About Me
Allison has a passion for solving practical problems with robotics. Building on her experience in the self-driving car industry and her background in robotics research, she is leading a team to tackle some of the toughest challenges in agtonomy at Blue River Technology. Additionally, as the Vice President of Women in Robotics, Allison is committed to empowering and supporting women in the field of robotics, advocating for greater inclusivity and representation.
Allison has experience across a wide range of robotics applications. In the autonomous vehicle (AV) industry, she was a Senior Staff Manager at Waymo, where she led multiple teams focused on vehicle behavior. She spearheaded a cross-functional working group to improve autonomous navigation around pedestrians and other vulnerable road users in complex urban environments like San Francisco.
Prior to her work at Waymo, Allison served as Engineering Lead and Manager of the Shared Autonomy Robotics team at Toyota Research Institute, where her team advanced robotic teleoperation technologies to enable robots and humans to collaborate safely and seamlessly. She also worked as the Lead Manipulation Researcher and Project Manager at Toyota Partner Robot Group, where she researched task and motion planning for robust manipulation in unstructured environments.
Before joining Toyota, she was the Lead Engineer for Robotic Perception on Robonaut 2, the first humanoid robot on the International Space Station. She was responsible for software development and applied vision research to facilitate effective cooperation between robots and humans in space.
Allison holds degrees in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, with a thesis focused on collision avoidance in supervised robotic manipulation.
Robotics
- 10+ years experience
- Broad knowledge across all robotics domains including perception, manipulation, and control
Vision
- Experience applying research to next-generation products
- Understands the “big picture” of how components fit together
- Prioritize projects with an understanding of milestones, budgets, and personnel
Leadership
- History of motivating teams to deliver on time
- Excellent communication skills
- Ability to coordinate across functional areas