Cedric Dupont

The early years (1977-2000)

I was born in Vienna, Austria in 1977. When asked what I wanted to do when I grow up I would always give the same response: I wanted to become an Erfinder ("inventor"). This early attraction for machines and science might explain why my educational choices have a heavy slant towards Math and Engineering. My second interest (quirk?) is endurance sports. It started with running (I am rather short, so getting away was an important skill to acquire on the playground), and quickly spread to various outdoor activities (mountaineering, biking, climbing, backcountry skiing, etc.). In 1999-2000 I even had a chance to train and compete with the Oklahoma State University team, then one of the top x-country teams in the nation (US, that is). A very interesting experience that left me with no regrets about not "going pro"...

Getting serious? - Adult life (2001-present)

After graduating from the Université catholique de Louvain (Ingenieur civil electromecanicien, Ir.), I doubled down for an electrical engineering degree at Stanford University (Master of Science in Electrical Engineering) supported by a fellowship from the baef, and a rotary scholarship. By the time I graduated from Stanford, I felt ready to dive into the real world and provide my humble contribution to the global GDP. I became a research engineer at Volkswagen's Electronics Research Laboratory in Palo Alto, CA, where I worked on sensors and display technologies, as well as innovative driver assistance systems. At VW I had the great privilege to lead the team of engineers (Joe Van Niekerk, Charles Markey, Eric Jensen, Philippe Alessandrini) who built Stanley, the robot that won the $2M DARPA Grand Challenge in 2005. Stanley was brought to life and equipped with intelligence developed by the Stanford Racing Team under the direction of Sebastian Thrun and Mike Montemerlo both then at SAIL. Amongst Stanley's pedigree are international TV-appearances, an exhibit at the Smithsonian institute (Museum of American History), a scholarship named after "it", and the title of "best robot of all times" by WIRED magazine (edging out icons such as R2D2 and Astroboy). After these exciting times in the corporate world it was time to return to school for a bit, and I decided to get a business education at the Haas School of Business. Bragging rights: Emilio F. Bumatay Memorial scholarship, and the Academic Achievement Award (known as the "other" triple-A). During my MBA internship I worked in management consulting as a summer associate for Bain & Company (Private Equity Group), and then joined Google upon graduation.
What about my childhood plans to become an Erfinder? You can search for my patent publications on espacenet, by far the best global patent search engine out there (now that I can pretend to know something about search engines.)