MIND Studios


	Dr. Michael Larson, Director Michael earned his PhD from MIT in 1992, his M.S. from the University of Michigan and his B.S. from Tulane University. He now holds the El Pomar Endowed Chair of Engineering and Innovation and is a Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. With funding totaling more than $6M from a variety of agencies, including the NSF, the U.S. Air Force, the Missile Defense Agency, and private corporations, Michael has tackled a number of projects related to the fracture and failure of materials and to optical methods. His current research activity involves medical applications of lasers. Michael has a passion for creativity and innovation and has conducted numerous workshops on the topics of innovation and creative problem solving. Dr. Larson has provided engineering consulting and design services for a number of clients, including designing and fabricating a rocket-port measurement device for Lockheed-Martin, and serving as a product design and failure analysis expert in legal cases. He has piloted a jet aircraft, steered a nuclear submarine, and can wiggle his ears. One at a time.


	Luke Hooper, Executive Designer Luke graduated summa cum laude in Biomedical Engineering from Tulane unversity in 2003. He continued onto receive a Master's degree in mechanical engineering in 2005 with a focus in medical device design creating an inexpensive hand held device for nasal septum measurement along with a graphical user interface for very quick measurement. Hooper's diverse industry experience includes working in the Materials and Mechanical testing lab for Nike Inc., as well as conducting wide ranging R&D consulting projects for Nike golf. In addition, he has designed several toys which have been taken to market and also created products for SR industries. On the MIND studios team, Luke specializes in product design and prototyping with production planning in mind.


	Jesse McClure, Executive Designer Jesse McClure graduated from Tulane University summa cum laude in Mechanical Engineering in 2004. He continued on at Tulane and received his masters degree in 2005 with an emphasis in high energy laser material-interaction. Previously he has worked for the Department of the Navy conducting high energy laser research at the NAVAIR facility in China Lake, California. He currently does research at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs managing the new High Energy Laser Lab. As a member of MIND Studios, Jesse specializes in biomedical applications of lasers for medical device while also providing graphic design and animation capabilities for presentation and print media.