LEADING THE WAY
Raising the bar every time our technology is fielded.
We are setting new benchmarks in ground autonomy. Our field deployments consistently exceed expectations, forging unparalleled standards in innovation, efficiency, and reliability.
OUR MISSION
Transform land operations by delivering the most advanced and dependable ground autonomy solutions.
Real-time perception
A decade of innovation
Our Story
OUR STORY
Pioneering ground autonomy
For almost a decade, Byron Boots, our co-founder and Director of the University of Washington Robot Learning Laboratory, has worked closely with the US Army Research Laboratory developing new robotic capabilities for defense. As militaries around the world have quickly adopted drones and other robotic technologies into service, he recognized that ground autonomy remains one of the most difficult and important open spaces for innovation. Today, virtually every ground vehicle that the military fields has a human inside of it. Removing the human from a vehicle presents both safety and tactical advantages on the battlefield.
In the field
Our team
Our team
OUR STORY
World-class team, groundbreaking
innovation
We founded Overland AI to transform land operations by delivering the most advanced and dependable ground autonomy solutions to the U.S. Military and Partner Nations. Our world-leading team combines the best engineering and scientific talent that the US has to offer with veterans who have first-hand experience on the front lines. Our technology has been validated by DARPA and currently supports a range of programs in the U.S. Army, Marine Corps, and Special Operations Command.
OUR THOUGHT LEADERS
Leadership
Byron Boots
Co-Founder & CEO
Amazon Endowed Professor, Director at UW's Robot Learning Lab. Author of 150+ publications with nine "Best Paper" awards in Machine Learning and Robotics.
Byron is the Chief Executive Officer of Overland AI. He is also the Amazon Endowed Professor of Machine Learning and Director of the Robot Learning Lab at the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering at University of Washington. Byron is the Lead PI for the UW RACER team and PI of UW’s off-road vehicle autonomy research under U.S. Army SARA, DCIST, RCTA, and Sciences for Maneuver programs. He has written over 150 technical publications, and received nine "Best Paper" awards, the DARPA Young Faculty Award, the NSF CAREER Award, and the Robotics: Science and Systems Early Career Award for his work. Byron has served as Co-Chair of the IEEE Technical Committee on Robot Learning, board member of the Robot Learning Foundation, and General Chair of the Conference on Robot Learning (CoRL), in 2023, and provided technical leadership for autonomous systems for industry firms including NVIDIA, Amazon, Google, and BMW. Byron has both an M.S. and Ph.D. in Machine Learning from Carnegie Mellon University, and a A.B with a double major in Computer Science and Philosophy from Bowdoin College.
Byron Boots
Co-Founder & CEO
Byron is the Chief Executive Officer of Overland AI. He is also the Amazon Endowed Professor of Machine Learning and Director of the Robot Learning Lab at the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering at University of Washington. Byron is the Lead PI for the UW RACER team and PI of UW’s off-road vehicle autonomy research under U.S. Army SARA, DCIST, RCTA, and Sciences for Maneuver programs. He has written over 150 technical publications, and received nine "Best Paper" awards, the DARPA Young Faculty Award, the NSF CAREER Award, and the Robotics: Science and Systems Early Career Award for his work. Byron has served as Co-Chair of the IEEE Technical Committee on Robot Learning, board member of the Robot Learning Foundation, and General Chair of the Conference on Robot Learning (CoRL), in 2023, and provided technical leadership for autonomous systems for industry firms including NVIDIA, Amazon, Google, and BMW. Byron has both an M.S. and Ph.D. in Machine Learning from Carnegie Mellon University, and a A.B with a double major in Computer Science and Philosophy from Bowdoin College.
Stephanie Bonk
Co-Founder & President
More than twelve years in commercial software leadership; former Apple and PROS. Holds an MBA from UPenn and BS in Industrial Engineering from Purdue.
Stephanie “Steph” Bonk is President of Overland AI. Steph has over twelve years of commercial software experience in product management and software engineering. Steph previously worked at Apple and other innovative product-led technology and financial services companies. Prior to starting Overland AI, Steph spent the majority of her career at PROS (NYSE: PRO), an industry leader in AI-driven enterprise revenue management and pricing software. While at PROS, Steph led product management for the company’s dynamic pricing SaaS product. Steph has an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a BS in Industrial Engineering from Purdue University.
Stephanie Bonk
Co-Founder & President
Stephanie “Steph” Bonk is President of Overland AI. Steph has over twelve years of commercial software experience in product management and software engineering. Steph previously worked at Apple and other innovative product-led technology and financial services companies. Prior to starting Overland AI, Steph spent the majority of her career at PROS (NYSE: PRO), an industry leader in AI-driven enterprise revenue management and pricing software. While at PROS, Steph led product management for the company’s dynamic pricing SaaS product. Steph has an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a BS in Industrial Engineering from Purdue University.
Greg Okopal
Co-Founder & COO
Over fifteen years in DoD autonomous systems; led key defense research. Twice NATO visiting researcher, Electrical Engineering Ph.D., Intelligence Community Fellowship awardee.
Greg is the Chief Operating Officer of Overland AI. Greg has over fifteen years of experience developing and fielding autonomous systems, sensors, and algorithms for challenging DoD problems, and has specifically focused on transitioning basic research to applied domains. Greg has led teams of scientists and engineers on large defense research programs as Co-PI on DARPA RACER, Co-PI and Software Lead of a novel counter-UAS system for DARPA Aerial Dragnet, Chief Scientist and Software Lead for underwater obstacle avoidance on UW’s LDUUV and Software Lead on Multi-Objective Autonomy for AUV Adaptive Sampling for ONR. Greg is a two-time visiting researcher at the NATO Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation developing autonomous systems and signal processing for Anti-Submarine Warfare and Mine Countermeasures. Greg was granted an Intelligence Community Postdoctoral Research Fellowship award and has a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from University of Pittsburgh.
Greg Okopal
Co-Founder & COO
Greg is the Chief Operating Officer of Overland AI. Greg has over fifteen years of experience developing and fielding autonomous systems, sensors, and algorithms for challenging DoD problems, and has specifically focused on transitioning basic research to applied domains. Greg has led teams of scientists and engineers on large defense research programs as Co-PI on DARPA RACER, Co-PI and Software Lead of a novel counter-UAS system for DARPA Aerial Dragnet, Chief Scientist and Software Lead for underwater obstacle avoidance on UW’s LDUUV and Software Lead on Multi-Objective Autonomy for AUV Adaptive Sampling for ONR. Greg is a two-time visiting researcher at the NATO Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation developing autonomous systems and signal processing for Anti-Submarine Warfare and Mine Countermeasures. Greg was granted an Intelligence Community Postdoctoral Research Fellowship award and has a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from University of Pittsburgh.
Jon Fink
CTO
Army Research Lab for eleven years; led key programs and was a subject matter expert on DARPA projects. Published 50+ papers on robotics, Engineering Ph.D. from UPenn.
Jon Fink is the CTO at Overland AI. He previously worked for the Army Research Lab, gaining eleven years of experience conducting and leading foundational research programs on single and multi-agent autonomous systems for the Army. He was the Government lead for RCTA, DCIST, and SARA and worked as a subject matter expert on DARPA programs including SUB-T and RACER. Fink has published over 50 papers with an emphasis on experimentation and field robotics. He was lead architect for the Army Research Lab Autonomy Stack, earning an Army Civilian Service Commendation Medal for this contribution. Fink received a Ph.D. from the Electrical and Systems Engineering Department at the University of Pennsylvania.
Jon Fink
CTO
Jon Fink is the CTO at Overland AI. He previously worked for the Army Research Lab, gaining eleven years of experience conducting and leading foundational research programs on single and multi-agent autonomous systems for the Army. He was the Government lead for RCTA, DCIST, and SARA and worked as a subject matter expert on DARPA programs including SUB-T and RACER. Fink has published over 50 papers with an emphasis on experimentation and field robotics. He was lead architect for the Army Research Lab Autonomy Stack, earning an Army Civilian Service Commendation Medal for this contribution. Fink received a Ph.D. from the Electrical and Systems Engineering Department at the University of Pennsylvania.
