Company — Plena

02 · Principles

Principles that shape our research and products.

These help you get a sense of our culture and our perspective on what technology should be for sports.

AI transparency.

We use AI, and we want our customers to know exactly how. Every output in our system can be audited — teams can see how a conclusion was reached. That's what separates a trusted recommendation from a vague summary out of ChatGPT, and it's what makes our systems trustworthy in real settings.

Human steer-ability.

Our systems defer to domain expertise. They augment judgment; they don't replace it. Users can override, redirect, and recalibrate outputs — preserving the practitioner's authority over the final decision. The AI is an instrument, not an authority.

Authenticity.

The system is explicitly designed to serve sport as it exists — individual development, collective performance, competitive integrity, and human relationships. It will not optimize toward outputs that hollow out what makes sport meaningful. This is a deliberate constraint, not a limitation.

Accessibility & interactivity.

Deep capability delivered through interfaces that require no technical fluency. We build systems that meet practitioners in their language, their workflow, and their context — not the other way around. Interaction is expected, and we work hard to make engagement high at every level.

Research first.

We don't pretend to have all the answers — but we hold high standards in finding them, following the scientific process. In research, work has to survive peer review. That's what keeps results reliable, and it's what we want to be known for. From a single guide to every product we ship.

03 · The team

Three researchers. A shared obsession with basketball and technology.

Our core team sits at the intersection of information science, multimodal AI, and sport. We've each come at this problem from a different direction — and ended up in the same place.

Herminio Bodon, PhD

FOUNDER · CEO

Herminio Bodon is a research scientist by training. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science and Communication from Northwestern University, and a Master's degree in Information Science from the University of Pittsburgh. He has training in user-centered design, applied machine learning, software and hardware development, and basketball coaching. For his Ph.D. research, Herminio desgined and developed wearable and AI technologies aimed at improving player performance and teamwork.

Marcelo Worsley, PhD

TECHNICAL ADVISOR

Dr. Marcelo Worsley is an associate professor of Computer Science and Learning Sciences at Northwestern University. He is the inventor of the field of multimodal learning analytics. His research aims to advance society's understanding of how students learn in complex learning environments by forging new opportunities for using multimodal technology. He is a recipient of the competitive NSF Career Grant and has over 10 years of experience publishing in leading artificial intelligence and learning venues, including the International Journal of Artificial Intelligence and The Journal of Learning Analytics.

Ruixiang (Steven) Chai

ENGINEERING · COMPUTER VISION

Ruixiang (Steven) Chai is a fourth-year Ph.D. student in Computer Science at Northwestern University. His research focuses on applied computer vision, model optimization and quantization, and low-level camera calibration methods. Alongside his academic work, he has over two years of industry-internship experience across five leading companies — applied computer vision for smart cockpits, autonomous vehicles, video understanding, image enhancement, and efficient modeling. He has extensive experience with embedded and mobile-device development and with edge-device machine-learning deployment and optimization.

04 · Where we are

Growing quickly across the USA.

Plena is an early-stage research and development company with a research foundation. We're looking to expand our reach via strategic partnerships, key hires, funding, and media attention.

If you're a program that wants to shape what this product becomes rather than inherit it fully formed, now is the time. If you're a candidate who wants to do work that ships and work that publishes, we'd love to talk. If you're an institution with more information than you know what to do with, we want to hear from you.

PARTNERSHIPS

We're expanding our list of strategic partnerships. Looking for sports programs and academic institutions interested in joining early.

Reach out →

TEAM

We're researchers and people who love sports. Core research team, fellows, brand ambassadors, and business development are in place — and we're always looking for great people. If the vision resonates, see open roles below.

See open roles →

FUNDING

Actively looking for serious backing from folks who resonate with the vision and share our passion for elevating sports performance to new heights. If that's you, reach out.

Reach out →

MEDIA

We're open to discussing our work. Reach out to set something up.

Reach out →

05 · Careers