Released on: November 30, 2007, 9:57 am

Press Release Author: Laura P. Wright/BlabberMouth PR

Industry: Electronics

Press Release Summary: The Austin Business Journal today honored Dr. Peter Stone of
the University of Texas at Austin with its Tech Innovation Award. Stone received the
award for his work on "Marvin," an artificially intelligent, self-driving vehicle
developed in conjunction with Austin Robot Technology (ART) for a Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency (DARPA) competition.

Press Release Body: AUSTIN, TX - November 29, 2007 - The Austin Business Journal
today honored Dr. Peter Stone of the University of Texas at Austin with its Tech
Innovation Award. Stone received the award for his work on "Marvin," an artificially
intelligent, self-driving vehicle developed in conjunction with Austin Robot
Technology (ART) for a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
competition.

\"The whole team from Austin Robot Technology and the University of Texas at Austin
are honored to receive this award," said Dr. Stone, associate professor of computer
sciences. "Now that we have an operational self-driving full-size car, we look
forward to continuing our research and undergraduate education using the platform,
as well as possible business opportunities in Austin.\"

ART, an independent Austin-based group of programmers and engineers, originally
created the vehicle to complete in the 2005 DARPA competition. In 2007, they
partnered with internationally renowned artificial intelligence expert Stone and
UT-Austin's Computer Science department to refine Marvin's software during Stone's
undergraduate class. The vehicle made the semifinals of the 2007 DARPA competition
held in late October.

"ART began as a group of high-tech hobbyists," said ART team leader Dave Tuttle.
\"Dr. Stone and his students helped us get to that next level. We probably couldn't
have made it this far without them.\"

Other DARPA-driven inventions have had enormous commercial applications. The team
believes their robotic technologies someday will improve safety, convenience and
fuel efficiency and will be of interest to original equipment manufacturers,
automation firms and manufacturing equipment makers.

The Tech Innovations Awards are given to individuals with the most innovative
technology ideas in Central Texas. A complete list of winners will appear in the
Friday, Noember 30, edition of the Austin Business Journal.

About the Austin Robot Technology/University of Texas at Austin team
Austin Robot Technology - an independent Austin-based group of programmers and
engineers - is an autonomous SUV robot team whose self-driving vehicle competed in
the semifinals of the DARPA Urban Challenge in 2007 and placed in the top 20 of 35.

In preparation for the Challenge, ART partnered with Dr. Peter Stone, recipient of
the 2007 Computers and Thought Award from the International Joint Conferences on
Artificial Intelligence and professor of computer sciences at The University of
Texas at Austin. ART's Isuzu VehiCross SUV "Marvin" was the subject of Dr. Stone's
course "Autonomous Vehicles: Driving in Traffic" in the department of Computer
Science. The course provided undergraduates with unmatched hands-on experience with
autonomous vehicle technology, and those students became part of the 2007 DARPA
Urban Challenge team. For more information, please visit www.austinrobot.com.

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Web Site: http://www.austinrobot.com

Contact Details: Laura P. Wright
Blabbermouth PR
512-461-5777
laura@blabbermouthpr.com