MATRIX RESEARCH - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Member of the Executive Leadership Team
- Vice President of Engineering
Dr. Bill Pierson began at Matrix in 2009 as a senior engineer. Since then, he has served as a group lead and is currently the Vice President of Engineering. Under this role his responsibilities include assisting the President in achieving the corporate objectives set by the board of directors, leading marketing and business development activities, leading project management and control, monitoring recruitment, and supervising our Chief Engineers and Technical Group Leads.
Prior to Matrix, Bill's career included being a senior engineer at a commercial medical imaging company specializing in computer aided detection of cancer. He was also a civil servant for 17 years focusing on the research and development of RF-based pattern recognition applications. This included various modes of exploitation such as SAR, foliage penetration, feature-aided tracking, and sensor fusion. This also included a stent as a guest researcher with the Swedish Defense Research Agency. He has also served as an adjunct professor in the Dayton Ohio area teaching graduate courses on topics including linear systems, probability and statistics for engineers, Matlab programming, image processing, digital communications, and automatic target recognition.
Bill received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Ohio State University in 1998. His primary area of study was signal processing with minor emphasis on computer architecture and mathematics. His advisor was Stan Ahalt.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Leadership Team
- President of the Board of Directors
Dr. Bob Hawley joined Matrix Research in 2007 shortly after the company was founded and has over 25 years of experience in signal processing and exploitation. His primary responsibilities after joining Matrix were the development of various signal processing and imaging algorithms for use radar applications as well as recruiting and business development in his role as Executive Vice President. In 2010, Dr. Hawley took over as President of the company where he has concentrated on recruiting, business development, operations, and providing technical expertise where needed.
Dr. Hawley received his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Purdue University in 1994 where he studied computer engineering and signal processing. After graduation, he worked at Sandia National Laboratories where he concentrated on signal processing and exploitation algorithm development for radar and infrared sensors. In 1998, Dr. Hawley joined Mission Research where he began work primarily on signal processing and imaging algorithm development for RCS applications.
Job Titles:
- Algorithms Development Group Lead
Dr. Greg Arnold started at Matrix in 2011 and has 30 years of exploitation systems experience increasing the effectiveness of our military's Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR). Greg leads the Algorithm Development Group which develops tools and techniques to exploit sensor data from DoD sensors of interest. His goal is improving situational awareness and threat detection through inference, prediction, recognition, classification, tracking, modeling, simulation, and analysis, studying human and computer interaction, and fundamental research. He has worked across the electromagnetic spectrum including active and passive RF, EO, IR, LADAR, and hyperspectral. He is author or co-author of over 40 journal articles, book chapters, and conference papers. His general area of expertise spans computer vision and machine learning.
Dr. Arnold received his BSEE from the University of Dayton and his Master's and Ph.D. are from the University of Virginia.
Job Titles:
- Chief Engineer
- in 2022 As a Distinguished Technical Staff Member
Dr. Jeff Berrie joined Matrix Research in 2022 as a Distinguished Technical Staff Member with subject matter expertise in RF and electromagnetic technologies applied to the DoD aerospace industry. Throughout his career, he has been responsible for: radar cross section measurement and assessment of RF components and aerostructures; design and fabrication of installed antennas, arrays, and radomes; measurement characterization, design, and synthesis of advanced RF materials; RF computational methods for analysis, design, and optimization; and cognitive electronic warfare technologies for automatic target recognition, combat identification, and battle damage assessment. He is a recipient of the Air Force Research Laboratory Material Measurement Working Group Leadership Award for over a decade of service as chairman of the working group that initiated and led industry-wide best practices to characterize RF material properties, and he is a two-time recipient of Northrop Grumman's World Class Supplier Award on behalf of teams that developed RF codes for advanced aircraft design.
Jeff received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering in 1992 from The Ohio State University, where he became skilled at radar cross section measurements, computational computer analysis and optimization of RF aerostructures, and RF characterization and measurement of material properties.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Hardware Development Group Lead
Dr. John Gwynne has been a technical lead for many diverse radar projects. He has 34 years of extensive experience in RF and digital design, including FPGA programming and radar signature analysis. In addition, he has worked with circuit design and the VHDL, Verilog, Python, C++ and Matlab computer languages. He is responsible for leading teams of engineers in the conceptualization, design, implementation, and delivery of specialized hardware systems for multiple customers. In his previous employment, Dr. Gwynne also worked with digital and analog circuits and UWB and UWA antenna design and fabrication.
Dr. Gwynne received his BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Akron, and his Masters and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Ohio State University in 1998.
Job Titles:
- Evaluation Sciences Group Lead
Dr. Ken Ellzey started at Matrix Research in 2015 and has been developing materials, components, and measurement systems for Department of Defense applications since 2004. His primary responsibilities at Matrix research currently include the management of technical efforts to design, build and field custom RF measurement systems. Additionally, he has formulated and fielded specialty adhesives, coatings, elastomers, gap fillers, and sheet materials focused on the mitigation of RF energy. His current technical interests lie in the design, modeling and fabrication of patterned structures that offer materials with unique electromagnetic properties.
Dr. Ellzey received his Ph.D. in Polymer Science and Engineering from the University of Massachusetts - Amherst in 2004, where he synthesized and characterized novel inherently fire-resistant polymers based on Bisphenol C and Deoxybenzoin.
Dr. Kris Kim is a Chief Engineer at Matrix Research with 35 years of experience in diverse areas of radar research, including RF phenomenology, target discrimination, radar systems engineering, electromagnetics, signal processing, and modeling and simulation. Before joining Matrix Research in November 2021, he was a Principal Research Engineer with the Sensors Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson AFB, OH and Hanscom AFB, MA, where he directed and performed R&D in the areas mentioned above and served as Principal Investigator for a couple of high-visibility radar technology maturation and demonstration programs. He also worked as a Senior Principal Systems Engineer at Raytheon Company, Bedford, MA, responsible for target characterization and discrimination for a major ballistic missile defense program. Before that, he was a member of the Technical Staff at MITRE, Bedford, MA, working on several Program-of-Records radar systems.
Kris has a Ph.D. from Purdue University and a B.A. from the University of Chicago.
Job Titles:
- Signature Exploitation Team Lead
Dr. Mark Bartsch joined Matrix Research in 2008 and has served as the lead engineer for various efforts with a particular focus on radar signal processing, exploitation, and automatic target recognition. He has significant experience developing novel algorithms for the entire radar signal exploitation chain. Currently, his team is focused on the maturation and transition of advanced combat identification technology to the warfighter.
Dr. Bartsch received his Ph.D. in 2004 from the University of Michigan, where he was a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow and engaged in various audio signal processing research, with a particular focus on time-frequency analysis, automatic source separation, and audio signal classification.
Dr. Matt Ferrara joined Matrix in 2010 and has nearly two decades experience in the development and deployment of novel algorithmic solutions for radiofrequency systems. Prior to joining Matrix, Matt was employed by the Air Force Research Lab Automatic Target Recognition branch where he received several awards for his work. He enjoys solving estimation problems that arise in surveillance applications, such as Synthetic Aperture Radar and Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar imaging.
Dr. Ferrara holds a degree in Mathematics from North Dakota State University and received M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Applied Mathematics and Mathematics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Dr. Mike Bryant began his career as a 2nd Lieutenant at WPAFB in 1981, converted to Civilian Service in 1985, and joined Matrix Research in 2012. Mike has over 40 years of radar sensor development and exploitation experience. Mike's Air Force career included program manager, Branch Chief, Branch Technical Advisor, Division Technical Advisor and Core Technical Competency (CTC) Lead for two divisions, and Division Chief for the Target Recognition Technology Division. Mike is currently a Chief Engineer at Matrix Research for radar system design and analysis, mode development, signal processing, and modeling. His primary research focus is on distributed coherent radar.
Mike received a BSEE from the Pennsylvania State University in 1981, a MSEE from the University of Dayton in 1991, and a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Wright State University in 2002. Mike has taught classes at Wright State University as an adjunct professor in Linear Systems, Communication Theory, Kalman Filtering, and Detection and Estimation Theory.
Dr. Mike Minardi joined Matrix research in 2019 after a long career with AFRL, GTRI, MIT/LL and others. Mike has over 43 years of experience in many aspects of radar system engineering and signal processing. This includes eight years of experience with radar electronic attack and protection, with an emphasis on coherent techniques against monopulse tracking loops. Mike's seven years of experience with satellite tracking and ballistic missile tracking at the Kwajalein missile range included work with search and detection of unknown orbiting objects for Space Situational Awareness (SSA). He also spent seventeen years working on Airborne SAR and GMTI radar signal processing including leading the Gotcha radar team.
Mike received his Ph.D. from Georgia Tech in 1995. His thesis was blind adaptive algorithms to cancel multipath and other forms of inter-symbol interference in communication channels.
Mr. Adam Marcotte joined Matrix Research in 2007 and has over 15 years of Radar Cross Section (RCS) measurement and analysis experience. His primary responsibilities at Matrix Research are the management, technical development and operation of fielded RCS measurement software. These responsibilities include research and development, software design, measurement execution, and RCS analysis and reporting. During his tenure Adam has successfully executed measurements on a wide variety of operational and experimental targets in an indoor anechoic chamber and outdoor environment. His professional experience also includes signal processing and computer vision algorithms for medical cancer screening and automated target recognition and feature-aided tracking for radar applications.
Adam received his MSEE from Wright State University in 2005, where he studied image processing, computer vision and target tracking.
Mr. Clint Rice joined Matrix Research in 2012 and has 20 years of experience in Information Technology in both the public and private sectors. As Information Technology Manager his responsibilities at Matrix Research are the design, implementation, and management of all unclassified information technology systems. During his time at Matrix he has lead the expansion of networks to incorporate multiple sites, migrations from physical systems to managed virtual systems, migration from in house services to cloud hosted providers, migration and implementation of new network infrastructure, VoIP system design and implementation, and facilities moves.
Job Titles:
- Corporate Treasurer & Controller
Mr. Jeff Umbreit has been with Matrix Research since 2012 serving as the company's Corporate Treasurer and Controller managing the Finance team. He received his B.S. in Accounting from Wright State University in 1994, is a licensed Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in the state of Ohio since 1999 and earned his Certified Defense Financial Manager (CDFM) designation in 2011. Prior to joining Matrix, Jeff held controller positions with local for-profit and non-profit government contractors as well as a civilian Air Force Financial Analyst position at WPAFB.
Additionally, Jeff believes in giving back to his community. He volunteers his time as Treasurer or Financial Advisor on several non-profit charitable organizations and is an active member of his local Optimist International club whose mission is to "bring out the best in youth, our communities and ourselves."
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Leadership Team
- Vice President of Business Services
Mr. William Kroger joined Matrix Research as Vice President of Business Services in 2022 with 20 years of experience in operations and strategic planning. He works with the leaders of the Security, Contracts, and Information Technology departments to support Matrix engineers and their project requirements. In the past, Bill has worked in operations for a Fortune 500 contractor, and was also part of a team that grew a startup defense contractor from inception to win several large competitive DoD contracts and eventual acquisition. He has broad experience in the areas of Information Technology, Contracting, and Government Security along with experience leading different teams of people with different objectives to shared goals that benefit the company and the United States. Bill was recognized several times with professional awards of achievement in the areas of Information Technology and Government Security.
Mr. Kroger received both his BA in Economics and MBA with concentration in Project Management and Management Information Systems from Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. In addition, he has held the Project Management Professional certification since 2012.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Project Controller
Ms. Julie Rose-Collins joined Matrix Research in 2015 with 15 years of experience in the biotech industry as a Test and Project Manager (PM). During her time in industry, she was a contributor to the quality control standards for a PMA Class III medical device, managed the Test Engineering Team, and interfaced with FDA, ISO, and vendor auditors during regulatory audits. As a PM she scheduled project timelines for multiple ongoing medical software products and managed a successful FDA clinical trial.
At Matrix, Julie serves as a Project Controller to provide financial planning and program controls for multiple research programs. She works alongside the Matrix PMs to construct program budgets and forecasts, monitors funding, allowing managers to effectively deploy resources.
Julie received her BS in Biomedical Engineering from Wright State University.
Ms. Melanie Stewart joined Matrix Research's dynamic Administrative Support Team in 2013, serving as a Human Resource Manager. With 17 years of experience in providing human resources support and management within the federal contractor community, Melanie is committed to providing employees with a high level of benefits and job satisfaction.
Melanie has a B.S. in Psychology with an emphasis in Organizational and Industrial Psychology and Human Resources. In furthering her knowledge and capabilities, Melanie has obtained certifications in Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) and Society for Human Resource Management Senior Certified Professional (SHRM- SCP).
Ms. Susanne Harrod has 30 years of experience in designing, implementing, leading, and managing award winning security programs. Susanne began her career in security at TRW, followed by a 10-year career at Mission Research/ATK. While at MRC/ATK, Susanne worked with engineers and management to ensure compliance with all security directives, implement a comprehensive security education plan, and coordinate all personnel security actions for over 100+ employees across the United States. In 2008, Susanne joined Matrix Research at the company's beginning, leveraging her broad mix of experience in all areas of government security to help Matrix grow into the successful company it is today.
Susanne is a past recipient of the DCSA's James Cogswell Award in 2008 in recognition of a superior government security program while at Mission Research Corporation.
Job Titles:
- Founder
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Member of the Executive Leadership Team
Mr. Tom Coveyou (TC) started Matrix Research in 2007 and has over 35 years of Radar Cross Section (RCS) measurement and analysis experience. His primary responsibilities at Matrix Research are the management, technical development and operation of fielded RCS measurement systems. These responsibilities include system research and development, hardware design, measurement execution, RCS analysis and reporting. During his tenure TC has successfully designed and executed measurements on a wide variety of operational and experimental targets in the outdoor environment, resulting in highly effective contributions to mission readiness and effectiveness. Many Department of Defense and government programs have realized significant technical and cost benefits from these efforts. His professional experience also includes RCS prediction code development, anechoic chamber measurements and the design/fabrication of unique antennas, conformal arrays and frequency selective surfaces.
TC received his MSEE from Ohio State University in 1986, where he studied electromagnetics, antennas and frequency selective surfaces at the ElectroScience Laboratory under the supervision of his advisor, Dr Benedikt Munk.