Tom Alexander: Ford SYNC Software Developer 

Tom Alexander is a software developer with Ford’s Information Technology SYNC Proof of Concept team. He joined the company in 2009, tasked with helping develop new software concepts for the SYNC® platform. 

“I’ve always had a love of cars – especially the technology inside the cars,” says Alexander, who grew up doing auto repairs in the garage with his dad. “When Ford introduced SYNC, that sent my interest in vehicle technology over the top.

“Now, I work for Ford on a team that thinks of new ideas for SYNC, codes them and demos them in a short period of time,” adds Alexander. “It’s a really cool position.”

A 2008 graduate of Michigan State University, Alexander holds a bachelor’s degree in Science and Computer Science from the College of Engineering. 
  

Personal Insights and Fun Facts
• A native of Casco, Mich., Tom recently purchased a home in Canton, Mich.
• His garage is full of unpacked moving boxes, but hopefully one day it will house a new Ford Mustang
• Tom plays the trumpet and is a huge fan of jazz music

Opening Ford’s research doors to tech-savvy college students is a dream come true for Ford research engineer TJ Giuli. Since joining Ford’s Infotronics Research & Advanced Engineering team in 2005, Giuli has been a strong proponent of the open innovation model, tapping minds at universities and other organizations outside the automotive industry for the next best idea for in-vehicle connectivity and infotronics.

One of Giuli’s latest open innovation projects is American Journey 2.0, which paired up Ford and University of Michigan students who were challenged to build a new class of social networking apps for the vehicle during a 12-week course. The winning app made its way into a Ford Fiesta for the ultimate test drive to California for the 2010 Maker Faire, the largest do-it-yourself event of its kind.

“The conversation started with, ‘What if we developed a test platform for third-party developers to experiment with?’” Giuli recalls. “Next, we asked ourselves, ‘What if those third-party developers were students and we were to do a class?’ And then we threw in the journey to Maker Faire, which made for an easy sell to the students,” he adds.
 
Giuli helped create a developmental mobile computing platform called Fiestaware for the course and then gave the students the freedom to harness the power of social networks in the cloud to develop their own personalized app. They didn’t disappoint, developing six unique apps ranging from a fuel tracker to the class-winning caravan app that allows a cluster of vehicles traveling together to track each other on a journey.

“The quality of the apps that came out of the class demonstrates why enabling third-party and student developers to work with Ford makes sense,” says Giuli.

In addition to fostering the relationship with U of M and its students, Giuli also works closely with other institutions, including MIT and the University of Washington, where he has delved deep with academics into the realm of vehicle-to-vehicle communications and how to create the right protocols that support both infotainment features and more warning-related features such as remote braking or lane departure.

“I want Ford to be a long-term leader in terms of consumer-style electronics that relate to the vehicle, which means we can never rest and we always have to be looking for new ideas that could come from unlikely places,” says Giuli.
 
Personal Insights and Fun Facts
• A native of Salt Lake City, TJ now lives in Ann Arbor, Mich., with his wife and 6-month-old son, who has single-handedly halted his dad’s quest for the kingdom in the fantasy video game “Dragon Age: Origins”
• Fond of snowy winters, TJ is a newborn cross-country skier, enjoying the local trails near his home as well as those farther north
• Unable to decide if his next vehicle should be a 2011 Ford Fiesta or the all-new 2012 Ford Focus coming next year, TJ might just trade in his Volvo S40 and buy one of each

As the group and technical leader of Ford’s Infotronics Research & Advanced Engineering team, the birthplace of Ford SYNC®, K. Venkatesh Prasad is Ford’s “What’s Next” guy, responsible for the research, architecture, standards, applications development and vehicle system integration of electrical, electronics and embedded software technologies.

In the early 1960s he was just a small boy in Chennai, India, who was fascinated with electricity. As a precocious five-year-old undeterred by his parents’ heed to not play with wires, Prasad conducted his first experiment with electrons by plugging two wet shoelaces into a 220-volt power outlet.

“That shocking lesson stays etched in my mind today,” he says.

Before joining Ford Motor Company in 1996, Prasad worked as a senior scientist at RICOH Innovations in Menlo Park, Calif., developing automatic “lip reading” as a novel human-machine interface. In addition, he was at Caltech and the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., where he worked on the world’s first telerobotic visual surface inspection system to help design the International Space Station.

Attracted by an open-ended challenge to discover ways to integrate “intelligence” into cars
and trucks, Prasad joined Ford to work with a small group of engineers in the development
of adaptive headlamp and lane-mark detection technologies.

“When I first met with Ford decision-makers, they asked me what I knew about cars and I told them, ‘Not much.’ They said, ‘That’s who we need…we have 15,000 engineers here who know everything about cars and trucks. What we need is someone from outside our box to help us make our products safer, cleaner and the journey more fun.’ That intrigued me,” says Prasad.

As Ford’s “What’s Next” guy, Prasad in the late 1990s was imaging the vehicle as a software platform where features and services could be beamed in from the outside – without incremental built-in hardware. This was during the time when others were hot to find better ways to build in phones and trunk-mounted six-disc CD changers.

“In early 2000, formats started to change drastically – no longer were mechanical devices necessary to play music, only a piece of software. Everyone started carrying cell phones,” he says. “I envisioned transforming the move-alone vehicle into an inter-networked platform-on-wheels so people could use the devices they already had in their vehicle and reduce the steps needed to do things. Such connectivity required a revolutionary change of thinking.”

That revolutionary mind-set led to the development of Ford SYNC. Software-based, the voice-activated SYNC system allows Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicle owners to seamlessly connect to their cell phone, MP3 players and a host of other features and services in and through their vehicle – hands-free.

For the “what’s next” guy at Ford, the upgradeable SYNC platform is only limited by the imagination and market acceptance of emerging digital connectivity technologies. The immediate next on Prasad’s list: Social networking. 

“SYNC is helping Ford redefine the automotive user experience,” says Prasad, “and social networking is redefining how many of our future car buyers prefer to communicate with each other. Our challenge is to make sure we leverage the capabilities of the SYNC platform so
that social networking in the vehicle is safe and without distraction to the driver.”

Personal Insights and Fun Facts
• Among many other degrees, Prasad earned a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J., in 1990

Joseph Rork: Architect for Ford IT Research and Strategy Team

Joseph Rork is an IT architect with Ford’s In-Vehicle IT Research and Strategy team. He
is responsible for exploring opportunities for integrating emerging advanced computing technologies into future Ford products.

“My love of computers came first, and then came a fascination with how to make them interact with cars,” says Rork, who helped develop the in-car technologies seen in the 2009 Ford Transit Connect Family One concept, and most recently the 2011 Ford Fiesta featured in the American Journey 2.0 road trip to the 2010 Maker Faire in California. “My unconventional path has taken me from programming to telecommunications to wireless networking to mobility, which then led me to the ultimate mobile device – the vehicle.” 

A southeastern Michigan native, Rork studied computer science, management and psychology at the University of Michigan, Dearborn. 
  
 Personal Insights and Fun Facts
• As a child, Joseph dreamt about owning the monster truck BIGFOOT
• Joseph has been invited to speak at several universities and professional conferences on advanced wireless networking technologies and telecommunications
• A proud father of two, Joseph treasures the idea of a Ford Mustang GT in his garage, but first would love to see his garage floor again, which is blanketed with toys

Joseph Ross is a solution developer with Ford’s Information Technology team. He joined the company four years ago, and is responsible for a variety of application and framework development for the Ford SYNC® platform.

“I’ve always loved technology and since I – and so many others – spend so much time driving, I wanted to help find ways to use technology on the road,” says Ross. “My job gives me the opportunity to explore new technologies and how to bring them to the vehicle. It’s been exciting to interact with companies outside the industry such as Pandora and Stitcher.”

Ross has a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Michigan Technological University in Houghton, Mich.   
  
Personal Insights and Fun Facts
• Joseph entered college with a career in mechanical engineering in mind, but soon found he excelled in computer science 
• At the tender age of 15, Joseph earned the prestigious rank of Eagle Scout
• A lover of the outdoors, Joseph rock climbs, mountain bikes and camps, but admits to some hobby “coding” in his free time

Mark Schunder is a senior research engineer with the Ford Research & Advanced Engineering Infotronics group. He is responsible for studying consumer device usage and developing unique software solutions and theories for how consumers can access information in the vehicle.

Schunder is one of the lead designers of the original research project that introduced the idea of mobile software connectivity to Ford SYNC®, playing a significant role in launching aspects of the SYNC Traffic, Directions & Information application and the new SYNC AppLink gateway.

“For the past five years, I have been contributing near- and long-term SYNC product solutions and it’s been exciting identifying emerging trends in the marketplace and creating innovative products that bring more connectivity to the car,” says Schunder.

Schunder has both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Michigan, Dearborn.   
  
Personal Insights and Fun Facts
• Mark grew up in Livonia, Mich., and now lives in Dearborn with his wife and two daughters
• In his spare time, Mark can be found with pick in hand, playing either the banjo or guitar
• Mark enjoys mountain biking and a relaxing round of golf