About the team | Team Jefferson

About the team

Perrone Robotics formed Team Jefferson out of Charlottesville, Virginia in 2004 as a small budget side project in an attempt to see how far and fast they could progress in the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge. The idea was to see how Perrone Robotics’ MAX robotics software platform could be used to rapidly develop and integrate a complex autonomous ground vehicle (AGV) application. 195 applications were received by DARPA from teams across the country. After a series of applications, video demonstrations, and site visit evaluations, 40 teams were accepted to participate in the National Qualifying Events at the California Speedway with Team Jefferson and their silver egg-shaped dune buggy “Tommy” among the pack.

Tommy fared well during the National Qualifying Events in California including a perfect third run avoiding all obstacles along the way. Tommy was among the top 10 after its third run and garnered much media attention due to its unique design and the team’s “faster and cheaper” development approach mantra and persona. The budget for development of Tommy was just $60k, involved less than 10 man-months of software development time, and all of Tommy’s intelligence ran on a single processor card costing less than $200. In contrast, some of the more well financed teams reportedly spent millions of dollars on their project, hundreds of man-years, and employed banks of high-end processor platforms. In what started as a low-budget side project trying to demonstrate a “faster & cheaper” approach for building AGVs, Team Jefferson ultimately advanced very far and was a competitive entry with an extremely minimal amount of time and money expended.

Stories, pictures, and details of Tommy were featured in 100s of print and online media sources. Sources included the Washington Post, MSNBC, the Early Today show, ABC, CBS, NBC, Popular Mechanics, Scientific American, a PBS documentary, Monster Garage, and numerous other local and national publication outlets. A film crew was also embedded with the team and is completing a documentary film geared for theatrical release in 2007. Even after the 2005 events, Tommy continues to garner national attention and recognition. At the 2006 Sun Microsystems JavaOne conference, Perrone Robotics” was recognized with a Duke Award in the Emerging Technology category from Sun Microsystems for Tommy and MAX. Tommy and team lead Paul Perrone were also invited out to speak with James Gosling, father of the Java programming platform, during Gosling’s keynote at Sun’s 2006 JavaOne conference (approximately 15,000 attendees). A live demo of Tommy in 2006 during a “Tommy tailgate” at Sun Microsystems” headquarters was also picked up by MSNBC, the Early Today show, and television broadcasts to over 44 cities nationwide.

Team Jefferson also participated in the 2007 Urban Challenge events investing more time and resources. For a complete de-briefing on the team’s adventures, click here: /about-the-team/debrief/

Paul J. Perrone

Team Lead: Paul J. Perrone is the founder and CEO of Perrone Robotics, maker of the MAX general purpose Java-based robotics software platform. Paul also led Team Jefferson to the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge qualifiers fielding a MAX-based robotic dune buggy named ‘Tommy’. He also led Team Jefferson’s work on ‘Tommy Junior’, an autonomous Scion xB for the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge and is continuously applying the MAX robotics software platform in numerous commercial robotics products.
Peter Bonanni

Peter Bonanni is a 3rd year Computer Engineering student at the University of Virginia. He joined this effort after gaining experience on another DARPA program called RealWorld. On the Tommy Team he dealt with design and construction of the electrical control and power systems. During the final in California he also worked on electronics and debugging of the line recognition software . He now has returned to the DARPA RealWorld Project.
Anup Ghosh

Anup Ghosh, a former DARPA program manager and veteran DARPA Grand Challenge participant, is a Team Advisor to Team Jefferson. Ghosh also helped lead the fundraising efforts for Team Jefferson as well as provide strategic direction to navigating myriad obstacles to the National Qualifier Event.

Ghosh is currently a Research Professor and Chief Scientist at George Mason University’s Center for Secure Information Systems, and also Chief Executive and President of Secure Command, LLC.
David Rusbarsky

David graduated from The Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in 2006 with a BS in Computer Science. While at RIT, he competed against Team Jefferson in the DARPA Grand Challenge 2005 on team GCart@RIT and was involved with various other robotic projects on campus. After graduating, David was hired by Perrone Robotics as a software engineer and has since helped with Team Jefferson while implementing a wide variety of commercial projects.
Mike Woosley

Mike served as the Chief Financial Officer of Advertising.com from its inception in 1999 until it was sold to AOL in August of 2004.

Previously, Mike worked for Mars & Co, a French company engaged in advisory and consulting services. Mike spent most of his time at Mars working on merger and acquisition transactions in the energy industry.

Mike started his career in engineering. He graduated with honors from the University of Virginia earning BS, MS, and PhD degrees. He has worked at Los Alamos and Oak Ridge National Laboratories, and for the Atomic Energy Commission of France.

Mike is currently Chief Financial Officer of Maryland-based BDMetrics, Inc.
Michael Myers

Michael is a 4th year Mechanical Engineering student at the University of Virginia from Rockville, Virginia. He has been with Team Jefferson since their first endeavor, Tommy Senior. He has dealt with all aspects of the vehicle, including mechanical, electrical, and software. He will be in Germany for a year eating snitzel and drinking beer.
George Cahen

Professor George Cahen joined the faculty at the University of Virginia School of Engineering in 1976. He is a member of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and is the Director of Experiential Programs and Engineering Outreach for the School. He has taught a number of core engineering classes as well as introductory materials classes to undergraduates throughout his years at UVa and has since the 90′s been the faculty advisor to a number of automotive oriented collegiate competition teams which include Solar Car and SAE Mini Baja. Presently he is serving as the faculty advisor to engineering students working on the Team Jefferson DARPA Urban Challenge Robotic Car.
Brian J. Geiger

Brian J. Geiger joined Team Jefferson and Perrone Robotics as their Project Manager in June of 2007. Although he’s recently worked in the print publication industry, it was his experience in video games and integrating game software with game hardware that really led him towards a life in robotics.