SMYRNA, GA – UP Media Group today announced that Dr. Chris Urmson, inventor of the self-navigating "Boss" vehicle and director of technology for the Urban Challenge at the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, will keynote PCB West 2008.

The keynote will be presented on Tuesday, September 16, at 11 a.m. in the Santa Clara Marriott, Santa Clara, CA, the headquarters hotel for PCB West 2008.

The use of semiconductors to improve all aspects of the driving experience—from safety, entertainment, navigation and even steering—is on the rise. In this exciting keynote, "Boss" inventor Dr. Chris Urmson will discuss the challenges and solutions in building such an extremely complex automobile. He will include details of the DARPA Urban Challenge, describe "Boss's" overall system architecture and highlight the vehicle’s many component technologies. "Boss" is a Chevy Tahoe with more than 300,000 lines of code, capable of autonomously navigating in town and in traffic. It is equipped with more than a dozen lasers, cameras and radar systems to view the world.

Dr. Urmson is director of technology for the Urban Challenge, part of the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. He has researched robotics for Science Applications International, Caterpillar, DARPA and several other organizations. His primary research is on autonomous vehicles that are capable of safely and reliably navigating urban traffic, and involves perception, behavioral reasoning, motion planning, and mechatronic design. His team won the DARPA Urban Challenge in 2007.

Dr. Urmson has published more than two dozen papers and journal articles on robot applications. He has a Ph.D. in robotics from Carnegie Mellon University and a bachelor’s in computer engineering from the University of Manitoba.

For more information about the 17th annual PCB West or to register for the conference or exhibition, visit www.pcbwest.com.