Trefoil Inc. is…

A “Skunk Works-style” independent commercial digital innovation lab

● Founded by AI tech innovator, Dr. Daniel McFarlane — creator of multiple safety-critical AI applications transitioned into use for healthcare and defense.
● We generate important solutions that are simple to implement and deliver exceptional value.
● A descriptive analogy… Similar to how professional powerlifting clubs implement extreme settings and rules for safety, Trefoil Inc. maintains an unusual cognitive labor “heavy lifting” context that empowers and protects researchers. This includes the unrelenting and ruthless elimination of all distractions.

Founder

Daniel C. McFarlane, ScD.
Global leader in AI innovation for safety-critical applications, specializing in healthcare and defense.

● 36 years of experience leading and managing multi-organization interdisciplinary AI R&D: Trefoil (3), Philips (9), Lockheed Martin (14), US Naval Research Lab (10); schools: GWU, UO, Cornell U.
● 13 sponsors; 32 projects (18 as lead); $140M (51% as lead); tech. writer for $8.5B IDIQ; 35 publications; 10 patent (or pending) inventions; 11 trade secret innovations; and 6 safety-critical product transitions-
[download: his resume or CV; or see LinkedIn page]
● Highlight: Led a set of US Dept. of Defense projects ($75M, 2018-2023) for a pre-symptomatic infection prediction AI health wearable to protect workforce readiness during the COVID-19 pandemic

Message from the CEO, Daniel McFarlane, ScD

Welcome. Trefoil Inc. is committed to an extreme focus on outcomes, utility, and value

In my experience, special unique insight into important problems can best be accessed while interviewing front-line essential workers [without interfering] while they get work done.

“Skunk Works-style”

We implement extreme commitment to utility and speed modeled by the original Lockheed Martin Skunk Works and its leadership (e.g., C.L. “Kelly” Johnson, et al.).

● The Trefoil Inc. founder, Dr. McFarlane, learned about the “Skunk Works-style” of leadership and management while leading AI contract R&D (CR&D) as a Lockheed Martin Fellow and Principal Research Engineer at the Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Laboratories (2000 – 2014).
[Note: Trefoil Inc. is inspired by, but not affiliated with the original Lockheed Martin Skunk Works]

Key Takeaways: Trefoil Inc.

Delivering AI-powered, practical, interdisciplinary solutions with a custom approach

● Solves high-value, safety-critical, problems for organizations and their essential workers;
● Uses a custom cognitive meta-technology to empower knowledge work for objective functional utility;
● Creates novel interdisciplinary digital solutions that exploit multiple different technologies, including various types of real-time applied AI, to maximize utility;
● Leverages successful experience creating fielded innovations for: international healthtech, & U.S. Department of Defense.

Aim

Create high-value innovations that empower organizations and essential workers

● Deliver breakthrough interdisciplinary solutions that increase profits for organizations, through improving safety and operational performance of workers (esp. essential workers).
● Deploying smart tools that empower workers (esp. essential workers) with stronger productivity and safety.
● Installing, provisioning, and operationalizing the deployment of a smart solution that improves safety for everyone at a worksite.

Methods

Combine empirical scientific methods with a modern philosophy of interdisciplinary systems innovation (including AI leverage)

● As a “Skunk Works-style” innovation lab, our approach includes:
(A) a problem-centric empirical foundation for analysis and synthesis, matched with:
(B) minimalism, ruthless focus, interdisciplinary ideation, broad technology leverage, extreme diversity, and direct engagement with all stake-holders.
● Our approach includes a unique method for structuring ideation and language use that mitigates the many risks of distraction and distortion that otherwise wreck innovation.
Technical discussion about the Trefoil Inc. approach

Core values

Progress in high-value functional utility

● We prepare special ideation contexts (specific custom virtual thought spaces) that allow high-value high-potential invention for objective problems.
● We use a custom process to guide operationalization of great ideas into commercially-viable solutions.
● We identify the requirements for success are often hidden, and must be carefully elicited from every stake-holder.
● We discover solutions to important objective problems requires heavy knowledge work by a diverse team.

We are not…

A technology startup, or publicly-owned technology lab

● The field of digital technology is still in its relative infancy, and many practitioners and investors are highly-distracted by a “gold rush” perspective.
● The pursuit of novelty solely as market whitespace for speculative territorialism, with the “solution in search of a problem” (SISP) approach is commonplace among AI digital research and development (R&D) projects.
● SISP aims to generate, and monetize, intense public attention, rather than to create important new functional utility.
Technical discussion of why we reject the SISP this approach

Key anti-values

We reject high-waste methods for innovation

● The “solution in search of a problem” (SISP) approach is a kind of strategically-conducted “magic trick.” It uses misdirection and misinformation to shift attention away from functional utility, and onto territorial monetization of novelty.
● Exposure to confounding pressures is common for activities owned by aggressive short-term investors.
● Crossing ethical boundaries can be tempting. For example, many organizations engage in monetizing peoples’ data without their consent.

Messaging approach

To protect our highly-sensitive work, and the confidentiality of our customers, information about our inventions is only shared by private appointment

This approach is not optimal, but it is necessary. The potential to gain honest feedback, and interest from the public, about our inventions is hypothetically extremely useful and exciting.  However, we have not yet found a safe way to access that in public forums without inviting theft or destructive pressures.

Business Model

Trefoil Inc. profits from the sale or license of its inventions. We make no restrictions on the kinds of arrangements that we will consider

● Our business model is not founded on markup margin revenue on labor per hour of our employees. So, there is no pressure to artificially bloat work or workforce.
● As a “Skunk Works-style” organization, our staffing approach is minimalistic, and strictly relative to project needs.
● Project spending is kept laser-focused to optimize efficiency in causing positive gains on objective progress.

Domains of expertise (sample)

We have multiple different domains of expertise for safety-critical essential work

● Integrated healthtech, across the entire healthcare continuum, from in-hospital acute care, through transitional care, and personal health.
● Military C4ISR (command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance); military combat systems, and other national security activities.

Published in key scientific forums (sample)

Credibility across multiple AI topics

● AI-based pre-symptomatic detection of exposure to infectious disease and hazardous chemicals.
● Intelligent health wearables.
● Metacognition aids for Interruption-based interaction between people and AI.
● Safety- and security-critical AI, including edge-secured AI.
● End-user development of AI-based aids.
● Physiological and environmental monitoring and analytics, including contactless sensing at long-range.

Technology leverage (sample)

Our interdisciplinary innovations integrate multiple different technologies

● Multiple kinds of AI, machine learning (ML), and cognitive systems.
● Big data analytics, and algorithms.
● Health wearables, sensors, and attention-aiding wearables.
● System architecture, including edge-computing, and human-systems integration.
● Computer science, including: software, computer security, and multimedia.
● Digital devices, including health and environmental monitoring and analytics.

Current project:

<Confidential information withheld>

● Patent-pending, high-value, high-potential, AI-augmented interdisciplinary breakthrough to dramatically increase profits for organizations that deploy essential workers
● Progress-to-date: special ideation context; empirical investigations; special insights; requirements documents; interdisciplinary ideation; invention and innovation; system and software design documentation; two fully working prototypes (both hardware and software); and successful testing;
● In-progress: submitting applications for a coordinated set of patents (20+).

Customers

<Confidential information withheld>

Investor Opportunities

Potential investor opportunities for contract R&D (CRAD) projects

In-line with our “Skunk Works-inspired” approach, external problem-centric CR&D investment projects are welcome and may be arranged by private confidential discussion.

Partners

<Confidential information withheld>

● We highly-value partnering on a project-by-project basis with groups that have complementary capabilities.
● Beyond relevant capability, capacity, and experience, a highest criterion for evaluating a potential partnership is whether an organization has a proven track record of confidentiality and trustworthiness.