(Dr. Arash Abadpour, Computer Vision Scientist, Betterview. Source: Betterview.)
Betterview, provider of an AI-powered technology platform for drone-based building and property inspections, has announced the appointments of John Lichtenstein and Arash Abadpour, Ph.D. to its Data Science team. Lichtenstein will serve as Principal Scientist, and Abadpour has been named Computer Vision Scientist.
David Lyman, CEO & Co-Founder, Betterview.
“We are happy to announce the appointments of John Lichtenstein and Dr. Abadpour, who bring over 40 years’ worth of experience in developing risk models, statistical analysis, computer vision and machine learning to Betterview,” comments David Lyman, CEO & Co-Founder, Betterview. “We are excited to apply their extensive experience to turbocharge our existing efforts around predictive risk scoring and imagery interpretation of properties for insurance underwriting.”
Insurers use Betterview’s Roof Risk Score on new business and renewals to assess the condition of roofs and the properties they insure. Carriers can use Betterview’s platform to investigate high-risk properties, as well as initiate risk-mitigation measures. Betterview is also expanding beyond the roof to drive towards a holistic view of buildings and properties.
Prior to joining Betterview, Lichtenstein worked in the consumer credit and mortgage industries for over 30 years at Hyundai Capital America, Experian, Ameriquest Mortgage Company, FICO, HNC Software and TRW. During his tenure at these organizations, Lichtenstein helped to develop various risk models, including loss frequency, lead generation mail responsiveness, consumer credit scoring, fraud detection and more. Lichtenstein also has extensive experience working with customers to implement predictive analytics into business processes.
Creating Value for Insurers
“I feel like I am coming full circle in my new role at Betterview having been part of a team that not only helped to develop consumer credit scores but worked with customers to optimize them,” comments Lichtenstein. “In both consumer lending and the insurance industries, scoring offers companies the chance to segment their business and take intelligent action. I am looking forward to applying my previous experience in consumer lending to create value for insurers by helping them to leverage state of the art predictive analytics into their quoting, underwriting and claims processes.”
John Lichtenstein, Principal Scientist, Betterview.
Before joining Betterview, Arash Abadpour, worked at FIO Corporation, Intellijoint Surgical (IJS), Epson and TRLabs using machine vision and image processing to help with surgical navigation for hip replacement surgery, diagnose infectious diseases in underdeveloped countries, human gait analysis and more.
“I have always found computer vision, image analysis and machine learning to be fascinating,” comments Abadpour. “While working on my master’s thesis in college, one of the projects I worked on was using computer vision to detect earthquake damage from satellite imagery. I really enjoyed this project, and I like the fact that I will have the opportunity to use state of the art machine learning algorithms to extract new data sources from imagery, allowing insurers to solve the age-old problems about risk.”
Along with his PhD in Electrical Engineering, Dr. Abadpour also holds a Master’s Degree in Computer Science from Sharif University of Technology (Tehran) and has also authored over ten patents.