John Alsterda

John Alsterda is a Senior Systems Engineer at Waymo since September 2021 and an Autonomy Specialist at the Defense Innovation Unit since January 2022. Alsterda completed a PhD in Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University, focusing on Contingency Model Predictive Control for Automated Vehicles, and served as a Doctoral Student from September 2015 to December 2023. Prior to this, Alsterda worked as a Research Liaison at the Office of Naval Research from September 2015 to May 2022 and was the Director of Officer Math & Physics at the Nuclear Power School - Naval Nuclear Power Training Command from May 2011 to September 2015. Alsterda holds a Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University (2015-2017) and a Bachelor's degree in Physics from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (2006-2011).