And
@TheMarcManning, and why we work so well together. Here's Marc and I (middle) - with our good friend and advisor Timothy Papandreou of
@Waymo fame (
@tpap_) - on the trip to Idaho where we started this American Made adventure.
Marc is a
@GeorgiaTech engineer like me. Unlike me, he went on to get his Masters of mechanical engineering from
@NCState. Marc built out engine platforms for
@Cummins in the USA, Japan, and India. He worked intensely with Komatsu on joint technology.
Marc and I have that in common, we've both done engineering from the day we graduated GT and traveled the world doing engineering work on behalf of American companies - exporting American technology around the world.
He then went into public service for 8 years (!!!!) as the chief equipment engineer for
@cta and
@metrolosangeles - implementing the electric bus program in 2 of the top 3 transit agencies in the USA. Marc helped his agencies secure funding from President's Obama, Trump, and Biden.
My civil service was a bit shorter (2 years š) where I served the city of Jacksonville to design and implement the nation's first autonomous mass transit system at
@JTAFLA as the cities first automation engineer. Jacksonville was funded by the
@USDOT and 1st term president
@realDonaldTrump, secretary
@ElaineChao, and governor
@SenRickScott. We learned of the funding award from then senator
@marcorubio!
After his civil service, Marc became an engineering consultant and developed zero-emission bus systems in ports and cities around the USA, including his hometown of Hattiesburg MS.
These days,
@ChangRobotics reserves a portion of our time to provide technology consultation to select governments. If we're going to invest tax payer dollars to build out smart city applications - we want it to be done right.