ABOUT US
Just as the clear vitreous gel transports light and gives structure to our eyes, at Vtrus, we are engineering the visible and invisible aspects of perception that will shape the future of spatially-aware, socially engaged, human-friendly devices.
Our growing and diverse team of designers, scientists and engineers are bound by a common set of principles:
BUILD OFTEN. TEST FAST.
We iterate on our iterations after we're done iterating. Taking on challenges piece-wise allows us to quickly break the paradigm and build it back better.
TEACH. LEARN. SUCCEED.
We pride ourselves on being able to learn from each other and our partners to amplify the scope and impact of our work.
WE ARE MULTI-DISCIPLINARY HACKERS
We use what we can find, but more often than not we're modifying it for the perfect fit.
SOCIALLY ENGAGED. HUMAN FRIENDLY.
We believe in the power of connected devices to improve our lives through their cooperation amongst themselves and with us.
our team
RENATO FERNANDO SALAS-MORENO, Chief Executive Officer
Renato has been fascinated by machines since childhood, developing an almost obsessive attention to understand the magic of flying while building RC planes.
The joy of playing with flight simulators led him into a career in the video games industry, working on titles such as James Bond Bloodstone for the Xbox360/PS3 at Activision. Realizing the effort in bringing real environments into virtual worlds encouraged him to explore camera-based computer vision techniques, leading to study a PhD at Imperial College London.
His research interest involved the development of real-time computer vision algorithms for navigation and semantic scene understanding developing systems such as SLAM++ and Dense Planar SLAM, bringing object and region-level reasoning of environments.
During his PhD studies he started Surreal Vision Ltd. (acquired by Facebook), in an effort to bring cutting-edge camera mapping and tracking technology into VR/AR while working at Oculus Research in Redmond.
Now he’s back to building machines, this time adding a bit of magical human-level perception into them.
Renato is a 2015 MIT Innovator under 35 and an avid student pilot.
CARLOS R. SANCHEZ, Chief Design Officer
Carlos has always been fascinated with understanding how things work, why they work and taking them apart to find room for improvement. At Florida State University, Carlos pursued a degree in Mechanical Engineering and was known for his expert CAD modeling skills and his involvement in an award winning project for a fully autonomous, offshore boat for water quality data collection and long range communication. Carlos also spent his time at university teaching young students about robotic design and graphical based coding.
After college, Carlos began his professional career working for a leading mechanical seal manufacturer where he supported customers such as Exxon Mobil in the oil and gas, petrochemical, and paper industry by diagnosing and preventing critical equipment failures. His great attention to detail helped customers to reduce costly downtime and improve safety.
In an effort to move towards cooler weather and greater hiking, he later relocated to Seattle to join a industrial equipment and service provider where he distilled and presented highly technical information to educate customers and vendors of all skill levels to implement tailored pump, valve, and actuation solutions.
Carlos's past experiences in tribology and material science allows him to push the thermal and mechanical limitations of complex designs that robotic hardware demands while still respecting the constraints that modern and prevalent fabrication techniques may present.
In his off time Carlos is a boater, guitar player and enjoys flying quadcopters through breathtaking landscapes.
JONATHAN LENOFF, Chief Technology Officer
Jonathan’s introduction to robotics came from his high school job, installing and programming moving, robotic lighting and the fascination hasn't slowed down since. When Jonathan went to college he pursued a degree in Mechanical Engineering with an emphasis on control systems. During his time at Florida State University, he was involved in a variety of jobs ranging from a year long study into the conversion of waste heat into electricity to a multi-year, intensive collaboration in the use of real time operating systems centered around the design, simulation, building and control of robotics aimed to assist people.
When Jonathan left college he went to work with General Electric and was repeatedly awarded for his work on the control systems that ran the 4500+ HP diesel engines for their locomotives. After GE, Jonathan worked on the control systems for military and commercial aircraft engines for such companies as Pratt Whitney and Boeing.
Jonathan moved up to Seattle to pursue his entrepreneurial mindset. His experience in rapid development around hardware, firmware and electronics quickly led him to create what has become one of the region's largest groups dedicated to furthering hardware startups and to become a key team member to the maker community through his continual involvement at Sodo Makerspace. Since moving to Seattle, Jonathan has helped to form, run and produce products for several companies ranging from electronics used to control torque distribution in cars to devices used to provide advanced metrics for resistance training.
If Jonathan is looking for something to do he is probably building wooden furniture with factors of safety in the double digits, running in the surrounding mountains, or trying to “hack” a meal from what happens to be in the fridge and pantry (sometimes it even tastes alright!).
We want bright minds. Apply now!
If you think you can contribute in related disciplines we still want to hear from you! Please email join@vtr.us