As automation increases in transportation vehicles and systems, it is imperative to ensure that these new technologies complement and connect to traditional transportation options. Automation has a positive role to play in the advancement of public transportation that improves both operations and safety in a multimodal environment. This webinar will focus on how automated use cases can be used to help grow transit ridership by improving the customer experience.

The fourth webinar in the 2021 PA AV Summit Series focused on multimodal and transit. It was held 2-3:30 p.m. Thursday, June 10.

This webinar features the following panelists:

Bryan Brilhart
Robotic Research
Bryan Brilhart is the director of operations at Robotic Research with a proven track record of leadership and over 15 years of unmanned vehicle experience across air and ground vehicles. He is responsible for several programs on both the commercial and defense sides of the Robotic Research business and leads the New Flyer programs, developing the first autonomous bus in North America. Brilhart was previously a lead software engineer on the ANS, SOURCE, and SUSI programs where he was considered a subject matter expert in navigation and in the development and integration of drive-by-wire systems. Combined with his technical expertise, Brilhart has a proven history of team management and has successfully led teams responsible for developing, producing, and deploying ground control stations for a variety of UAV platforms. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from The Johns Hopkins University.
Suzanne Murtha
AECOM
Suzanne Murtha is the National Lead for Connected and Automated Technology at AECOM. She is based in Alexandria, Virginia, and is also on the Board of Directors of the OmniAir Consortium, a trade association that advocates for the development and promotion of certification for the intelligent transportation industry as well as the Board of Directors for AUVSI. She is the chair for the ITS America eVTOL Task Force and the AUVSI AV Goods Movement Task Force. A 25-year veteran of the ITS industry, Murtha has significant background in ITS and advanced automotive technologies including deployments of connected and automated vehicles, smart cities, big data and most recently eVTOLs. She has worked with the international ITS community and industry on advanced research, standards development, and certification processes. She has supported large-scale program management contracts and evaluation efforts for federal, state, local, and private clients.
Bernard Schmidt
Jacksonville Transportation Authority

Bernard Schmidt was named Vice President of Automation for the Jacksonville Transportation Authority (JTA) in January of 2019. In this role he is responsible for providing strategic and technical leadership to the JTA's Automation & Innovation Division. He is responsible for engaging key stakeholders and elected officials in forging cross functional working relationships across both public- and private-sector organizations.

Through the launch of the Ultimate Urban Circulator (U2C) initiative and other innovative projects the JTA aims to better interconnect people and places around downtown
Jacksonville through the use of Autonomous Vehicles (AV) and other technologies. By leveraging both public- and private-sector funding and under Schmidt's leadership, the JTA and the City of Jacksonville have fully committed to being one of the first cities in the U.S. to implement such highly visible and complex projects.

Prior to the JTA, Schmidt held multiple executive and senior leadership roles both domestically and internationally across various organizations. His most recent role was with Amazon as general manager in Jacksonville, Florida, where he led the deployment and operation of a 955,000 square foot Amazon Robotics fulfillment center with over 3,000 employees and $3.5 billion dollars of annual sales revenue.

Prior to that, Schmidt spent 10+ years at United Technologies Corp., where he served as general manager of UTAS Customer Service Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul business
based in Dubai, UAE. Bernard also previously served as the Operations Director at TEC (Turkish Engine Center) a Pratt & Whitney joint venture with Turkish Airlines in Istanbul, Turkey. He provided operational leadership to develop and execute overhaul plans, cost reduction strategies and initiatives to meet the quality, cost, testing and delivery requirements for CFM56 and V2500 aircraft engines. Prior to these roles, he was a Global Materials Manager of Pratt & Whitney Engine Centers in Connecticut, Georgia and international sites. He also served as Asst. Business Unit manager and Operations Supervisor.

Prior to his tenure with UTC, Bernard held a variety of positions of increasing responsibility across multiple organizations including General Dynamics Electric Boat and Dominion Nuclear Energy Company.

Charlie Stanfield
RTD
Charlie Stanfield is a transportation planner at RTD and works in the agency's Transit-Oriented Communities group. He is interested in how the changing mobility landscape affects transit agencies and works on many innovative projects at RTD, including exploring how the agency can deploy autonomous transit vehicles. Stanfield received a master's degree in city and regional planning and B.A. in environmental studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.