Our Founders

Our story is one of luck. Hard at work leading an early COVID-19 mask distribution effort, M came across some of Aaron’s content online and reached out, hoping to find someone to assist in evaluating and validating the organization’s masks. They began working together and quickly discovered that each of them had independently arrived at the same conclusions about what could help resolve so much pandemic suffering: open-source, novel solutions to flaws in PPE and PPE testing.

Together, they realized it was a one in a billion chance that two people with the necessary backgrounds, tools, and ideas would live in the same area, arrive at this same conclusion, and have the chance to collaborate on a venture so meaningful. They immediately undertook the project now known as OpenAeros™, motivated by the guiding belief that these life-saving technologies should not be left to the improbability of two well-equipped people happening into the right room and having the right conversation.

 

Aaron Collins

Founder and President

Aaron Collins is a mechanical engineer with a background in aerosol science whose work spans a wide cross-section of engineering disciplines. With a focus on nano and microscale phenomena, he has ushered in innovation in the fields of aerosol instrumentation, additive manufacturing, micro scale assembly and micro solder interconnects. 

Aaron holds over ten U.S. Patents and has published multiple scholarly articles. As the MaskNerd™ on social media platforms, he has become a well-recognized public health advocate for the use of high filtration masks to help battle COVID. This work has been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Scientific American, and The Guardian. He has appeared on CNN, Good Morning America, CBS Mornings, CBS News, NPR, MPR, and BBC Radio.

Aaron is driven by a strong belief that engineering and science should be used for the greater good of the world, and that these pursuits should not be constrained only to economically powerful nations. He is especially motivated to democratize key technologies within the aerosol science domain, by leveraging the open source hardware ecosystem, to create ethical and sustainable businesses where profit is not the only metric of success. His work is guided by the belief that ensuring open and equitable access to key technologies empowers engineers around the world to help tackle the challenges within their own communities. He is a pioneer for the clean air revolution, driven by the core belief that all people deserve to breathe clean air.


M Pang

Founder

M Pang is an engineer and entrepreneur based in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Their extensive background in manufacturing and engineering includes helming Entropic Engineering, a values-driven boutique engineering firm whose past work has advanced the state of the art in robotics, medical devices, industrial systems, consumer electronics, composite materials, optoelectronics, automated manufacturing, and nano-fabrication.

M grew up in Malaysia, surviving Tuberculosis and living through the effects of SARS on schools and frequent intensive wildfire smoke from nearby Indonesia. Masking was a critical part of their childhood. In their freshman year at the University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering, M experienced their first epidemic stateside as H1N1 swept the dorms. Their life has been studded with the juxtaposed experiences of better access to healthcare and research resources in high income countries and better mask adoption and air quality awareness in lower and lower middle income countries.

The beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic was galvanizing for M; their life experiences and institutional resources empowered them to address these discrepancies, sending gowns and masks to Southeast Asian low income and lower middle income countries before transmission had even reached the United States, then founding and running a mask sourcing, testing, and distribution non-profit. For M, the fight for clean air and equitable resource distribution is personal.

  • Sam Vorlicky-Neri

    PROJECT MANAGER

  • Jon Robelia

    SENIOR DESIGN ENGINEER

  • Chris Libby

    DESIGN ENGINEER

  • Chloë Browne

    DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS

With Support from the Entropic Engineering Team