Project Lead

Overall Lead:
Sebastian Thrun

Software Lead:
Michael Montemerlo

Vehicle Lead:
Burkhard Huhnke

Communication Lead:
David Orenstein

Vehicle

Lead Engineer:
Ganymed Stanek

VW Project Manager:
Suhrid Bhat

Technical Consultant:
Sven Strohband

System Development:
Charles Markey, Suhrid Bhat, Joe Van Niekerk, Dirk Langer, Tim Hilden, Isaac Penny, Julien Marcil, Stefan Klumpp

Sensors:
Anthony Levandowski, Jamie Schulte

Mechanics:
Mike Pflueger

Software

Static Localization and Mapping:
Dirk Haehnel, Jesse Levinson, Hendrik Dahlkamp, David Stavens

Dynamic Objects:
Anna Petrovskaya, Dirk Haehnel

Control:
Gabe Hoffmann, Ganymed Stanek

Simulation:
Doug Johnston

Planning and Optimization:
Dmitri Dolgov and Michael Montemerlo

Testing

Jan Becker and Scott Ettinger

Corporate Advisors

Chris Uhlik, Mark Hoffberg, Burkhard Huhnke, Pamela Mahoney, Louis Nastro, Scott Ettinger

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Faculty Advisors

David Cheriton, Alex Aiken, Chris Gerdes

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Communication and Corporate Relations

David Orenstein, Laura Breyfogle, Frank Scioscia, Kerstin Schenk

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Jan Becker

Jan Becker is a Project Manager at the Bosch Research and Technology Center, Palo Alto, CA and at the Bosch Corporate Research, Germany. He is currently a visiting scholar at the Stanford AI Lab. His research topics include autonomous driving and driver assistance systems. Jan holds a Ph.D. from the Technical University Braunschweig, Germany in Control Engineering, a M.S. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from the State University of New York at Buffalo and a M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the Technical University Darmstadt, Germany. He serves the Stanford Racing Team as the leader of the Testing Team.

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Suhrid Bhat

Suhrid Bhat is a member of the engineering team at the Volkswagen of America Electronics Research Laboratory (ERL) in Palo Alto, CA. His roles include the design, development, testing and improvement of the drive-by-wire systems. Suhrid holds an M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University with specialization in Embedded Electromechanical System Design and Controls.

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Hendrik Dahlkamp

Hendrik Dahlkamp is a 3rd year Computer Science PhD Student at Stanford interested in autonomous robots and computer vision. He enjoys teaching Stanley to localize himself in the road map with decimeter accuracy and to avoid static hazards. For the previous Grand Challenge, he developed an adaptive visual long-range road-finding system which was crucial in enabling Stanley to drive faster than other teams. Before that, he earned a German Diplom degree from Universität Karlsruhe, working on legged robots and model-based visual tracking in the E.U. CogViSys project.

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Dmitri Dolgov

Dmitri Dolgov is a Senior Research Scientist in the AI and Robotics Group at the Toyota Technical Center; he is also a visiting scientist at Stanford University. Dr. Dolgov received his PhD in Computer Science from the University of Michigan in 2006, for research in the area of stochastic resource allocation and stochastic planning. He contributes to the Stanford Racing Team in the area of path planning and vehicle navigation.

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Scott Ettinger

Scott Ettinger is a research scientist at Intel Corporation's Microprocessor Technology Lab. His research topics include computer vision, machine learning, and computer architecture. Prior to his work at Intel, Scott worked to develop micro-air-vehicles (small autonomous aircraft with wingspans down to 5 inches) at NASA and the University of Florida.

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Tim Hilden

Tim Hilden is part of the engineering team at the Volkswagen of America Electronics Research Laboratory (ERL). With his in-depth knowledge of electronics and embedded prototyping he helps design, develop and improve the robot's drive-by-wire system. He is a "Diplom"-student in Electrical Engineering at the Technical University of Berlin, Germany, with emphasis on Electronics, Communication Systems and Control Systems.

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Gabe Hoffmann

Gabe Hoffmann is a PhD student in Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University. He is responsible for the control laws that allow Stanley to track trajectory plans. Before coming to Stanford, Gabe received a B.S. and an M.S. degree in Engineering Mechanics and Astronautics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. His current research is autonomous control of a fleet of quadrotor aircraft.

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Burkhard Huhnke

Burkhard Huhnke is the Executive Director at Volkswagen of America, Inc.'s Electronics Research Laboratory (VW-ERL) in Palo Alto, CA. Since March 2007, he has been leading this group of highly motivated employees. The VW ERL staff includes a team of 45 engineers, social scientists, product designers, and up to 20 interns. Before his transfer to Volkswagen of America, Inc., Burkhard Huhnke held management positions in various departments (research and technical development) of Volkswagen AG, Germany. After Volkswagen's successful involvement in Stanford's 2005 Grand Challenge entry, Burkhard Huhnke will continue consulting the Stanford Racing Team in vehicle build-up, testing, sponsoring and communications. Burkhard Huhnke received his degree in 1993 in electrical engineering at TU Braunschweig, Germany and obtained his PhD in engineering in 1999. For his thesis he was awarded the 1999 German measurement Award.

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Pamela Mahoney

Pamela Mahoney is a partner at MDV-Mohr Davidow Ventures where she brings a blend of Fortune 100 and startup experience to her work with MDV's technology companies. Prior to arriving in Silicon Valley, Mahoney spent 10 years in the auto industry and served on the Chrysler team responsible for significant corporate repositioning and the launch of a record number of new products.

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Charles Markey

Charles Markey is a Project Engineer at the Volkswagen of America Electronics Research Laboratory. He is responsible for creating and manipulating complex 3D CAD models for CNC machining and rapid prototyping for vehicle integration. His previous experience before joining Volkswagen was in the Society of Automotive Engineer's Mini-Baja competition with Bucknell University's Mechanical Engineering department. His primary role for the Stanford Racing Team is providing mechanical design, integration, and vehicle support, particularly wsith the steering and shifting mechanisms.

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Mike Montemerlo

Mike Montemerlo is the software lead for the Stanford Racing Team and is a Senior Research Engineer in the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab. He earned his PhD in robotics at Carnegie Mellon University in 2003, and his B.S. and M.S. in electrical/computer engineering from CMU in 1997.

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Celia Oakley

Celia Oakley is a member of the testing group of the Stanford Racing Team. She is a consultant in the areas of robotics, smart products, system integration, information systems, and interactive web page design. As an NSF Fellow in the Stanford Aerospace Robotics Laboratory, she earned her M.S. and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University in 1984 and 1991 respectively. She earned her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from U.C. Berkeley in 1983.

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David Orenstein

David Orenstein is the communications and PR manager for the Stanford School of Engineering.

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Isaac Penny

Isaac Penny is a M.S. student in Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University. His roles include vehicle buildup, and testing, as well as maintenance of Junior's race-ready status. Penny holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Georgia Tech. Penny is an NSF/NDSEG Fellow, as well as an Astronaut Scholar. His current research involves robotics, machine learning, and computer vision. Penny's hobbies include backpacking, amateur astronomy, and reading books on the interplay of science and faith.

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David Stavens

David Stavens is a PhD candidate in Computer Science at Stanford and is the David Cheriton Stanford Graduate Fellow. David co-designed Stanley, the robot that won the 2005 Grand Challenge. His publications include algorithms for laser perception, velocity planning, road following, object tracking, and change detection. David has reviewed articles for the Journal of Field Robotics and Robotics: Science and Systems. Previously, he was part of the Mars Rover team at NASA. He has a BSE in Computer Science, Magna Cum Laude, from Princeton.

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Sven Strohband

Sven Strohband was the lead engineer in the Stanford Racing team for the successful 2005 Grand Challenge entry "Stanley". In this role he was responsible for the team of engineers at Volkswagen's Electronics Research Laboratory (ERL) that designed, tested and improved the mechanical and electronic systems of Stanley. His primary responsibility was to ensure the race-readiness of Stanley in the Grand Challenge 2005 and act as the primary liaison between the development efforts at Stanford and Volkswagen.

In 2006 Sven joined the venture capital firm MDV - Mohr Davidow Ventures where he is part of the investment team and specializes in new materials and semiconductor technologies.

For the Stanford Racing team acts as a technical consultant in the upcoming Urban Challenge and guided the initial design of the drive by wire system of the vehicle.

He holds a B.S. degree from Purdue University and a M.S. and Ph.D. degree from Stanford University in Mechanical Engineering.

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Ganymed Stanek

Ganymed Stanek is the Vehicle Lead Engineer for the Stanford Racing Team and is a Systems Engineer in the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab. Until July 2007, he was in charge of the team of engineers at the Volkswagen of America Electronics Research Laboratory (ERL) in Palo Alto, CA, who designed and continuosly improve the electronics, mechanics and software for the robot's drive-by-wire system and structural enhancements. He acts as the primary liaison between the development efforts at the Stanford University and Volkswagen. He holds an M.S. degree from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology.

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Sebastian Thrun

Sebastian Thrun is the Director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab and Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. Thrun serves as the overall leader of the Stanford Racing Team. In 2005, Thrun led Stanley to victory in the DARPA Grand Challenge. Thrun has authored 11 books and over 300 technical papers. He is elected member of the National Academy of Engineering, the Leopoldina, and he is a Fellow of he AAAI and the ECCAI.

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