Nayana Suvarna
MIT-PITT-RW Team Advisor
A recent Computer Engineering graduate from the University of Pittsburgh and former research assistant at Carnegie Mellon University's Biorobotics Lab.
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Our Speakers
Industry leaders and engineers contributing to the Self-Driven Women community.
Voices from the mobility industry
Profiles of experts from Waymo, MIT, and other technology organizations who have taken part in Self-Driven Women events and discussions.
Cindy Heredia
MIT Driverless General Manager
First-year MBA candidate at the MIT Sloan School of Management and co-captain and general manager of MIT Driverless.
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Eric Deng
Product Manager, Waymo
Works on software for safe vehicle behaviors with micromobility users. Previously a Product Manager at Uber ATG and a Robotics Engineer at Facebook.
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A quick look at the backgrounds and roles shared by our speakers.
| Speaker | Role | Background |
|---|---|---|
| Nayana Suvarna | MIT-PITT-RW Team Advisor | Computer Engineering graduate, University of Pittsburgh; Research Assistant at Carnegie Mellon University's Biorobotics Lab. |
| Cindy Heredia | MIT Driverless General Manager | MBA candidate at the MIT Sloan School of Management; previously Corporate Development and Strategy intern at TuSimple. |
| Eric Deng | Product Manager, Waymo | Formerly a Product Manager at Uber ATG and a Robotics Engineer at Facebook; B.Sc. in Electric Engineering, University of Southern California. |
| Shipla Gulati | Leads the Behavior Prediction team at Waymo | Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin; previously worked at Apple and Robert Bosch LLC. |
| Congcong Li | Director of Engineering, Waymo | Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cornell University; previously worked at Google. |
| Allison Thackston | Leads the Planner Reasoning team at Waymo | Previously worked at Nuro and the Toyota Research Institute. |
Self-Driven Women gathers leaders and engineers across the mobility industry to share how autonomous vehicles are built, tested, and brought to real roads. The speakers page collects profiles of experts from Waymo, MIT, and other technology organizations who have taken part in community events and discussions, giving visitors a quick look at the range of roles represented in the field.
The featured voices span product, engineering, and business functions. One profile follows a recent computer engineering graduate from the University of Pittsburgh who worked as a research assistant in a university biorobotics lab, bringing hands-on robotics experience to the team she now advises. Another profile traces a path from MIT Sloan coursework to operating a driverless vehicle program, illustrating how technical and management expertise combine.
These conversations sit at the intersection of planning, controls, and multi-agent systems, where software decisions translate into physical motion on shared streets. Speakers discuss topics such as behavior forecasting, user experience design, fleet operations, and the practical engineering challenges of automated driving, and they offer perspective on what early-career engineers can learn from people who have shipped autonomous technology.
Beyond the technical track, the community emphasizes mentorship, career development, and building sustainable and ethical values into companies. Presenters reflect on internships, startup work, and leadership roles, offering students and early-career candidates a realistic picture of how teams grow products and how companies in mobility and technology invest in people and ideas over time.
The event series, hosted under the Pit Stop to the Podium banner, is designed as a place where industry practitioners and students meet on shared ground. Sessions blend technical talks with informal discussion, encouraging questions about operations, product strategy, and the human side of robot and driver interaction, and leaving attendees with a broader network across the automated mobility landscape.
Hear them in the discussions
Recorded panels and conversations from Self-Driven Women events, covering mentorship, career paths, and autonomy engineering.