SEATTLE, April 03, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- First Mode, a design, engineering, and complex-system development firm, today announced it has exited stealth mode to bring the tools and technologies of deep space exploration to challenging industrial problems around the globe. The company, formerly known as Synchronous, was founded in early 2018 by engineers, scientists, and strategists from companies including NASA, JPL, Spaceflight Industries, Boeing, Intel, and Planetary Resources. With extensive experience designing and operating robotic systems on the surface of Mars, the company has been testing their unique approach on projects and industries ahead of making the company’s services publicly available.
Over the past year, the company has successfully completed over 40 projects with 10 different organizations. Current and recent work includes a roster of deep space missions, the creation of prototypes for the consumer products industry, and the electrification of some of the world's largest industrial platforms.
Industries worldwide face headwinds as the systems they rely on become increasingly complex. First Mode offers innovative methods to control and harness that complexity. For heavy industries especially, it has become critically important to treat complexity as an asset and a competitive advantage. First Mode helps clients manage this process through an approach rooted in systems engineering, appropriate use of innovation, and an active and honest management of risk and reward.
“The team at First Mode has always been fascinated with the types of problems that seem too big or too complex for any one group to tackle,” Chris Voorhees, First Mode President and Chief Engineer said. “A lot of what makes programs like Apollo or JPL's Mars Rovers so impressive isn't the individual pieces of technology, but the coordination of hundreds of thousands of parts, people, companies, and priorities. The methods used for solving these types of problems are just as relevant to applications here on Earth, where the combination of safety criticality, required function, constraint, and environment can create what initially appears to be an intractable problem. We help our clients methodically break it down into a set of smaller, connected developments that can be put together to realize the larger whole.”
Rhae Adams, Vice President of Strategy and Business Development, said, "It’s often assumed that innovation happens by throwing hundreds of ideas at the wall and seeing what sticks. First Mode has developed a method to legislate reliable innovation. It starts with a deep understanding of the problem being solved, not a list of trendy technologies to solve it. By concentrating on system-level development, solutions can be implemented on a far faster timeline than what has been commercially available to date."
To match its current growth, First Mode recently moved into over 7,500 square feet of laboratory and prototyping space in downtown Seattle and continues to invest in expanding its team and capabilities.
About First Mode
First Mode – Building the Barely Possible
First Mode is revolutionizing the design, engineering, and development of technology for industries on and off the planet. First Mode harnesses the tools and technologies developed for the robotic exploration of the solar system and adapts them to mission critical and safety critical projects on Earth, Mars, the Moon, and other planetary bodies. While no two solutions are the same, First Mode typically melds hardware, software, strategy, and design to build the barely possible for our clients.
Media Contact:
Rhae Adams
Vice President, Strategy & Business Development
rhae@firstmode.com
(757) 289-9025