With a broad range of engineering experience across medical, consumer, and industrial industries, Adam Rothschild is a vital member of our electrical engineering team. Anyone who has worked with Adam will agree he’s also a natural at client and partner relations—he draws people together and establishes a positive tone for getting things done and keeping programs running smoothly. Adam also provides tactical leadership for MindTribe’s commitment to develop methodologies, resources, and expertise around environmental and social issues in product development.

At MindTribe, Adam has been involved with a broad range of development—medical devices, consumer electronics, and automotive, scientific, financial, and industrial products. His cross-industry perspective enables him to bring the best aspects of an engineering approach from one industry to another. For example, he recently completed an implantable medical device design with the requisite design rigor and documentation, but with a mindset and development schedule more typical of consumer product development. He has engineered charging solutions for everything from low-cost Bluetooth headsets to a smart system for an implantable medical device that safely communicates and inductively charges through the patient’s tissue wall. He created the electronics for wirelessly controlling an iPod from the steering wheel of an automobile, and the firmware for controlling stepper motors for a sophisticated bioassay instrument. He’s been involved with the application of strange new poloxamers, as well as innovative and particularly thin electronic components.

Adam previously worked with Kumetrix, helping to engineer a unique medical diagnostics technology based on a single-use disposable microchip, integrating a hollow microneedle comparable in size to a human hair, which punctures the skin, draws a sub-microliter blood sample, and performs a specific bioassay. He also previously co-taught the mechatronics course at Stanford (ME 218C), guiding students in the course that brings together their knowledge and experiences over the Smart Product design program.

Adam earned an MS in Mechanical Engineering with an emphasis in embedded systems at Stanford University, and a BS in Physics with a minor in Mathematics at Wittenberg University in Ohio. In addition to being an avid runner, Adam plays drums in a band that regularly appears throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.

Ashley is the friendly face of MindTribe when you visit our office. Working both in front of and behind the curtain, she plays a broad role on our team, from recruiting to program management support to organizing MindTribe events. The key to her effectiveness is her warm personality backed by an intensity to do everything she does extremely well. Ashley graduated with a B.A. in Psychology from San Francisco State University.

Outside of MindTribe, Ashley is a passionate baker and artist, dedicating many nights and weekends trying out new recipes and making beautiful and delicious works of art. She also avidly enjoys ceramics and sculpture. Keen on traveling, she has traveled widely in Europe and Africa and is always on the search for her next great adventure.

If you’ve witnessed the acrobatics of a Cirque du Soleil performer, you might agree that a true professional makes the nearly impossible appear effortless. The same is true for engineering–typically the better a design, the more effortless and natural it appears to the uninitiated.

Moving far beyond the requirements of functional prototypes or even shelf candy that looks great until you open the box, Chet has delivered on some of the most challenging product constraints in the world, and made them look effortless. Despite engaging in arguably the most challenging engineering discipline in the critical manufacturing phase–mechanical engineering–Chet has mastered the ability to design, prototype, and manufacture technology products to standards not previously seen.

Chet brings the mechanical engineering, manufacturing, and engineering leadership experience critical to enabling MindTribe to fulfill our mission of creating truly innovative, class-leading products for our clients.

Prior to MindTribe, Chet gained experience as the lead mechanical engineer on the iPhone power adapter, and supported engineering of Apple’s Bluetooth headset–one of the smallest in existence at the time. Later, he was key to bringing advanced mobile device concepts to life at Sony Ericsson. Chet has mechanical engineering degrees from Stanford University and the University of California at Berkeley.

When not driving mechanical engineering on our client programs, you might find Chet playing ultimate frisbee, table tennis, travelling–or a combination of all three.

Elisa comes to MindTribe from Hewlett-Packard’s WebOS division,
formerly Palm, Inc., where her role as hardware design engineer had
her working on all baseband aspects of the world’s smallest
full-featured smartphone, the HP Veer, including the display’s MDDI,
the camera’s MIPI, and the analog touchpanel. Her previous work at OQO
involved electrical engineering design, architecting all aspects of
the power distribution circuitry and components of their handheld
computers and acting as lead electrical engineer for a desk dock in a
highly time-constrained project.

Though her free time is now spent playing with, reading to, and caring
for her first child, she previously enjoyed rock-climbing,
backpacking, and travel in the US, England, and Australia, and she
spent time as a popular tutor at KIPP Bayview Academy. Lacking a
proper garden area, she’s made do by taking over her sidewalk with
planter boxes, growing blueberries, mint, snow peas, carrots, chives,
and strawberries, as well as an indoor banana tree.

She earned a BS in biology at MIT and coursework towards a biomedical
engineering degree at Boston University.

From client programs to personal projects, Grace brings a profound enthusiasm for creating things to MindTribe. Her analytical thinking, experience building things, and her raw creativity combine to empower her to envision and rapidly iterate inspired designs.

Prior to MindTribe, Grace was responsible for engineering and manufacture of a device at C8 MediSensors, and she supported design of the framework for concentrator photovoltaic solar panels at Soliant Energy. Notable personal engineering projects include amphibious robots, business cards that convert into working Geneva wheel mechanisms, hacked Wiimote controllers and employing Arduinos for nefarious purposes.

While Grace is an engineer by day, she’s an artist by night. She engraves chocolate with lasers, does improv, and draws comic books. Last Halloween she designed and applied makeup special effects for a major theme park. Grace graduated from Caltech with a BS in Mechanical Engineering.

As a mechanical engineer, Greg is fluent in three dimensions–from visualization to modeling, from prototyping to production, he is able to usher inspired designs along a fast-track to reality. As a result, Greg is known for tackling highly-constrained engineering challenges, like creating complex mechanisms in tight spaces while still fitting into categories such as things that can be assembled and things that make industrial designers happy.  His proficiency with several CAD platforms gives him the ability to abstract the designs he envisions from the tools required to create them. An MS in Materials Science in addition to a BS in Mechanical Engineering from UC Santa Barbara further opens the design envelope for Greg’s designs.

Aside from mechanism design and his work at MindTribe, Greg’s experience includes mechanical design and manufacturing engineering at Inogen, a medical device company, and structural and thermodynamic analysis for a range of consumer devices as a freelance engineer.

Outside of MindTribe, you might find Greg exploring the ridges of the Bay Area or engaged with numerous family adventures.

Having led or been chief engineer on over fifty product development efforts since joining MindTribe in 2001, Jerry is uniquely positioned to play his role at MindTribe–advancing the way the innovative technology products are engineered in the world.

Jerry’s role as a thought leader is fueled by many years of personally feeling the pain of outdated product development processes, his unparalleled insight into what motivates groups of engineers to evolve into highly functional teams, and his taking personal responsibility to synthesize his own experience with that of others to lead advances in our industry.

A cornerstone of the approach Jerry has led at MindTribe is self-organizing engineering teams–teams on which each engineer takes personal ownership of success. Jerry leads by example, showing engineers what it means to take ownership of their success, rather than burdening someone else with that responsibility.

Another element of Jerry’s role is to ensure MindTribe teams train client engineering teams to be successful beyond MindTribe’s engagement, enabling them to scale effectively, not just grow in size.

In an engineering capacity, Jerry’s primary focus is anchoring client programs and leading firmware development at MindTribe, though he has played significant electrical engineering roles as well.

Jerry has had a hand in nearly every product MindTribe has developed, from architecting high-performance, battery-powered video devices, to architecting and implementing core elements of an automotive HMI system currently in production, to designing multiprocessor systems for cost-sensitive consumer appliances.

In a profession swamped with jargon, Jerry also has the gift of addressing highly technical topics in plain English, plying a degree of humor that incites conversation among both tech enthusiasts and neophytes. His background includes a degree in Computer Engineering program at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, as well as a childhood filled with “every chemistry and electronics kit ever made.”

What do circuit design, software development and rugby have in common? Mark Shughart.

Mark’s broad range of interests has another thing in common–Mark’s passion for what he does and a commitment to excellence with everything to to which he directs his efforts. From a BS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and systems engineering work at San Jose State, to a range of electronics and firmware development experience and his perspective gained from a history of competitive sport, Mark’s work is driven by an  balanced foundation of discipline, work ethic, and professional development. This perspective fuels Mark’s work as an electrical and firmware engineer at MindTribe, from analysis to design, and test to field failure analysis.

Prior to MindTribe, Mark’s experience includes everything gleaned from working on a small team of electrical engineers to bring a medical product to market, and work in an electrical engineering research group at Stanford.

Finding a successful formula of combining academic pursuits with sport as a member of Stanford’s varsity wresting and track and field teams, Mark is currently a member of the San Jose Seahawks rugby team when he’s not on our engineering field.

Mike Ho joined MindTribe with a focus on software engineering and quickly demonstrated he can switch-hit across engineering disciplines. He most recently developed the firmware and mechanical design for two innovative input devices, including implementation of the client’s high-end industrial designs. Mike previously created firmware for a networked power switching device, configuring and developing the interfaces for third-party applications to run on a custom Linux build.

Prior to joining MindTribe, Mike was part of an Audi-funded student team to envision the future of in-car information management. Collaborating with counterparts in Germany, his team designed the automotive experience to anticipate technologies available in 2020 such as GPS with location-based services, text-to-speech-to-text instant messaging that worked with AOL’s IM, and an assortment of steering wheel-based haptic controls for managing various infotainment features. The one-year project culminated in an ambitious functional “works-like” system and generated at least two patents.

Mike has previously designed pressure pumps for agriculture in Myanmar (Burma), prototyped handheld tools for minimally-invasive surgery and robotic tools for laser-welding of eye lacerations, developed a data-processing application that dramatically improved the efficiency and repeatability of missile trajectory modeling tests, and created a simple “firefly” jar with solar-charged, suspended LEDs.

Mike earned a BS from UC Berkeley and an MS from Stanford, both in Mechanical Engineering. He has had Six Sigma training; speaks Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, and French; and loves to tinker with electronic gadgets outside of the office, too.

Randy’s motto in life is: “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade–by creating an awesome lemonade-making machine.”

After earning a spot on MindTribe’s engineering team as a mechanical engineer, Randy’s capability and enthusiasm for all of our engineering disciplines was immediately apparent. He has since been playing a wide range of electrical engineering roles from design to test. Randy is able to leverage his broad engineering and design management experience to focus on driving success for our clients in any way possible.

Prior to joining MindTribe, Randy led a team of engineers to design and build low-cost, user-friendly robots which are now used to save the lives of civilians and first responders all over the world.

Randy earned an MS in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University with a focus in embedded systems and two BS degrees in mechanical engineering and materials science engineering from UC Irvine. In his free time, Randy enjoys intense games of badminton, thought-provoking conversations, food, fine wines and building lasting friendships.

Sam’s experience enables him to not only engineer innovative technology products, but to build successful businesses around them.

As the lead engineer and anchor for MindTribe’s work on the Tesla Roadster, the original Jawbone Bluetooth headset, and the wildly successful Flip Mino video camera, Sam has led some of MindTribe’s most highly visible engineering work.  As a management consultant with Bain & Company, Sam developed his toolbox of proven management frameworks and helped numerous companies address their business challenges on a large scale.

A core element of MindTribe’s product development method is business-engineering collaboration throughout the course of development. Sam provides an interface for business teams to help engineering teams understand the impacts of decisions they make, as well as help business teams understand the challenges inherent with technology product development, and to build business cases around products.

Within MindTribe, Sam leads recruiting and professional development of our team. Outside of MindTribe, you might find Sam satisfying his endless curiosity by voraciously reading every reference he can find on a topic, or recounting the 2010 NBA Finals.

Sam earned a BS and MS in mechanical engineering from Stanford University, and an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management.

Sravan got an early start on his work career: he started programming
in the third grade after he serendipitously found a book on BASIC in
his elementary school library. Now a few years have passed and he
brings to MindTribe expertise in high-performance embedded software on
networked multi-threaded platforms.

Sravan previously worked at Motorola, where he worked on embedded
encryption modules that are in the radios of nearly every major police
force in the world, writing everything from networked applications to
low-level driver software. Before that, he spent time in the Flash
memory group at Intel.

He earned his BS in computer engineering at the University of
Illinois, where he worked on an embedded Linux student satellite
project and won first place in an AMD-sponsored competition to design
a six-stage pipelined CPU with two-level branch prediction, bypassing,
and split cache. Sravan continues to dabble in electronics as a
hobbyist in his spare time, “mostly things that I use a lot that have
been left behind by advancements in embedded electronics,” and he’s an
avid cyclist who has recently begun exploring the world of bike
touring.

Since founding MindTribe in 1998, Steve has engaged in all aspects of client programs in the consumer, industrial, medical, and automotive industries, both as an engineer and team leader.

After many years utilizing the most common product development processes, Steve realized how inherently flawed they are for innovative technology products. Since then, Steve has led the MindTribe team to develop a better way–specifically, a change-tolerant process that actively seeks customer and business inputs throughout development, enabling clients to both innovate without fear and reliably create products that customers love.

Today, Steve’s role focuses on providing product development leadership for client teams. He helps product development teams leverage MindTribe’s unique set of engineering and product development methods to the maximum extent, and in the process is able to validate the challenges these teams face to evolve MindTribe’s methods.

Steve’s goal is to advance the way innovative technology products are developed in the world, so that products and businesses can better leverage technology to improve people’s life experience on a global scale.

Prior to MindTribe, Steve’s engineering and product development roots were developed at Microflow Analytical, a MEMS consulting group, Prograft Medical, a medical device startup, Coherent Medical, and Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC). Steve has mechanical engineering degrees from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and Stanford University. In 2001, he was the recipient of the Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo School of Engineering’s Outstanding Recent Alum award.

Outside of the product development world, you might find Steve riding his mountain bike long distances, mountain unicycling, restoring and rallying old British sports cars, or honing his performance driving capabilities on the world-class tracks on the West Coast.

With a foundation in every one of our engineering disciplines, Timothy is an incredibly efficient engineer. Able to design electrical systems, mechanical systems, and software with strong and roughly equal proficiency, he is able to iterate solutions very rapidly in his head as he works. He engages with all types of engineers with technical fluency, leading to efficient collaboration no matter what the technical challenge at hand might be.

Timothy’s engineering dexterity is partly explained by his earning a BS in Mechanical Engineering and an MS in Electrical Engineering, both from the University of Texas at Austin. Along the way he picked up enough software development experience to apply for (and pass our sit-down coding interview with flying colors) a firmware engineering role at MindTribe, and join our team based on his firmware engineering skills alone.

At MindTribe, Timothy has played electrical, mechanical, and firmware engineering roles developing both consumer and enterprise products centered around wireless technologies, rechargeable power systems, high-performance displays, and some very tight physical constraints.

Aside from his engineering passion, Timothy is an avid Formula 1 fan and you might find him up late at night perfecting his own home workstation.

With a background as engineer, entrepreneur and product developer, Tom Hsiu brings a wealth of product innovation experience to MindTribe. As Director of Program Operations, Tom supports the management of client programs as well as the implementation of MindTribe’s development methodologies. Prior to MindTribe, Tom cofounded and lead development at Ten Technology, one of the first iPod accessory companies, helping to ignite a multi-billion dollar industry. While at Ten, he worked with MindTribe from the client side, which instilled the pragmatic, invaluable perspective he brings to his role today. Previously, Tom developed educational robotics for NASA and Carnegie Mellon University, and squandered his youth creating sophisticated animatronics for the movie industry. Tom earned BS and MS degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford, while he raced solar-powered cars across two continents.

Outside of MindTribe, Tom spends his time building ballistic devices with his kids and hacking IKEA cabinets to fit into spaces they probably shouldn’t.