Argo AI to Invest $15M in Research Lab at CMU

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TUESDAY, JUNE 25, 2019 Argo AI to invest $15M in research lab at CMU

By Courtney Linder Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The buzzy self-driving car startup in which Ford invested $1 billion two years ago - Strip District-based Argo AI - announced Monday that it’s making a financial promise of its own: committing $15 million to Carnegie Mellon University to establish an on-campus research hub. Aptly named the “Carnegie Mellon University Argo AI Center for Autonomous Vehicle Research,” the hub will be dedicated to at least five years of deep exploration into some of the greatest challenges for self-driving cars. At the moment, this mostly includes advanced perception research, which helps vehicles “see” obstacles on the road, and vastly improved decision- making algorithms that help the cars’ Courtesy of Carnegie Mellon University internal computers manage various Argo AI has committed $15 million over five years to establish a research lab on CMU courses of action they may take, opting campus. for the safest one. Deva Ramanan, an associate professor in the Robotics Institute who also serves as machine learning lead at A young startup grows up A lot has changed since then. Argo AI, will lead the new Argo lab. Argo AI CEO Bryan Salesky is a Due in large part to early research Argo AI isn’t the only company Pittsburgh native. From a young age, like the Terregator, there is now a experimenting with autonomous he recalls the city being the epicenter blossoming self-driving industry in vehicles on campus, though. Raj of self-driving research. Pittsburgh with companies such as Rajkumar, a noted researcher in The university’s first autonomous Uber, Aptiv and Lawrenceville-based autonomous-vehicle technology - and vehicle, he said, was called the Aurora Innovation testing vehicles on the founder of a startup called Terregator. It was a mobile robot our streets, in addition to Argo AI. Ottomatika, acquired by O’Hara-based designed for both indoor and outdoor Since Argo was established in late self-driving firm Aptiv - runs the testing to study navigation, sensors 2016, it has grown from three employees General Motors-Carnegie Mellon and more. to about 400. And, of course, there’s “[It] drove at the lightning speed of that huge infusion of cash that Ford PROOF Connected and Autonomous Driving Collaborative Research Lab. several centimeters per second,” Mr. gave Argo mere months later in 2017. Uber is also funding on-campus Salesky said to laughs from the Setting up shop on CMU’s campus projects. audience. “That was back in 1984. I was likely will create another huge benefit four years old.” Continued on back

TUESDAY, JUNE 25, 2019

Continued from front for the young company, considering “We can’t do this alone,” he said At CMU, there also will be a human that the demand for engineers in the before a room filled with industry component to Argo’s research. self-driving space is fierce. experts, researchers, public officials Much to the delight of Pittsburgh The lab creates a direct pipeline for and students. Mayor Bill Peduto, who was in fresh talent, allowing students to work Considering the formation of similar attendance, the center also will focus in the lab while in school and possibly academic-corporate partnerships in on safety improvements and explore even secure a job at Argo AI upon the autonomous vehicles research ethical questions that arise from the graduation. Mr. Salesky calls these space, that seems to be true. commercial deployment of self-driving students the “next generation” of self- At the Massachusetts Institute of technology. driving vehicle researchers. Technology, there is a lab within its The mayor somewhat facetiously Significantly, all research and computer science and artificial- suggested that Argo and CMU employ software developed at the center will be intelligence school completely dedicated some philosophers in the new lab. open-source, meaning other companies to the development of self-driving tech. In any case, he was hopeful that or universities can leverage its findings. Toyota put $25 million into this professors in the humanities will play Carnegie Mellon, for its part, will endeavor in 2015. The aim is to reduce a role in the research. benefit from having new industry traffic casualties and work toward Meanwhile, Mr. Salesky said the resources and research that it otherwise creating a vehicle that won’t get into partnership and financial arrangements wouldn’t have access to, such as private accidents. Similar to CMU, the MIT for the new lab are about more than self-driving data sets, fleets of cars and lab is researching decision-making just advancing research: They also are other computer and hardware algorithms and perception systems. about preserving the heart of self- equipment that otherwise would be At Stanford, Toyota spent another driving car development in Pittsburgh, difficult to obtain, according to Mr. $25 million that same year to set up an where he says it all began. Ramanan. autonomous research lab. Their focus “This really is, truly, the birthplace is on “human-centered artificial of autonomous vehicles.” ‘We can’t do this alone’ intelligence for future intelligent Farnam Jahanian, president of CMU, robotics,” as the university calls it. That said during a campus news conference basically comes down to developing Courtney Linder: clinder@post-gazette. that this partnership represents a new new approaches to machine perception com or 412-263-1707. Twitter: @LinderPG. way of thinking about collaboration and reasoning, as at CMU. between industry and academia. PROOF