Waymo Events

Waymo

Self-Driven Women

Building a community of women developing the future of mobility

SPEAKERS
OUR DISCUSSIONS

Our most recent event from July 1st, 2021:

Women in Mobility: The Power of Mentorship

Watch our panel of influential women working in autonomous driving technology and mobility discuss their experiences being a mentor, receiving mentorship, the role it’s played in their careers, and tips on cultivating a mentorship. 

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Speakers

Annabel Chang

  • Head of State Policy & Government Relations, Waymo
Annabel Chang is the Head of State Policy & Government Affairs where she oversees the U.S. State legislative, policy, regulatory and government affairs work for Waymo. Previously, she served as Vice President of the Bay Area for Alaska Airlines and helped to oversee the merger with Virgin America. See more
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Anca Dragan

  • Assistant Professor at UC Berkeley & Staff Research Scientist at Waymo
Anca Dragan is an Assistant Professor at UC Berkeley and a Staff Research Scientist at Waymo, a consultant position she holds alongside being a professor in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at UC Berkeley. At Waymo, Anca advises the behavior team, who is responsible for prediction and planning for the Waymo Driver. See more
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Annie Lien

  • Director of Business Development for Autonomous Solutions, Hexagon
Annie Lien has 20 cumulative years experience in automotive and autonomous driving R&D with a diverse background in technical strategy, business, product, marketing, PR/communications, government-related affairs, customer focus, user experience/human factors. Annie started her career in UX and Machine Learning at Robert Bosch's Silicon Valley research center. See more
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Justyna Zander

  • Doctor of Engineering Sciences in CS and EE; NVIDIA Global Head of Verification and Validation
Dr. Justyna Zander works on scaling and automating autonomous vehicles simulation and validation efforts at NVIDIA to enable a safe fleet deployment. 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. See more
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Our Discussions

Self-Driven Women: Opportunities and Challenges for Women Working in the Mobility Industry

Waymo COO Tekedra Mawakwana moderated a panel discussion with three inspiring female leaders in transportation and mobility as part of our inaugural #SelfDrivenWomen virtual event. In this video, they share their career stories, the challenges they’ve faced, the lessons they’ve learned to overcome them, and answer questions from attendees.

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Justyna Zander

Doctor of Engineering Sciences in CS and EE; NVIDIA Global Head of Verification and Validation

Details

Dr. Justyna Zander works on scaling and automating autonomous vehicles simulation and validation efforts at NVIDIA to enable a safe fleet deployment. 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 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 of 2018 and in 2017 she won SWE Leader Award as an international recognition for breakthrough work in computer science and engineering.

Anca Dragan

Assistant Professor at UC Berkeley & Staff Research Scientist at Waymo

Details

Anca Dragan is an Assistant Professor at UC Berkeley and a Staff Research Scientist at Waymo, a consultant position she holds alongside being a professor in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at UC Berkeley. At Waymo, Anca advises the behavior team, who is responsible for prediction and planning for the Waymo Driver.

Anca obtained her PhD in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon University in 2015. Her research focuses on algorithms that enable robots to work with, around, and in support of people. Anca helped found the Berkeley AI Research Lab, is a co-Principal Investigator of the Center for Human-Compatible AI, and has been honored by the Presidential Early Career Award for Science and Engineering, the Sloan Fellowship, MIT TR35, and an NSF CAREER award.

Annie Lien

Director of Business Development for Autonomous Solutions, Hexagon

Details

Annie Lien has 20 cumulative years experience in automotive and autonomous driving R&D with a diverse background in technical strategy, business, product, marketing, PR/communications, government-related affairs, customer focus, user experience/human factors. Annie started her career in UX and Machine Learning at Robert Bosch’s Silicon Valley research center. During this time at Bosch Annie also moonlighted on the weekends as Team Leader of Team AnnieWay for DARPA Urban Challenge 2007. AnnieWay was an “underdog” team with very little money, manpower, resources and time, and against all odds AnnieWay successfully qualified as a Finalist for the DARPA race. Thereafter, at VW Group’s Silicon Valley innovation lab, Annie co-created and led company wide initiatives on USA Product, PR, Legal, and Government activities for Audi Autonomous Driving. After Audi/VW Annie joined Toyota Research Lab; spent 6+ years working at or pushing to co-found startups on innovative solutions for self-driving cars and automation; and advising / consulting entrepreneurs, investors, auto OEMs, suppliers and other entities on autonomous driving. Most recently Annie joined Hexagon’s Autonomous Solutions group.

Annabel Chang

Head of State Policy & Government Relations, Waymo

Details

Annabel Chang is the Head of State Policy & Government Affairs where she oversees the U.S. State legislative, policy, regulatory and government affairs work for Waymo.  Previously, she served as Vice President of the Bay Area for Alaska Airlines and helped to oversee the merger with Virgin America.  Additionally, she has also  served as the Director of Public Policy for Lyft, where she was an early employee who was instrumental in opening up  U.S. markets to ride-hailing.  She has also worked on Capitol Hill for U.S. Senator Feinstein and in Sacramento for the State Assembly Insurance Committee.  Annabel received her J.D. from Washington University in St. Louis and her B.A. at UC Berkeley.