Todd Huffman

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Todd Huffman
War Rugs from Afghanistan.jpg
Born1980 (age 44–45)
Long Beach, California
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)Computer Scientist, inventor, photographer

Todd Huffman is an American technology entrepreneur and prolific photographer. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] He was a co-founder of the biomedical imaging company 3Scan, a member of the disaster aid group Synergy Strike Force, a researcher for DARPA, and a co-founder of the unconference BIL Conference.

Contents

He obtained a B.S. in Neuroscience in 2003, and an M.S. in Computational Biosciences at Arizona State University in 2006. [6]

Career

BIL Conference

In 2008, Huffman co-founded [7] of the BIL Conference, an unconference organized and observed by the participants as an unaffiliated counterpart to TED’s structured, ‘invite-only’ paid conference. [8]

Disaster Response

Starting in 2007, Huffman has worked with a variety of organizations on technologies for use in response to disasters or in conflict. He was a member of the disaster aid group Synergy Strike Force, a volunteer for the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team, and a researcher for DARPA. [9]

Huffman was a regular visitor to Jalalabad, in Afghanistan, where he worked with other technology workers affiliated with an informal group known as the Synergy Strike Force, using technology to help improve the quality of life for Afghan civilians and training them in the use of peaceful technologies such as computers and wireless internet, including the FabFi network. [10] The group assisted in the FabLab project in Afghanistan.

Huffman helped coordinate improvements to the OpenStreetMap efforts in Afghanistan [11] and Haiti after the 2010 earthquake. He coordinated large scale data imports of aerial imagery provided by the US State Department [12] and Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, [13] coordinated licensing updates to existing road databases, and led on-the-ground training sessions for local users to update OpenStreetMap. [14]

Sharon Weinberger, author of a book about DARPA entitled The Imagineers of War, described Huffman influencing DARPA decision-makers on the use of technology in conflict.

Writing

In 2015, Huffman contributed a passage to disinformation researcher Renée DiResta's book The Hardware Startup on how to secure DARPA grants. [15]

3Scan

In 2011, Huffman co-founded 3Scan, a firm that develops new techniques for biomedical imaging. [2] Biz Journals called 3Scan's main technology, the Knife-edge scanning microscope, a "robotic microscope." [3] The microscope rapidly sections and scans samples, building 3d models of microscopic structures. [4] Singularity Hub magazine quoted Huffman's description of their goal: “We’re trying to move from a world where humans are hunting and pecking through tissue looking for answers to a world where we generate large and reproducible data sets where we can use analytics to drive insights and real cures.”[ citation needed ]

In January 2015, Forbes magazine interviewed Huffman, asking him to explain the approach to technology his firm was taking. [2] In July 2016, Biz Journals reported that venture capital firms had invested an additional $11 million in 3Scan, reporting the total as $21 million. [3]

3Scan was acquired by the laboratory automation firm Strateos in 2019. [16]


MobileCoin

In 2017, Huffman joined the cryptocurrency firm MobileCoin as an advisor. [17] In July 2022, the company was announced that Huffman's former collaborator Renee DiResta would be joining the board of the MobileCoin foundation. [18]

Personal life

Huffman is signed up for cryopreservation with the Alcor Life Extension Foundation, since 2002. [6] Huffman worked for Alcor from 2002 to 2005.

References

  1. ↑ "Todd Huffman". THNK School of Creative Leadership. 2017. Retrieved 2017-03-18. In his spare time he is busy with cryonics – the process of freezing a person's brain posthumously – and an intentional community he helped build in the Bay Area.
  2. 1 2 3 Josh Wolfe (2015-01-28). "Digital Imaging On The Cutting Edge Of Tissue Analysis". Forbes magazine . Retrieved 2017-03-18. Historically, tissues have been examined by a pathologist using a microscope, and I believe to move biology and medicine forward we need to innovate automation and quantification techniques for high-throughput analysis at these scales.
  3. 1 2 3 Gina Hall (2016-07-11). "Biotech startup 3Scan raises $14M to expand the abilities of its robotic microscope". Biz Journals . Retrieved 2017-03-18. CEO Todd Huffman co-founded the San Francisco-based startup in 2011 to build a robotic microscope and computer vision system that automates tissue analysis for scientists involved in drug discovery.
  4. 1 2 Alison E. Berman (2016-10-11). "Robotic Tissue-Slicing Microscopes and DIY Crowd Science to Accelerate Research". Singularity Hub . Retrieved 2017-03-18. Todd Huffman is the founder and CEO of 3Scan, a company that is reinventing the workflow and practice of conventional pathology, a field of medicine focused on studying disease.
  5. ↑ "Todd Huffman: Founder & CEO, 3Scan". Singularity U . Retrieved 2017-03-18. Todd Huffman worked with the late Bruce McCormick, who pioneered the KESM technology.
  6. 1 2 Chana de Wolf (2012). "Member Profile: Todd Huffman" (PDF). Cryonics. Retrieved December 20, 2023.
  7. ↑ Christina Gagnier (25 May 2011). "A BIL and TED Excellent Adventure". Huffington Post. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
  8. ↑ Huffman, Todd. "Linkedin Todd Huffman". Linkedin. Linkedin. Retrieved 14 February 2025.
  9. ↑ Poulson, Jack. "Mai Tais, More Eyes, and Mercenaries". All-Source Intelligence. Retrieved 14 February 2025.
  10. ↑ Spencer Ackerman (May 2012). "Cash, and Time, Runs Out for Afghanistan's Wi-Fi City". Wired magazine . Retrieved 2017-03-18. 'At the Fab Lab, some of the [Afghan] students came up with the idea of using point-to-point antennas and off-the-shelf routers to create a mesh network, to share internet around Jalalabad,' explains one of those expats, Todd Huffman, a 32-year-old San Franciscan.
  11. ↑ "State Department Launches Imagery to the Crowd". Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team. 2013-04-25. Retrieved 2024-02-26.
  12. ↑ "State Department Launches Imagery to the Crowd". Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team. 2013-04-25. Retrieved 2024-02-27.
  13. ↑ Hunt, Amelia; Specht, Doug (2019-01-07). "Crowdsourced mapping in crisis zones: collaboration, organisation and impact". Journal of International Humanitarian Action. 4 (1): 1. doi: 10.1186/s41018-018-0048-1 . ISSN   2364-3404.
  14. ↑ "Haiti mission 3 - Training Day with the IOM Community Mobilizers". Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team. 2010-06-20. Retrieved 2024-02-27.
  15. ↑ DiResta, Renee. "The Hardware Startup, Building Your Product, Business, & Brand" (PDF). O’Reilly Media, Inc. Retrieved 14 February 2025.
  16. ↑ Strateos (2019-06-03). "Strateos combines Transcriptic and 3Scan to become Premier Drug Discovery Technology Partner for the Pharmaceutical Industry". GlobeNewswire News Room (Press release). Retrieved 2024-02-26.
  17. ↑ "MobileCoin Whitepaper" (PDF). MobileCoin. Retrieved 14 February 2025.
  18. ↑ Kind, Lucy. "Renée DiResta joins the MobileCoin Foundation Board". MobileCoin. Retrieved 14 February 2025.
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