Private and academic interests have aligned in the form of autonomous vehicle research, culminating in a five-year, $15 million research partnership between Carnegie Mellon University and the self-driving tech company Argo AI.
Their focus will be on advanced perception and decision-making algorithms. An entirely new, joint Center for Autonomous Vehicle Research will handle this inquiry, with the end goal of making such vehicles better equipped to handle real-world conditions. Smart sensor fusion, 3DC scene understanding, map-based perception, and behavioral prediction, among others, will all be on the table.
“We are thrilled to deepen our partnership with Argo AI to shape the future of self-driving technologies,” CMU President Farnam Jahanian said. “This investment allows our researchers to continue to lead at the nexus of technology and society, and to solve society’s most pressing problems. Together, Argo AI and CMU will accelerate critical research in autonomous vehicles while building on the momentum of CMU’s culture of innovation.”
The new Autonomous Vehicle Research center will be led by Deva Ramanan, an associate professor in the Robotics Institute and machine learning lead at Argo AI. Both faculty members and students from CMU will be able to participate.
“Argo AI, Pittsburgh and the entire autonomous vehicle industry have benefited from Carnegie Mellon’s leadership. It’s an honor to support development of the next generation of leaders and help unlock the full potential of autonomous vehicle technology,” said Bryan Salesky, CEO and co-founder of Argo AI. “CMU and now Argo AI are two big reasons why Pittsburgh will remain the center of the universe for self-driving technology.”
The partnership between CMU and Argo AI, at least, are a natural fit. Argo AI was founded in 2016 by a team of CMU alumni.