Steve Macenski is a well-known figure in the robotics industry, having contributed significantly in various domains. He is highly skilled in the development of autonomous robotic systems and has extensive expertise in controls, path planning, perception, and computer vision. Steve is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he studied Aerospace Engineering.

Currently, Steve is playing a significant role as an Engineering Lead at Samsung Research America. His work involves developing open-source navigation frameworks for autonomous vehicles to move seamlessly in highly dynamic and complex environments. In addition to his current role, he is also an advisor to two companies, Alterra Robotics and Simbe Robotics. Previously, he has held positions such as Senior Software Engineer and Navigation Lead at Simbe Robotics, Mission Operations Intern at Planet Labs, Robotics Contractor at NASA, and Standards Engineering Intern at John Deere.

Steve is a huge proponent of open-source robotics software and has contributed immensely towards building and maintaining such software. He collaborates closely with the ROS community and has worked on several large-scale robotics infrastructure projects such as Navigation Stack, SLAM Toolbox, Robot Localization, and the Spatio-Temporal Voxel Grid.

Overall, Steve Macenski is a highly respected professional in the robotics industry whose contributions are invaluable to the development of autonomous robotics.

---