Autonomous Vehicles - KPIT

Scientist Profile
Sebastian Thrun
Scientist
Profile
“Build it. Break it. Improve it.” the Universal Law of Invention by a
person who is an ALVA Award winner and the lead inventor behind
Google Self Driving Car, Google Glass and the education start-up
Udacity, Sebastian Thrun. He is currently working at Google as a
VP and Fellow, and a part-time Research Professor of Computer
Science at Stanford University.
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Sebastian Thrun was born on 14 May, 1967 in Solingen,
Germany. He is a son of Winfried and Kristin Thrun. In 1988, he
received his bachelor's degree (B.Sc.) in computer science,
economics, and medicine from the University of Hildesheim. He
received his master's degree (M.Sc) and PhD, in 1993 and 1995
respectively, in computer science and statistics from University of
Bonn.
In 1994, he started the University of Bonn's Rhino project together
with his doctoral thesis advisor Armin B. Cremers. His Ph.D. thesis
problem statement is “Explanation-Based Neural Network (EBNN)
Learning: A Lifelong Learning Approach”. The approach of EBNN
learning algorithm is to learn meta-level problems by learning a
theory of the domain.
In 1995, he started his career at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU)
in Computer Science Department as a research computer
scientist. In 1997, Thrun developed the world's first robotic tour
guide, along with his colleagues Wolfram Burgard and Dieter Fox.
He became an assistant professor and co-director of computer
science, robotics, and automated learning and discovery at CMU
in 1998. Later in the same year, the furtherance robot named
"Minerva" was set up in the Smithsonian's National Museum of
American History in Washington, where the robot guided tens of
thousands of visitors during a few weeks of deployment period.
While working with CMU, he introduced a new Master's Program in
Automated Learning and Discovery, which later became a Ph.D.
program. In 2001, he promoted as an associate professor at CMU.
In 2002, Thrun contributed in a project to develop mine mapping
robots, along with his colleagues William L. Whittaker and Scott
Thayer, two research professors at CMU.
In 2003, Thrun joined Stanford University as an associate
professor of computer science and electrical engineering. In 2004,
he was appointed as a director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence
Laboratory (SAIL). At Stanford University, he got involved in the
development of robot “Stanley”. He led the Stanford Racing Team,
which in 2005 won the DARPA Grand Challengeand United States
Department of Defense sponsored US$2 million as a prize, to
support development of technologies needed to create the first
fully autonomous vehicles. Later in 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge,
Thrun team's robot “Junior” received runner-up prize. From 2007
to 2011, Thrun worked as a professor of computer science and electrical
engineering at Stanford and in 2011 worked as Research professor of
computer science.
In 2007 to 2011, he linked with Google during vacations, along with few
Stanford students. At Google, Thrun co-invented Google Street View
which got “Best 100 Products of 2008” award. This technology included
in Google Maps and Google Earth, provides panoramic views. It was
launched on May 25, 2007, in a number of cities in the United States and
they are in process of implementing the same in remaining areas which
includes cities and rural areas worldwide.
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On 1 April, 2011, Thrun resigned from Stanford to join Google as a
Google Fellow. At Google, he started working on the development of the
Google driverless car system. This is a project initiated by Google that
involves developing technology for autonomous cars. These driverless
cars use video cameras, radar sensors and a laser range finder to get
traffic information, and also navigate the road ahead. About driverless
automatic car Thrun says, "This is an opportunity to fix a really colossal,
big problem for society. Robot drivers don't drink, get distracted, or fall
asleep behind the wheel”. These driverless smart vehicles will reduce
the amount of road accidents, the use of fuel and gas releases
drastically according to Thrun.
On January 23, 2012, Thrun founded an online private educational
organization, 'Udacity' along with David Stavens, and Mike Sokolsky
that offers massive open online courses. According to Thrun, the name
Udacity comes from the company's objective to be "audacious for you,
the student".
Sebastian Thrun has received well know awards and recognitions for
his work in various fields. In 2013, he received ALVA Award by 99U,
which is given to a next great inventor who will not only imagine
incredible ideas but also implement it. In 2012, he is awarded as “Global
Thinker #4” by Foreign Policy in the list of top 100 Global Thinkers, The
Next Establishment by Vanity Fair, Top 100 Scientists on Twitter and
Initiative of the year Award by Chip. In 2011, The Fast Magazine
Company called him fifth most creative person in Business in the world.
In 2010, Time Magazine included his inventions in the list of best 50
inventions, and in 2008, his robot was titled as the best robot of all times
by Wired Magazine. In 2005, he was named one of the Brilliant 5 by
Popular Science Brilliant 10. He also received a NSF CAREER award
from the National Science Foundation. He has received many more
awards and recognitions apart from the mentioned above.
Currently, he is also working on a project Google X, also known as
Google Glass. According to him, Google Glass is a wearable computer
with an optical head-mounted display. Glasses can cover vision based
digital images, called heads-up displays, and is a supreme solution.
“Google X is here to do moonshot-type projects,” Thrun said. “Not just
shooting to the moon but bringing the moon back to Earth.”
Prasad Pawar
Areas of Interest
Parallel computing, OS,
Algorithms, Storage and Network Security
TechTalk@KPIT, Volume 6, Issue 4, 2013 519