THURSDAY, MAY 20, 2021 | Live Stream 11am EST

Interviews will be streamed live on LinkedIn, across Informa Tech Automotive Group’s media sites, and on this webpage. Be there for the live airing at 11am EST, join us for the re-stream at 2pm EST, or watch OnDemand at a time that works for you.

Melissa Cefkin, Senior Staff Researcher, Waymo

Melissa Cefkin is a Senior Staff Researcher at Waymo, an autonomous driving technology company with a mission to make it safe and easy for people and things to get where they’re going. 

In her role, Melissa is responsible for research to inform a wide range of topics related to the social and user impacts of autonomous driving technology. 

Before coming to Waymo, Melissa was a manager of the Human Understanding and Design practice at Nissan Research Center-Silicon Valley where where she explored the potential future of having autonomous vehicles as interactive objects and active agents in the world. Prior to that, she was at IBM Research where her research focused on work and consumption practices in complex technical and organizational contexts. Melissa has deep experience in design and consulting as well, and was previously a Director of Advance Research, User Experience, and Experience Modeling at Sapient Corporation, and a senior research scientist at the Institute for Research on Learning.

Melissa is the editor of Ethnography and the Corporate Encounter (Berghahn Books 2009) and the author of numerous publications, including “Human-vehicle interfaces: the power of vehicle movement gestures inhuman road user coordination,” “Developing socially autonomous vehicles,” “Evaluation of an autonomous vehicle external communication system concept: a survey study,”and “Multi-methods research to examine external HMI for highly automated vehicles.” She holds multiple patents on autonomous vehicles, serves on numerous editorial and conference boards and on a committee for the national Academies of Science, and is a Fulbright award grantee.

Melissa holds a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from Rice University and a B.A. from UC Santa Cruz.

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SPOTLIGHT ON DREW WINTER

Drew Winter, Senior Analyst and Community Manager, Informa Tech Automotive Group

Senior Analyst and Community Manager at Informa Tech Automotive Group. As an analyst, I follow cockpit of the future and related topics. As a community manager, I create new relationships and content related to specific technical issues and topics for ITAG events. My latest project is our Automotive Inspire series of interviews with interesting and inspirational people working in the automotive and mobility industries. I also am a judge for the Wards 10 Best Propulsion Systems, Wards 10 Best Interiors and Wards 10 Best UX each year in addition to being a long-time juror for the North American Car, Truck and Utility of the Year awards.