Ryan Dunn, President & Co-Founder:

Mr. Dunn founded ElectraWatch to facilitate the commercialization of corrosion monitoring technologies originally developed by Virginia Technologies, Inc. (VTI). Prior to founding ElectraWatch, Mr. Dunn conducted market research for VTI, analyzing 26 infrastructure industries and evaluating the industries using 22 custom metrics. The results lead to the decision to form ElectraWatch to specifically target the civil infrastructure and defense markets. Previously, Mr. Dunn worked for Northrop Grumman as the systems engineer responsible for the commissioning of the U.S. Coast Guard Deepwater National Security Cutter (NSC) Machinery Controls System (MCS). As part of his work on the NSC Mr. Dunn developed the interface between the MCS and the IVARA based CBM system. This experience will be of great value to ElectraWatch during the development of condition based maintenance systems and devices. Prior to working for Northrop Grumman Mr. Dunn worked for MTI MicroFuel Cells as a control systems engineer and gained valuable experience as the company began commercializing its fuel cell products. Mr. Dunn holds a Masters of Engineering Management (MEM) from Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business and Thayer School of Engineering, a BS in electrical engineering from Dartmouth College, and a BA in mathematics from Skidmore College.

Guy Davis, Ph.D., Principal Scientist & Co-Founder:

Dr. Davis has over 25 years of experience in basic and applied R&D involving surfaces and interfaces related to corrosion and adhesion. He has been particularly innovative in the use of surface analysis and electrochemistry, especially electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), in solving problems and elucidating mechanisms of material and system degradation. Most recently, he has been involved in the development of a coating health monitor (CHM) to detect paint and other coatings degradation in field service or in the laboratory during accelerated testing. The CHM allows EIS measurements to be performed under ambient field conditions instead of the hitherto required immersion conditions. The small, battery-powered CHM wirelessly transmits EIS measurements to a laptop or similar device to allow an inspector to determine the health of a protective coating, thus, facilitating condition-based maintenance (CBM).

Other areas of interest include surface treatments, especially those improving the durability or corrosion resistance of materials. He was one of the pioneers in using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and other surface analytical techniques to understand the degradation of adhesive bonds and to develop processes to improve materials durability.

Dr. Davis has been the Program Manager or Principal Investigator of over $10M of government and external industrial contracts. He has given over 40 invited presentations at national and international conferences and short courses and has co-authored over 185 publications, including twelve book chapters and two (edited) proceedings volumes. He has five patents. He has served as an officer of several professional organizations, including President of the Adhesion Society, and has served on the editorial boards of three major journals. Dr. Davis is a named inventor on five (5) U.S. patents and has 185 publications. Dr. Davis holds a Ph.D. & M.S. in materials science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a M.S. in physics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a B.S. in physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Visit Dr. Davis’s personal webpage here.

Robert Ross, Commercialization Advisor & Co-Founder:

Robert Ross is president and founder of Virginia Technologies, Inc. (VTI), an electronics research and development firm, specializing in instrumentation design and implementation. VTI is located near the University of Virginia and is often involved in the commercialization of university research. Before starting VTI, Mr. Ross conducted and directed basic and applied research in the Center for Semi-custom Systems, Systems Integration Laboratory at the University of Virginia. He acted as Principal Investigator on more than a dozen proof-of-concept research projects and feasibility studies; led design teams in the development of numerous commercial products for Virginia based and other leading edge technology companies; and provided technical guidance for engineering graduate students. Mr. Ross invented several new technologies that have made significant contributions to the fields of medical and industrial instrumentation. At Contel, Mr. Ross investigated new business and residential applications for the Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) and other high speed terrestrial communication technologies. Major accomplishments included the development of a PC based image retrieval system and a high speed Local Area Network (LAN) both using the ISDN. Mr. Ross is a named inventor on eight (8) U.S. patents and has 18 years of R&D, engineering, and business development experience. Mr. Ross holds a M.S. in computer engineering from Boston University, and a B.S. in electrical engineering from SUNY Stony Brook. Mr. Ross’s experience taking the Virginia Technologies Embedded Corrosion Instrument (ECI) from prototype form, through mass manufacturing in China, to a finished product that is sold around the world through an international network of distributors will be of great value to ElectraWatch during the commercialization of the CHM and DoS Probe devices.