CARS Faculty and Staff
Reilly P. Brennan, Lecturer, Mechanical Engineering
Reilly P. Brennan has been a core member of Stanford's automotive community since joining as Executive Director of the Revs Program at Stanford in 2012. He is a founding partner at Trucks, a seed-stage venture capital fund for entrepreneurs changing the future of transportation. Reilly teaches twice per year in the School of Engineering and the d.school. His classes bridge the fields of transportation, design and entrepreneurship. He is a dedicated educator and advisor to young researchers and entrepreneurs, actively participating in...
Sean Follmer, Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering
Professor Follmer's research in Human Computer Interaction explores the design of novel tactile physical interfaces and design tools for digital fabrication and smart devices. His work maps out a conceptual space of Dynamic Affordances, describes new interactions with shape changing interfaces motivated by the careful study of users today and expert designers working with physical materials, and begins to evalute how these new interfaces and devices can help users.
Chris Gerdes, Director Center for Automotive Research at Stanford (CARS), Dynamic Design Lab
Chris Gerdes is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering and, by courtesy, of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University. His laboratory studies how cars move, how humans drive cars and how to design future cars that work cooperatively with the driver or drive themselves. When not teaching on campus, he can often be found at the racetrack with students, instrumenting historic race cars or trying out their latest prototypes for the future.
Lene Harbott, Research Associate, Mechanical Engineering
Lene has been at Stanford University since 2006, using electroencephalography (EEG) to investigate how brain activity is related to a person’s external environment. She is currently working with Professor Chris Gerdes to investigate driver’s physiological responses while interacting with a vehicle in a variety of different driving conditions. In this way Harbott is excited to be able to apply her extensive knowledge of neurophysiology to her love of cars, inherited from her automotive-fanatic father and grandfather.
Mykel Kochenderfer, Assistant Professor, Aeronautics and Astronautics
Professor Kochenderfer is the director of the Stanford Intelligent Systems Laboratory (SISL), conducting research on advanced algorithms and analytical methods for the design of robust decision making systems. Of particular interest are systems for air traffic control, unmanned aircraft, and other aerospace applications where decisions must be made in uncertain, dynamic environments while maintaining safety and efficiency.
Larry Leifer, Professor, Mechanical Engineering
Professor Leifer's engineering design thinking research is focused on instrumenting design teams to understand, support, and improve design practice and theory. Specific issues include: design-team research methodology, global team dynamics, innovation leadership, interaction design, design-for-wellbeing, and adaptive mechatronic systems.
Pablo Paredes, Instructor, Radiology and Psychiatry, Director, Pervasive Wellbeing Technology Lab
Pablo Paredes earned his PhD in Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley in 2015. He is faculty in Radiology and Psychiatry at Stanford University. Prior to joining the School of Medicine, he was a Postdoctoral Researcher in Computer Science at Stanford University for two years. During his PhD career, he held internships on behavior change and affective computing at Microsoft Research and Google.
Marco Pavone, Assistant Professor, Aeronautics and Astronautics
Professor Pavone is the Director of the Autonomous Systems Laboratory (ASL). The goal of ASL is the development of methodologies for the analysis, design, and control of autonomous systems, with a particular emphasis on large-scale robotic networks and autonomous aerospace vehicles. The lab combines expertise from control theory, robotics, optimization, and operations research to develop the theoretical foundations for networked autonomous systems operating in uncertain, rapidly-changing, and potentially adversarial environments...
Allan L. Reiss, Howard C. Robbins Professor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Radiology
Professor Reiss is Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Brain Sciences Research (CIBSR) at Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Reiss uses advanced research methods and tools such as multi-modal neuroimaging, genetic analyses and neurobehavioral assessment to focus on neurodevelopmental and neurogenetic disorders of childhood onset.
Silvio Savarese, Assistant Professor, Computer Science
Professor Savarese directs the Computational Vision and Geometry Lab (CVGL) at Stanford. The CVGL's research addresses the theoretical foundations and practical applications of computational vision.
Dan Siciliano, Faculty Director of the Rock Center for Corporate Governance, Professor and Associate Dean at Stanford Law School
Dan Siciliano is the faculty director of the Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford University and a Professor and Associate Dean at Stanford Law School. He was co-founder, CEO and ultimately Executive Chairman of LawLogix Group, Inc. – a global software technology company named 9 consecutive times to the Inc.
Hai Wang, Professor, Mechanical Engineering
Professor Wang's interests are in renewable energy conversion, catalysis and combustion. His current research focuses on theories and applications of nanoparticles and nanostructures for rechargeable batteries and supercapacitors, combustion simulations and nanocatalysis.
Gordon Wetzstein, Assistant Professor, Electrical Engineering
Gordon Wetzstein is an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering and, by courtesy, of Computer Science at Stanford University. He is the leader of the Stanford Computational Imaging Lab, an interdisciplinary research group focused on advancing imaging, microscopy, and display systems.
Stephen Zoepf, CARS Executive Director
Stephen Zoepf is the Executive Director of the Center for Automotive Research at Stanford. In addition to continuing to contribute to the field through his own research on mobility, Stephen will strengthen our connections across campus and with our affiliates. He has fifteen years of experience in the automotive field, including eight years in engineering and product management roles at BMW and Ford. He recently served as a Post-Doctoral researcher at MIT and on the technical staff of the U.S. Dept. of Transportation.
