About the Founder

Born in Colombia, Santiago Quijano studied in a German school and graduated with a degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering (BSEE) in Bogota. He worked in Colombia, Germany and the U.S. with high tech telecommunication, measurement equipment and precise atomic timing companies, in multiple technical and managerial positions.

Santiago has always found it fascinating to design and create electronic devices that help improve our lives in multiple areas, such as communications, traffic control and safety. For his university thesis he developed and built a sophisticated traffic controller that offered multiple advantages over existing controllers. The new design proved to be more cost and operationally effective than conventional controllers. The device was installed in a critical intersection in Bogotá and outperformed existing traffic controllers.

Santiago has lived in the heart of Silicon Valley (in California) for over 10 years and decided to start his own company over a year ago creating innovative products while pursuing his idealisms. It is a challenging journey and he enjoys the freedom to cultivate his own passions. His reward is realizing that he is actively doing something positive for the community, and even more importantly, that his ideas may one day save lives.

His other passions include model trains, radio controlled helicopters, classical music, outdoors and expanding his knowledge and view of the world through traveling and meeting interesting, cultured and open minded people.

How the MOLE™ Idea Started

While testing his traffic controller in a Bay Area city, a traffic engineer, police officer and good friend told him how red light running is becoming a growing concern in the area. Based on that, Santiago decided to create a prototype of a better 'mousetrap' that would overcome the deficiencies of rat-boxes and red light cameras.

The first prototype was tested in Walnut Creek, at Mount Diablo Blvd. and Broadway. His friend was very impressed with the prototype, its simplicity and its operation. The unit was also tested by police officers during several days. The officers were very satisfied with the preliminary results of the MOLE™. They suggested some improvements on the device and recommended another intersection (Main and Geary/Treat Blvd.), where red light running occurs frequently.

A smaller second prototype was successfully tested at Main and Geary/Treat Blvd. During the first 10 minutes of tests, six vehicles violated the red light.

The idea evolved to its third generation making it more compact and adding extra features, like time stamping and wireless ticket printing. We also designed a vehicular unit for Police cars.

The MOLE™ includes a feature to support traffic maintenance crew in the field. A maintenance person driving by the intersections where traffic cabinets are installed can remotely collect timing and status information about the traffic controller. This information may include defective loops and other traffic controller malfunctions.

Auspex Technologies is constantly developing and improving this new device and technology with the cooperation of traffic and police departments in different cities. The MOLE™ is in a constant evolution, increasing the safety of motorists and saving lives.