Nicolas Gagarin, Ph.D., P.E.
President Starodub, Inc.
Nicolas Gagarin has 18 years of experience in highway engineering. He founded Starodub in September 1993 which incorporated in Maryland in October 1997. His focus is in highway transportation research and development including Bridge, signal processing, pattern recognition, data fusion and mining, and image processing. In 1992, he was the recipient of an Eisenhower Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship from the National Highway Institute. Prior to his Ph.D., he worked as a bridge design engineer for T.Y. Lin International in San Francisco, California. In addition to his work in transportation research, Dr. Gagarin is providing assistance to NASA in the area of signal and image processing under SBIR contracts and a separate consulting contract for problems related to earth sciences, astrophysics, and space exploration.
Selected Starodub projects:
NASA SBIR Phase I & II: Designed non-linear, non-stationary algorithms and graphical object-oriented software for advanced signal and image processing to problems in earth sciences, astrophysics, and space exploration. (2006 – Present.)
SEQS Task Order Agreement: Project manager for sixty-six task orders for the Starodub Inc. advanced research team of the Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center of the Federal Highway Administration. The projects involved up to five engineers (including Dr. Gagarin) during the period of Sept. 2000 to 2006.
ART Task Order Agreement: Project manager for conducting Advanced Research for the Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center of the Federal Highway Administration during the period of April 2006-2011.
DHM: Project Engineer and lead designer of the DHM project. Developed post-processing software involving multiple levels of pattern recognition, analysis, and data fusion processes using inertial navigation unit, lasers, DGPS, HA-DGPS, and digital video images. First vehicle based system able to measure roadway alignment at highway speed to accuracy sufficient for rehabilitation design.
ULIP: Project Engineer and lead designer of the ULIP projects. Collaborated with Dr, Mekemson on the development of post-processing software.
Visualization: Use of multi-dimensional visualization, including visualization and parallel coordinates.
Road Surface Studies: Developed the mean profile depth, groove analysis algorithms amongst others for ROSAN. Evaluated the performance of PRORUT2 (profile and rut measurement system of the FHWA) and designed algorithm modifications involving filtering processes. Participated in a project to study the effect of pavement surface grooving and tining on noise pollution, concrete slab warping and curling, accelerometer study for inertial road profilers.