Presents

AV Summit 2017

AUVSI New England is proud to present the Autonomous Vehicle Summit 2017, an annual summit that bring together autonomous vehicle stakeholders and robotic systems companies to explore current and future models for AV integration into our public roadways.

Topics include
Current Policy Landscape for Autonomous and Self-Driving Vehicles in Greater Boston
AV Ready Cities or City-Ready AVs
Exploring Autonomous Technologies within Greater Boston

Be sure to register early as seating is limited for this venue. 

Keynote Speakers

Xavier Mosquet is a Senior Partner with Boston Consulting Group and Managing Director of the firm’s Detroit office, which he opened in 2005. He served as the Global Leader of BCG's Automotive Practice for 8 years.
In 2009, Xavier led a team of BCG consultants that advised President Obama’s Task Force and the US Treasury on the Automotive Industry, the restructuring of General Motors and Chrysler, and the establishment of the Chrysler-Fiat alliance. BCG was the sole management consulting firm on the engagement, working for the U.S Treasury Department. Xavier also advised the US Treasury and the Canadian Government on the GM IPO in November 2010.
Xavier has written several reports on the automotive industry, including on Autonomous Vehicles and the future of transportation, Innovation in Automotive and on Electric Cars, contributed to the US Department of Energy 2050 strategy, and co-authored a report on Green Jobs for the US Economy. In February 2016 he was asked to testify in front of Congress on the future of Automotive.

Ms. Lappin's responsibilities include working with elected and appointed officials, state and local transportation authorities, and the transportation community to address shared policy issues related to the future of highly automated vehicles.

 Robin Chase is is a transportation entrepreneur. She is co-founder and former CEO of Zipcar, the largest car sharing company in the world; as well as co-founder and board member of Veniam, a vehicle communications company building the networking fabric for the Internet of Moving Things. Her recent book is Peers Inc: How People and Platforms are Inventing the Collaborative Economy and Reinventing Capitalism. Her current passion is working with cities to maximize the transformation possible with the introduction of self driving cars.

Timothy J. Connelly is the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, or
MassTech. Tim is an experienced leader with distinguished career in financial services, as well as a
passion for civic engagement, social impact, workforce development, and regional economic growth.
Tim was most recently employed at Brown Brothers Harriman, where he spent 30 years working as a
managing director, and as a General Partner. At Brown Brothers Harriman, he led service delivery
enterprise, innovation and product support, and investor services units. He retired from the firm in
December, 2014.
He currently serves on the technology advisory board of BDO Consulting. He is a member of the board of directors of the United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley, and chaired the United Way’s 20142015 development campaign. Connelly is a member of the board of trustees of the Carroll School and New England Disabled Sports, a Corporator of Northeastern University, and he serves on the finance and investment committee at the Cotting School.

Kate Fichter is the Assistant Secretary for Policy Coordination at the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, where she has served in various capacities since 2004.  Kate is a graduate of the University of Chicago and MIT, and has professional expertise in transportation planning and policy.  Prior to her current role, Kate served as the Project Manager for the extension of the MBTA Green Line to Somerville and Medford (2007-2010) and the expansion of Boston South Station (2012-2014).    
Kate is now responsible for overseeing multiple policy initiatives, and insuring that MassDOT policy priorities are implemented through investments and projects.

Chris Bessette has a B.S. and an M.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University.  Early in his career, he developed navigation filters for various military and space applications.
After that, Chris served as the Program Manager for Draper’s Airdrop programs, overseeing programs in guided and unguided Airdrop, as well development of tools to aid personnel jumpers in achieving their drop zones. 
Currently Chris serves as the PM for Draper’s support of various Automotive OEMs and Tier 1’s.

Mr. Serna leads strategic initiatives at Draper, an effort to identify new and emerging challenges for Draper capabilities in applied R&D and technology transfer. Examples include innovative solutions to the challenge of Unmanned Air Systems (UAS) in the National Air Space (NAS) and highly automated vehicles in ground transportation. Previously he was Director of Systems Engineering at Draper. He is a Board member and past President of the New England Chapter of Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI). He is a board member of the Northeast Unmanned Air Systems Research Alliance (NUAIR), the FAA-approved entity that manages the New York/Massachusetts Unmanned Air Systems test sites. He serves on the National Academies Panel on Ballistics Science and Engineering and is Chair of the Systems Engineering division of the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA). He has served on four panels of the Defense Science Board (DSB). Mr. Serna holds degrees from Yale University and Northeastern University.

Gina Fiandaca was appointed Commissioner of the City of Boston Transportation Department (BTD) in January of 2015 by Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh.  In this role, Gina oversees a staff of more than 400 who work together to ensure safe and efficient access on Boston’s street system for all users of the city’s 850 miles of roadway.  This is accomplished through a combination of transportation planning, engineering, management, operations and enforcement efforts.
In early 2015, Gina guided the successful launch of “ParkBoston”, the city’s first mobile phone app that allows drivers to pay for on-street metered parking, receive alerts before meters expire, and extend time at parking meters remotely. This award winning app was named “Best of Boston” by Beta Boston in 2015. 

Alison Sander has served as the Director of BCG’s Center for Sensing & Mining the Future since 2005 and brings more than 20 years’ experience working with senior teams on complex global challenges. Alison has designed significant growth strategies for CEOs and Boards of Directors across many sectors and has used Megatrends to help clients form long term visions and to find the next billion dollars of growth.  Alison joined BCG in 1997 serving as Globalization Topic Advisor—a job that allowed her to see shifts across many countries.
Alison has an MBA from Harvard Business School, a JD from Harvard Law School, and a BA in political science with high honors from the University of Chicago.  Alison is a member of the Asia Society, the Council on Foreign Relations (www.cfr.org), the Association of Professional Futurists, a former overseer at the Museum of Science (www.mos.org), and a former Board Member of WRI (www.wri.org) a leading global environmental think tank.  Alison is the founder of AltWheels (www.altwheels.org) an award winning non-profit focused on bringing smarter transportation solutions to New England. Alison has worked in or traveled to more than 91 countries. Alison is a noted speaker on future trends and brings creative and innovative perspectives to many senior Boards and executive teams.

Dr. Eric Balles joined Draper in 2011 to launch and build a commercial business focused on solving the most difficult issues facing the transportation and energy sectors. He has overall responsibility for these commercial areas at Draper including strategic planning, customer relationship, business development, project execution and financial performance. Dr. Balles’ career spans several industry sectors including automotive, electricity and oil & gas. He started his career in the automotive industry and has worked extensively with automakers and tier one suppliers in North America, Europe and Asia. Dr. Balles earned S.B., S.M. and Sc.D. degrees in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

A world-renowned expert in robotics and automotive research, Karl Iagnemma is CEO of nuTonomy, the leading developer of state-of-the-art software for self-driving cars, which he co-founded in 2013. As CEO, Karl has established nuTonomy's US and Singapore offices, spearheaded nuTonomy's fundraising efforts, and led the recruitment of a world-class technical team.
Karl was previously a Principal Research Scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he directed the Institute’s Robotic Mobility Group. His research has resulted in more than 150 technical papers and 19 issued or filed patents, and has found application in passenger vehicle safety systems, robotic surgery, and Mars surface exploration, among other domains.

Jonathan Koopmann is a senior engineer in the Technology, Innovation and Policy division at the Volpe Center.  He serves as the Volpe Center Project Manager of the Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office’s (ITS-JPO) automated vehicle research program. 
Prior to managing the automation vehicle research program Jonathan led a development team creating an aviation environmental modeling software tool for the Federal Aviation Administration and several projects investigating the capability, user acceptance, and safety effectiveness of prototype advance warning safety systems for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. 

Mary Skelton Roberts is a senior program officer for Climate focusing on how people move around and how we build our communities—two critical levers for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Her grantmaking aims to maintain and modernize our transit systems and to help communities transform themselves into more walkable, connected places where all residents have attractive alternatives to driving and spend far less time and money traveling by car.

Kris Carter, Co-Chair of the Mayor's Office of New Urban Mechanics in Boston, is a non-practicing engineer, an optimistic urban planner, and a self-taught filmmaker. New Urban Mechanics is the City of Boston's human-design centered civic innovation team, working collaboratively with research institutions, civic entrepreneurs, and government agencies to explore and prototype what's new and next in cities.
With the Mechanics, Kris has helped lead the City's overhaul of parking technology, vision zero efforts, award-winning Public Space Invitational, and autonomous vehicle research efforts.

Christopher Tassone leads the Shared Services & Consulting Team at Liberty Mutual and manages the company’s autonomous vehicles partnership strategy. His group works with automakers, transportation disruptors, and governments to understand customer demand and minimize risk while bringing new mobility products to market. He has extensive experience helping established companies compete in new markets using scenario planning and a customer-centric product design process. Previously, Chris worked on State Farm’s Innovation Team and in Marketing at Zipcar.

James Sproul is AUVSI-New England’s Autonomous Vehicle Summit 2017 Program Chair and CRO of The Sproul Company headquartered in Boston’s North End.
As Founder of The Sproul Company (TSC) in 1999, Jim has a rich history of Rainmaking for engineering companies by networking, identifying and closing new business opportunities.
An active volunteer & member of AUVSI-New England, Sproul is the 2017 Autonomous Vehicle Summit Program Chair and prior to this was AUVSI-New England’s Robotica 2016 Session & Speaker Chair. For this event, Jim spearheaded the efforts to bring over 90 recognized industry leaders to speak during 27 sessions over a three-day conference. See https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimsproul for a complete work & volunteer history.

A dual resident of the North End and Cape Cod and graduate of the University of Connecticut, Jim enjoys family life with his wife Molly, three children and five grandchildren.

Event & Chapter Sponsorship Information

For sponsorship or to exhibit at any of our events, please contact avs@AUVSINewEngland.org