Professional Life

I'm a PhD student at MIT studying robot navigation, state estimation, and computer vision. My main research results have to do with Simultaneous Localization and Mapping. I'm currently focusing on the DARPA Urban Grand Challenge as a core member of MIT's team. I'm also interested in computer architecture and electronic design. I intend to pursue a job in academia, most likely becoming a professor.

I currently have a BS and MEng from MIT in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. I've spent time working at a number of startups, including Permabit, Inc., where I was a senior software developer and was a co-designer of their high-peformance, journaling local file system. I've also worked at Trenza, Collegescape, and a few others not worth mentioning.

I was co-founder of MIT's Mobile Autonomous Systems Laboratory (MASLab), an autonomous robotics contest held at MIT. I spent a great deal of time organizing, fund-raising, designing hardware, and teaching during its first four years, and it is now surviving without me!

Personal Life

I spend much of my time with Hilary, who is a chemical engineer. We have a small house in north Cambridge and share it with cats named Bean and Hogan.

I'm an INTJ (67-62-100-67 in 9/06, 67-62-88-44 in 10/06, 44-50-88-44 in 12/06, 44-88-100-67 in 12/07), which explains a lot about me.

I play violin. I current play in the Cambridge Symphony Orchestra (CSO), MIT Summer Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Joy Street Quartet. I've previously played in the MIT Symphony Orchestra, and long ago, in the Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphony (GTCYS) I've been playing since I was five, but like many players, was not consistently devoted. I'm fairly competent--I've served as concert master in CSO and assistant (second) section leader it MITSO, but I'm no virtuoso. (In general, I try to make up for my technical shortcomings by practicing diligently.)


Hilary and I are taking Kung Fu classes at Davis Square Martial Arts. It's a lot of fun, and during the summer we work on weapons (long staff, spear) outside.

Here's a picture of Hilary and me during a little geocaching outing. Yes, we found the cache. The cache was stupid, but the hike was fun. Oh: the fat guy is me, before I lost 25 pounds.

Sometimes I build things. Other times I cut them up. In this case, I'm grinding off excess shaft from a robot I built.


"Edwin" is the 134th most popular male name in the US, according to the US Census, with a frequency of 0.148%. I'm a lot more special than your typical "Edward" (rank 19, frequency 0.779%). "Olson" is at #175 with 0.05%.

Cambridge, MA has an area of 6.4 sq miles and a growing population of 101,355. My hometown, Bloomington, MN, has an area of 35.5 sq miles and a population of 85,172. It's actually shrinking over time a bit.


I'm from Bloomington, MN. Minnesota's third largest city, Bloomington is the home of the Mall of America, which is only about a five minute drive away from my childhood home. I think there's still a sheep farm bordering the mall on one side.

I went to Kennedy High School and did usual high school things... usual for a geek. I was captain of the math team, a student attorney for our state finalist mock trial team, one of the editors of the yearbook, captain of an amazingly incompetent quiz bowl team, and co-founder of a short-lived school newspaper. Probably lots of other geeky crap too. I also was on the varsity cross country ski team, which sounds impressive but isn't-- the team was so small that anyone who joined was automatically on varsity.

During high school, I played violin in the Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphony. It was a wonderful experience. That's me on the left, with the crooked bow tie (why didn't anyone tell me?!)


Here's some archival material from my past-- most of it fairly embarassing.


Ed's Notes: This is a collection of random little bits of information which may be helpful to people. I don't expect people to browse through this manually, but for search engines to index it for me.

Last modified: January 02 2008 13:55:50.