Eric Gonzales (President) is a world leading authority and innovator in smoke detection and gas sensing technologies. A degreed electrical engineer and physics major with over 33 years of experience, Mr. Gonzales holds over twenty patents and patent applications in the consumer, white goods, commercial, automotive, fire and gas protection industries. He was featured on NBC news in 2012 ( https://youtu.be/uWFEsGv1JZU ).
One of Mr. Gonzales’ most recent patents involves applying artificial intelligence to smoke detection. The patent is named SAIFRA (Simplified Artificial Intelligence Fire Recognition Algorithm) and is currently being licensed by leading US manufacturers of residential smoke alarms. The technology has been applied successfully and has been certified by Edison Test Labs and Underwriters Labs to meet the new demands of UL217 8th edition.
Mr. Gonzales’ expertise includes wireless technology, IOT and ASIC design. He designed and patented the first Wi-Fi door lock in 2002 which won the 2002 Product of the Year Award at the International Security Conference Show (Las Vegas, NV) and has partnered with MicroChip and Allegro to design four custom ASICs generating one key patent.
Mr. Gonzales has developed smoke alarm products for Universal Security Instruments Inc., the Quantum Group and Honeywell. He was Chair of the strategic planning committee for DeAmertek and oversaw all product design and manufacturing for Maytag, Ford, Electrolux, Dixie Narco, and Briggs & Stratton. While at RF Technologies, he developed and patented a mother/baby matching tracking system for hospitals. He is an active member serving on six UL STP committees, the NFPA and NEMA, continuously striving to improve life safety.
Fred Conforti (Board member) was the president of BRK/First Alert and the group president of Pittway Systems Technology Group (now Honeywell) responsible for System Sensor, Notifier, FCI, Silent Knight, Xetron, Firelite, and Microlite. He led PSTG from startup in 1984 to a world leading position by 2000. Fred holds dozens of patents worldwide on transceivers, lighting devices, smoke detectors, fire alarm and access control systems, and has sponsored and written many of the Life Safety Codes in the USA. He authored a book relating lessons from his vast experiences, “Beyond Goals…Beyond LEAN.” Fred is currently active as a board member of several companies and consultant.
Ron Lazarus (Board member) was the former president of USI Electric which he lead to become Forbes' 56th fastest growing small business in the US. He is currently the COO of Valqari LLC, a drone delivery box manufacturer. Ron was also the former vice president of Invensys fire alarm where he grew sales by 600%.
Jeremy Waldrop (Engineering Director) has been designing innovative electronic products for more than 25 years. He developed the first electronic brake system for the freight train industry. He also worked as a director of engineering managing products such as smart smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, vending machines, refrigerators, washer and dryers, microwaves, backup power generators, and electronic power steering.
Daniel Gonzales (AI Engineer) is the co-author of the AI smoke detection patent and is a computer engineering graduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His thesis is focused on applying machine learning algorithms to signal processing and recognition.