Carl Hildebrandt
Co-Founder & CEO, SinManos · Ph.D., Autonomous System Safety
Contact
Email: carl@carl-h.com
Website: https://carl-h.com
About
I’ve spent my career working on one question: how do you know a machine is safe to let loose in the real world? My Ph.D. was in autonomous system safety, testing systems where software, hardware, and the messy physical world all meet. The biggest thing I took away is that safety isn’t just good code. You need proof, and the world keeps changing underneath you.
That’s why I co-founded SinManos. We check whether vehicles, human-driven or autonomous, actually follow the rules of the road. It turns out to be one of the best early signs of how safely a fleet is driving, and we help fleets, insurers, and regulators see it at scale.
Outside work, you’ll find me playing hockey, playing video games, or reading a good book.
Experience
October 2025 — Present
Software System Engineer, Autonomy Verification and Test Engineering
June 2024 — September 2025
Graduate Research Assistant
August 2018 — June 2024
Head of Technology
November 2019 — July 2022
Graduate Research Intern
May 2022 — August 2022
Graduate Research Assistant
July 2017 — July 2018
Software Engineer
Cheesecake Trails
January 2017 — July 2017
Education
Ph.D., Computer Science
University of Virginia
Advised by
Sebastian Elbaum
June 2024
B.Eng., Computer Engineering
University of Pretoria
Dec 2016
Publications
SCOUT: A Lightweight Framework for Scenario Coverage Assessment in Autonomous Driving
Anil Yildiz,
Sarah M. Thornton,
,
Sreeja Roy-Singh,
Mykel J. Kochenderfer
International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC)
Anil Yildiz, Sarah M. Thornton, Carl Hildebrandt, Sreeja Roy-Singh, Mykel J. Kochenderfer. 2025. SCOUT: A Lightweight Framework for Scenario Coverage Assessment in Autonomous Driving. In 2025 IEEE 28th International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC). 3835-3842. https://doi.org/10.1109/ITSC60802.2025.11423426
A Differential Testing Framework to Identify Critical AV Failures Leveraging Arbitrary Inputs
Trey Woodlief,
,
Sebastian Elbaum
International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE)
Trey Woodlief, Carl Hildebrandt, Sebastian Elbaum. 2025. A Differential Testing Framework to Identify Critical AV Failures Leveraging Arbitrary Inputs. In 2025 IEEE/ACM 47th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE). 360-372. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICSE55347.2025.00163
ODD-diLLMma: Driving Automation System ODD Compliance Checking using LLMs
,
Trey Woodlief,
Sebastian Elbaum
International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)
Carl Hildebrandt, Trey Woodlief, Sebastian Elbaum. 2024. ODD-diLLMma: Driving Automation System ODD Compliance Checking using LLMs. In 2024 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS). 13809-13816. https://doi.org/10.1109/IROS58592.2024.10801369
PhysCov: Physical Test Coverage for Autonomous Vehicles
,
Meriel von Stein,
Sebastian Elbaum
International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis (ISSTA)
Carl Hildebrandt, Meriel von Stein, Sebastian Elbaum. 2023. PhysCov: Physical Test Coverage for Autonomous Vehicles. In Proceedings of the 32nd ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis. (ISSTA). 449-461. https://doi.org/10.1145/3597926.3598069
Mimicking Real Forces on a Drone Through a Haptic Suit to Enable Cost-Effective Validation
,
Wen Ying,
Seongkook Heo,
Sebastian Elbaum
International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)
Carl Hildebrandt, Wen Ying, Seongkook Heo, Sebastian Elbaum. 2023. Mimicking Real Forces on a Drone Through a Haptic Suit to Enable Cost-Effective Validation. In IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. (ICRA). 10518-10524. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICRA48891.2023.10160313
Preparing Software Engineers to Develop Robot Systems
,
Meriel von Stein,
Trey Woodlief,
Sebastian Elbaum
International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering Education and Training Track (ICSE-SEET)
Carl Hildebrandt, Meriel von Stein, Trey Woodlief, Sebastian Elbaum. 2022. Preparing Software Engineers to Develop Robot Systems. In Proceedings of the ACM/IEEE 44th International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering Education and Training. (ICSE-SEET). 205-216. https://doi.org/10.1145/3510456.3514161
World-in-the-Loop Simulation for Autonomous Systems Validation
,
Sebastian Elbaum
International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)
Carl Hildebrandt, Sebastian Elbaum. 2021. World-in-the-Loop Simulation for Autonomous Systems Validation. In 2021 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA). 10912-10919. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICRA48506.2021.9561240
Feasible and Stressful Trajectory Generation for Mobile Robots
,
Sebastian Elbaum,
Nicola Bezzo,
Matthew B. Dwyer
International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis (ISSTA)
Carl Hildebrandt, Sebastian Elbaum, Nicola Bezzo, Matthew B. Dwyer. 2020. Feasible and Stressful Trajectory Generation for Mobile Robots. In Proceedings of the 29th ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis. (ISSTA). 349-362. https://doi.org/10.1145/3395363.3397387
Blending Kinematic and Software Models for Tighter Reachability Analysis
,
Sebastian Elbaum,
Nicola Bezzo
International Conference on Software Engineering: New Ideas and Emerging Results Track (ICSE-NIER)
Carl Hildebrandt, Sebastian Elbaum, Nicola Bezzo. 2020. Blending Kinematic and Software Models for Tighter Reachability Analysis. In Proceedings of the ACM/IEEE 42nd International Conference on Software Engineering: New Ideas and Emerging Results. (ICSE-NIER). 33-36. https://doi.org/10.1145/3377816.3381730
Fire-Aware Planning of Aerial Trajectories and Ignitions
Evan Beachly,
Carrick Detweiler,
Sebastian Elbaum,
Brittany Duncan,
,
Dirac Twidwell,
Craig Allen
International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)
Evan Beachly, Carrick Detweiler, Sebastian Elbaum, Brittany Duncan, Carl Hildebrandt, Dirac Twidwell, Craig Allen. 2018. Fire-Aware Planning of Aerial Trajectories and Ignitions. In IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems. (IROS). 685-692. https://doi.org/10.1109/IROS.2018.8593568
Patents
Systems and Methods for Safety, Security and Well-Being of Individuals
Victor Aquino,
Melony Bennis,
Tien Comlekoglu,
Jefferson Griscavage,
US Patent: US11688265B1
Aquino, Victor, Melony Bennis, Tien Comlekoglu, Jefferson Griscavage, and Carl Hildebrandt. "System and methods for safety, security, and well-being of individuals." U.S. Patent 11,688,265, issued June 27, 2023.
Systems and Methods for Safety, Security and Well-Being of Individuals
Victor Aquino,
Melony Bennis,
Tien Comlekoglu,
Jefferson Griscavage,
US Patent: US11282367B1
Aquino, Victor, Melony Bennis, Tien Comlekoglu, Jefferson Griscavage, and Carl Hildebrandt. "System and methods for safety, security, and well-being of individuals." U.S. Patent 11,282,367, issued March 22, 2022.
Awards and Honors
University of Virginia - All-University Graduate Teaching Award
April 2023
University of Virginia - Graduate Teaching Award
May 2022
University of Virginia Research Symposium - Best Poster
September 2021
The University of Virginia Research Symposium - Best Presentation
September 2020
ACM SIGSOFT ISSTA - Distinguished Artifact Award
July 2020
IEEE/RSJ IROS - Best Paper Award on Safety, Security, and Rescue Robotics
October 2018
Teaching
Supporting Instructor: Robotics for Software Engineers
The University of Virginia
2022
Lab Designer and Guest Lecturer: Robotics for Software Engineers
The University of Virginia
2021
Lab Designer and Teaching Assistant: Robotics for Software Engineers
The University of Virginia
2020
Head Teaching Assistant: Data Structures and Algorithms in Java
The University of Pretoria
2016
Head Teaching Assistant: Program Design in C++
The University of Pretoria
2015
Teaching Assistant: Data Structures and Algorithms in Java
The University of Pretoria
2015
Teaching Assistant: Introduction to Programming in C
The University of Pretoria
2014
Service
IROS 2024: Technical Track Paper Reviewer
ASE 2022: Artifact Reviewer
UVA 2022: Graduate Student Council
ICRA 2022: Technical Track Paper Reviewer
ICSE 2021: Student Volunteer