Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Richard Hanowski is a Senior Research Scientist at Virginia Tech and serves as the Director of the Division of Freight, Transit, & Heavy Vehicle Safety at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI). He also serves as a Chair for the International Road Federation (IRF Global) Powered Two-Wheeler Task Force. Dr. Hanowski has been involved in transportation human factors research since 1991 and has served as the Principal Investigator or Co-PI over $100 million of contract research, resulting in over 300 publications. He is focused on actionable health and safety research that leads to improved road safety and a reduction in global road crashes. His research has impacted national transportation policy, including truck driver fatigue/hours-of-service and driver distraction/texting. Dr. Hanowski received his Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering in 2000 from Virginia Tech. He received a Fulbright Scholar Award for the 2024-25 academic year.
Chief Technology Officer
Mr. Carl Cospel is an avid motorcycle rider. When not on two wheels he serves as the Hardware Engineering Laboratory Director at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI). He also serves as the Director of Engineering for Falcon-Pursuit, a company that is focused on developing technologies to improve athlete safety and performance. Mr. Cospel has been involved in the design, implementation, and installation of automotive data acquisition systems and sensors for over 20 years. During this time, he has overseen the deployment of thousands of DAS for large scale naturalistic data collection research projects. He has also led the development of several research focused automated driving vehicles. His expertise includes systems engineering, embedded hardware and firmware development, software development, robotics, and mechanical design. Mr. Cospel received his B.S. in Computer engineering in 2003 from Virginia Tech, and his M.B.A. with a Systems Engineering Management concentration from Virginia Tech in 2011.
Chief Data and Analytics Officer
Dr. Feng Guo is a Professor & Patricia Caldwell Fellow in the Department of Statistics at Virginia Tech, where he also serves as the Lead Data Scientist at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute. His research spans methodological and applied areas of quantitative transportation modeling including statistical methodologies, machine learning, and artificial intelligence (AI), particularly emphasizing driving risk assessment, as well as the evaluation of advanced and automated driving systems. Dr. Guo has extensive experience in telematics-based driver risk prediction models with application for ride-hailing driver risk prediction, safe routing, and fleet safety management. Dr. Guo received dual Ph.Ds. in transportation engineering (2010) and statistics (2007) from the University of Connecticut.
Director South East Asia
Stefan Pertz,
Editor, Asian Trucker Malaysia and Asian Buses
Stefan Pertz is the founder and of Launchpad and Co-Founder of Asian Trucker. He has lived and worked in six countries, most of them Asian. His first assignment took him to Hong Kong, where he worked as the on-site project manager on the new airport, supervising the installation of the furniture in the departure hall. After graduation in 2005, Stefan returned to Asia He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in International Management, which he completed cum laude.
Human Factors and Transportation Safety Research Expert
Rebecca Hammond
is a Senior Research Associate and Group Leader in the Division of Freight, Transit, and Heavy Vehicle Safety at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute. Ms. Hammond has 24 years of experience managing research projects and research tasks for over $45 million of contracted research. She is an expert on large-scale naturalistic driving data including the collection and reduction of data. Ms. Hammond has extensive experience with data collection, driver recruitment, data tracking, data reduction, Institutional Review Board (IRB) knowledge, project and task management, and budget tracking and development. Ms. Hammond earned a B.S. in Psychology (2001) and an M.S. in Human Factors Engineering (2006) from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
Chief Technician RideHawk (MCAMS)
Muhammad Hazazi bin Saidpudin is an Automotive Technology graduate with over 10 years of experience in automotive mechanics and more than 5 years in road safety technology development. During his time at the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (MIROS), he led several key projects, including the development of a motorcycle forward collision warning system that received RM400,000 in R&D funding. He also developed the detection and alert system for the “No Child Left Behind” initiative, aimed at preventing child deaths in vehicles. His work has received national and international recognition, including awards from the International Road Federation (IRF) and the Innovation and Creativity Group (KIK).
Hazazi is skilled in embedded systems, sensor integration, C++ programming, and 3D printing, applying these in building practical and affordable safety solutions for vehicles. He is also a certified vocational trainer and riding safety facilitator, actively involved in community outreach and training. Hazazi is currently pursuing a Mechanical Engineering Technology degree at Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM).