engineering

Red Whittaker

Red Whittaker is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Red Whittaker rather than just read about it. In short: William L. "Red" Whittaker (born 1948) is an American roboticist and research professor of robotics at Carnegie Mellon University. He led Tartan Racing to its first-place victory in the DARPA Grand Challenge (2007) Urban Challenge and brought Carnegie Mellon University the two million dollar prize.

Key takeaways

Red Whittaker belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Red Whittaker to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Red Whittaker from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

William L. "Red" Whittaker (born 1948) is an American roboticist and research professor of robotics at Carnegie Mellon University. He led Tartan Racing to its first-place victory in the DARPA Grand Challenge (2007) Urban Challenge and brought Carnegie Mellon University the two million dollar prize. Previously, Whittaker also competed in the DARPA Grand Challenge, placing second and third place simultaneously in the Grand Challenge Races. Whittaker is currently the Fredkin Research Professor at Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute as well as the Director of the Field Robotics Center and Chief Scientist of the Robotics Engineering Consortium, both located at the university. Red founded and led Carnegie Mellon University's team in the Google Lunar X Prize. from its inception in 2007 until its ultimate closure in 2018. Today, Whittaker continues this work through NASA contracts in the form of MoonRanger, a planetary rover in development designed to quickly and autonomously explore the surface of the Moon.

Biography Whittaker spent his childhood in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, where his father was an explosives salesman and his mother was a chemist. He matriculated at Princeton University, but interrupted his studies to join the United States Marines. He returned to Princeton to earn his bachelor's degree in civil engineering in 1973 and then attended Carnegie Mellon University, where he earned his master's degree in 1975 and his Ph.D. in 1979, both in civil engineering.

Robotics In March of the year he received his Ph.D., the nuclear reactor at nearby Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station nearly experienced a meltdown. Within a budget of $1.5 million, Whittaker and his colleagues at Carnegie Mellon built robots to inspect and perform repairs in the reactor's damaged basement, and their experiences with that project resulted in the creation of the Field Robotics Center at Carnegie Mellon University. Whittaker's later teams would also develop robots to help with the aftermath of the nuclear reactor accident at Chernobyl in 1986. In 1987, Whittaker co-founded RedZone Robotics to develop and sell (or lease) robots that could operate in hazardous environments and situations too dangerous for humans. Whittaker has led teams that have created robots designed to search for fallen meteorites in the ice fields of Antarctica, climb into the craters of active volcanoes in Alaska and Antarctica, and explore the terrain of Mars. The accident at the Quecreek Coal Mine in nearby Somerset County, Pennsylvania compelled Whittaker and his colleague Scott Thayer to develop robots that could map collapsed or abandoned mines for accident prevention or rescue purposes; they were joined in this endeavor by CMU colleague Sebastian Thrun. Whittaker's robots have also explored the Atacama Desert.

DARPA Grand Challenge

Whittaker has led teams at Carnegie Mellon to build self-driving cars that have participated in the DARPA Grand Challenge since the contest's inception. In the first competition held in 2004, his Red Team's vehicle "Sandstorm" traveled 7.4 miles, the farthest of any participant, but no prize was awarded to any team. In the second competition in 2005, Whittaker led two teams, whose vehicles "Sandstorm" and "H1ghlander" captured 2nd place and 3rd place, respectively, behind the vehicle of his colleague, former Carnegie Mellon professor Sebastian Thrun. (Thrun's software development leader, Michael Montemerlo, was also a former student of Whittaker.) In the third competition held in 2007, Whittaker's team "Tartan Racing" captured first place with their vehicle "Boss", winning the $2 million prize.

Professional activities Fellow, American Association for Artificial Intelligence Member, National Research Council, Commission on Engineering and Technical Systems, Committee on Advanced Space Technologies Member, American Nuclear Society; Robotics and Remote Systems Division Member, National Academy of Sciences Peer Review Committee on DOE Environmental Management Technologies, 1994–1995. Member, National Academy of Sciences Committee to Provide Interim Oversight of the DOE Nuclear Weapons Complex, 1988–1989.

Awards and honors IEEE Simon Ramo Medal, 2012 ASCE Columbia Medal, 2012 Inaugural AAAI Feigenbaum Prize, 2011 Elected to National Academy of Engineering, 2009 Named University Professor, the highest faculty rank at Carnegie Mellon University, 2007 Design News Special Achievement Award, 1998 Vector/Pittsburgh, Man of the Year in Technology for 1994 Laurels Award, Aviation Week and Space Technology for outstanding achievement, 1994 American Association of Artificial Intelligence, AAAI Fellow, 1993 Carnegie Mellon University Alumni Merit Award for Outstanding Achievement, 1992 Computerworld, Smithsonian Award 1992 Science Digest's Top 100 US Innovators for robotics work, 1987 Teare Award for Teaching Excellence, Carnegie Mellon University National Science Foundation Fellowship, Carnegie Mellon University CIT Fellowship, Carnegie Mellon University

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Red Whittaker

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Red Whittaker claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Red Whittaker before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Red Whittaker ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Red Whittaker

In research: Red Whittaker appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Red Whittaker in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Red Whittaker is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1948 births, American roboticists, Carnegie Mellon University College of Engineering alumni, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Red Whittaker outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Red Whittaker in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Red Whittaker means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Red Whittaker out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Red Whittaker in simple terms?

Why does Red Whittaker matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Red Whittaker?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Red Whittaker.