About

SOAR Intelligent Solutions, LLC (SOAR) collectively brings together decades of experience in military operational knowledge, aerospace engineering, machine learning/artificial intelligence and software engineering. The project team has a demonstrated record of accomplishment in successfully completing dozens of federal and civilian projects.

"SOAR" is a homage to CEO Mr. Chris Durkin's CW4 (Ret) experience serving as a Blackhawk pilot for the elite 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment or 'SOAR' (Night Stalkers).

Leadership Team

Chris Durkin: President, CEO

Chris Durkin

Mr. Durkin is a master army aviator and retired 23 year veteran of both the US Marine Corps and US Army Special Operations Command (SOCOM).

Mr. Durkin served as the Washington, D.C. Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) Coordinator where he was responsible for developing a strategy to dispense emergency medication to the District of Columbia's more than one million residents and guests within 48 hours should a bioterrorism event occur involving anthrax or other lethal agents.

In the private sector, Mr. Durkin was a senior emergency management consultant specializing in traditional and public health emergency and disaster prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery. While working closely with a wide array of clients, he conducted hazard vulnerability assessments (HVA), culture and climate surveys, Clery reviews, emergency plan review, emergency plan development risk assessments and developed Comprehensive Emergency Management Programs (CEMP). He also validated policies, plans and procedures using HSEEP compliant discussion and operations-based exercises.

Mr. Durkin has served as the SNS Coordinator and Public Health Emergency Operations and Plans Officer for the Monroe County Department of Health in New York. He supervised a staff of preparedness specialists and provided leadership during the development of the Civil Preparedness Initiative (CPI), which teamed the Department of Health with all municipalities in Monroe County, including the City of Rochester. During this period, he oversaw numerous tabletop, functional and full-scale exercises. Additionally, Mr. Durkin was co-chair of the Community of Monroe Citizen Corps Council, he developed the Monroe County Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Program, and he created the Department of Public Health's Medical Reserve Corps.

Mr. Durkin served as a U.S. Marine for five years, and later served in the U.S. Army for 18 years as an MH-60 Blackhawk pilot in the 1st Special Forces Group (SFG) Flight Detachment, and the elite 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, an element of the Army's Special Operations Command (SOCOM). During his military career, Durkin's duties included Flight Lead, Marine Corps Aviation Weapons and Tactics Instructor (WTI), Senior Operations and Plans Officer, Instructor Pilot, Platoon Leader, Electronic Warfare Officer and Air/Ground Safety Officer, attaining the rank of CW4. He coordinated multi-service and multinational operations and training exercises worldwide.

Before relocating to the Rochester area, he was a contractor and site director responsible for Information Technology (IT) Operations in support of U.S. Navy SEALs at Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek in Virginia. He is a decorated combat veteran, having been awarded the Legion of Merit, Bronze Star, Air Medal, Meritorious Service Medal and Master Army Aviator Badge.

Contact: cdurkin@soarintelligentsolutions.com

Agamemnon Crassidis, PhD: Advisor

Agamemnon Crassidis

Dr. Crassidis is a Professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), Department of Mechanical Engineering. He has more than 20 years of industrial experience in the areas control, and measurements systems. Dr. Crassidis received a B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from The University at Buffalo where he specialized in the areas of systems engineering, mechanical system design, robotic systems, and nonlinear control methods. Currently, Dr. Crassidis is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Dr. Crassidis has worked for Calspan Corporation as a senior Aeronautical Engineer and Lead Systems Engineer for an experimental flight research NF-16 aircraft (the VISTA, currently the X62A aircraft) used primarily as an in-flight simulator and Veridian Transportation Division as a part-time consulting engineer to analyze components of the Automated Highway System.

Dr. Crassidis developed the control laws for the VISTA and many other research aircraft programs. He has more than 30 years of industrial experience in the areas of aerospace flight control system design; aircraft parameter identification; mathematical modeling and identification of nonlinear systems using experimental responses; systems engineering; mechanical systems design; and navigation, control, and measurements systems. He is an active member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics serving as a past Technical Committee Chair for the Atmospheric Flight Mechanics section. He also has more than 20 years of teaching experience as a part-time and full-time faculty member teaching graduate courses in systems modeling, flight dynamics, orbital mechanics, linear and nonlinear control systems. Currently, Dr. Crassidis is developing advanced artificial intelligent control methods that are solely based on systems measurements and require no theoretical models for control tuning or development. The new control strategy was successfully applied to the control of an Learjet aircraft as part of an Air Force Test Pilot School Test Management Project. He also is developing advanced measurement systems for use in vehicle orientation sensing to a high degree of accuracy that is valid is all dynamical conditions. Dr. Crassidis is also researching methods for estimating gross weight and center-of-gravity locations of vehicles solely using traditionally available measurements requiring no knowledge of the vehicle systems dynamics. In addition, Dr. Crassidis performed a year-long sabbatical at Impact Technologies (SBIR Tibbetts Award winner) supported by external grant funds for the development of an orientation estimation device and highly accurate inertial navigation system and was also the PI/co-PI on over 15 SBIR/STTR Phase I and II awards.

Contact: acrassidis@soarintelligentsolutions.com

Daniel Krutz, PhD: Advisor

Daniel Krutz

Dr. Daniel Krutz is an Associate Professor at Rochester Institute of Technology, Department of Software Engineering and Global Cybersecurity Institute. Krutz is the Director of the Autonomy, WARfare, and Engineering (AWARE) Lab, which supports several externally funded projects for the NSF, NSA and the DOD. Krutz is the recipient of the NSF CAREER Award (2022). Krutz received a research faculty fellowship at the US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). Krutz has advised high level DOD programs in the areas of AI and strategic reasoning. He is the author of numerous AI/ML-focused publications, many of which have appeared in top tier venues. Dr. Krutz has achieved over $6M in federally funded projects since 2018 from sources such as the AFRL, ONR, NSF and NSA.

Contact: dkrutz@soarintelligentsolutions.com

Services

Through our team and partnerships, SOAR offers a variety of services, including:

  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Machine Learning
  • Aerospace Engineering
  • Cybersecurity
  • Software Development
  • Military Operational Knowledge
  • Emergency Preparedness Management

Utilizing its research, operational and implementation capabilities and experiences, SOAR can provide consulting and development services in these areas.

Contact

Contact Type Email
General Inquiries General@soarintelligentsolutions.com
Media Inquiries Media@soarintelligentsolutions.com
Consulting Inquiries Consulting@soarintelligentsolutions.com

Work Opportunities

Position Email
Software Engineer SEOps@soarintelligentsolutions.com
Artificial Intelligence Expert - Consulting AIOps@soarintelligentsolutions.com
Aerospace Engineer - Consulting AEOps@soarintelligentsolutions.com

Note: When contacting about work opportunities, please provide a brief cover letter and updated CV.