Zach LaCelle: Driving Progress & Innovation in Autonomous Systems at MITRE

Transportation Research & Prototyping Artificial Intelligence

Zach LaCelle leads MITRE’s Robotics and Unmanned Systems group within our AI & Autonomy Innovation Center. He and his team are taking on new approaches to the technology and challenges that will help the automated-driving industry improve and prosper.

Zach LaCelle:

MITRE's a nonprofit that works in the public interest.
We don't have shareholders and we aren't beholden
to a bottom, you know, a corporate profit bottom line.
We're really here to solve the problems for a safer world.
And this is really true in autonomy.
You know, I come from a background in defense contracting.
And in that field, we were focused on selling a technology.
But as MITRE, we're really able to pick the pieces
of technology that we think are most important
and tackle those challenges.
We can identify the areas where we feel like
autonomy needs improvement, we can identify the areas
where there are significant safety gains to be made,
and we can tackle those challenges.
So that makes it a uniquely MITRE problem.
I also think that MITRE is able to take a holistic view.
We don't need to make an autonomous vehicle
but we can try to tackle the specific challenges
that will help the whole community prosper and improve.