Q: Name of group/person/association

A: Jerry Quandt, Executive Director, Illinois Autonomous Vehicles Association (ILAVA)

Q: What is your project/what are you working on?

A: ILAVA is a private sector association that represents the entire ecosystem around new mobility. We foster the growth that connected and autonomous vehicle technologies are inevitably going to bring to people, communities, government and business. We do that in three ways:

1.     Help facilitate initial deployments that are scalable and sustainable business solutions in the space

2.     We facilitate education both internally within the industry and externally to stakeholders and gatekeepers and to people in the general population

3.     We aggregate thought leadership and create thought leadership on the initial deployments that we have

Q: How long have you been working at the Connectory?

A: Since August 2018

Q: Why do you work at the Connectory? What are its benefits for you?

A: Mobility is going to be the circulatory system of smart city IoT development. It’s the thing that connects everything else. We’re finding across the country that smart city initiatives are reverting to mobility as their basis.

Being at the Connectory enables us the opportunity to not only continue to foster our own network, but also gives us a place of legitimacy to foster the network as a whole. We even have a commitment of hosting a monthly meet-up around different topics related to autonomous vehicle technologies in the realm of “system of systems” that will enable mobility. This is our focus here in Illinois.

Q: Do you have a website? Twitter? LinkedIn? Somewhere where we can learn more about you and your project?

Twitter: @ilavassociation

Instagram: @ilavassoc

Facebook: Illinois Autonomous Vehicles Association

Website: www.illavassoc.org

Q: Random, fun question: What would you name your boat if you had one?

A: I would name it, “La Cucaracha del Mar.” (cockroach of the sea). This is a nickname for lobsters. Did you know that lobsters are the only living things that are immortal? They will never die on their own! The only thing that kills them naturally is that their heart grows disproportionally to their body, and they may die of a heart attack, but of course, this could take 150 years. Google it!