From Lab to Orbit — EraDrive: Autonomy for Every Spacecraft

Interested in building your own venture or turning research into real-world impact? Join us to hear directly from Stanford alumni who have navigated the path from lab to market by turning research into practical applications and building companies around technical innovation. 

Topics will include:

• Path from Researcher to Entrepreneur
• Recognizing when research is ready for translation beyond academia
• Shaping a technical idea into a viable product and business
• Lessons from forming a Stanford technology spinoff
• Early challenges in fundraising, hiring, and product development
• Working at the intersection of advanced research and industry needs

Who should attend: Graduate students, PhDs, and postdocs interested in translating research into real-world impact—especially those considering startups, technology commercialization, or careers at the intersection of academia and industry.

Guest Speakers:

Sumant Sharma, MS '16, PhD '19, Co-Founder and CEO of EraDrive. 
At Wisk, a Boeing subsidiary, Sumant scaled the autonomy team from one person to nearly 50 engineers, building detect-and-avoid systems for self-flying aircraft. He earned his PhD at Stanford's Space Rendezvous Laboratory, where he pioneered the fusion of classical computer vision and deep learning techniques for close-range satellite navigation. He organized an ESA-backed satellite navigation competition that produced the largest space imagery dataset ever released, and later validated close-range vision-based navigation software at NASA Ames for satellite servicing missions. At EraDrive, he is bringing that heritage to orbit with an autonomy module that makes satellites self-driving and enables real-time space traffic intelligence.

Justin Kruger, MS '18, PhD '24, Co-Founder & CTO of EraDrive
Justin completed his PhD with Stanford's Space Rendezvous Laboratory, developing optical navigation algorithms for distributed space systems in Earth orbit and deep space. For his dissertation, he received Stanford's William F. Ballhaus prize and the ION Bradford W. Parkinson award. He led development of the Starling Formation-Flying Optical Experiment in collaboration with NASA Ames, spearheading the first-ever demonstrations of resilient optical positioning and responsive situational awareness in orbit using multiple autonomous satellites. At EraDrive, he heads technology development for the new era of spacecraft autonomy.

Moderated by Dr. Wei Li, Adjunct Professor at ICME, Former VP/GM of AI Software at Intel
Dr. Wei Li is an AI executive and Stanford Adjunct Professor working at the intersection of AI strategy, governance, and enterprise-scale deployment, focused on translating cutting-edge research into real-world impact. He collaborates across Stanford’s Schools of Engineering and Medicine to advance AI in high-stakes environments, emphasizing safety, ethics, and human-centered design. Previously, as VP/GM of AI & Analytics at Intel, he led global teams building full-stack AI platforms generating multi-billion-dollar revenue and has held governance roles with leading industry organizations.

This event is sponsored by ICME and open to all Stanford students. Pizza will be served.