Alan Tay

Co-Founder and CEO

An Aviator, Entrepreneur, and Achiever, Alan is the Co-Founder of Illumia Labs. With over 20 years of aviation experience as an ATPL Class 1 Instructor, he strives to develop creative solutions to let aspiring aviators pursue their dreams.

Alan’s career highlights include assisting in developing the first online ground school in Canada in 2005, integrating Pilot and Asia Cadet Programs in both Moncton and Buttonville, holding a Senior Executive position at major China MNCs, and achieving the top selling domestic brand in China, in which he improved the light small aircraft sales by twenty times within 18 months.

Alan’s work responsibilities range from commercializing new products to developing an aviation business group. In his free time, he enjoys hiking, traveling skiing, camping, playing golf and badminton.

Alan holds a Master postgraduate of Aviation Management degree, earned his MBA in Aeronautics, Aviation and Aerospace in University of Newcastle and holds a Honours Bachelor degree in Information Technology in CQUniversity.

Michael Bogaars

Co-Founder

An accomplished aviation expert, Mike is the Co-Founder at Illumia Labs. With a life-long passion for aviation, technology and teaching, Mike develops advanced and adaptive training systems and curriculum authoring for aviation training.

With over 35 years of aviation experience, he holds an ATPL and has flown a wide range of aircrafts in both military and commercial sectors. His extensive military and commercial career included combat operations into war-torn Iraq during Ops Enduring Freedom and many Humanitarian Missions such as the Boxing Day Tsunami disaster. He left the Air Force as Commander Transport Group, in charge of all Transport Squadrons for the Republic of Singapore Air Force.

As an innovator and an avid musician, he started DreamTime Music, an online guitar retailer. In his free time, he plays the electric guitar with Morpheus Dream, his prog-rock band.

Mike is currently continuing his education with the University of New South Wales in Aviation Management.

Monica Ares

Fractional CIO

Monica Ares has a focus in the future of learning and using immersive technology to increase access to education and fundamentally change the way we learn. She championed the development of Meta’s $150M Immersive Learning initiative, engaging cross-functional partners to build momentum.

A confident communicator, Monica excels at leading and rallying teams around a common vision, mission, and goal. Her background includes 10 years of teaching experience along with success overseeing the establishment of interactive learning tools and math labs at Amazon.

Suzanne Braun

Fractional CMO

An experienced entrepreneur, Suzanne is the Chief Marketing Officer and joined Illumia Labs in January 2021.

With her passion for people and projects, Suzanne leads the marketing team, develops marketing strategies and aids in creating Illumia Labs’ brand identity. Suzanne is also the founder and Managing Partner of Relish, which is a creative integrated  agency. She was a former CEO of an educational technology startup and served as a Project Director for the Manitoba Open Innovation Challenge. In her free time, she mentors technology startups focused on social impact projects.

With an extensive experience in design and technology, Suzanne has achieved both a Blue Belt Certification in Innovation Engineering and a certificate in UX Design. Suzannes is also a graduate of Impact8, a social venture accelerator out of MaRS Discovery District, and Ventureout, a New York Edtech hyper accelerator.

Elizabeth Baron

Fractional CTO

Elizabeth Baron is the Chief Technology Officer at Illumia Labs. Elizabeth is a distinguished figure in the field of virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) with a remarkable career spanning in many sectors such as automotive, aerospace and healthcare. Her expertise and contributions have played a pivotal role in advancing the applications of VR/AR technologies across various industries. With a strong background in engineering and a deep passion for immersive technologies, Elizabeth has consistently pushed the boundaries of what is possible in the VR/AR landscape.

Tibor Kadar

Fractional CFO

Tibor Kadar is the Chief Financial Officer at Illumia Labs. Tibor has extensive knowledge in the financial field through his past experience working with renowned international companies such as Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Telekom. With a track record of success in both traditional corporate environments and the dynamic startup landscape, Tibor Kadar brings a unique blend of expertise and a values-driven approach to his professional projects.

Michael Guevarra

Product Owner

An intuitive troubleshooter, Michael is a Machine Learning intern at Illumia Labs who joined in September 2020.

With his problem-solving skills and his passion in technology, Michael develops AI that trains future pilots through flight simulations and gamifications of different flight tasks. His biggest accomplishment is teaching his beloved, headstrong Weiner dog extraordinary tricks. Aside from work, he enjoys rock climbing, playing volleyball, and working on various projects.

He holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering Degree with a minor in Business Management at University of Manitoba. He is currently pursuing a Masters of Science in Computer Engineering Degree at University of Manitoba.

Kinson Liu

DevOps Developer

An an all-rounded developer, Kinson Liu is a DevOps Developer at Illumia Labs who joined in May 2022. With nine years of IT experiences, Kinson plays a vital role in autoscaling projects, reducing manual work, ensuring service stability and making Illumia’s servers to be cost-saving. One of his biggest accomplishment is deploying Power Shell Scripting to autoclean logs that are over 30 days, resulting in the reduction of manual regular log clean up. Outside of work, he enjoys spending time and playing with his daughter and playing guitar.

He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Engineering at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Valeriia Shalamova

DevOps Developer

A creative programmer, Valeriia is a DevOps Developer and joined Illumia Labs in May 2021.

With a passion for graphic design and programming, Valeriia is responsible for working on the backend of the cloud to design, build and maintain the vast network of applications and creating various graphics for E-learning content. Her career highlight includes creating and designing monthly magazines for well-known restaurants in Ukraine. Not only does Valeria enjoy reading, but she also loves socializing. She also volunteers for various activities associated with cabin construction, including railing installation, deck staining, and landscaping.

Valeriia holds a Bachelor’s degree in Telecommunications Engineering from Kharkiv National University of Radioelectronics (NURE), Ukraine and holds a diploma in Business Information Technology at Red River College.

Gabriel Salgado

Full Stack Developer

A quick-thinking problem solver, Gabriel is a Full Stack Developer who joined Illumia Labs in March 2022. He is responsible for coordinating with team members on best practices, and designs and brainstorming new features to be added to the product to enhance user experience and productivity. In his spare time, he loves building PCs for his friends and family.

He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science from the University of Manitoba.

Julian Bondoc

Junior Full Stack Developer

A creative content creator, Julian is a Junior Full Stack Developer who joined Illumia Labs in September 2020. With a passion for creating content and proper education for students, Julian is in charge of the website design, code, maintenance, and modifications. He breaks down complex problems and wireframes into achievable steps before incorporating them into the code. His biggest accomplishments are working for Illumia Labs and getting a scholarship in high school. His hobbies include video games and sports – specifically volleyball.

He holds a diploma in Business Information Technology from Red River College.

Monica Morosan

Digital Marketing Manager

A creative, reliable and high-performing marketing professional, Monica is a Digital Marketing Manager who joined Illumia Labs in May 2022. She is in charge of end-to-end campaigns through marketing automation tools, website management, content creation, landing pages, development of user journey, analyzing sales statistics for marketing campaigns, and developing Brand PR programs to support brand building and completing performance evaluations for employees and contractors. Outside of work, she enjoys teaching Hatha Yoga online, meditation, reading, any activities that relate to mental health and wellbeing, and listening to self-development podcasts.

Monica holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing, Advertising and Public Relations from the University of Worcester, UK.

Darley Valencia

Partnership Lead

An enthusiastic and creative marketing professional writer at heart, Darley is a Digital Marketing Specialist who joined Illumia Labs in January 2021. With a passion for marketing, writing and graphic design, Darley utilizes her marketing knowledge to create and write persuasive, creative content for Illumia Labs. Her biggest accomplishment is creating an effective Google ad campaign that generated high-value results. When she is not typing away, she can be usually found reading and playing guitar.

Darley holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Co-op) Degree in Marketing from the University of Manitoba.

Carrie Demmans Epp

Research Partner

Carrie is an assistant professor in the Department of Computing Science at University of Alberta and joined Illumia Labs in January 2021. With a passion for helping people in terms of education, product development and research, she has taught computer science to students ranging from primary school students on a reserve to university students.

Under the guidance of Professor Ronald M. Baecker, Carrie conducted her PhD in Computer Science in the area of mobile assisted language learning. Her MSc is focused on the use of technology to support language learning and performed under the guidance of Dr Gordon I. McCalla. She also started her career in education technology at ARIES, which served as her home during her MSc and later parts of her BSc (computer science and Russian). Since starting her language-learning career in a French immersion primary school and studying Russian, she has spent over 10 years designing, implementing, and evaluating tutoring technologies to help students learn a foreign language. Carrie has also worked on iHelp and Recollect projects that helped post-secondary education more accessible and other projects (ProTutor and VOcabNomad), which enhances the learning processes and outcomes of students.

Outside of her academic career, she coaches synchronized swimming athletes of every age and ability.

Matt Taylor

Research Partner

Matthew E. Taylor (Matt) is a tenured associate professor in computer science at the University of Alberta who joined Illumia Labs in 2019. His current fundamental and applied research interests are in reinforcement learning, human-in-the-loop AI, multi-agent systems, and robotics.

Supervised by Peter Stone, Matthew received his doctorate from the University of Texas in 2008. Together with Mililind Tambe, he completed a two-year post-doctoral research position at the University of Southern California and spent 2.5 years as an assistant professor at Lafayette College. He was also an assistant at Washington State University. Currently, he is also a Fellow-in-Residence at the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute and remains an adjunct professor at Washington State University.

Matthew’s career highlights include: holding the Allred Distinguished Professorship in AI at Washington state university, assisting in the start of the Royal Bank of Canada AI lab, becoming a residence at the Alberta Machine intelligence institute, publishing over 120 peer-reviewed papers, and being a PI/Co-PI on over $6M USD in competitively awarded research funding from federal state and industrial sources, including the National Science Foundation CAREER award.