurav coordinated his efforts extensively with the software and system leads of Hyperion. He also led the team in the AIAA regional conference where they were awarded first place in the team category. The team was also recognized by the Aerospace Department as the ‘Most Technically Innovative Project’ of AY 2010-11. The project helped him understand and gain invaluable technical experience and also taught him the importance of systems engineering in the Aerospace field. Currently, he is the Systems Engineer on the graduate project Hyperion. His goal is to utilize the lessons learnt from SOLSTICE and Hyperion to design, build and implement more advanced hybrid engine systems for future UAV’s and help promote the green aircraft technologies initiative through Tigon Enertec.

Gaurav Soin

Tyler Drake, Mechatronics Engineer

Tyler graduated May 2012 from the University of Colorado Boulder after studying aerospace engineering, applied math, and astrophysics.  During the 2010-2011 academic year he was a member of the SOLSTICE senior project team which designed, built, and tested a clutch-less, coaxial drive hybrid engine for UAV’s.  Tyler was lead engineer on the project’s gearbox design and also worked on the structural and electronic subsystems.  His skills include gear analysis, programming, and a systems’ perspective. Tyler received a certificate in Engineering Management from Lockheed Martin’s E-ship program.  From the experience and knowledge gained from work done at the University of Colorado, Tyler hopes to continue developing innovative hybrid engines and continue building his foundation as an engineer.

Tyler Drake

Alex Thomas North, Mechanical Engineer

Alex graduated december 2012 from the Mechanical Engineering program at the University of Colorado Boulder. Alex has taken undergraduate classes in component design where he has learned valuable information on gear systems to power a bicycle using a cordless power drill. Throughout Alex’s undergraduate career he has gained experience in manufacturing and fabrication as well as using CAD programs such as CATIA and SolidWorks to design many different parts from gears to entire mechanical systems.

Alex North

Derek Hillery, Lockheed Martin Corporation

Cody Humbargar, Raytheon Company

Eric Serani, Magnetic Applications, Inc.

Alec Velazco, Magnetic Applications, Inc.