[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 184 (Tuesday, December 4, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2474-E2475]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY'S TARTAN RACING TEAM

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. MICHAEL F. DOYLE

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, December 4, 2007

  Mr. DOYLE. Madam Speaker, I rise today to congratulate Carnegie 
Mellon University's Tartan Racing Team and its autonomous driving robot 
vehicle, ``Boss,'' on placing first in the Defense Advanced Research 
Projects Agency's Urban Challenge, held November 3, 2007 in 
Victorville, California.
  This contest pitted 11 autonomous vehicles against each other on a 
course of suburban and urban roadways. Its goal was to help develop 
robotics technology that can keep military personnel out of harm's way 
and prevent civilian automotive accidents.
  Boss was the fastest of the competitors by a large margin, averaging 
14 miles per hour over the approximately 55 mile course and finishing 
20 minutes ahead of the second-place finisher.
  Carnegie Mellon University's Tartan Racing Team has been working hard 
to produce revolutionary new robots that can dramatically improve 
driver safety. To accomplish these goals, Team Leader Dr. William 
``Red'' Whittaker has put together a team of researchers, faculty and 
staff that is unparalleled in the robotics world.
  I want to recognize each of these outstanding individuals by name. 
They are Joshua Anhalt, Hong S. Bae, Drew Bagnell, Christopher Baker, 
Bob Bittner, Thomas Brown, George Clancy, M. N. Clark, Dominic Dagradi, 
Michael Darms, Daniel Demitrish, John Dolan, Dave Duggins, Dave 
Ferguson, Tugrul Galatali, Michele Gittleman, Sam Harbaugh, Martial 
Hebert, Tom Howard, Alonzo Kelly, David Kohanbash, Maxim Likhachev, 
Bakhtiar Litkouhi, Nick Miller, Jim Nickolaou, Kevin Peterson, Brian 
Pilnick, Raj Rajkumar, Paul Rybski, Varsha Sadekar, Bryan Salesky, 
Sebastian Scherer, Ed Schlesinger, Young-Woo Seo, Bob Shafto, Todd 
Shupe, Reid Simmons, Sanjiv Singh, Jarrod Snider, Spencer Spiker, 
Anthony Stentz, Josh Struble, Evan Tahler, Chris Urmson, Ziv 
Wolkowicki, Vincent Zeng, Shuqing Zeng, Wende Zhang and Jason Ziglar.
  The Tartan Racing Team's success must also be credited to its 
relationship with its sponsors. The longstanding Carnegie Mellon-GM 
Collaborative Research Lab brings hardware integration and system 
engineering skills to the team, for example. Tartan Racing's other 
partners include Caterpillar, Continental AG, Intel, Google, Applanix, 
TeleAtlas, Vector, Ibeo, Mobileye, CarSim, CleanPower Resources, MA/
COM, NetApp, Vector CANtech

[[Page E2475]]

and Hewlett Packard. I think we can all agree it's hard to beat a team 
with a bench like that.
  As the Congressman representing Carnegie Mellon, and as co-chair of 
the Congressional Caucus on Robotics, I ask my colleagues to join me in 
honoring the Tartan Racing Team and Carnegie Mellon University for 
their innovations in robotics and for their DARPA Grand Challenge 
Victory.

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