AIVE Systems is a University of Texas at Austin spinoff founded by Professor Luis Sentis, an experienced entrepreneur in robotics and AI, and Professor Adela Ben-Yakar. Both founders serve on the board alongside Leo Lion, which brings experience investing in and building technology startups.
Our origins trace to UT FLARE-X, semi-finalist in the XPRIZE Wildfire Competition co-led by Prof. Greg Zwernemann. In October 2025, our team demonstrated the drones, sensors, and software developed for autonomous wildfire response.
AIVE Systems launched in January 2026 to build on this technological foundation. Today, we develop geospatial capabilities that advance drone autonomy and support human operators across a broad range of industries and applications.
CEO
Larry Sullivan
Yan Llamas
Jo Franklin
Technical and Programmatic Advisor
Product, Program Operations and Systems Engineering Lead
Atlas Algorithms Lead
Systems Architect
Flight Testing Lead
UI/AR Engineer
AI Algorithms Intern
Systems Engineering Intern
Flight Testing Intern
Gina Lento
Business Operations