Page 36: of Marine Technology Magazine (September 2022)

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Massa Products Corporation www.massa.com

Dawn Massa Stancavish shared with Marine

Technology TV her insights and experience as a female, third generation leader of Massa Prod- ucts Corporation, an innovative sonar and ul- trasonic products engineering company founded by her grandfather and run by her father for

MARINE many years.

TECHNOLOGY

Following in the footsteps of an invention and

TV engineering pioneer is neither straight nor easy.

Following in the footsteps of your grandfather and father, taking the helm of a 77-year-old iconic company in the midst of a global pan- demic, as a female leader in a male-dominated business, makes the path a bit more perilous.

Massa Products Corporation is self-proclaimed as “the eyes and ears for naval ships and subma- rines,” founded by Frank Massa, who pioneered cations, but understanding not just what the application the ? eld of electroacoustics. Today Massa engineers and is and what the desired results are, but to design the ac- manufactures sonar and ultrasonic products for use in the tual transducer to be able to achieve those results while water and air, selling to commercial, industrial and mili- minimizing the need for extra expensive or overly compli- tary markets. At a glance, Massa is an engineering and in- cated electronics and software,” said Stancavish. “So we vention company to its core. But once you dig deeper, it is have a design system for new products – from transduc- far more, with the ability to discuss, design and manufac- ers through electronics through software – designed to do ture products for disparate industries, cradle to grave, all what the customer really wants.” centered on using an electroacoustical solution. Massa de- This approach, in turn, has helped Massa maintain its signs, develops, and manufactures new, and modi? ed prod- competitive technological edge while helping it expand its ucts, hundreds of transducers and systems that operate in own footprint in industries and applications where elec- ? uid and gas at different frequencies spanning from 5 Hz troacoustics is not traditionally applied. “I haven’t run into to 500 kHz; used in various environments and applications a lot of other companies that have focused on the electroa- including anti-collision, measurement, liquid level (C1D1 coustics and the science of sound to advance the products.

Hazardous and not), ? ow, anti-theft, web break, bowling And the fact that we design engineer manufacturer all in- scoring systems, active and passive sonars, and more. house, we’re not focused just on the innovation itself, but “I’ve embraced fully the founder’s mentality,” said Stan- also how to make it so it’s mass producible.” cavish. “Innovation is critical in this business. A lot of With a solid history and present, Stancavish now has her businesses that do sonar in the ocean don’t do the ultra- eyes trained on the future of her family’s company and the sonics for air. And a lot of our competitors that do the ul- unique solutions it delivers. While unable to give explicit trasonics in air don’t have the underwater experience and details of what’s in the works, she said “What I can say is longevity or capability that we have. Embracing all of that that we’re pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with and embracing the science of sound itself has been very our technology. We’re creating some new designs for use important. A lot of people focus more on the electronic in water, for use in air and in new applications where our or the signal processing side; we focus on design and the technology isn’t currently seen. So over the next 10 to 20 construction of the transducers.” years, it’s my goal to continue to grow the markets where

Holistic is also an apt description for the way in which our technology is possible and considered. Because right

Massa Product helps to engineer solutions for its client’s now there’s some few known spaces that ever everybody is needs, as it’s far more than simply developing technology in, but we’ve been learning a lot about some other spaces” for the sake of technology. “We also do the software and where Massa can introduce or further expand its techno- signal processing to different degrees and different appli- logical solutions. 36 September/October 2022

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