Dr. Anup Katake

Dr. Anup Katake serves as the Director of Research and is a senior research scientist at StarVision Technologies Inc. He has over 6 years of experience developing electro-optical imaging systems for navigation and intelligent vision.

Dr. Katake is the chief scientist on the stellar gyroscope and the VisNav sensor research efforts. With world renowned collaborators - Drs. Mortari and Junkins, he has been responsible for the development of several novel attitude estimation and 6dof proximity navigation algorithms. He also has major contributions in the research and development of vision based landing spacecraft localization and navigation algorithms as well as design of sensors for the NASA ALHAT program. At StarVision he has been responsible for winning several DOD and NASA proposals related to navigation sensors.

Prior to joining StarVision Technologies, he was a research associate with the Spacecraft Technology Center and a research assistant at Texas A&M University. During this period he worked on various research projects related to the design and implementation of space qualified navigation sensors such as star trackers. He was the algorithms design and integration lead for an experimental star tracker “StarNav1” that was successfully flown on the STS-107 Space Shuttle Columbia mission. He was also the software lead for the Next Generation 1-arcsecond accuracy star tracker for the NASA Langley GIFTS-IOMI mission. Dr. Katake’s technical interests include navigation sensors, imaging technologies and vision systems. Dr. Katake is a senior member of AIAA, member SPIE and IEEE.

Dr. Christian Bruccoleri

Dr. Christian Bruccoleri serves as the Director of Engineering. He has a “Laurea” degree (MS) in Computer Science from the University of Rome and a Ph.D. degree in Aerospace Engineering from Texas A&M University. He has 10 years of experience in developing software for space applications with particular emphasis on Star Sensors and 15 years experience as a Software Engineer. Dr. Bruccoleri developed algorithms for star identification tested in orbit for Draper Laboratory and for TEES Space Technology Center during the StarNav I program.

Richard Eichholtz

Richard Eichholtz serves as the Director of Operations at StarVision Technologies, bringing over 34 years of experience in Opto-Mechanical and Electro-Optical manufacturing. He also has experience in using state-of-the-art manufacturing and fabrication technologies in the Defense and Aerospace industry. He has worked extensively in Supplier Development and Quality Assurance as Lead Technical Resource.

Mr. Eichholtz's educational background includes Mechanical Engineering and Business Administration. Eichholtz is a certified specialist in R6Sigma and Statistical Process Control Tools and Techniques. He is the author of several publications, including “Precision CNC Grinding of Glass”, “Challenges in Conformal Optics Manufacturing”, “Fabrication Challenges Associated with Conformal Optics Part I” and “Fabrication Challenges Associated with Conformal Optics Part II”.

Gail Mills

Gail Mills serves as the Director of Finance and Human Resources, bringing over 26 years of experience in managing accounting, payroll and human resource departments.  She has been instrumental in developing and managing accounting and payroll processes that satisfy a variety of reporting requirements for corporate management, human resource management, taxation, and compliance purposes.  While at StarVision Technologies, she has developed processes that satisfy the additional requirements of government contracting and is responsible for contract compliance and financial reporting.  As a member of the StarVision management team, she is leading the effort of accountability and resource management, and is responsible for insuring that the accounting and resource management tools and reports are audit compliant and that they provide valuable management information to other team members.