COMPANY

Edge Case Research was formed by leading autonomy and software safety experts from Carnegie Mellon University who believe that safety should be built into all software products from the ground up. Our customers demand tools and techniques that help them go to market with products that are safe, secure, and reliable. Edge Case Research helps them by delivering software and services to tackle the most complex machine learning challenges and embedded software problems quickly.

 

MANAGEMENT
Michael Wagner

Michael Wagner

CEO & Co-Founder

Mike is the CEO of Edge Case Research, a company he founded to make autonomous systems safer, and put together a team that brings together experts from the fields of software safety and autonomy. His experience with autonomous vehicles began nearly twenty years ago starting at Carnegie Mellon University. He built lunar rovers for Red Whittaker, autonomous scientists that explored Antarctica, and self driving technology for tackling harsh off road terrain. Ten years ago Mike and Philip Koopman began researching techniques to design and verify autonomous systems, and today he applies this experience to lead Edge Case Research with the goal of providing validation technology for autonomy across a range of industries including self driving cars, materials handling, and robotic work cells.

Prof. Philip Koopman

Prof. Philip Koopman

CTO & Co-Founder

Phil Koopman has been involved in autonomous vehicle safety for over 20 years. He is one of the world's leading authorities on embedded software and autonomous system safety. Dr. Koopman was the leader of the Ballista project at Carnegie Mellon, and has 20 years of experience with applying robustness testing to real-world systems. A faculty member at Carnegie Mellon University with appointments in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, the Institute for Software Research, and the Robotics Institute, his background includes time as a submarine officer for the US Navy, a principal in a several startups, an embedded CPU architect for Harris Semiconductor, and an embedded system architect for United Technologies Research Center.

Brendon Ouimette

Brendon Ouimette

Vice President of Business Development

Brendon is ECR's VP of Business Development. He brings prior experience with startups as well as work in to corporate world to the team, working in a variety of industries and locations. Like the rest of the ECR team, Brendon is focused on ensuring that the software that enables future robotics, autonomy, and the broader connected world is a safe and secure one. Brendon earned his MBA from the Thunderbird School of Global Management in 2005.

Jennifer Gallingane

Jennifer Gallingane

Vice President of Product Development

Jen joined ECR in 2018 and is responsible for Product Development and Management, where she oversees the strategy, vision and execution behind ECR’s products.  Jen is an experienced professional with a career that spans over 20 years in software engineering and management in roles ranging from software design, information delivery and analytics, mobile products, eCommerce systems, and IT services. Prior to joining ECR, Jen was responsible for overseeing development of new high profile mobile products at Smith Micro Software, global expansion of managed help desk product at Continuum Managed Services as well as various technical and leadership roles in the financial and healthcare sectors. Jen holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Master of Science in Information Science from the University of Pittsburgh.

NOTABLE MILESTONES
THE TEAM
Jennifer Black, PhD

Jennifer Black, PhD

Lead Engineer

Jen specializes in embedded system safety and dependability, with experience in automotive, aviation, rail, and consumer products. She completed her PhD in Electrical & Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University where she was a member of the General Motors Collaborative Research Lab. Her thesis research focused on approaches for defining safety requirements for sub-systems in complex composite systems. Prior to obtaining her PhD she worked in system test, installation and support in the telecommunication software industry.

Frank Fratrik

Frank Fratrik

Lead Engineer

During 15 years as a government civilian at the US Army Aberdeen Test Center, Frank performed and managed software test and analysis according to MIL-STD 882E on a number of military systems. This included hands-on safety testing for manned and unmanned vehicles, weaponized robotics, guided projectiles, and remote weapon stations. Frank experienced the consequences of unexpected failures in a variety of complex vehicle and weapon systems. Frank is committed to ensuring test safety for developing systems and operational safety for fielded systems via rigorous safety engineering processes built into all systems engineering phases. Frank holds a B.S in Electrical Engineering from Penn State and M.S. in Systems Engineering from Johns Hopkins.

Aaron Kane, PhD

Aaron Kane, PhD

Lead Engineer

Aaron received his PhD in Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon in 2015. His thesis work dealt with structured safety cases for run-time assurance architectures, a technology that is thoroughly relevant to the proposed work. His work at Edge Case Research has also involved stress testing safety-critical, complex software. Prior to graduation he worked on the “Automated Stress Testing for Autonomy Architectures” (ASTAA) project at Carnegie Mellon, and served as a Visiting Scientist at the General Motors R&D center in Warren, MI.

Dana Martinelli

Dana Martinelli

Lead UX Designer

As systems get more complex, they need to be more usable for a wide variety of users. Ultimately, the interactive experience is intended to optimize difficult workflows in order to empower users to make better choices. Dana received his BFA from Carnegie Mellon University in 1993. In 2001, through a joint effort between the Studio for Creative Inquiry and The Robotics Institute at CMU, he helped architect and design telepresence interfaces for JPL/NASA which have inspired current generations of robotic applications. In 2017 he was a Capstone Faculty Adjunct Professor of Human Computer Interaction Institute at CMU. He also has a successful track record in helping build digital marketing strategies for early stage start-ups. He tries to bike everyday too.
Becky McKeever

Becky McKeever

Lead Systems Administrator

Becky received her B.S in Computer Science from California University of Pennsylvania in 2013. With a strong background in end-user support, as well as server/systems and user administration in the robotics and autonomy industry, she understands how important it is for our developers and engineers to have a stable and secure infrastructure surrounding their work as well as reliable support so they can focus their attention where it is needed.

Ryan McNulty

Ryan McNulty

Lead Engineer

Ryan has a very diverse programming background; working on mobile app, web app, IoT and embedded systems projects. Coming from a development agency in Seattle, he has been able to hone his development skills and gain experience with XP, TDD and pair programming. Having spent several years at commercial and startup companies Ryan has become the "process guru" ensuring code quality and development best practices to guarantee Edge Case provides the best long-term service to its customers. Ryan received his MS in Computer Science from the University of Pittsburgh in 2013.

Jacob Nelson

Jacob Nelson

Safety Engineer

Jacob received his M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon in 2016. While there, he focused on the design and testing of embedded systems and the Internet of Things. He sees the world's growing dependence on technology as creating a need for greater focus on sound software design principles and rigorous, meaningful testing.
Adi Nemlekar

Adi Nemlekar

Lead Engineer

With a strong passion for Machine Learning and Data Science, Adi has worked as a researcher and engineer in many industry sectors, including Bioinformatics, High-Frequency Trading and Robotics. He brings 14 years of engineering and data science experience to Edge Case, where he works on constructing viable data science and analytics pipelines, implementing and optimizing ML algorithms for perception systems, and researching new ML algorithms in the safety space. Adi received his Masters in Machine Learning from University of Pittsburgh (2007) and his bachelors in Engineering from University of Illinois - Urbana Champaign (2004).

Karen Nocera

Karen Nocera

Lead Engineer

Karen spent 13 years as a government civilian at the US Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command, where she managed system safety programs during all phases of the defense acquisition process. Karen has experience will a variety of vehicle platforms and integrated weapon systems. She has first hand experience with unexpected failures attributed to embedded software anomalies and understands the importance of including rigorous safety processes in all systems engineering phases. Karen holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of New Haven and an M.S. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Arkansas.
Elizabeth Osyk, PhD

Elizabeth Osyk, PhD

Lead Engineer

Safe systems start with a solid theoretical foundation, follow through with a dependable implementation, and prove robust through testing and analysis. Beth brings Internet of Things and automotive experience to the team. As UC Berkeley research staff, she helped to build and test a disciplined, multi-host IoT development and execution environment as part of the TerraSwarm center. Prior to that she analyzed engine control software at a Tier 1 automotive supplier. Beth received her PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, focusing on a methodology for assessing the reliability of safety-critical in-vehicle networks.
Justin Ray, PhD

Justin Ray, PhD

Lead Engineer

As technology becomes more and more integrated into our lives, we interact with computers and software systems in new ways every day. The rapid growth of robotics, autonomy, and the Internet of Things is outstripping the industry's ability to deploy systems that are safe. Justin works on projects that make systems safer through better design and software better through more effective testing. Justin received his PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon in 2013.
Zachary Rousselle

Zachary Rousselle

Software Engineer

Zach first became interested in building and testing dependable embedded systems while earning his M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. The current proliferation of smart devices and autonomous systems promises to make our lives easier, but also makes us more exposed to software vulnerabilities. It became clear to him that discovering and fixing those vulnerabilities before deployment through improved design processes and testing is the best way to mitigate those vulnerabilities. Zach’s additional experience with the Automated Stress Testing for Autonomy Architectures (ASTAA) project at Carnegie Mellon brings robustness testing expertise on top of his expert embedded systems knowledge.

Allison Sciullo

Allison Sciullo

Director of Project Development

Allison is the Director of Project Development at ECR where she leads the teams in developing and using strategic and effective project management tools and processes. With over 20 years of project-focused experience in government, private industry, and academia, she provides insights during each phase of the Project Management Life Cycle. With a focus on continuous quality improvement first garnered at her time at NIST, Allison’s passion is developing a process framework that grows with ECR and sets us apart by codifying our commitment to safety excellence.

Mark Shepherd

Mark Shepherd

Software Engineer

Mark received his B.S. in Computer Science from Indiana University in 2017 with a specialization in Programming Languages. Mark is passionate about creating correct software whether that involves dependently typed languages, generating verified code, using better development practices, or testing, testing, and more testing. He believes that as software and robots get more intertwined with the physical world, safety and correctness become ever more important.

Samuel Yim

Samuel Yim

Robotics Engineer

Sam received an MS in robotics from Carnegie Mellon University in 2016. He was a member of the Field Robotics Center, and, as part of his thesis research, developed a system for localizing a rover within a barren desert using only a pair of stereo cameras. He has experience with computer vision and machine learning systems, having previously worked on automated science analysis of stromatolite fossils and reliably identifying rocks in the desert. These problems have given Sam insight into how difficult it can be to make a truly robust perception system. At Edge Case Research, he works toward solving this fundamental challenge.

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