About Us

Meet the Team

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About AI Racing Tech

AI Racing Tech is a multi-university program of students and faculty using autonomous racing to engage students, push untested boundaries, and drive research to ensure the highest caliber of safety for the future of commercial autonomy.

The AI Racing Tech team originated at the University of Hawai’i, Maui, in spring 2020, from an Autonomous Vehicle Technology class taught by Gary Passon. In 2021, the UH-led team expanded to include faculty and students from other schools, including the University of California, Berkeley, the University of California, San Diego, and Carnegie Mellon University, competing as one of nine teams in the international Indy Autonomous Challenge (IAC).

At IAC 2022 at Texas Motor Speedway, AI Racing Tech came in second only to PoliMOVE of Italy, establishing AI Racing Tech as the leading U.S. team in the competition. The following year, AI Racing Tech came in third at IAC 2023, held at CES in Las Vegas.

In the summer of 2023, team leadership was transferred to UC Berkeley under Allen Yang, Principal Investigator of the Robot Open Autonomous Racing (ROAR) program, which operates within the FHL Vive Center for Enhanced Reality at Berkeley Engineering. Passon serves as Team Principal for the Berkeley-led team.

In January 2024, AI Racing Tech was one of only three teams chosen from the international IAC competition to test out and showcase the new Dallara-built AV-24, the world’s fastest autonomous racecar, unveiled at CES 2024. Further testing was completed later that spring down the Kennedy Space Center runway at Cape Canaveral, in anticipation of head-to-head competition at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in September.

Follow the team and racing and research news through the social media buttons above.

University Faculty Leads

Shankar Sastry PhD, Faculty Director

Dr. S. Shankar Sastry is a distinguished UC Berkeley EECS Professor specializing in embedded and cyber-physical systems, robotics, computer vision, and control systems. He served 15 years as Dean of Engineering and Faculty Director of the Blum Center for Developing Economies, directed DARPA’s Information Technology Office, and chaired the EECS Department. A prolific author, Dr. Sastry has published over 550 technical papers and numerous books, significantly advancing control theory and robotics. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and has received multiple honorary doctorates, the President of India Gold Medal, and the ACC Eckman Award.

Allen Yang, PhD

University of California, Berkeley

Robot Open Autonomous Racing (ROAR)

Jack Silberman, PhD

University of California,
San Diego

Triton-AI

John Dolan, PhD

Carnegie Mellon University

Carnegie Autonomous Racing (CAR)

Dr. Allen Y. Yang is Executive Director of the FHL Vive Center for Enhanced Reality at UC Berkeley. His research focuses on emerging technologies in AR, VR, and AI, with a particular interest in Computer Vision, Human-Centered User Experience Design, and Autonomy. He has co-founded graduate degree programs in AR/VR, Autonomous Driving, Blockchain and DeFi. Current projects include OpenARK, an open-source AR software developer kit, and Robot Open Autonomous Racing (ROAR).

Dr. Jack Silberman is a lecturer at UC San Diego, where he teaches courses in mechanical and aerospace engineering. With over 20 years of experience in automation and robotics, Silberman has worked on educational robotics, NASA-sponsored mobile field robotics, semiconductor automation, biotech, and medical devices. He is the commercial QA area manager for Canada and Latin America with Abbott Diabetes Care, a global leader in medical devices.

Dr. John M. Dolan is a Principal Systems Scientist at the Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute , where he creates systems and methodologies for robots and humans to collaborate. His research aims to balance maximizing robot autonomy while creating effective human-machine interfaces. Dolan's research includes developing algorithms for autonomous driving, creating tele-supervisory human-robot systems, and studying robot reliability. He has also worked on NASA projects.

Staff Lead

Gary Passon

Gary Passon, AI Motorsports Team Principal

With an honorary appointment at UC Berkeley, AI Racing Tech founder Gary Passon is AI Motorsports Team Principal, serving as the on-the-ground team lead. He brings a technical and engineering background to the team and years of racing experience - from go-kart to amateur road racing to professional road racing to professional oval racing. He helped start, build, and run high-tech companies in Silicon Valley and Southern California before retiring to Maui, where he helped establish the UH-Maui AVT course that launched the AI Racing Tech team.