About Us

Who We Are

Our Founders were alarmed about the amount of harmful particulate in the air in many countries, especially in cities, urban areas but especially indoors. We found there is a lack of high quality and affordable air monitoring solutions. We saw not only a threat but an opportunity and wanted to make a difference. We began developing the cutting-edge particle counting technology we possess today and have discovered many applications which can leverage data from our sensors for a wide range of digital health products.

We specialize in designing Intelligent Particle Sensors and Air Quality Monitors that leverage our Particle Counting ICs for various applications.  Our unique ultra-low-power, high precision, signal processors deliver the most accurate and reliable real-time data. To learn more about Piera Systems, click here.

Our Mission and Vision

We are dedicated to reducing the health impact of air pollution globally. To do so, requires accurate, real time data on particulate matter which causes poor Air Quality. We are innovating in sensors and measurement technology that provides this data at low cost. We believe this accurate information to be crucial in making informed decisions to manage health risks. We envision using this to enable a wide range of products and inspire a healthier and informed global community

Our Technology

Piera has developed a next generation ‘Intelligent Particle Sensor (IPS)’, which uses a breakthrough custom processor for detecting and measuring the quantity and size of particles impacting Air Quality

Unlike existing low cost sensors that are inaccurate, low in resolution and slow, IPS  has superior accuracy, can detect the smallest particles (PM0.1 -PM10.0) and count them in real-time. IPS can be programmed to detect a wide range of particle sizes allowing for a single sensor to be used in many applications. For the first time, low cost, accurate real time data can answer the questions What’s in your Air?

The resulting data can be used to identify the Particulate Matter and calculate its mass concentration. The signature of the data can be analyzed using Machine Learning/AI and algorithms to classify the components. Canāree, our Air Quality Monitor can identify and discriminate between cigarette and vape smoke, its mass concentration, dissipation and overall air quality. When deployed in public spaces or homes, Canāree will reduce the impact of vaping and smoking and other sources of Air Pollution and provide effective real-time enforcement of NO SMOKING regulations.

Our team is committed to your success, and will deliver the best solution to meet your needs.

Our Team

Vin Ratford

CEO

A seasoned high technology executive experienced in sales, marketing, R&D, Vin has helped Entrepreneurs create businesses based on new technology especially in Semiconductors, Embedded Vision and Machine Learning/AI.
Previous Companies: Auviz Systems, Xilinx, AccelChip, Virage Logic, Mentor Graphics, Teradyne, Data General, Raytheon.

Aaron Soh

President & CTO

Aaron developed the core ASIC technology, photon-counting particle sensing IC, which serves as the foundation of Piera Systems. He is a serial entrepreneur with 10+ years of analog circuit designing and project management experience. He is specialized in solid state, and optical physics. Has 20+ patents and published papers regarding x-ray imaging data readout AISCs at IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference. B.Sc in Physics and Statistics at University of Toronto.

Howard Pakosh

Sales Director

Howard has served 30+ years in sales and business development management; Markets include Consumer Electronics, AI, IoT, Blockchain, and Semiconductors.

Mark Hobaugh

VP of Manufacturing

Mark has 40 years of experience in semiconductor and systems engineering, leading product development teams, and managing operations and quality. He held various engineering and management positions during 22 years at National Semiconductor Corp. He has a proven track record for achieving volume production ramp-ups, excellent product costs, strategic inventory levels, quality, and customer satisfaction.

Jay Ratford

Product Manager

Jay is the Product Manager for Canaree and SenseiAQ.  He brings over 20 years of Enterprise IT experience including Network Security, Design and Automation, Cloud Infrastructure, Wireless and Network Management systems. He previously served as Product Manager for NetScreen Firewall and VPN Products – prior to its acquisition by Juniper Networks when he became a Solutions Architect developing multi-vendor IP networking solutions.

Neil Klepeis

Head Environmental Research Scientist

With a doctorate in Environmental Health Science and 29+ years of experience working as a researcher, senior scientist, and adjunct professor (UC Berkeley, San Diego State University, Stanford University), Neil is an expert in environmental data analysis and building and testing mathematical models of indoor air quality, particle dynamics, human activity, and human exposure. He uses the results of chamber experiments and field studies to investigate real-world exposures and help develop reliable and powerful real-time monitoring and feedback systems for reducing exposure.  As part of his work, Neil creates technical software in R, Python, and Julia to analyze, visualize, and model complex data.  He has a strong interest in creating accessible products that enable the public, and especially youth, to leverage the power of Data Science and Citizen Science for exploring, learning, and communicating about the determinants of health.  Neil enjoys playing guitar and drums and going for long hikes and bikes in the mountains.

Will Harader

Software Developer

Will is the software developer for Canāree and SenseiAQ.  He is a seasoned developer with over 25 years of experience in coding, which began with QBASIC in DOS. He is also an active contributor to the Open Source community.

Chan-Ik Kang

Embedded Software Developer

Chan programs the MCU’s in our IPS Sensors, developing firmware to control our sensors and turn particle count and size into useful data for measuring Air Quality.  With 19 years of MCU Firmware experience, Chan has worked on Gas sensors, HVAC Systems, and a ‘Digital Nose’ for odor detection.

Hyo Sook Kim

R&D

Hyo Sook has over 7 years of custom ASIC design and testing experience. She worked on Piera’s Particle Counting Integrated Circuits and the PSC-1 used in our IPS Sensor. Currently in charge of hardware testing and debugging, algorithm fitting and verification.

Andy Soh

Chief Technology Advisor

Andy brings 40+ years of experience in analog and mixed signal IC designing, having contributed to Piera’s overall R&D efforts. He has worked as a General Manager/Lab Head at LG Electronics, and currently he is the CEO of his startup. He is also a professor at KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology), and a commissioned Expert in Technology Level Evaluation by the Ministry of Science and ICT and Future Planning, Korea. He has a B.S. and M.S. from Seoul National University, and MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management.

Eric Thune

Strategic Sales Advisor

Eric has 30+ years experience in enterprise sales from cad tools, supply chain, cloud, and AI/ML. BSEE from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Jeff Bier

Advisor

Jeff Bier is co-founder and president of BDTI, a widely respected consulting firm focused on embedded processing and AI. For over 25 years, BDTI has helped hundreds of companies select the right technologies and develop optimized, custom algorithms and software for demanding applications in audio, video, machine learning and computer vision. Jeff also leads the Edge AI and Vision Alliance (formerly the Embedded Vision Alliance), a partnership of 100+ technology companies that works to enable the widespread use of practical computer vision and edge AI, and to help companies find their best opportunities in this burgeoning space.