Our Team
Sam Bell, President
Sam is Co-Founder and President of RoadPrintz. Prior to founding RoadPrintz, Sam owned a highly-awarded local automotive repair garage and remains deeply engaged in civic life. He serves on the Design & Engineering Subcommittee of the City of Cleveland’s Vision Zero Task Force and is a Board Member of the Ohio Chapter of ATSSA. He was a long-time Contributing Editor at MOTOR Magazine, where he won many national awards for his feature articles, and he is the author or co-author of several books. He has frequently been described as a Renaissance Man: raised by his rocket-scientist father and his poet mother, his background studies included everything from classical Greek to quantum mechanics to law. His primary responsibilities at RoadPrintz include serving as the Principal Investigator for the company’s Phase II Small Business Innovation Research grant award from the National Science Foundation. His day-to-day responsibilities include anticipating and thwarting the legalistic Mr Murphy’s continuing assaults on “the best-laid plans of mice and men.” Sam admits that Murphy’s insomniac twin brother, Gravity, has bested him more than once, yet the two continue to battle on the ski slopes, long bike rides, and free-climbs.
Wyatt Newman is CTO and co-founder of RoadPrintz, Inc. He was a professor of Electrical, Systems and Computer Engineering at Case Western Reserve University for 34 years, prior to devoting full time to RoadPrintz. His background is in the areas of mechatronics, robotics and computational intelligence, in which he has 13 patents and over 150 technical publications. He received the S.B. degree from Harvard College in Engineering Science, the S.M. degree in Mechanical Engineering from M.I.T. in thermal and fluid sciences, the M.S.E.E. degree from Columbia University in control theory and network theory, and the Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from M.I.T. in design and control. A former NSF Young Investigator in robotics, Prof. Newman has also held appointments as: a senior member of research staff, Philips Laboratories; visiting scientist at Philips Natuurkundig Laboratorium; visiting faculty at Sandia National Laboratories, Intelligent Systems and Robotics Center; NASA summer faculty fellow at NASA Glenn Research Center; visiting fellow in neuroscience at Princeton University; distinguished visiting fellow at Edinburgh University, School of Informatics; and the Hung Hing Ying Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Hong Kong. Prof. Newman led robotics teams competing in the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge and in the 2015 DARPA Robotics Challenge. He is the author of the 2017 textbook “A Systematic Approach to Learning Robot Programming with ROS.” He is also a technical advisor to RoboGlobal and a consultant on space robotics to NASA Goddard SpaceFlight Center.
Wyatt Newman, PhD, CTO
Dan Pendergast, CEO
Daniel Pendergast is the CEO of RoadPrintz under a special agreement with Case Western Reserve University (CWRU). He also serves as the Interim Executive Director of the Technology Transfer Office at CWRU where his responsibilities include the commercialization of a diverse portfolio of technologies. Daniel has nearly 20 years of experience in early-stage commercialization. He earned his MSEE and MBA degrees at CWRU. Along with the founders, he was a member of TeamCASE – CWRU’s entry into DARPA’s Autonomous Vehicle Urban Challenge.
Joe grew up on the west side of Cleveland, and has had a nearly lifelong interest in robotics, starting at the Lego robotics club at his middle school. Since then, he has worked on planetary mobile robotics and in-situ resource utilization during an internship at NASA. In May, he completed his Masters degree in Electrical Engineering at Case Western, where he researched compliant robotics for satellite servicing. In his spare time, he also enjoys working on embedded electronics projects.
Joe Cressman
Quan Nguyen
Quan Nguyen earned his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering at Case Western Reserve University, focusing on Robotics. While originally interested in Biomedical Engineering, Quan discovered his passion for Robotics when a friend introduced him to the field. Since then, he has been actively involved in various research projects, including developing wearable controllers for multileg robots and exploring robotics-compliant control for satellite servicing. As a Master’s student, Quan joined the MeRCIS Lab, where he focused on kinematics and hand-eye calibration techniques for precision control in surgical contexts on the DVRK research platform. In addition to his work in robotics, Quan is interested in additive and subtractive manufacturing and enjoys sports such as badminton, table tennis, and archery. With his diverse interests and expertise in engineering, Quan is dedicated to making a positive impact in the field of robotics. He hopes to continue to learn and grow as a professional to make significant contributions to the field and the community as a Robotics Engineer at RoadPrintz, where he began working part-time as an undergrad.
