Back from Victorville

Hello all! I'm back from the 2007 Urban Challenge. We had a great time in Victorville and DEXTER had a great showing to become a national semifinalist in the competition. I posted detailed updates to the Team Case blog so in case you missed it, you can read about our experience there. There's a story about Team Case in this week's Observer, there is some video of DEXTER posted to TG Daily's blog, and there's an article in Wired about DEXTER's organ transplant during the national qualifying exam.

Film crews working for the Discovery Channel were also on hand to film our progress in the Urban Challenge. Team Case and DEXTER will be featured in a Discovery Channel special airing in Feb. 2008.

For now, it's time to put my nose to the grind-stone again to finish up my Master's thesis. I'm also starting my career search in earnest, so if you know of any companies looking to hire a fresh graduate with a background in analog microelectronics, sensing systems, and autonomous robotics in the May 2008 timeframe, please point them to my website and resume. Thanks!

Dexter at the Auto Show, in the News

Hello all! It's a busy week for Dexter, the Case Urban Challenge Team's autonomous robot! Dexter has made it all the way to the I-X Center for the Cleveland Auto Show! I had the pleasure of speaking with nice Clevelanders about Dexter at the show today, as you can see in the pictures below.



Dexter also got some great publicity this weekend - we made the front page of the Plain Dealer! The article, Case's Dexter (the robot car) steers toward fame, fortune is available online in its entirity and I recommend you read it! It's very well-written and factual. Big props to John Mangels, the PD's Science Writer for getting it right! They also made some killer graphics for the article, including a beautiful depicting my LIDAR scanners:



Also, a video about Dexter, narrated by our own Andy Allen and featuring Dexter in the snow, is also up on the PD's web site [direct link]. All in all, a fun day in Cleveland for the Case UC Team and Dexter!



And, in case you missed it, the Observer wrote a nice article on Dexter back in November, Case enters DARPA challenge.