Fresh off his departure at information technology services company SRA International, Stan Sloane has been appointed president and CEO of a small California-based technology firm, Decision Sciences International Corp.
Sloane, who left SRA last month immediately following the company’s acquisition by the private equity firm Providence Equity Partners, comes to Decision Sciences to help the company transition an advanced nuclear detection technology it has been developing the past four years or more from the development stage into production and commercialization.
Sloane, who began his aerospace and defense industry career with General Electric [GE], then Martin Marietta, Lockheed Martin [LMT], and most recently SRA, has a wealth of experience, in particular working with major programs, Gene Ray, chairman of Decision Sciences, tells TR2. Sloane understands the business model for taking a program from its early stages through production for commercial markets, Ray says.
Sloane will be taking over the head job at Decision Sciences from Robert Whalen, who has taken the company from a technology start-up and who will remain in charge of its development efforts.
Decision Sciences’ Multi-Mode Passive Detection System (MMPDS) detects cosmic rays, or muons, which are constantly bombarding the earth. As the rays deflect through atoms, the system’s detectors measure the amount of detection, which correlates with various elements on the periodic table. Those measurements, which are taken with the company’s software algorithms, allow for the creation of three-dimensional computer models of the materials that the muons pass through, thus permitting the detection of threat materials.
The MMPDS has demonstrated that it is capable of detecting unshielded and heavily shielded radiological and nuclear materials hidden amid cluttered environments with steel and iron in cargo containers and other conveyances, Ray says. The system quickly detects the hazardous materials without impeding the flow of commerce, he says.
A pre-production system will be delivered to Hutchison Port Holdings‘ Freeport Container Port in the Bahamas for operational testing, Ray says.
In addition to the forthcoming operational test, Ray says that the joint venture National Security Technologies, LLC, (NSTec) is visiting Decision Sciences to begin a two-week battery of tests on the system as a potential precursor for operational testing by either the Department of Energy or Department of Homeland Security. NSTec is comprised of AECOM [ACM], Babcock and Wilcox [BWC], CH2MHill and Northrop Grumman [NOC] and is responsible for managing the DoE’s Nevada National Security Test Site.
DoE’s Megaports program, DHS Customs and Border Protection, and major port operators are all potential customers of the MMPDS, Ray says.
As for future development of the system, Ray says that with additional hardware and software the MMPDS can be tailored to detect high explosives or drugs depending on a customer’s needs.
Ray is the co-founder and former chief at Titan Corp., which was acquired by L-3 Communications [LLL] in 2005. He has been with Decision Sciences for two years.