Sunnyvale, Calif., and Pittsburgh, Penn. – Three new North American leadership promotions within Bosch Research will help strengthen Bosch’s critical research in artificial intelligence (AI), semiconductors, hydrogen technologies, electrification and health care diagnostics. Thomas Kropf, president, Bosch Research and Advance Engineering, today announced recent leadership changes in the region. Stefan Knoll has been named vice president and head of Bosch Research in North America, Sam (Samarjit) Das was promoted to director of Bosch Research & Technology Center, and Alessandro Oltramari is now president of Carnegie Bosch Institute (CBI).
“This talented North American leadership team will ensure that Bosch remains a driving force in AI research and the transformation towards electrification, along with our important collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University," said Kropf.
Stefan Knoll – vice president and head, Bosch Research in North America
As the vice president and head of Bosch Research in North America, Stefan Knoll now leads Bosch’s team of world-class researchers in Sunnyvale, Calif., Pittsburgh, Penn., and Watertown, Mass.
Knoll has spent his entire career at Bosch. He began in 1999 as a development engineer in brake systems in Stuttgart, Germany. He moved to Detroit in 2000 and continued in engineering, first in brake systems, and then electronic stability control. With this U.S. experience, he returned to Stuttgart in 2005 and worked in product management in driver assistance systems, and then user experience projects. In 2019 he moved back to the U.S., this time to Silicon Valley, as a vice president working with mobility customers. Knoll holds a master’s degree in mechanical engineering and product design from the University of Stuttgart.
“I find the immediate and long-term opportunities of AI as an enabling technology to be most fascinating, and I’m excited to advance ways for AI to positively contribute to our lives and our business,” said Knoll.
Bosch Research works with the business units to develop the next generation of Bosch products – and the one after that. At the same time, they identify key technologies of the future and make them usable for Bosch. The Bosch researchers also analyze geopolitical, social, economic, and technological megatrends that will shape the world of tomorrow – thus safeguarding Bosch's technological future viability.
The Research and Technology Center North America was established at three locations close to world-class universities and entrepreneurial ecosystems. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif., with additional offices in Pittsburgh, Penn. and Watertown, Mass.
At these locations, Bosch Research hosts over 100 researchers and various technical labs that employ state-of-the-art equipment, such as the Robotics Lab, Hydrogen Research Lab, Human Machine Interaction Research Lab, Biosensors lab, Microsensor Systems Lab and Integrated Circuits Lab.
Samarjit Das – director and head, Bosch Research & Technology Center Pittsburgh
In his new role as the director of Bosch Research and Technology Center in Pittsburgh, Das leads a team focusing on cutting-edge AI research, as well as developing next generation Internet of Things (IoT) and security privacy technologies. He will also continue his role as the chief scientist of Signal Processing and Machine Learning research at Bosch Research.
Das was the principal researcher and project lead for Bosch’s SoundSee space mission in partnership with Astrobotic Technology Inc. to perform autonomous acoustic monitoring aboard the International Space Station (ISS). SoundSee was launched to the ISS in 2019 as experimental sensor technology as part of a research collaboration with NASA. The same technology was utilized in 2022 as part of a research collaboration with Highmark Health to investigate audio AI applications towards detecting pediatric pulmonary conditions, such as childhood asthma. In partnership with Bosch Building Technologies, Das also led commercialization of SoundSee audio AI technology that won CES 2024 innovation award in AI category and was also named honoree in human security category.
He started at Bosch’s Research and Technology Center in Pittsburgh as a Research Scientist in 2013.
“I am so proud of our world-class team of researchers pursuing transformative innovation,” said Das. “We, as a team, look forward to shaping and building an exciting future ahead for Bosch in AI, IoT and security technologies.”
Alessandro Oltramari – president, Carnegie Bosch Institute
Alessandro Oltramari is president of the CBI and a senior research scientist at Bosch Research Technology Center in Pittsburgh.
Oltramari joined Bosch Research in 2016, after working as a research associate at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), funded by public agencies like DARPA, NSF, ARL. At Bosch Research, he focuses on neuro-symbolic reasoning for decision intelligence. His primary interest is to investigate how knowledge systems can be integrated with learning algorithms, and help humans and machines make sense of the physical and digital worlds. He holds a Ph.D. in cognitive science from the University of Trento (Italy).
“As the new president of CBI, I look forward to continuing to grow Bosch’s strong collaboration with CMU at the important intersection of industry and academia with a focus on cutting-edge research,” said Oltramari. “Andrew Carnegie and Robert Bosch are formidable role models of the types of ingenuity, entrepreneurship, philanthropy and foresight that we should aspire to in our daily work.”
A world-class academic and industry collaboration for more than 30 years, CBI is a unique alliance between CMU and Bosch. Activities at CMU include hosting the prestigious Carnegie Bosch Fellowship, supporting breakthrough research by providing funding for faculty, staff, and students, and providing ongoing support for Carnegie Bosch Chaired Professorships.
