Landing AI Welcomes Machine Vision Expert to Help Drive the Next Era of AI

David L. Dechow Joins Landing AI to Merge Machine Vision with AI Innovation in Industrial Automation

PALO ALTO, Calif., Jan. 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Landing AI, which provides software that makes building and deploying AI solutions in manufacturing fast and easy, today announced that machine vision guru David L. Dechow is joining the expanding Landing AI team as VP of Outreach and Vision Technology.

Dechow is widely recognized within the machine vision industry as a thought leader and expert in the application and integration of machine vision and related advanced automation technologies.  His more than 35 years of experience in this field will further enhance Landing AI’s mission of bringing the benefits of deep learning-based inspection to all industries including electronics, automotive, and medical devices.
“We’re thrilled to have David join Landing AI and bring his hands-on expertise to helping manufacturers use cutting-edge deep learning,” said Andrew Ng, Founder & CEO of Landing AI. “The next era of AI is one in which companies in all industries access the benefits of AI. David’s deep knowledge of machine vision and automation will help us get there.”

Machine vision is projected to become a $13 billion global industry that’s used in everything from the inspection of food products to quality verification in the assembly of batteries for Electric Vehicles. The evolution of AI and deep learning is changing the software part of machine vision and, when applied correctly, can make machine vision tools more efficient and productive.

Consumer tech companies like Google and Facebook pioneered the first era of AI with huge consumer datasets feeding AI engines. With Landing AI’s data-centric approach, the application of deep learning  no longer depends on big data but on the data that entities actually have, in many cases even when the amount of available data is  limited.

“Adoption of deep learning for machine vision applications has been somewhat slow because of practical problems including the challenges of on-line imaging and most importantly the potentially small datasets that deep learning technology could not handle,” said Dechow. “But Landing AI’s technology makes cutting-edge deep learning work for automated inspection , and I look forward to helping bring these benefits to all manufacturers.”

Landing AI developed LandingLens™, a fast, easy to use enterprise MLOps platform. It helps manufacturers apply AI and deep learning to solve visual inspection problems, find product defects more reliably, and generate business value. When best practices are followed, machine vision and deep learning-based imaging systems are capable of effective visual inspection and will improve efficiency, increase throughput and drive revenue.

“The combination of AI and machine vision will hasten the growth of the Industrial IOT,” said Scott MacDonald, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of McRock Capital, Landing AI’s lead investor. “There’s no limit to what innovative companies can do when great visions, minds, and technologies come together as they are at Landing AI.”

Dechow comes to Landing AI from Integro Technologies, where he was principal vision systems architect. In addition to his hands-on work with vision technologies, he is well-known for his many educational webcasts, articles, and conference sessions covering topics in machine vision and industrial systems integration.  Dechow is  a member of the A3 Vision & Imaging Technical Advisory Board, and the A3 Vision & Imaging Education Committee. The Association for Advancing Automation (A3) is the world’s largest global automation trade group.

About Landing AI
Landing AI™ is pioneering the next era of AI in which companies with even limited data sets can realize the business and operational value of AI and move AI projects from proof-of-concept to full scale production. Guided by a data-centric AI approach, Landing AI’s flagship product is LandingLens™, an enterprise MLOps platform that offers to build, iterate and operationalize AI powered visual inspection solutions for manufacturers. With data quality being key to the success of production AI systems, LandingLens™ enables users to achieve optimal data accuracy and consistency. Founded by Dr. Andrew Ng, co-founder of Coursera, former chief scientist of Baidu, and founding lead of Google Brain, Landing AI is uniquely positioned to lead the development of AI from a technology that benefits a few to a technology that benefits all.