Evan McLean Smith
Engineering Leader — AV Testing & Safety | Robotics & UAVs | Test Automation
About
Engineering leader with experience across autonomous vehicle system testing & safety, robotics/UAV research (Virginia Tech), and manufacturing test automation (Kollmorgen). At Torc Robotics, built and led a multi‑site vehicle test team delivering closed‑course and public‑road validation and maturing processes for driver‑in/driver‑out operations. Passionate about safe AV deployment, practical automation, and cross‑functional collaboration.
Highlights
- Spoke at ADAS & AV Technology Expo California on moving AV testing from research to productization. Talk recap
- Led multi‑vehicle closed‑course and public‑road validation efforts enabling driver‑in/driver‑out milestones.
- Earlier career: designed/automated manufacturing test systems for safety‑critical motion products at Kollmorgen.
- Graduate research: computer vision for UAV navigation in the Unmanned Systems Lab (Virginia Tech).
Focus Areas
AV testing & safety • test strategy & tooling • robotics & UAVs • manufacturing test automation • Python & Bash • LabVIEW • Jira/Confluence • data‑driven validation