Women in Autonomy
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Our Speakers.

All our invited speakers are female executives, engineers, policy makers, and academics who help solve the unique challenges facing autonomous technology development. 

Recent Speakers:
The Future of Robotaxis: Advancing L4/ Robotaxi Autonomy
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Wei Luo.
VP of Strategy and Product Operations, Cruise

As VP of Strategy, Product & Operations at Cruise, Wei Luo works to keep the engineering team nimble and adaptable as Cruise work towards long term goals. She works with their leadership team to set clear goals and priorities, execute faster and more efficiently, and build a scalable roadmap to expand their business while controlling cost. Wei oversees Cruise’s Program Management Office, Technical Product Management, Technical Program Management; Technical Product Operations. The PMO team is in charge of running the overall planning and management of Cruise's most critical programs, Ridehail, Delivery, and vehicle build programs. The Technical Product Management team is in charge of defining AV software's roadmap, performance metrics, and AV capabilities. The Technical Program Management team is in charge of execution excellence, delivery quality and speed, and program success at the execution level. The Technical Product Operations team is in charge of providing the most efficient “human-in-the-loop” development for AVs, including improving AV safety performance, mapping, and machine learning. Prior to Cruise, Wei served as COO of DeepMap, she shaped the company’s product roadmap, go-to-market strategy, and customer success functions including sales engineering and mapping operations. Wei spent over nine years at Google, where she pivoted from engineering management into Product Management.




Michelle Avary has been at the forefront of revolutionizing the mobility space and has devoted her career in establishing better infrastructures for automotive, autonomous, IoT, and connectivity platforms. She is passionate about improving safety and decarbonizing mobility. A key member of Einride’s executive team in North America setting the company’s strategic direction and product vision, Mrs. Avary guides the development of key electric, autonomous, and digital products and services, leads government relations and public policy, and helps scale overall business. Prior to joining Einride, Michelle was Global Head of Automotive and Autonomous Mobility at the World Economic Forum, was Vice President of Products and Strategy, Global Automotive Io(m)T at Aeris and spent a decade at Toyota Motor Sales bringing connectivity products to market. Avary is a noted thought-leader, frequent public speaker and guest lecturer at numerous prestigious universities. She co-founded Drive Time Metrics, Women in Automotive Technology, an advocacy group, and has advised several AV startups. Michelle has several patents, holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics from Pennsylvania State University, a Masters of Art in Economics from the University of San Francisco, and she is also a certified yoga instructor.


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Michelle Avary.
VP of Product Strategy & Government Affairs, Einride

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Aaraadhya Narra.
Robotaxis Product Manager, Nvidia


Aaraadhya Narra currently serves as senior product manager for automotive at NVIDIA. Specifically, she is responsible for leading the company’s global robotaxi strategy, focusing on expanding NVIDIA DRIVE in-vehicle solutions within this growing market. Before that, Aaraadhya was responsible for supporting several startups and robotaxi engagements as a senior solutions architect. The NVIDIA automotive team is engaged with hundreds of car and truck makers, robotaxi companies, tier 1 suppliers, HD mapping companies, sensor manufacturers and startup companies that are using the DRIVE platform for automated and autonomous vehicle development and deployment.  Prior to joining NVIDIA, Aaraadhya worked as a software engineer at Cisco Systems. She received her B.S. and M.S. in computer science and engineering with a focus in data science and AI from Santa Clara University.





Past Speakers. 

Bonnie Datta - Founder, Plug to Grid Strategies
Dr. Carolin Funk - Partner, Blue Bear Capital
Qiong Sun - VP & GM, Automotive E-mobility Business, TE Connectivity
Lisa Partch Betlem - Senior Delivery Partner, Blue Yonder
Dr. Heidi Wyle - Founder & CEO, Venti Technologies
Daniela Rus - Director, CSAIL/MIT
Julie Derence - Co-Founder, TBD Robotics LLC
Apoorva Sachdev Lakshmanan - Technical Program Manager, Waymo
Jessie Smith - Senior Staff Technical Lead, Perception Simulation, Aurora
Dr. Shani Jayant - UX Research and Design Manager, Inclusive Mobility Initiative, Volkswagen Group of America
Erin McCurry - Product Manager, Accessibility, May Mobility
Myrna Peterson - Founder, Mobility Mania; Minnesota Governor’s Council for Connected & Automated Vehicles; Minnesota Council On Disability
Apeksha Kumavat - Co-Founder & Chief Engineer, Gatik
Amy Jones Satrom - Head of Operations, Nuro
Lia Theodosiou-Pisanelli - Head of Partner Product, Programs, and Operations, Aurora
Neda Cvijetic - Head of Product Management and Product Marketing: Autonomous Vehicles, NVIDIA
Deepti Mahajan - Machine Learning Research Engineer: Driver Assistance Technology, Ford Greenfield Lab
Nandita Mangal - Platform Owner HMI - Vehicle Experience: Autonomous Driving, Aptiv
Genevieve Smith - Research Director: Center for Equity, Gender & Leadership at Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley
Indu Vijayan - Head of Product Management, AEye
Julia M.C. Friedlander - Senior Policy Advisor: Autonomous Vehicles, SFMTA
Sydnee Journel - Local Policy & Community Manager, Waymo
Jill North - Innovation and New Technology Program Manager, SJ DOT
Holly Gordon - Head of Policy, Ike Robotics
Xantha Bruso - Autonomous Vehicle Policy Manager, AAA Northern California, Nevada & Utah
​Candice Plotkin - Lead Counsel, Regulatory Policy, Cruise
Jennifer Haroon - Nauto COO
Wei Luo - DeepMap COO
Manuela Papadopol - Designated Driver CEO

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