Eric Buffkin

Eric is the co-founder, President & CEO of etectRx Inc., a digital health company. etectRx delivers a unique combination of intelligent software, services, and connected sensors built on its novel wireless technology to enable remote monitoring of multiple health conditions to augment care, engage patients, and improve outcomes. Eric is passionate about creating new things; new products, new technologies, and new ventures. Over the course of his thirty plus year career, he has launched multiple tech and health tech companies and has been instrumental in establishing industry standards for the digital home. He is an angel investor and mentor to new technology companies in his community of Gainesville, Florida and a constant promoter of the innovation economy.  He holds a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Florida and a MBA from Rollins College.

Michael Schmid, Ph.D.

Michael Schmid is the President of Micro Nano Technologies LLC and has a Ph.D. from the University of Florida in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. Over the last seven years, he has been involved in the research and development of membrane-based technologies, their scalability, and commercialization. He is currently the principal investigator for MNT on ARPA-E, USDA, DoE, ONR, NYSERDA, and QRDI programs focused on the developed of full scale commercially viable absorption systems for a variety of applications. Prior to joining MNT, he spent 30 years working in the defense industry. The first fifteen years culminated in the role of Chief Engineer at Lockheed Martin. The last 15 years, working for a small defense company as a program manager/director of engineering, he led multiple simultaneous programs with a total value in excess of $40M. These programs included prototypes, production, design, development, test, integration, installation, and production. His career began as an analyst, focused on the thermal and structural analysis of a variety of naval control and full-motion training systems.

Benjamin Griffin, Ph.D.

Dr. Benjamin Griffin joined the Applied Research Institute in September 2024. Prior to that, he was a part of the DARPA Microsystems Technology Office (MTO), serving five years as a Program Manager and one year as the Acting Deputy Director. His programs focused on creating new microsystems capabilities from emerging materials and integration insights. Prior to joining DARPA, Dr. Griffin was a principal member of technical staff at Sandia National Laboratories where he led microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) research projects. Preceding his position at Sandia, Dr. Griffin spent more than two years at a small business, the Interdisciplinary Consulting Corporation, developing sensing technologies for aerospace applications. Dr. Griffin received his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in aerospace engineering, and his Doctor of Philosophy degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Florida (UF).