Bio
Lt Col Brian McReynolds is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics and Meteorology at the US Air Force Academy. He currently holds the rating of Senior Pilot and has over 3,500 flight hours in the C-5, MQ-9 and T-53. Lt Col McReynolds was commissioned through the Air Force ROTC program in 2007. He has an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from the University of Virginia, and graduate degrees from Oklahoma State University, Air Force Institute of Technology and ETH Zurich.
After completing UPT at Laughlin AFB, TX, he was assigned to the 9th Airlift Squadron at Dover AFB, DE. While there, he served as C-5M aircraft commander and instructor pilot, squadron executive officer and chief of safety. In 2013, was assigned to Creech AFB, NV, where he was a dual-qualified MQ-9/9X instructor pilot and flight examiner, mission commander, flight commander, and wing flight safety officer. Following his time at Creech, he was selected to attend graduate school at the Air Force Institute of Technology where he received a MS degree in Engineering Physics enroute to becoming an instructor of physics at the USAF Academy in Colorado Springs, CO. During his first tour at USAFA, he led the Dean of Faculty’s Cadet Summer Research Program to new heights, doubling participation rates to absorb the cancellation of other programs during the COVID-19 pandemic. From 2021-2024 he completed his PhD studies at ETH Zurich under Professor Tobi Delbruck. During this time, he co-authored over 12 publications on design, optimization, benchmarking and applications of novel neuromorphic event-based vision sensors, which collectively have garnered 125+ citations to date.
Education
Doctor of Philosophy, Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland (2024)
Master of Science, Applied Physics, Air Force Institute of Technology, Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton, Ohio (2019), Honor Graduate
Master of Science, Engineering and Technology Management, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma (2014)
Bachelor of Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia (2007)
Professional Experience
PhD Student, AFIT/CI, Institute of Neuroinformatics, UZH/ETH Zurich, Switzerland (2021-2024)
Instructor of Physics and T-53A IP, Department of Physics, USAF Academy, Colorado Springs, Colorado (2019-2021)
MS Student, Air Force Institute of Technology, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio (2017-2019)
MQ-9 Flight Examiner, Flight Commander and Wing Flight Safety Officer, Creech AFB, Nevada (2013-2017)
C-5 Instructor Pilot, Squadron Executive Officer and Chief of Safety, Dover AFB, Delaware (2010-2013)
Honors & Awards
Meritorious Service Medal with 1 Oak Leaf Cluster
Air Medal with 1 Oak Leaf Cluster
Aerial Achievement Medal with 12 Oak Leaf Clusters
Air and Space Commendation Medal with 1 Oak Leaf Cluster
AFIT SPIE student chapter “Best Light-Based Master’s Thesis”
Research and Scholarly Interests
Neuromorphic event-based vision sensor design and applications
Publications
McReynolds, B. J., Graca, R., Kulesza, L. & McMahon-Crabtree, P. Re-interpreting the step-response probability curve to extract fundamental physical parameters of event-based vision sensors in Unconventional Optical Imaging IV 12996 (SPIE, 2024), 127–140. doi:10.1117/12.3022308.
Graca, R., Zhou, S., McReynolds, B. & Delbruck, T. SciDVS: A Scientific Event Camera with 1.7% Temporal Contrast Sensitivity at 0.7 Lux Rui Graca, Sheng Zhou, Brian McReynolds, Tobi Delbruck in 50th IEEE European Solid State Electronics Research Conference (2024).
McReynolds, B., Graca, R. & Delbruck, T. Exploiting Alternating DVS Shot Noise Event Pair Statistics to Reduce Background Activity in 2023 International Image Sensors Workshop (IISW) (2023). doi:10.60928/qocb-jvpq.
Graça, R., Mcreynolds, B. & Delbrück, T. Shining light on the DVS pixel: A tutorial and discussion about biasing and optimization in IEEE/CVF Converence on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR) (2023), 4045–4053. doi:10.1109/CVPRW59228.2023.00423.
McReynolds, B., Graca, R., Oliver, R., Nishiguchi, M. & Delbruck, T. Demystifying Event-based Sensor Biasing to Optimize Signal to Noise for Space Domain Awareness in Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance Technologies (AMOS) (Maui, Hawaii, USA, 2023). doi:10 .5167/uzh – 254194.
McMahon-Crabtree, Peter N ; Kulesza, Lucas ; McReynolds, Brian J ; O’Keefe, Daniel S ; Puttur, Anirvin ; Maestas, Diana ; Morath, Christian P ; McHarg, Matthew G Event-based camera refractory period characterization and initial clock drift evaluation in Unconventional Imaging, Sensing, and Adaptive Optics 2023 (spiedigitallibrary.org, 2023). doi:https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2672301.
McReynolds, B. J., Graca, R., O’Keefe, D., Oliver, R., Balthazor, R., George, N. & McHarg, M. Modeling and decoding event-based sensor lightning response in Unconventional Imaging, Sensing, and Adaptive Optics 2023 12693 (SPIE, 2023), 335–352. doi:10.1117/12.2674435.
Graca, R., McReynolds, B. & Delbruck, T. Optimal biasing and physical limits of DVS event noise in 2023 International Image Sensor Workshop (IISW) (arxiv.org, 2023). doi:10.60928/dlpf-irjd.
McReynolds, B. J., Graca, R. P. & Delbruck, T. Experimental methods to predict dynamic vision sensor event camera performance. Optical Engineering 61, 074103. doi:10.1117/1.OE.61.7.074103 (2022).
Delbruck, T., Li, C., Graca, R. & McReynolds, B. Utility and feasibility of a center surround event camera in 2022 IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (Bourdeaux, France, 2022), 381–385. doi:10.1109/ICIP46576.2022.9897354.
Oliver, R., McReynolds, B. & Savransky, D. Event-based sensor multiple hypothesis tracker for space domain awareness in 23rd Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance Technologies (2022).
McHarg, M. G., Balthazor, R. L., McReynolds, B. J., Howe, D. H., Maloney, C. J., O’Keefe, D., Bam, R., Wilson, G., Karki, P., Marcireau, A. & Cohen, G. Falcon Neuro: an event-based sensor on the International Space Station. Optical Engineering 61, 085105. doi:10.1117/1.OE.61.8.085105 (2022).