Joshua Feast

CEO and Founder

Joshua’s track-record includes a decade delivering enterprise software solutions to human services, government and financial services clients. Prior to founding Cogito, Joshua worked at Accenture, Microsoft and as an independent technology consultant. He holds an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management where he was the Platinum-Triangle Fulbright Scholar in Entrepreneurship, and a Bachelor of Technology in Product Development from Massey University in New Zealand.

Ali Azarbayejani

Chief Technology Officer

Ali has 13 years of commercial experience as a scientist, entrepreneur, and designer of world-class computational technologies. His pioneering doctoral research at the MIT Media Lab in probabilistic modeling for 3-D vision was the basis for his first startup company Alchemy 3D Technology, which created the market in the film and video post-production industry for camera match-moving software. He has consulted in software development and business strategy and has been on the research staff at Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs contributing to leading technologies focused on software-based digital signal processing and computational modeling and algorithms.

Mario Bourgoin

Senior Principal Scientist

Mario is a principal research scientist responsible for developing the core technologies that support Cogito products. He is a mathematician with a deep knowledge of the statistics applied in data mining, and has published articles about the business applications of data mining, as well as research in human and machine learning and in geometric topology. During his 25 years of experience in the computer industry, Mario created, patented, and applied software for manifold purposes. He holds a doctorate in pure mathematics from Brandeis University, a masters in Media Arts and Sciences from MIT, and a bachelors in biology from Ottawa University, Canada.

Peter Costello

VP Sales and Marketing

Peter has almost 20 years of experience in health care and technology. Previously, he was Vice President of Web and eBusiness at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts and Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Excellus Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Rochester, NY. Peter co-founded two technology-based start-ups; IPC, which developed high technology packaging solutions for the DVD industry, and MBS Solutions, which developed employer decision support systems to predict the outcomes of using high deductible health plans to self-fund benefit plans. Prior to his industry experience, Peter served as an officer, aviator and engineer in the United States Navy. He received his bachelor’s degree in Applied Mathematics from Providence College and his MBA in Finance and Statistics from the University of Illinois.

Monique Elder

Office Manager

Monique has over 17 years of experience as an Administrative Assistant in corporate and startup companies. Her responsibilities at Cogito include scheduling, staff training, accounting, payroll and employee relations. Her strong organizational abilities combined with excellent interpersonal, communication and leadership skills allow her to contribute to the development and accomplishment of Cogito’s business plan and objectives.

Aram Faghfouri

Principal Research Scientist

Aram received his B.Sc. from the University of Science and Technology in 1995 (electrical engineering), M.Sc. from Amir Kabir University in 2000 (biomedical engineering), and Ph.D. from the University of Manitoba in 2011 (Electrical Engineering). His areas of expertise are algorithm development, statistical signal processing, pattern recognition, data mining, machine learning, information theory, sensor fusion, and modeling physical phenomena. He has a broad, interdisciplinary background with specific strengths in research & development.

Lydia Gu

Software Engineer

Lydia has a background in image and video processing. At Cogito, she’s working on developing software infrastructure and core audio processing technology. Prior to joining Cogito, Lydia worked at Draper Laboratory on compressive sensing and its applications for image compression, classification and transmission. She also researched video compression while a graduate student at MIT, where she received bachelor and master degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Delia Mooney

Marketing Associate

Delia graduated from Suffolk University in December 2011 with a B.S. in Public Relations and Marketing. At Cogito, Delia works as a marketing associate managing website content, updating Cogito’s blog and executing marketing objectives. Her specialties include press releases, public relations campaigns, editorial writing and editing, and social media engagement and management.

Alex (Sandy) Pentland

Scientific Visionary and Founder

Sandy is the pioneer of reality mining technology and a leader in ubiquitous information systems. He is the founder and Director of Human Dynamics Research within the MIT Media Laboratory. He is a co-founder of the Center for Future Health at the University of Rochester, and is one of the most-cited computer scientists in the world. Sandy has won numerous international awards in the Arts, Sciences and Engineering. He was chosen by Newsweek as one of the 100 Americans most likely to shape the next century.

Skyler Place

Senior Research Scientist

Skyler is a computational social scientist with degrees in Psychology, Cognitive Science and Computer Science. He has led extensive research projects on honest signals, social influence, decision making and behavioral trace data. Prior to Cogito, Skyler was a Post Doctoral Research Associate at Harvard and Northeastern Universities. He holds a dual PhD from Indiana University and a BA from Colby College.

Charlie Popkin

Chief Financial Officer

Charlie is a seasoned financial professional with experience growing companies in fast paced environments. Charlie was the Chief Financial Officer of The Merallis Company, a technology services firm located in Rocky Hill, CT. Prior to Merallis, Charlie was a founding management member of PQC, Inc., a management services company which he helped grow to $80M in revenue. Charlie also founded Medical Claims Management (MCM), a practice reimbursement management and consulting firm. Earlier in his career Charlie worked as a Senior Consultant for Price Waterhouse and as Senior Accountant for Deloitte &Touche. He is a CPA, has a B.S. in Accountancy an A.S. in Management from Bentley College and an M.M. in Finance and Business Policy from the J.L. Kellogg School at Northwestern University.

Tim Wills

Principal Software Engineer, Team Lead

Tim has over 20 years of experience in software design and development, as an individual contributor and technical team lead. A veteran of both large organizations and successful startups, his background includes experience developing systems in domains as diverse as NASA spacecraft telecommunications analysis, document imaging, web content distribution, data center automation, and cloud computing infrastructure management.

Chuan Zhang

Director of Operations

Chuan Zhang has an M.Eng from MIT in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. At Cogito, Chuan has worked on every technical aspect ranging from audio signal processing, model development and IT infrastructure. Prior to joining Cogito, Chuan worked on radar signal processing at BAE Systems and factory robotics programming at General Motors. His interests include biomedical signal processing, image processing, and algorithms.