Academic Credentials
  • Ph.D., Computer Engineering, University of Virginia, 2022
  • M.Sc., Computer Engineering, University of Virginia, 2018
  • B.Eng., Electronics Engineering, Visvesvaraya Technological University, 2014
Academic Appointments
  • Co-Instructor:
  • · F1/10 Autonomous Racing – Learn to build, code, and race a scaled autonomous racecar (Fall 2018, Fall 2019, Fall 2020)
  • Graduate Teaching Assistant:
  • · Human Robot Interaction with Aldebaran’s Nao Robot (Fall 2016)
  • · Fundamentals of Electronics (Fall 2017)
  • · Applied Mathematics II for Engineers (Spring 2018)
  • Graduate Research Assistant at the Engineering Cyber-Physical Systems Link Lab (2017 - 2019)
Professional Affiliations
  • IEEE, AIAA, ACM, and SAE

Dr. Varundev Sukhil is a computer scientist with extensive research, development, testing, and validation experience in autonomous systems, cyber-physical systems, complex software systems, and robotics. He has experience building systems and algorithms for consumer electronics and developing digital twin environments.

Before Exponent, Dr. Sukhil developed a digital twin simulation environment for a Department of Defense installation using Google Maps 3D tiles, Cesium API, and Unity. He implemented this environment within the Autoware framework and managed backend simulations on Azure. Dr. Sukhil's significant contributions in the field of autonomous racing include his role as the lead controls and navigation engineer at Cavalier Autonomous Racing, where he developed the ARGOS framework for fully autonomous head-to-head racing and implemented a hybrid-kinematic bicycle model control system that used a customized mission-specific numeric solver. He was instrumental in integrating and testing the software stack used in autonomous racing during the Indy Autonomous Challenge.

Experienced as a robotics engineer, Dr. Sukhil has developed micro-mobility devices such as a self-balancing sidewalk delivery robot and has experience with swarm robotics from deploying a multi-agent autonomous warehouse robot. Dr. Sukhil has designed controller software, hardware, and high-power PCB/A for such robots.

Dr. Sukhil has contributed to technology used by government agencies such as building a heavy-lift UAV for the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) and expanding the USDOT CARMA software stack for cooperative driving automation and testing in scaled and controlled environment. He made significant contributions to F/10, an autonomous racing robot testbed that has won multiple international competitions and is used as a teaching aid at universities across the world.

Dr. Sukhil is proficient in various software languages, including C/C++, Python, and MATLAB, and has experience with data frameworks like PyTorch and SciPy. His hardware skills encompass PCB design, 3D prototyping, and CNC milling. He has authored several publications in reputable conferences and journals, focusing on autonomous systems and robotics.