Principals:
Dr. Jim Blake
Jim received his PhD from Stanford University in 1988 in the field of fiber optics. After several years at Honeywell working on the fiber optic gyro, he became a tenured professor of Electrical Engineering at Texas A&M University in College Station, TX. From there he went on to be a founder of NxtPhase T&D where he concentrated on the development of optical current and voltage sensing for the electric power grid. NxtPhase was acquired by Areva T&D in 2009 which was later acquired by Alstom Grid, and then GE. Jim served both as GM (with P&L responsibility) and R&D Director throughout. He was made Fellow while at Alstom.
Ricky Amano
Ricky has over 30 years of experience in system, hardware, and software engineering for the industrial, commercial, and defense industries. He was awarded 4 U.S. patents for video/graphics IC design while at General Instrument. He managed the Arizona engineering office for Faroudja Laboratories, whose work resulted in a Best of Show award at the Consumer Electronics Show. His iTreadmill iPhone app rose to #3 for Health and #129 overall on the App Store. For the past 14 years, Ricky has focused on the power industry. With the R&D team in GE/Alstom/Areva, he helped to develop Optical CTs and related products, focusing on digital processing and communications. As a consultant with KaDa Technologies, he headed the development of a multi-format digital merging unit for an international client. Ricky has a passion for engineering excellence and exceeding the expectations of his customers.
Dr. Calvin Blake
Calvin received degrees from U.C. Berkeley and the University of Texas at Austin. His PhD work concentrated on sensing fluid flow in rock and humidity sensors for geotechnical civil works. He has managed projects in current sensing, voltage sensing, seismic sensing, fiber gyro packaging, and optical fiber life and reliability evaluations while at Grid Evolution Technologies.