Alumni Home > News & Events > Noteworthy > News & Features

Dr. Francesco Pompei '72 and Dr. Joseph Pompei AR '02

Father, Son Tackle Heat, Sound

(First published in Technology Review, June 2005)

Dr. Francesco Pompei '72 and Dr. Joseph Pompei AR '02

When Frank Pompei proudly watched his son Joe's doctoral Hooding Ceremony at MIT in 2002, the day was doubly memorable. "That morning, I'd received my own PhD at the Harvard Commencement - but in a torrential downpour," Frank recalls with a smile, "I was soaked to the skin in full regalia, but what a fabulous day for our family."

Frank and Joe Pompei operate in very different fields, but have more in common than family ties and matching '02 PhDs. Each is a successful inventor and innovator who built a flourishing business on his own terms.

Holder of 60 patents, Dr. Francesco Pompei is the founder and president of Exergen Corporation, a world leader in non-invasive thermography for people and industry. Exergen's latest product is the "Temporal Artery Scanner." "You can scan an infant's forehead and get an accurate temperature in two seconds without disturbing or waking a child," Frank explains. "That's a real blessing for parents and clinicians. For years, pediatricians called for something better than the ear thermometer, and here it is."

Exergen sensors are found in all sorts of production lines, giant commercial printing presses, race cars, and the fire safety systems in the Chunnel linking England and France. When Exergen moved into medical thermograpy, "I had the deep engineering skills, but had a lot to learn about human physiology," Frank points out. "I started classes at Harvard Medical School, the School of Public Health and the University, while running Exergen. I earned a Masters, then a PhD there and hold an appointment to Harvard's Physics Department as a Research Scholar doing cancer research."

Dr. Joseph Pompei invented "Audio Spotlight," a breakthrough technology that allows directional control of sound while a student at MIT's Media Lab. "Just as a beam of light can pinpoint a person's face or widened to illuminate a large crowd," Joe explains. "Audio Spotlight does that with sound - and the quality of that sound is superb." Joe is president of Holosonics, Inc. which manufactures and installs Audio Spotlight for major corporations and venues.

"We've been successful selling directly to the professional market worldwide," Joe says. "Environments that need 'sound without noise' are our workhorse application: museums, corporate visitor centers, event or gallery installations and retail sales displays. But our ultimate destination for Audio Spotlight's is the home. Imagine watching TV from your living room sofa or your bed, while someone right beside you reads in perfect silence. "

Joe became fascinated by the concept of placing sound as a 16-year-old engineer at Bose Corporation. A graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, he earned his masters at Northwestern studying psychoacoustics and signal processing.

"When I applied to doctoral programs, Nick Negroponte (of MIT's Media Lab) ran my Audio Spotlight ideas by some heavy hitters. Everyone said 'Forget it, it won't work.' But Nick's reaction was 'Hey, the kid's enthusiastic, let's give it a shot.' Media Lab gave me a small lab, smart people to talk to, great classes, and it all came together. Within a year, I had a working device. I started Holosonics in late 1999, and it was active by the time I graduated in 2002."

"My friends all thought I was crazy not to go the venture capital route with Audio Spotlight and cash in. But I wanted to create my own business selling a high-quality product at a fair price. I bootstrapped the business 100 percent—starting with $2,000 and we got the product out. For me, it was the best way: No one to answer to."

"At the time, I wondered if going it alone was right for him," Frank Pompei reflects. "He chose a longer, harder road than many MIT entrepreneurs. Yet now he has a viable business, full control and the pleasure of building his business step-by-step. My role is to be a cheerleader for Joe. At a crucial juncture in my career, a respected mentor told me, 'This industry needs a person like you,' It made a huge difference."

"Watching my father's rational, thoughtful approach to growing his business was very interesting," Joe notes. "Maybe that perspective helped me avoid some pitfalls that tripped up some of my friends. Ultimately, the best thing that I learned from him was how to treat your customers."

"You must have a product that customers will want," Frank Pompei concludes. "So I do ask lots of questions and listen for the subtext. More importantly, I watch how they do their job and get the work out. I probe for what they don't like, what are the difficulties. Then I come up with something to solve their problem."