AI-Driven Vision: Shaping the Future of Smart Imaging

Mike Nielsen is Chief Marketing Officer at RealSense and a technology executive with decades of experience
solving complex engineering, product and market challenges across video, networking, security, computer vision,
biometrics and robotics.
An electrical engineer by training, Nielsen has built his career at the intersection of deep technology and
commercialization. He has contributed to the evolution of digital video and industry standards, built new security and
automation businesses, incubated emerging technologies, and helped bring advanced computer vision and
depth-sensing technologies from the lab into global markets.
At Intel, Nielsen served as a Senior Director and Entrepreneur-in-Residence in the company's New Ventures
organization, where he helped identify and incubate more than 30 new businesses, with a particular focus on vision
and security technologies. His work at Intel also spanned biometrics and depth sensing, technologies that helped lay
the groundwork for today's RealSense platform.
Earlier, at Cisco, Nielsen held leadership positions across video, security and digital platforms, combining technical
innovation with market development. He later built and led an internal startup incubator that developed
next-generation video, security and automation solutions and generated more than $150 million in revenue.
Today at RealSense, Nielsen is helping define the emerging market for robotic perception and Physical AI.
RealSense technologies provide the depth, vision and spatial intelligence behind autonomous mobile robots,
humanoids, industrial automation and biometric security systems.
Throughout his career, Nielsen has specialized in a consistent challenge: taking difficult technical problems,
understanding what is possible before the market is fully formed, and building the products, businesses and
ecosystems required to turn innovation into impact.
Nielsen holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Nevada, Reno.

Alex Lopich has over 20 years of experience in vision, video, and sensor design. He gained his PhD in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Manchester and subsequently held a variety of engineering, research, and leadership roles, developing smart sensors, imaging systems, and AI acceleration IPs, as well as solutions for computer and machine vision. Alex holds multiple patents, peer-reviewed publications, and presentations on topics related to his research interests in smart sensor design and novel image processing architectures. Alex currently leads the engineering team at Altera, developing solutions for Video and Vision applications.

David Kristofic is Lead Engineer, Image Quality at FRAMOS based in Čakovec, Croatia, where he serves as the subject matter expert for image quality. Over more than eight years at the company, he has built expertise spanning the complete imaging pipeline, from image sensor driver development and EMVA 1288 characterization to optical module characterization and production process development. His current work centers on optical simulation and analysis of optical modules for their target applications, and on end-to-end simulation aimed at closing the gap between concept and mass production. In parallel, he actively develops the engineering and production processes and setups for image quality characterization.

Stefan Klug is Lead Camera Architect at Ideas on Board Oy. He has been
developing imaging and graphics related software for more than 20 years.
He has deep expertise in embedded cameras and ISPs and worked for 10
years as developer, architect and team lead in the machine vision
industry. In 2024 he joined Ideas on Board to improve the fully open
source camera stack "libcamera" and the surrounding ecosystem.

Maximilian Durner is a Research Fellow and Research Group Leader in the Perception and Cognition Department at the Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics of the German Aerospace Center (DLR), where he has been working since 2016. He received his Ph.D. from the Technical University of Munich (TUM). His research group develops methods for robust robotic perception and semantic scene understanding, enabling robots to operate reliably in complex, real-world environments. His research interests align closely with these topics and focus on object-centric vision systems for mobile manipulation, with an emphasis on robustness, continual adaptation, and long-term autonomy. His work integrates physical priors, world knowledge, and multimodal sensory information to improve perception capabilities such as object detection, recognition of novel objects, pose estimation, and tracking.

Sebastian Ortega is a Camera Imaging Specialist at Eclipse Optics. For over 10 years, he has developed camera systems for a wide range of products, including consumer electronics, medical devices, and industrial systems. He has an international background in photonics and telecommunications and holds a joint MSc from KTH in Sweden and KIT in Germany. His expertise spans the entire imaging technology stack, from lenses, image sensors, ISPs, and camera tuning to display and illumination solutions. He helps companies develop tailored imaging products, bridging the gap between concept, design, and real-world implementation.

harles Naoum serves as Senior Director, leading Qualcomm’s Industrial & Embedded IoT European sales business.
A passionate technologist and advocate for AI-driven innovation, Charles brings more than 15 years of experience spanning global semiconductor leaders.
Charles combines deep technical expertise with strong commercial leadership and holds a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering and an MBA.

The base is Electrical Engineering grade from St.Petersburg Electro Technical University (LETI, Russia) and business education from Stockholm School of Economics. Since 1995 has been leading multinational engineering teams in international projects in Europe, North America, China, India. Main focus is AI/Vision/Robotics fusion on factory floor ground in technology demanding industrial applications.