Justyna Zander

Dr. Justyna Zander works on scaling and automating autonomous vehicles engineering, simulation and validation efforts at Ford Motor Company to enable a safe fleet deployment. Formerly she spent 5.5 years with NVIDIA AV. Before she was with Intel, MathWorks, White House, German car industry, and Fraunhofer Institutes. She earned two BSc-s, MSc, and PhD in Germany, and did a postdoc at Harvard University.

Dr. Zander holds 3 citizenships (Polish, German, and American) and speaks 5 languages. Filed for ~30 patents, published 3 books and coauthored ~40 science publications, cited over ~2000 times, reviewed ~500 academic papers on simulation, model-based testing and embedded systems design.

Acknowledged internationally with countless awards (IEEE, European Union, NIST, SWE, SAE, Falling Walls, etc.). For over 20 years she has served as a technical committee member for more than 50 journals and conferences. Advises government strategy and research roadmaps; invited by NSF, EU Commission, national councils; member of multiple Steering Committees at various conferences.

She was listed on Business Insider’s annual list of the Most Powerful Women Engineers and she won SWE Leader Award as an international recognition for breakthrough work in computer science and engineering.

SUMMARY

• Thought leadership and large team leadership for large high-tech geographically-distributed systems.
• Public speaker, author, inventor, flexible, intense, passionate.
• Personality biased toward creating solutions.
• Infatuated with self-driving car technologies.
• Intrigued with space industry technologies and supersonic flights.
• Endless desire to grow and learn, ideally together.
• Aiming at greatness.

WHAT

• Technology Director, Founder, Technical Teams Lead
  
• Directs technological initiatives and demonstrations; featured at the White House
• Drives lasting relationships with thought leaders; committee member of over 50 boards
• Manages and performs technology research; cited almost 2000 times
• Advises government strategy and research roadmaps; invited by NIST, EU, national councils

HOW

• Outstanding academic background; 40 peer-reviewed publications, postdoc at Harvard, visiting professor
• Stellar academic reputation; authored and co-authored 3 books, 30 awards and honors
• Provides strong technical leadership and direction
• Communicates well with customer, various teams, and executive management
• Effectively drives and manages geographically distributed efforts and related risks
• Entrepreneur spirit; founded and co-founded 3 startups and initiatives
• Acquires funding from multiple sources; creates opportunities for team members
• Public technical speaker; over 40 invited talks, over 30 mentions in technical media
• Creative thinker with vision; 30 patent applications
• Cultivates the culture of enthusiasm

WHERE

• Domain expert in safety-critical system development and system architecture
• Domain expert in verification, validation, safety, incl. the use of scalable design and simulation
• Application expert in embedded systems and cyber-physical systems; e.g., self-driving cars

CREDENTIALS

• Projects at the White House, Fortune 500 companies, automotive OEMs, Harvard, MIT, WPI, Fraunhofer Institutes
• IEEE Senior Member
• SAE Member
• Expert in European Union Horizon2020
• International Society for Modeling and Simulation Steering Committee
  
• Exponential Organization Expert
• German National Academic Foundation Alumnus
• Hertie Foundation Alumnus
• Singularity University Alumnus
• Science Magazine reviewer
• Extraordinary Ability green card (EB1)
  

HONORS, AWARDS

• 2019 – German Academic International Network (DAAD) - GAIN19 Award
• 2018 – Business Insider’s annual list of the Most Powerful Women Engineers 2018
• 2017 – SWE Emerging Leader Award 2017, global
• 2016 – Intel nomination for SWE Emerging Leader Award 2016, global
• 2015 – A.T. Kearney Scholarship – Falling Walls Lab 2015, November 8-9, Berlin, Germany
• 2015 – Showcase Selection (DoD, NSTXL) at Defense Innovation Challenge, December 1-3, 2015 in Austin TX, USA
• 2014 – A.T. Kearney Scholarship – Falling Walls Lab 2014, November 8-9, Berlin, Germany
• 2014 – The Society for Modeling & Simulation International™ Leadership Award, SummerSim'14
• 2013 – IEEE Senior Member (Advancing Technology for Humanity)
• 2013 – Hertie Foundation Grant – Falling Walls Conference 2013, November 8-10, 2013, Berlin, Germany
• 2012 – National Institute of Standards and Technology Grant – Foundations for Innovation in Cyber-Physical Systems Workshop, March 13-14, 2012, U.S.A.
• 2012 – Hertie Foundation Grant – Career Coaching for Hertie Alumni, Hertie School of Governance, Germany
• 2011 – Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology – ‘KMU Patentaktion’ – Patent Grant for Small- and Middle-size Companies in Germany
• 2011 – German Academic International Network – Conference Grant for Scientists, August 2011, San Francisco, CA, U.S.A.
• 2009–2010 – Year Scientific Fellowship at Harvard University along the Program between Fraunhofer Institute and US-American Center of Excellence (PROF.x²)
• 2009 – Scholarship from the Singularity University at NASA Ames Research Park in Mountain View, CA, U.S.A.; selection rate 3.3 % of the world-wide applicants
• 2008 – Métodos y Tecnología Student Grant – TTCN-3 User Conference 2008 in Madrid, Spain
• 2007 – Siemens Student Scholarship – TTCN-3 User Conference 2007 in Stockholm, Sweden
• 2006 – designated as IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Society Student Ambassador
• 2006 – IEEE Student Grant – IEEE 41st Anniversary of the Systems Readiness Technology Conference (AutoTestCon 2006) – Anaheim, CA, U.S.A.
• 2005 – IFIP TC6 Student Grant – The 17th IFIP International Conference on Testing of Communicating Systems – Montreal, Canada
• 2004–2008 – Scholarships from: German National Academic Foundation for 0.31% of the most outstanding students in Germany and Hertie Foundation for the best students in Europe
• 2005 – one-month Scholarship from German National Academic Foundation – Italian language course in Rom (Italy)
• 2001–2005 – four twelve-month scholarships awarded every year by Polish Ministry of National Education and Sport for the 0.04% best students in Poland
• 2004 – Gdynia City Council Scholarship for the best students in the region (Poland)
• 2004–2008 – e-fellows scholarship awarded for students „with outstanding academic achievement, practical and international experience, and extracurricular activities“
• 2004 – Socrates/Erasmus European Union scholarship
• 2002 – Scholarship from German Academic Exchange Service
• 1998/1999 – Year Scholarship of the Prime Minister in Poland, ranked as 1st Best Student in the High School based on the year GPA
• 1999 – 1st place in sport competition in Floorball for secondary schools from the region