About Vectech
Vectech is a public benefit corporation founded in 2019, based in Baltimore, MD.
We are developing AI-powered vector identification and surveillance technologies for public health and global disease prevention.
Our Beginning
Vectech was founded out of Johns Hopkins University, originating from a USAID Grand Challenge grant to combat the Zika epidemic. What began as a response to an urgent global health threat grew into a mission to address a critical public-health need: enabling fast, accurate species identification to support targeted mosquito control during disease outbreaks.
Today, our interdisciplinary team of engineers, computer scientists, public-health experts, and entomologists develops advanced AI tools that improve vector surveillance and strengthen global mosquito-control operations.
Meet the Team
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Tristan Ford, MSE
CO-FOUNDER + CEO
Tristan is a social impact entrepreneur and biomedical engineer developing technologies with global implications for health. At Vectech, Tristan leads the company’s business strategy and operations team. Tristan is a Gates Millennium Scholar, David L Boren fellow, and earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Rochester and Johns Hopkins University.
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Meg Glancey, MSPH
CO-FOUNDER + ADVISOR
Meg is an epidemiologist, entrepreneur, and consultant. She previously managed over $1.5M in global innovation research funding at Johns Hopkins University. Meg has experience overseeing field testing, pilot studies, and managing collaborations and partnerships. At Vectech, she advises the team in maximizing public health impact. She earned her Masters of Public Health Science at Johns Hopkins University.
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Autumn Goodwin, MSE
CO-FOUNDER + CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER
Autumn is a humanitarian engineer and entrepreneur with technical expertise in applied optics and computer vision. Autumn is the lead inventor and principal investigator of several of Vectech's core technologies. Autumn oversee a dedicated technical team including in-house software, computer vision, optics, and entomology expertise.
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Jewell Brey, MSE
TECHNICAL PRODUCT MANAGER
Jewell is a biomedical engineer with several years of experience in global health innovations. They are a former member of the VectorWeb research team at Johns Hopkins University and served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Panama. Jewell is a principal investigator and lead engineer for several of Vectech’s core technologies. They earned their graduate degree in Biomedical Engineering Innovation and Design from Johns Hopkins University.
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Sanket Padmanabhan
HEAD OF SOFTWARE
Sanket is the lead software engineer at Vectech, system architect, and critical inventor on all technologies. He is senior developer for our Internet of Things data acquisition products, designing the firmware, backend, and frontend, taking products from prototype to maturity. Sanket also manages deployment of computer vision models. Sanket brings prior industry experience at Hewlett Packard, and earned his Electrical and Computer Engineering degree from UC Berkeley.
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Roy Faiman, PhD
ENTOMOLOGIST
Roy Faiman is an expert in vector biology and former NIH research fellow with over a decade of extensive experience in mosquito, sandfly, and tick taxonomy and ecology. Dr. Faiman oversees data quality and validation testing at Vectech. He earned his doctoral degree in medical entomology.
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Jaykob Cave-Stevens
MECHANICAL ENGINEER
Jaykob is a mechanical engineer developing new systems for high quality image acquisition, with supporting subsystems to streamline data acquisition, and minimize labor burden for users. Jaykob earned his Mechanical Engineering degree from Johns Hopkins University.
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Jun Wu
FULL STACK DEVELOPER
Jun is a full stack developer, optimizing user experience in data interaction and device operation. Jun also develops internal tools for data quality management. Jun received his Computer Science degree from the City College of New York.
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Thomas Jenkins
COMPUTER VISION ENGINEER
Thomas develops computer vision methods to support data quality to streamline the data pipeline from acquisition to data cleaning to retraining algorithms, optimizing algorithm expansion to cover species in new regions. Thomas received his degree in Physics and Computer Science from Brown University.
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Khushi Anil Gupta
COMPUTER VISION ENGINEER
Khushi is a Computer Vision Engineer and Deep learning research enthusiast. At Vectech, she is developing, analyzing, and refining cutting-edge computer vision algorithms for species classification and object detection. Khushi received her Masters Degree in Computer Engineering from Columbia University.
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Vicky Ikonomidou, PhD
COMPUTER VISION ENGINEER
Vicky has an electrical and biomedical engineering background with experience in image processing and computer vision technique development for medical applications. She has a passion for problem-solving through novel algorithm development. At Vectech, she is currently working on tick detection and identification. Before joining Vectech, she was an associate professor at George Mason University. She earned her PhD in Electrical Engineering from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
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Hannah Markle, ScM
ENTOMOLOGIST
Hannah is a molecular microbiologist and immunologist with a background in medical entomology and vector biology. She formerly worked in malaria surveillance at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and was a research fellow at the FDA working on vector-borne disease vaccinology. At Vectech, she primarily works on vector collections and identification, data cleaning, and rearing Vectech's mosquito colonies
Our Mission, Vision & Values
Mission
Vectech provides empirical insect data powered by AI imaging and computer vision, that supports public health interventions, reduces economic loss, and improves ecological protection.
Vision
To become a leading provider of AI-driven vector surveillance and identification technologies, making high-quality vector data widely accessible —improving how we gather and interpret insect information across the globe.
Our Values
Innovation First – We embrace innovation as a cornerstone of our work, consistently exploring new ideas and technologies to revolutionize insect monitoring and make a measurable difference in public health.
Customer-Centered Collaboration – We collaborate with our customers as partners, listening closely and co-innovating to create solutions that address their unique challenges and contribute to the shared success of our products.
Science- and Data-Driven – We are a science- and data-driven organization, leveraging best practices, responsible AI, and rigorous evidence to inform and strengthen every decision we make.
Empowered Teams – We empower people to drive impact by supporting personal and team growth, recognizing excellence, fostering collaboration, and ensuring that every individual is equipped to make a meaningful contribution to the company's mission.
Early-stage Investors
TEDCO
TECHSTARS
Vectech has been backed by leading early-stage investors and innovation programs, earning recognition through competitive grants, accelerator selections, and national public health awards.
NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH (NIH)
MARYLAND INNOVATIVE INITAITTIVE
MASS CHALLENGE
USDA
NSF INNOVATION
CORPS
LARTA INSTITUTE