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Starlab Space Announces Leadership Team

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Tim Kopra named CEO, Mohit Sharma as CFO
HOUSTON, Feb. 12, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Starlab Space LLC (Starlab Space), the transatlantic joint venture between Voyager Space and Airbus, today announced its leadership team, comprising a group of highly accomplished professionals poised to drive the company forward.

Retired NASA astronaut and Voyager executive, Tim Kopra has been appointed as Starlab’s new CEO. A seasoned leader, Kopra will leverage his extensive expertise in space exploration and experience overseeing the Starlab program at Nanoracks (part of Voyager’s Exploration Segment) to lead the joint venture as it continues down the development path. Kopra will also serve on the Starlab Board of Directors.
“I am honored to lead Starlab in our mission to transform space exploration,” said Kopra. “The collaboration between Voyager Space and Airbus reflects an unparalleled level of expertise, embodied by this top-notch leadership team. Starlab Space is not only positioned to meet and exceed current space exploration standards but also to revolutionize the commercial space sector as a whole.”
Mohit Sharma, currently Head of Mergers and Acquisitions Finance at Airbus Defence and Space, joins Starlab as CFO. After 15 years at Airbus, Sharma will oversee all financial and fundraising aspects of Starlab, expanding and developing the joint venture’s financial strategy to foster the company’s continued growth.
“We are entering a pivotal moment in the aerospace industry, and I feel privileged to be part of Starlab’s leadership team,” said Sharma. “As we navigate the financial landscape of this innovative international venture, our focus will be on ensuring fiscal strength and strategic allocation of resources. I am honored to contribute to the success of this ambitious endeavor, creating value for our stakeholders and establishing a solid foundation for the bright future of space exploration.”
Voyager Space’s CTO Marshall Smith, Former NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, Airbus U.S. Space and Defense’s SVP and Head of Space Systems Debra Facktor and CFO Mohamed Denden also join Starlab as esteemed members of the Board. In addition, Dr. Marc Steckling, SVP and Head of Earth Observation, Science and Exploration at Airbus Defence and Space, will be a permanent guest in the Starlab Board.
Starlab Space LLC Management Board
Tim Kopra, Chief Executive Officer
Tim Kopra has been a career military officer, astronaut, and now senior business leader. He was previously the President of OneWeb Technologies, a U.S. company providing global, secure satellite communications. Additionally, Kopra was the Vice President for Robotics and Space Operations at MDA, a Canadian space company. He was also Partner and Co-founder of Blue Bear Capital, an energy technology venture capital firm.
Kopra served in various leadership and operational roles at NASA as an engineer, astronaut, and International Space Station Commander. While at NASA, he completed two spaceflights, three spacewalks, and logged 244 days in space.
As an Army aviator, Kopra deployed to Operation Desert Storm and then commanded an AH-64 Attack Helicopter Company. Following these assignments, he was the Developmental Test Director for the Army’s Comanche Helicopter Program until his assignment to NASA in 1998 and astronaut selection in 2000.
Kopra remains active in military affairs as a Civilian Aide to the Secretary of the Army. He is also involved in the Texas entrepreneurship ecosystem as an advisor to Greentown Labs Houston.
Mohit Sharma, Chief Financial Officer
Mohit Sharma spent more than 15 years at Airbus, last serving as the Head of Mergers and Acquisitions Finance for Airbus Defence and Space. With experience in finance, mergers and acquisitions, fundraising (equity, debt etc.), Sharma drove international cooperation and partnerships for Airbus, developing new and innovative businesses and positioning them for rapid growth – including, most notably, the NewSpace Satellite Constellation Venture OneWeb. An IT engineer trained at Cochin University of Science and Technology with a dual-degree MBA (ESCP Business School and Asian Institute of Technology), he has worked in Asia, the United States and Europe and began his professional career at the United Nations and the International Criminal Court prior to joining Airbus.
Thomas Ayres, General Counsel
Tom served as the 20th General Counsel of the Department of the Air Force. In that role, while leading 2,600 attorneys, he also led an interdisciplinary team to draft, advocate for, and then implement the legislation creating the Space Force. Upon the birth of the U.S. Space Force, he simultaneously became the first General Counsel for the U.S.  Space Force.
Most recently, Tom was the Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel of Voyager Space. Prior to Voyager Space and his civilian service with the U.S. Air and Space Forces, Tom retired as an Army major general. He served multiple combat tours advising coalition and joint task force commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan, and he was awarded the Bronze Star with two oak leaf clusters.  A graduate of West Point and the University of Pennsylvania School of Law, he also has extensive litigation experience, and has experience serving on Boards of Directors.
Paul Schauer, Chief Procurement Officer
At Starlab, Paul is responsible for procurement, contracting, and supplier management. At Voyager Space, Paul remains as Executive Vice President, Integrated Operations, where he is responsible for aligning systems, processes, and people to the company’s strategic goals.  Prior to Voyager, he spent 25 years supporting the DoD and Intelligence Community in civil service and industry roles.  Mr. Schauer built and executed government acquisition strategies for systems ranging from the FAR 12 Part competitions for commercial aircraft to fixed price satellite buys.  Paul then served many of the agencies as a supplier on the industry side, where he helped scale a small business through multiple acquisitions culminating as Vice President of Tactical Systems at CACI. Paul is also co-creator and co-host of the Contracting Officer Podcast, where for over 10 years (and over 1.5 million listens) he has used his background to help professionals from both government and industry understand a little more about how the other side thinks. 
Further members of the Starlab Space LLC management team are subject to nomination over the coming weeks and months. The team will also include the Managing Director of Starlab’s European entity once this company has been founded.
Starlab Board of Directors
Tim Kopra, Starlab Space LLC CEO
Jim Bridenstine, Former NASA Administrator
Jim Bridenstine, a former Navy pilot and U.S. Congressman, served as the 13th Administrator of NASA, nominated by President Donald Trump. Leading a 70,000-person workforce and managing a $23 billion annual budget, he propelled NASA’s Artemis program, focusing on Moon exploration and Mars missions. Bridenstine prioritized commercial partnerships, enabling America’s return to human spaceflight in 2020 and establishing the Commercial Lunar Payload Services Program. His diverse career also includes a role in creating the Space Force while serving in Congress and a notable military service with combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan as a Navy pilot.
Marshall Smith, Chief Technology Officer, Voyager Space
Marshall Smith has decades of experience designing and building complex, human-rated space systems for NASA. At Voyager, Mr. Smith oversees the development of Starlab, the company’s commercial space station, and other space infrastructure and exploration initiatives.
Previously at Nanoracks, part of Voyager’s Exploration Segment, Smith managed the space systems division, which included commercial space station development, autonomous outpost platforms, and support systems including airlocks. Marshall comes to Voyager having served for 37 years at NASA, most recently as the Deputy Associate Administrator for Systems Engineering, Director for Human Exploration and Director for Cross-Program Systems Engineering.
Smith led large, integrated teams to develop and implement some of NASA’s most critical programs including systems engineering for SLS, Orion, and Exploration Ground Systems. He led the formulation of the Artemis and Moon to Mars plans, including NASA’s Gateway, the Human Landing System, and other future systems required for deep space missions. He is the recipient of the NASA Systems Engineering Excellence of the Year Award, the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal, and the NASA Exceptional Service Medal.
Debra Facktor, Head of U.S. Space Systems, Airbus U.S. Space and Defense, Inc.
Debra Facktor leads the Airbus U.S. Space Systems line of business, with a focus on small satellites produced for commercial and government customers at the company’s manufacturing facility in Merritt Island, Florida, and on space exploration activities in the U.S. Facktor also served on the board of the Airbus OneWeb Satellites joint venture prior to its recent acquisition by Airbus U.S.
Before joining Airbus U.S., Facktor was Vice President and General Manager of Strategic Operations for Ball Aerospace, leading the company’s Washington DC operations, strategic development, and marketing and communications.
Facktor received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in aerospace engineering from the University of Michigan and is an alumna of the International Space University summer session program in Strasbourg, France.
Mohamed Denden, Chief Financial Officer, Airbus U.S. Space & Defense
Mohamed Denden is Chief Financial Officer for Airbus U.S. Space & Defense, Inc. Denden has been with Airbus for 15 years working in the United States and France and possesses an extensive background in the Aerospace and Defense industry, including leadership roles in Corporate Finance, M&A, Investor Relations, and Supply Chain.
Before joining Airbus, Denden worked at Lockheed Martin, DRS Technologies, and Deloitte. He is a CPA and holds an MBA from the University of Central Florida, and is fluent in several languages.
Dr. Marc Steckling, SVP and Head of Earth Observation, Science and Exploration at Airbus Defence and Space
Dr. Marc Steckling is the Head of Earth Observation, Science and Exploration at Airbus Defence and Space and leads Airbus Space Systems in Germany. Prior to this he was CEO and Chairman of the Board of Tesat-Spacecom GmbH & Co. KG, a subsidiary of Airbus. Steckling worked for the German Aerospace Center (DLR) before he joined Airbus Defence and Space in 1999. He held management positions including Head of Electronic Products Germany and Head of Lean Management. He holds a degree in Aerospace Engineering and a PhD from the University of Berlin.
About Starlab Space
Starlab Space LLC is a transatlantic joint venture between Voyager Space and Airbus that is designing, building, and will operate the Starlab commercial space station. Starlab will serve a global customer base of space agencies, researchers, and companies, ensuring a continued human presence in low-Earth orbit and a seamless transition of microgravity science and research from the International Space Station into the new commercial space station era.
For more information on Starlab, visit the Starlab website at www.starlab-space.com and follow us on social media at @Starlab_Space (X, Instagram) and @Starlab (Linkedin).
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Clarifai and Crimson Phoenix Partner to Enhance Advanced AI, ML and Unstructured Data Labeling in Defense, Intelligence Communities

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Combined Capabilities and Real-World Experience Accelerate AI Readiness to Support Any Mission
WASHINGTON and HERNDON, Va., Oct. 9, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Clarifai, a global leader in computer vision and pioneer in AI orchestration and development, has partnered Crimson Phoenix, a premier provider of data-enabled solutions. This strategic alliance aims to deliver cutting-edge AI-enabled data labeling and computer vision capabilities for unstructured data such as images and video in the Intelligence and Defense communities.

The strategic partnership builds on an existing relationship as Crimson Phoenix was recently awarded a research contract to support the U.S. Army’s Autonomous Combat Casualty Care Initiative. Leveraging Clarifai’s full-stack AI development and computer vision platform, Crimson Phoenix will efficiently annotate complex medical imagery, ensuring the highest accuracy in AI and ML models for combat casualty care.
Moving forward, the ability to quickly and accurately label geospatial data sets, as well as other video, image, and sensor data will be a key advantage in Defense and Intelligence. The partnership will enable entities to identify targets of interest, track and maintain equipment, distinguish enemy soldiers from civilians, detect irregular activities, and support other mission-critical operations.
“We are thrilled to partner with Crimson Phoenix to manage complex data labeling and model building that will rapidly turn mountains of data into plans of decisive action that support the warfighter and the supply chain,” said Matt Zeiler, Ph.D., CEO of Clarifai. “Clarifai has long worked with the defense industry to improve the use of computer vision in battle and intelligence and this partnership will enable us to bring our industry-leading technology to more entities and use cases.”
Clarifai has delivered cutting-edge AI solutions for programs within United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Department of Defense (DoD), and other Intelligence communities for years, including via Project Maven, the first large-scale AI program for the government. Clarifai was also named a leader and received the top score in the Current Offering category in The Forrester Wave™: Computer Vision Tools, Q1 2024. For U.S. government projects, Clarifai has cleared personnel and Awardable status through the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office’s (CDAO) Tradewinds Solutions Marketplace.
The partnership is the first of its kind for both Crimson Phoenix and Clarifai and it underscores the importance of high-quality data labeling and vision model training as AI and ML move deeper into action in Defense and Intelligence.
“By teaming with Clarifai, we aim to solve the most challenging problems of computer vision models and to do it with the efficiency and scale that the Defense and Intelligence industries need. Both Clarifai and Crimson Phoenix have a demonstrated history of delivering mission-critical support to the military, providing the security and resilience our clients demand. With extensive experience in deploying both edge and cloud solutions, we ensure robust, scalable capabilities tailored to the unique needs of our clients,” said Brad Becker, EVP of Crimson Phoenix.
Crimson Phoenix stands at the forefront of computer vision technology in the military, defense, and national security sectors. With a multidisciplinary team of data scientists, engineers, and visualization experts, Crimson Phoenix collaborates with the Defense and Intelligence communities to design and deploy custom AI/ML solutions, optimizing business processes through advanced technologies like computer vision, machine learning pipelines, and data engineering. The company’s expertise spans object detection, action recognition, segmentation, data labeling and data visualization, delivering actionable insights for strategic decision-making.
About ClarifaiClarifai is a global leader in computer vision and pioneer in AI orchestration and development helping organizations, teams, and developers build, deploy, and operationalize AI at scale. Clarifai’s cutting-edge full-stack AI platform leverages today’s modern AI technologies like Large Language Models (LLMs), Large Vision Models (LVMs), and Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG), data labeling, inference, and more. Founded in 2013, Clarifai is available in cloud, on-premises, or hybrid environments and has been used to build more than 1.5 million AI models with more than 400,000 users in 170 countries. Learn more at www.clarifai.com.
For more information or media requests, contact: [email protected]
About Crimson PhoenixCrimson Phoenix is a premier provider of data-enabled solutions for the Intelligence and Defense Communities. Utilizing the power of AI, ML, and advanced digital technologies, Crimson Phoenix delivers comprehensive services designed to provide a competitive edge across critical domains. For more information about Crimson Phoenix and its innovative solutions, please visit: www.crimsonphoenix.com.
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Aghanim and Sift Partner to Prevent Fraud in Direct-to-Consumer Mobile Gaming E-commerce

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LOS ANGELES, Oct. 9, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Aghanim, a mobile gaming fintech company founded by Harvard Business School alumni with over 40 years of combined expertise in video games and fintech, today announces a strategic partnership with Sift, the AI-powered fraud decisioning platform securing digital trust for leading global businesses. The combination of AI-driven insights across 1 trillion events and identity signals combined with Aghanim’s decades of expertise in gaming represents an unprecedented anti-fraud solution for mobile games.

Founded in June 2023, Aghanim empowers mobile game publishers to unlock new revenue streams through direct-to-consumer strategies. Its web-based game hubs also drive value for players with exciting competitive, social, and metagame features and rewards in addition to targeted offers. By helping game developers and publishers increase their net revenue by up to 200%, Aghanim enables them to invest additional capital into vital areas such as user acquisition.
Sift is an AI-powered fraud decisioning platform that helps digital businesses optimize their risk-reward equation with advanced machine learning, providing multi-layered fraud prevention for over 700 global businesses. With Sift’s support, Aghanim customers are able to detect fraud, secure every transaction, and improve conversion & engagement.
Constantin Andry, Co-founder and Co-CEO of Aghanim commented:
“Aghanim offers mobile game studios a fully self-managed end-to-end solution, which includes web-based game hub creation and management, integrated e-commerce, live ops automation, community engagement, and a payments platform as a suite of interoperable tools. This partnership with Sift enables us to ensure game developers, publishers, and their players are as protected as possible via secure, compliant, direct-to-consumer web-based solutions.”
Armen Najarian, Chief Marketing Officer at Sift said: 
“Aghanim is an exciting player in the fintech world, and one with the potential to solve some of the inherent challenges in mobile gaming. We look forward to supporting their mission as the leading direct-to-consumer platform for mobile games by preventing fraud and creating a trusted, safe environment for their users.”
Aghanim soft-launched in early 2024 with funding from Bessemer Venture Partners, Point72 Ventures, QED Investors, and the A16Z GAMES SPEEDRUN. The company is rapidly expanding its reach and partnering with major mobile games companies to transform how mobile games are monetized and distributed through its proprietary Game Hub Builder and LiveOps Builder technologies.
CLICK HERE FOR VISUAL ASSETS
For more information, please visit Aghanim’s website.
Press Contact: [email protected] 
Follow Aghanim on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for updates.
About Aghanim:Aghanim, founded in June 2023, is a mobile gaming fintech company specializing in integrated commerce, liveops automation, community engagement, and payments. With a mission to revolutionize how mobile games are monetized and distributed, Aghanim’s web-based game hubs empower developers to go direct-to-consumer and unlock new revenue streams.
About SiftSift is the AI-powered fraud platform securing digital trust for leading global businesses. Our deep investments in machine learning and user identity, a data network scoring 1 trillion events per year, and a commitment to long-term customer success empower more than 700 customers to grow fearlessly. Brands including DoorDash, Yelp, and Poshmark rely on Sift to unlock growth and deliver seamless consumer experiences. Visit us at sift.com and follow us on LinkedIn.
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ETQ Launches AI-Based Predictive Quality Analytics Solution

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ETQ Reliance eQMS Brings Actionable AI Insights for Early Detection and Resolution of Manufacturing Production Issues with a partnership with Acerta Analytics
BURLINGTON, Mass., Oct. 9, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — ETQ, part of Hexagon, today launched the ETQ Reliance® Predictive Quality Analytics solution, bringing a new level of artificial intelligence (AI)-driven analytics to its ETQ quality management system (QMS). The solution enables automated, early detection and proactive resolution to prevent manufacturing problems, limit production variation, speed decision making, deliver prescriptive solutions to supply chain issues and boost overall delivered quality.

 
By extending proactive quality management to the shop floor, organizations can boost quality, innovation across the product manufacturing process – enabling product optimizations and continuous improvement.
ETQ has partnered with Acerta Analytics, a developer of predictive quality analytics software for manufacturers, to integrate Acerta LinePulse, an AI and machine learning-based solution, with ETQ Reliance. The partnership will allow ETQ and Acerta customers to benefit from a predictive, closed loop quality system that marries real-time data analysis with advanced quality workflows.
“Today’s manufacturers worry about the performance of their plants, how to ensure operational efficiency, meet compliance requirements and manage risk, all while preserving innovation, ensuring on-time delivery of quality products to their customers,” said Vick Vaishnavi, CEO of ETQ. “Heavy on their minds is the possibility of product recalls. In fact, in a recent ETQ Pulse of Quality in Manufacturing survey 73% of respondents said they had a product recall in the last five years, and 48% said there have been more recalls than there were five years ago. The ETQ Reliance Predictive Quality solution combines AI technology and expert human knowledge to help identify production problems sooner and resolve them faster to avoid costly, brand-damaging recalls and other quality issues.”
“We’re pleased to be partnering with ETQ. Coupled with Acerta’s long-standing history of providing AI solutions to large automotive manufacturers, together we will now deliver insights to manufacturers that help them predict and resolve issues with real-time analysis of their shop-floor data, and expert feedback from ETQ Reliance users,” said Greta Cutulenco, Co-founder and CEO, Acerta Analytics. “Our combined solution helps manufacturers work quickly and efficiently to prevent scrap and rework and manage critical quality events.”
ETQ Reliance Quality Analytics
The ETQ Reliance Quality Analytics solution is an AI-driven Predictive Quality Analytics (PQA) application that ingests data from the shop floor via the Acerta LinePulse application. Acerta LinePulse predicts the likelihood of upcoming defects and integrates with the ETQ Reliance QMS to accelerate root cause analysis and speed-to-resolution while also improving predictive algorithms. This early detection and intervention can make a drastic positive impact on critical production KPIs such as scrap and rework, “first time right,” stable production and others.
The solution brings actionable AI to the shop floor by sending early warning alerts when a manufacturing process is at risk of producing defects. These alerts create a quality event in ETQ Reliance so that users can investigate the nature of the alert, determine the resolution to resolve the issue, and return feedback to Acerta LinePulse. By keeping humans in the loop with AI-driven predictive capabilities, customers can reduce field service costs, customer complaints, safety incidents, warranty claims and recalls downstream, while helping product designers, manufacturing engineers and supply chain managers ensure better inputs to the manufacturing process. By reducing the time, it takes to address manufacturing challenges, companies can reduce the number of potential escapes and limit their recall exposure.
The feedback sent from ETQ Reliance to Acerta LinePulse causes the predictive algorithms to continuously learn, and become more effective, accurate over time. Consistently improving predictions using real-time data help make better decisions faster.
Acerta LinePulse brings additional features that improve shop-floor decision making, such as automated root cause analysis and advanced capability monitoring.
Key Features/Benefits:
Manufacturing-specific data ingestion: Collect, analyze and visualize manufacturing data from different sources all in one place, including process data from sensors, environmental data from inside the plant, test results, and quality inspection data.Advanced data analysis: Designed for quality engineers and line operators; no in-house data science expertise is required.Predictive monitoring and alerts: Get alerted about potential quality issues before they occur from the areas of production that make the most impact.Automated root cause analysis: Generate a prioritized list of the most influential signals related to a failed quality inspection or test within minutes.The ETQ Reliance Quality Analytics solution is available immediately and will be sold direct by ETQ, Acerta and other ETQ resellers to both new and existing ETQ Reliance NXG customers.
ETQ Reliance NXG is a comprehensive, cloud-native, analytics-driven quality management system for quality-centric customers in manufacturing, life sciences, electronics, food and beverage, automotive, aerospace, and other industries. The solution is a fully multi-tenant SaaS offering that delivers the limitless power of cloud-native technology to accelerate and elevate quality processes and reduce risk for companies.
Hexagon MI’s Sixth Sense Program and Acerta
Acerta is a member of Hexagon’s Sixth Sense accelerator program launched in January 2022 to assist manufacturing companies by providing them with access to Hexagon’s extensive resources. The program is an open innovation platform that connects companies to address global challenges through manufacturing innovation.
About Acerta
Forged from industrial experience and driven by data science, Acerta helps discrete manufacturers get value out of their manufacturing data. Its ML/AI-powered software enables companies to make the right decisions fast, optimize production, and reduce the costs of poor quality. Acerta translates complex product data into actionable insights.
About ETQ
ETQ, part of Hexagon, is a leading provider of integrated quality management, health, safety, and environmental solutions for manufacturers. Firms around the world rely on ETQ to ensure optimal quality at scale, reduce costs and improve the velocity of data-driven decisions. Learn more at etq.com.
Hexagon is a global leader in digital reality solutions, combining sensor, software and autonomous technologies. Hexagon (Nasdaq Stockholm: HEXA B) has approximately 24,000 employees in 50 countries and net sales of approximately 5.2bn EUR. Learn more at hexagon.com and follow us @HexagonAB
Click here to download a copy of ETQ’s recent industry report: “The Pulse of Quality in Manufacturing 2024.”
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