The Princeton Propellers:  What We Do 
 

The Princeton Propellers, an initiative of the Princeton Area Alumni Association (PA3), were established in 2016 to showcase technical innovation --- across the entire Princeton Gown & Vicinity ecosystem.  Our aim was to bring together a diverse set of players whose paths would not normally cross:  faculty, students, alumni, venture capitalists, bankers, scientists, engineers, clinicians, intellectual property attorneys, policy developers and other technical innovation stakeholders in the Greater Princeton area.

Prior to COVID-19, we met at Quadrangle Club, 33 Prospect Avenue, adjacent to the Princeton University Campus, the Second Tuesday of most months (September – June) 6 – 8 P, for a cocktail party anchored by an issue-oriented talk and followed by vigorous Q & A. 

In May, 2020, we transitioned the Propellers to a Zoom format --- still on the Second Tuesday of most months, but now starting at 7 P, Eastern US Time, to accommodate a growing worldwide audience and speakers in distant time zones. 

Videos of prior Propellers may be found here

 For further information, please contact:
propellers@princetonaaa.org.

Keep the Propellers Flying!

 The Propellers are entirely donations-funded.  

Speakers & Topics
(click on dates below for details)

• April, 2022:  Donald R Sadoway, Professor, Materials Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Electrochemical Energy Storage:  Towards Decarbonization and Profitable Sustainability

• March, 2022:  Navid Redjal, MD, Director, Neurosurgical Oncology, Capital Institute for Neurologic Disease, Capitol Health; Stereotactic Radiosurgery: A Transformation in Managing Neurologic Disease --- From Operating Room to Outpatient Treatment

• February, 2022:  Robert Soler, Vice President, Biological Research & Technology, BIOS Lighting; Leveraging Advances in LED Lighting to Maximize Human Health

• November 2021:  Filipe Pereira, Founder & Head of Innovation, Asgard Therapeutics; Combining Cell Fate Reprogramming & Immunotherapy:  A Revolutionary Approach for Cancer Treatment

• October 2021:  Madelyn “Mattie” Baron & Daniel Santillan, Equipment Design & Software Verification Engineers; Joby Aviation & The Future of Urban Mobility

• September 2021:  Richard A Lang, Director Visual Systems Group, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center; Prevention of Myopia & Treatment of Metabolic Disorders:  Surprising New Roles for Light-Based Disease Therapies

• June 2021:  Paul P G Gauthier, Director R & D, New Products and System Innovations, Bowery Farming;  Vertical Urban Farming: 
  A Technological Solution to Farming in the 21st Century & Beyond

• May 2021:  Whitney H Huang, Embedded Software Engineer, Zipline International; Transforming Medical Logistics with Drones:
  Bringing Health Products to Africa, the US & Beyond

• April 2021:  Artur Filipowicz, Chief Technical Officer, Soterea; How AI is Empowering a Non-Collision Driving World:
  Possibilities, Limitations & Next Steps

• March 2021:  Neil Anthony Sims, Founder and CEO, Ocena-Era, Inc.; Offshore Aquaculture & World Protein Demand:  Commercial Incentives to Fulfill Conservation Imperatives

• February 2021::  Rescheduled to April 2021

• October 2020: Bora Gulari, Olympian and CEO, Flo-Hy, Ltd., and Ricardo Bencatel, Technical Director, Flo-Hy, Ltd.; Technical Innovations in Hydrofoiling: Breakthroughs in Crafting ‘The Boat That Flies’

  September 2020: Christopher W Shaw, historian and author of Preserving the People’s Post Office; and Kyle Moore, postal carrier and past president of NALC – NJ Branch 268:  American Postal Innovations: What Citizens Need to Know

• June 2020: David Herman, MD, Chair, Infection Control, Penn Medicine, Princeton Health, An Up-to-Date Briefing on COVID-19 and Dealing with this Pandemic at the Local Level

• May 2020: Steven Peskin, MD; Tom McCarrick, MD; Howard Baruch, MD; & Rod Kaufmann, MD, COVID-19 Unleashes Telemedicine Innovations:  New Paradigms for Delivering Patient Care: A Panel Discussion 

• April 2020:  Andrew Voros, CEO, PrevenTive Conservation, LLC, Photocatalysis & Pandemics:  Bringing to Light a New Approach (Postponed - To Be Re-Scheduled)

• March 2020:  Navid Redjal, MD, Capital Institute for Neurosciences, Capital HealthDirector, Neurosurgical Oncology
  Stereotactic Radiosurgery:  A Transformation in Managing Neurologic Disease --- From Operating Room to Outpatient Treatment
   (Postponed at University’s Request Owing to Onset of COVID-19 Pandemic)

• February 2020: Stephanie Thomas & Charles Swanson, Princeton Satellite Systems, Vice President & Senior Scientist, Frontiers in Commercializing Fusion Development: The New Landscape of Companies Investing in Fusion Worldwide

• December 2019: Greg Matzat, Webb Institute of Naval Architecture; *Stevens Institute of Technology, Engineer and Offshore Wind Consultant, Harnassing Ocean Winds to Generate Clean Energy for NJ & the US

• November 2019: Andrew Voros, Rutgers ’80, Senior VP, PrevenTive Conservation USA, Technical Innovations in Conserving Museum  Collections & Architectural Heritage Structures: New Roles for Sunlight & Photocatalytic Agents

• October 2019: Will Watts '09, Director, Operations Engineering, Block Renovation, “Streamlining the Home Renovation Process: A New Process that Dovetails for Homeowners AND Contractors”

• September 2019: Andrew Houck '00, Harvard *05, Professor, Electrical Engineering, Princeton University, Decoding the Realm(s) of Quantum Engineering: Tilting at Tackling the Computationally Infeasible

• June 2019: Clay Patterson, NE Regional Manager, iD Tech, Paul A Durst & Sharon L De La Cruz, Council on Science & Technology, Princeton University, Challenges in Next-Generation STEM Education: Connecting the K-12 Experience to College Curricula

• April 2019: Evan J Conte, MD, Binghamton ’05, Albert Einstein School of Medicine ’09 Trenton Orthopaedic Group at the Rothman Institute Pioneering Techniques in Shoulder Replacement:  Past, Present and Future

• March 2019: Andrew Voros, Rutgers ’80, Senior VP, PrevenTive Conservation USA, A Division of ExecuTREK Systems, LLC, Recent Developments in Photocatalysis for Air Pollution Abatement And Self-Cleaning Exteriors: Passive, Affordable, Green, Sustainable

• February 2019: George Powch, MIT ’69, Stanford *71 & HBS *73, CEO, VerLASE Technologies LLC, Color Technology Options in NextGen Smart Phones & Devices:, A Case for MicroLED Display

• December 2018: F J Mallen, MD, Pratt Institute ’70; M J Berry II, University of California Berkeley, ’89;  & John Frederick ’51, Assessing a New Treatment for Age-Related Macular Degeneration - A Panel Discussion

• November 2018:José Avalos, Universidad Iberoamericana ’96, Assistant Professor, CBE, Princeton, Engineering Microbes to Sustain Planet Earth

• October 2018: Jacob Loewenstein '11, The Phone is Only the Beginning: What It Will Take To Make AR Worth Wearing a Computer on Your Face
• September, 2018: Rich Hollingsworth ’71,Director of Operations, High Asset Tagging, Tego, Inc.,“Radio-Frequency ID in Aerospace, Life Sciences & Beyond:
  Collecting, Storing, Managing and Using Intelligent Asset Data”
• June 2018: Aly Cohen, MD & Clay Patterson, Equipping the Next Generation to Lead Long, Healthy Lives And Cope with the Velocity of Technological Advance
• May 2018: Jonathan Lu '18, Stakeholder Mechanics in Shaping Climate Change Policy: Weighing Carbon Fee & Dividend Options for New Jersey
• April 2018: Konrad P. Kording, Technical Innovations in Data Driven Medicine:  Cross Validating Methods in Disease Detection, Diagnosis & Treatment
• March 2018: Neil Chatterjee '15, Democratizing the Internet:  Marshaling Blockchain for Wi-Fi Without ISPs
• February 2018: Alain L. Kornhauser *71, Autonomous Vehicles: Where Are We Going & How Will We Get There? De-Fogging Your Shift from a Drive to a Trip
• January 2018: Daniel J. Cohen '08, Crowd Control: Swarm Engineering for Medicine & Biotechnology
• December 2017: Stephanie Thomas, Adventures in Astronautics:  From Fusion Rockets to Pluto – to Getting the Grants to Pay for Them
• October 2017: Devin Walsh ’11, Beyond Bitcoin:  How Blockchain is Transforming: Cryptocurrency, Commerce and the Arts
• September 2017: Christian Theriault ’07 *08, New Directions in Biomedical Screening: Adaptive Optics for Live Non-Invasive 3D Volumetric Imaging
• June 2017: Joy Meserve, Jump-Starting the Entrepreneurial Drive in Children: Giving Them Space to Do Something Big
• May 2017: Tyler Hopf *15, Remodeling Reality:  Designing for and with Virtual Reality
• April 2017: Will Watts ’09, Accelerating Into the Future: Building Electric Vehicle Infrastructure
• December 2016: Sherrie Preische *95, Harnessing Data Analytics to Drive Election Outcomes
• October 2016: Megan Partridge ’14, Rebranding Sustainability: Social Entrepreneurship in the Creative Industries
• September 2016: Kevin Wong ’05, The Outsider’s Innovation Advantage  
• June 2016: Dora Mitchell *08, Talking vs. Doing: Successes in Applied Entrepreneurship
• May 2016: Mark Tanner ’12, Rapid Growth in a Competitive Sector: A Cautionary Tale
• April 2016: Andrés I. Perez-Benzo ’13, To Raise or Not to Raise: How to Capitalize Your Startup