Our Team
Embedded Systems and Hardware
Clifford Lau – Senior Electrical Engineer / Co-founder (35+ years)
Clifford started designing and building electronic projects in his dormitory room while he was a sophomore electrical engineering student. During his first year as a graduate student he was tasked to develop an entire data acquisition system for an architectural firm located in St. Louis, Missouri. He co-founded Tri-L with his brother and father to handle the business side of the development effort. That was the beginning of his career developing hardware, firmware and software over 35 years ago.
His development efforts include entire systems, commercial and industrial products, software applications, electronic sub-assemblies, single board computers, postal service mail sorting devices, healthcare devices, solar powered devices, LTE cell modules and much more. Technology has changed dramatically over the years and Clifford has kept pace with it to meet the demands of industry.
Clifford holds bachelor’s and master’s of science degrees in electrical engineering from Washington University In St. Louis. He also has three U.S. patents.
In his spare time he enjoys swinging at a little white ball with friends and also regularly engages in physical activity at the karate dojo.
Software Design and Implementation
Claudio Friederich - Senior Software Developer (20+ years)
Claudio has been a professional software developer for nearly twenty years. During his career, he has developed both Windows applications, web applications, and service-oriented applications using the Microsoft .NET platform. His projects have included desktop and ASP.NET web application front ends, middle tiers using both web services and proprietary wire protocols, Microsoft SQL Server database back ends, and interfacing with proprietary hardware. Aside from development, he has played key roles in all phases of software projects including architecture and design, testing, deployment, monitoring, and maintenance.
Claudio holds a bachelor's degree in physics from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. In 2009 he became a Microsoft Certified Professional Developer in Windows, web, and enterprise applications, and was recognized as a .NET 3.5 early adopter.
In his spare time, Claudio is an active private pilot who flies his own airplane between the Hawaiian Islands.
Assembly and Manufacturing
Elton Fukushima – Production Manager (30+ years)
Elton has been with Tri-L Data Systems for approximately thirty years. He has supported all aspects of hardware development, testing and production. His responsibilities have included parts acquisition, printed circuit board assembly, full product assembly, testing, diagnostics, repairs and quality control. He has mastered the skills necessary for surface mount technology from reworking single printed circuit boards to fully automated production runs. Manufacturing defects have been extremely low, less than 0.01 percent (1 of 10,000) failure rates have be achieved.
Elton holds an associate’s degree in electronics from Honolulu Community College.
In his spare time Elton enjoy his family and sporting activities with his son.