Ingenuity Labs Presents: Jeremy C.-H. Wang

Title: Food, freedom, and the quest for pilotless flight

Abstract: Transportation underpins many fundamental rights, from the human right to food security to the sovereign right to defend. For many of the world's remote areas including northern Canada, air transportation is the only year-round means for moving critical supplies—however, achieving fast, dependable, and affordable delivery remains a longstanding challenge. Autonomous aircraft have the potential to address this gap by simplifying operational constraints to high-frequency, high-reliability operations. In this talk, we will discuss the business case, concept of operations, regulatory considerations, and technical approach to developing and testing Ribbit's optionally piloted aircraft to date including key projects with Transport Canada, the National Research Council of Canada (NRC), and the Department of National Defence/Canadian Armed Forces (DND/CAF). We will also cover outstanding technical challenges moving forward, and comment on the current policy environment surrounding dual-use and defence modernization.

Bio: Dr. Jeremy Wang is an aerospace engineer and entrepreneur with over 10 years of experience in uncrewed and autonomous systems for advanced air mobility. Jeremy currently serves as President & COO of Ribbit, which he co-founded in 2020. Ribbit builds and operates dual-use self-flying airplanes to improve access to transportation, especially in rural, remote, and coastal regions. Ribbit is a contractor to multiple defence, research, and transportation agencies, and has partnered with wholesalers, Indigenous communities, and humanitarian groups who spend $73M annually on air freight. In 2023, Ribbit performed Canada’s first automated gate-to-gate flight. Jeremy is also active in the broader aerospace and defence community, serving as an adjunct professor at the University of Waterloo and Royal Military College ofCanada. Jeremy holds a BASc in Engineering Science (Toronto) and a PhD in Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering (Waterloo).