Stanford University has appointed Engineering Professor J. Christian Gerdes as the school's interim director of the Revs Program at Stanford, following the passing of Professor Clifford Nass. Launched in April 2011, Revs has advanced multidisciplinary research and teaching focused on the automobile and transportation.
Gerdes has been co-director of Revs since its inception and was one of its founding professors. Since the program's launch in April 2011, he has led the Revs research team in looking at the inner workings of the driver through physiological data synchronized with a suite of mechanical data from the vehicle. Gerdes has worked to develop a range of learning opportunities around the automobile and especially the race track itself, which he believes is a perfect complement to on-campus learning. Under Gerdes's supervision and guidance, the next generation of engineers, scientists and researchers are forged not only in the classroom, but on the track.
"Working with Cliff Nass at the Revs Program really opened my eyes to how impactful the automobile can be across the university," said Gerdes. "I plan on continuing Cliff's legacy of pushing the boundaries for multidisciplinary thinking about the automobile. We will build upon the community of scholars in humanities, engineering and the social sciences at Stanford to move the automobile to the center of the university."
In addition to his role as Interim Director of the Revs Program at Stanford, Professor Gerdes is the Director of the Center for Automotive Research at Stanford (CARS) and Director of the Dynamic Design Lab (DDL). Prior to joining Stanford, Professor Gerdes was the project leader for vehicle dynamics at the Vehicle Systems Technology Center of Daimler-Benz Research and Technology North America. His work at Daimler focused on safety analysis and simulation-based design of heavy trucks for the Freightliner Corporation.
Established in 2011, The Revs Program at Stanford established a new trans-disciplinary field connecting the past, present and future of the automobile. Launching over two dozen classes at Stanford about the automobile -- from fields as varied as art history and design -- Revs has impacted over 400 undergraduate and graduate students and continues to push its learning outside the walls of the university. In 2013, Revs Program students partnered with the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance to establish a new trans-disciplinary award at the legendary car show, showing how new thinking about the automobile can bridge academia and the professions.
More information about Revs can be found at http://revs.stanford.edu.
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