Robert James is an innovative technology strategist who comes up with fresh ideas for new systems and software and has the expertise to architect their development and deployment. He is currently a senior project manager with HNTB. He has over 30 years of experience in the system engineering and design field. He is one of the original founders to conceptualize connected vehicles and has authored a paper in cooperation with FHWA proposing the concept of connected automated vehicles in 1994, which was before CV/AV was even known or understood. He is one of the founders of the smart road at Virginia Tech and the first to design the facility for testing automated vehicles and concepts. In addition, he has spent much of this time managing multi-million-dollar engineering projects in a wide range of fields. Having been part of the public sector, private sector and academia, Mr. James has a unique perspective on the how systems are conceived, designed, deployed, and maintained. Previously, he was the Director of Customer Communications Technology for NJ Transit Office of Technology Services, the largest state-wide transit agency in the country. He specializes in the conventional intelligent transportation systems (ITS) areas as well as the "next gen" of ITS.
Mr. James has presented widely at ITS America, ITS World Congress, TRB, APTA, SPIE and other organizations. He has served on several committees and is currently on ASCE's Connected Vehicle subcommittee of the Advanced Technology Committee. Mr. James has a Master's degree in Electrical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University.
