Mike A. Horton is an American engineer and founder of a company producing sensor technology and sensor-based systems.

Biography

Mike Horton was born October 23, 1973, in

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

, the second of two children of Claude Wendell Horton Jr. and Elisabeth Alice Becker. Horton received a B.S. and an

M.S. A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medicine ...

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

from the

University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkele ...

Company

Following Horton's graduation, he co-founded

Crossbow Technology Crossbow Technology, Inc. (also referred to as XBOW) was a California-based company that specialized in navigation products, including gyroscopes and guidance, navigation, and control units. History Crossbow was founded by Mike A. Horton in ...

in 1995 with his advisor

A. Richard Newton Arthur Richard Newton (Melbourne, Australia, 1 July 1951 – 2 January 2007) was the dean of the College of Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. Career Newton was educated at the University of Melbourne and received a BE in 19 ...

. In 2003, ''

MIT Technology Review ''MIT Technology Review'' is a bimonthly magazine wholly owned by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It was founded in 1899 as ''The Technology Review'', and was re-launched without "''The''" in its name on April 23, 1998, under then pu ...

'' magazine named him as one of the top young innovators under 35. After exploring potential uses of silicon

microelectromechanical systems MEMS (micro-electromechanical systems) is the technology of microscopic devices incorporating both electronic and moving parts. MEMS are made up of components between 1 and 100 micrometres in size (i.e., 0.001 to 0.1 mm), and MEMS devices ...

sensor technology and experimenting with early acceleration sensors from the Berkeley Sensor and Actuator Sensor as well as commercial prototypes from

Analog Devices Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI), also known simply as Analog, is an American multinational corporation, multinational semiconductor company specializing in data conversion, signal processing, and power management technology, headquartered in Wilming ...

, Horton and Newton formed a company to design and build products based on MEMS sensor technology. Crossbow Technology was founded in August, 1995. The company's initial vision was to leverage microelectromechanical systems-based sensor technology for motion-based input devices which are now used in video game systems such as the Nintendo Wii. The company refined the technology for application in commercial aerospace, and it became the first company to be approved by the FAA as a TSO (

Technical Standard Order A Technical Standard Order (TSO) is a minimum performance standard issued by the United States Federal Aviation Administration for specified materials, parts, processes, and appliances used on civil aircraft. Articles with TSO design approval are ...

) holder FAA for a silicon

based attitude and heading reference systems. An AHRS provides a solid-state replacement of unreliable mechanical gyroscopes as primary flight instruments, which can increase safety on general aviation aircraft. The company's MEMS-based inertial systems are also used in automated guidance of farm tractors and

unmanned aerial vehicle An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or unmanned aircraft system (UAS), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft with no human pilot, crew, or passengers onboard, but rather is controlled remotely or is autonomous.De Gruyter Handbook of Dron ...

systems. Starting in 2001, Horton worked with UC Berkeley professor's Kristofer S. J. Pister and David Culler to develop and produce commercially available hardware for the

Smartdust Smartdust is a system of many tiny microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) such as sensors, robots, or other devices, that can detect, for example, light, temperature, vibration, magnetism, or chemicals. They are usually operated on a computer networ ...

and

TinyOS TinyOS is an embedded, component-based operating system and platform for low-power wireless devices, such as those used in wireless sensor networks (WSNs), smartdust, ubiquitous computing, personal area networks, building automation, and smart me ...

research community. These hardware platforms became known as "

motes A mote is a small bit of substance, such as a fleck or particle. Mote may also refer to: Art and entertainment * The Motes, a Canadian indie-rock band active in the 1990s * "Mote", a song by Sonic Youth from their 1990 album '' Goo'' * "Mote", a ...

". The company produced several generations of "Motes" including the Mica2, Micaz,

IRIS Iris most often refers to: *Iris (anatomy), part of the eye * Iris (color), an ambiguous color term *Iris (mythology), a Greek goddess * ''Iris'' (plant), a genus of flowering plants * Iris (given name), a feminine given name, and a list of peopl ...

, iMote2, and TelosB. Applications range from crop monitoring to homeland security. He served as CEO of Crossbow until its acquisition by

Moog Inc. Moog Inc. ( ) is an American-based designer and manufacturer of electric, electro-hydraulic and hydraulic motion, controls and systems for applications in aerospace, defense, industrial and medical devices. The company operates under four segmen ...

in 2011. Following the acquisition, Horton became an active contributor to Silicon Valley's early-stage and deep-tech investing community, participating in angel groups lik
Sand Hill Angels
an
Band of Angels
focusing on sensors, robotics, photonics, and autonomous technologies. Subsequently, Horton served as Chief Technology Officer o
Anello Photonics
where he led the development of photonic inertial navigation systems, including the world's first silicon photonic optical gyroscope integrated with MEMS-based systems. Currently, Horton is the Project Creator and one of the co-founders o
GEODNET
a decentralized physical infrastructure network ( DePIN) designed to build a global array of multi-constellation GNSS reference stations. GEODNET provides real-time kinematic (RTK) corrections to enable high-precision positioning, benefiting applications in autonomous vehicles, precision agriculture, drone navigation, and geospatial mapping. The network utilizes blockchain incentives to drive global deployment of stations and has emerged as one of the most advanced examples of decentralized infrastructure within the Web3 ecosystem. In May 2025, GEODNET was formally highlighted in the United States Congress as a leading real-world example of blockchain technology delivering tangible public benefits. During legislative hearings on th
Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act (FIT21)
lawmakers cited GEODNET as a model demonstrating how decentralized infrastructure can contribute to innovation, national competitiveness, and regulatory clarity. Horton holds more than 20 patents spanning navigation systems, MEMS, photonics, and decentralized network architectures. In recognition of his contributions to the field, he was named one of the Top 50 Sensor Technology Experts by ''Sensors Magazine'' in 2019 and received the Best Presentation Award at the Institute of Navigation’s GNSS+ conference in both 2021 and 2022. He continues to be an influential voice at the intersection of advanced hardware development, distributed systems, and deep-tech entrepreneurship.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Horton, Mike A. 1973 births American technology chief executives Living people Businesspeople from Austin, Texas UC Berkeley College of Engineering alumni