What We Do

SOFAR Acoustics, LLC is a research and development consulting company focused on creating innovative solutions that combine science and advanced technology. We provide services in two major areas of specialization: acoustics and information technology. In the area of acoustics we offer scientific and engineering solutions in underwater acoustics, structural dynamics and vibration, ocean-seismo acoustics, signal processing, and data fusion. This work is often based on integrating science and engineering with our information technology prowess in distributed sensor networks, embedded linux systems, and cloud computing applications.

Backed by an established record of our professional capabilities in both industry and academic settings, we provide R & D solutions for government sponsors such as the Office of Naval Research (ONR), and the Army Research Labs (ARL), as well as for clients both in academia, such as MIT, Harvard, Boston University, as well as the industry, including Lockheed Martin Corp., Raytheon, Lincoln Labs, RedHat Inc., and IBM. By developing products and conducting research we provide services based on:

• Detection, classification, and tracking algorithm development for sonar and radar surveillance systems
• At-sea system testing and experimental data collection in complex environments
• Computational modeling and simulation of acoustic propagation, scattering, and reverberation
• Vibration analysis of complex mechanical systems
• Data fusion algorithm development and implementation for disparate sets of sensors
• Expertise in planning and executing underwater acoustic experiments
• Software and embedded Linux systems prototyping for reliable distributed network applications

Leadership Team

Dr. Irena Lucifredi

President and Chief Executive Officer

Irena Lucifredi, President and founder of SOFAR Acoustics, received her Ph.D. in Acoustics and Structural Dynamics from MIT in 2004 and her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology in 1996. Her Ph. D. dissertation work identified, analyzed and explained the fundamental effects of the sediment and the proximity of the seabed interface on acoustic scattering from elastic mines insonified using a mine-hunting SONAR. Since 2004 she has been leading independent research and development in a small business R &D setting in the field of underwater acoustics, developing wave-based computational propagation and scattering models, and devising novel acoustic sensing SONAR systems and signal processing techniques for complex littoral environments. She has also been appointed a research fellow at Harvard University where she investigated novel computational and experimental methods in seismo-acoustic range-dependent propagation and scattering. Dr. Lucifredi has also lead a number of initiatives focused on active SONAR marine-mammal detection, classification, and aspect-dependent target strength; data fusion; and cloud-enabled track integration and management. Dr. Lucifredi has over ten journal publications and technical book reviews, and has been a frequent contributor and invited speaker at conferences of professional societies such as the Acoustical Society of America, IEEE Oceans, and American Geophysical Union.

Federico Lucifredi

Chief Information Officer

Federico Lucifredi is the Product Management Director for Ceph Storage at Red Hat and a co-author of O'Reilly's "Peccary Book" on AWS System Administration. Previously, he was the Ubuntu Server product manager at Canonical, where he oversaw a broad portfolio and the rise of Ubuntu Server to the rank of most popular OS on Amazon AWS. A software engineer-turned-manager at the Novell corporation, he was part of the SUSE Linux team, overseeing the update lifecycle and delivery stack of a $150 million maintenance business. A CIO and a network software architect at advanced technology and embedded Linux startups, Federico was also a lecturer for over 200 students in Boston University's graduate and undergraduate programs, and simultaneously a consultant for MIT implementing fluid-dynamics simulations in Java. He is a frequent speaker at user group and conference events, notably the Linux Foundation's Open Source Summit, the O'Reilly Open Source Convention, The OpenStack Summit, LinuxWorld, and the leading SCALE and LCA Community conferences. Federico is a graduate of Boston College and Harvard University, and holds an ACE from MIT's Sloan School.

Dusan Veljkovic

Vice President of Engineering

Mr. Veljkovic, Vice President of Engineering at SOFAR Acoustics, has received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. He has over 35 years of experience in mechanical engineering design related to acoustical, automotive, and petrochemical industries. He has spent the last 15 years as a regional manager of Scania Corporation. He was responsible for driving area sales and profit plans to budget through successful leadership, organizational plans, customer service, and outstanding execution of all field operations strategies, consistently across the region.

Our Advisory Board        Our Business and Engineering Team