Tisse Joins ULIS as Chief Technical Officer

Infrared image sensor maker ULIS has hired computational cameras and imaging systems entrepreneur Dr. Christel-Loic Tisse as chief technical officer, the company said Wednesday.

Tisse brings 13 years of experience in optical (visible light and thermal) imaging science to ULIS. He joins the company from MTech-Imaging Pte Ltd., a Singapore-based company he co-founded that specializes in offering innovative low-light, night-vision and thermal IR imaging technologies. He served as chief technical officer for three years, raising more than €2.5 million in research funding and helping grow the company from a two-man startup to a team of 15.

He has extensive expertise in computational imaging, a multidisciplinary field involving the co-design and joint-optimization of optoelectronic methods, image sensors and image/video processing techniques to enhance or extend the capabilities of digital imaging systems. From 2008 to 2010, Tisse was a senior research fellow at the Institute for Infocomm Research (A*STAR) and at the Interactive and Digital Media Institute. His research investigated solid-state refocusing and visual analytics techniques for exploring semiotic models of visual inference processes. He also provided consulting activities in the area of co-design of hybrid optical-digital imaging systems and was given an honorary position as consultant adviser at National University of Singapore.

Tisse also spent a year with DxO Labs, a fast-growing startup developing extended depth-of-field technologies for camera phone applications. There, he served as deputy chief scientist and research director of the B2B division. Between 2003 and 2007, Tisse led the “Small Flyer” project at the Australian Centre for Field Robotics at the University of Sydney. His work focused on visually guided micro aerial vehicles, in particular on designing and developing innovative computational camera systems and algorithms for wide-angle imaging and depth perception.

While working as a research scientist in embedded imaging and multimodal biometric systems at STMicroelectronics, Tisse earned his Ph.D. in microelectronics from the Laboratory of Computer Science, Robotics and Microelectronics at the University of Montpellier.

“Chris' creativity, visionary leadership and broad expertise in imaging will go far in helping ULIS continue addressing the market challenges for competitive performance: size, weight, low power consumption and cost," said ULIS Managing Director Jean-Francois Delepau.

ULIS, a subsidiary of Sofradir and GE Equity, supplies high-volume IR image sensors known as microbolometers for thermography, security and surveillance, and automotive and military applications. The market for these IR products is expected to grow from $230 million in 2012 to $380 million by 2018, according to a July 2013 report by Yole Developpement. The next growth opportunities are expected in automotive and smart building automation.

For more information, visit: www.ulis-ir.com