Jeremy Wang (EngSci 1T7+PEY)

The Simple Guide to Building Self-Flying Airplanes and a Meaningful Career

What does it take to make an airplane fly itself? What would better transportation mean for Canada's rural, remote, and coastal Indigenous communities, or other hard-to-reach areas around the world? In the last two years, Canadian company Ribbit has accumulated 200 hours of hands-free flight aboard a two-seater airplane modified to demonstrate autonomy.

In this talk, I will share a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the 14-month process that Ribbit pursued to modify an off-the-shelf fixed-wing aircraft for Level 3/4 autonomous flight. Beginning with the societal and commercial motives for autonomy, we will quickly dive into the operational requirements, resultant technical decisions and systems architecture, flight test program, and pervasive safety and regulatory considerations that culminated in the first hands-free gate-to-gate flight of an airplane in Canada. In addition, I will summarize my personal journey before, during, and after EngSci, and speak to the most formative failures, successes, challenges, and lessons learned along the way. If all you read is this abstract, know this: (1) engineering is a people skill with technical elements, not the other way around; (2) the things in life that count aren't countable. This talk is ideally suited to EngSci students considering aerospace, robotics, academic research, and/or entrepreneurship.

Speaker bio: 

Dr. Jeremy C.-H. Wang is a Canadian aerospace engineer with 8 years of experience in aerial robotics and aircraft automation. From 2016 to 2019, Jeremy served as CTO of one of Canada's leading drone operators, where he started and grew a self-sustaining engineering division developing special-purpose and long-range drones for industrial and defence organizations. In 2020, Jeremy co-founded Ribbit with Carl Pigeon—Ribbit is a cargo airline startup that builds self-flying airplanes and equips organizations with pilotless fleets to improve service levels and serve new markets. The company has signed LOIs with 6 leading retailers and wholesalers worth $42M/yr in future revenue, received an SFOC for remotely piloted flight tests, and recently won a $1.3M testing contract with the federal government. Jeremy holds a BASc in Engineering Science from the University of Toronto and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Waterloo. Outside work, he plays piano, reads WWII history, and enjoys trying new food with his partner. Jeremy believes that anyone can lead, everyone must lead no matter their title or position, and the best leaders do so by example, expertise, and empathy.