Andy Schaudt

Current Positions

• Assistant Professor of Practice, Department of Management
• Chief of Staff, Virginia Tech Transportation Institute

Education

• M.B.A., Virginia Tech
• M.S. Human Factors Psychology, University of Idaho
• B.S. Psychology, University of Idaho

Biography

Andy Schaudt holds a dual appointment as an Assistant Professor of Practice in the Department of Management in the Pamplin College of Business, and as the Chief of Staff of the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI). For Pamplin, Professor Schaudt teaches coursework on Entrepreneurship and Intrapreneurship, and for VTTI he oversees strategic planning, intellectual property and commercialization, human resources, research safety and compliance, and operations. A devoted human experience enthusiast, he has spent his career learning about the intricacies of human behavior and how best to apply these findings to improve the design of products, services, and strategic business decisions. He focuses his efforts on the innovative design of products and services that are personalized to the end user. He has two decades of experience in human factors, usability, systems design, business strategy and marketing having managed contracts for both federal and private sector organizations across numerous industries, most notably transportation and healthcare.

Prior to his role at Virginia Tech, Professor Schaudt was an active entrepreneur co-founding various new ventures, including being the President and CXO of the web presence marketing firm Post Launch in Las Vegas, NV, helping clients ranging from small businesses to large enterprises to build their visibility online. Before that, Professor Schaudt was the Director of Usability Services at the MedStar Institute for Innovation in Washington D.C.

Schaudt earned his M.B.A. from Virginia Tech, and his M.S. in Human Factors Psychology from the University of Idaho. Schaudt has over 100 scientific publications, technical reports, and professional presentations/lectures, and his work has been featured in TV and digital media outlets including Wired, Business Insider, USA Today, Washington Post, CNN, Modern Healthcare, and various others. Professor Schaudt was also featured in the documentary film “Autonomy” from executive producer Malcolm Gladwell on the current state of self-driving vehicles in our society. Most recently Schaudt was part of an interdisciplinary design team that was awarded the Innovation Award from Virginia Tech’s ICAT Creativity and Innovation Day for their work with self-driving car research.

Previous Positions

• Post Launch | President and Chief eXperience Officer (CXO)
• Wine Clubs USA, LLC | Co-founder & Partner
• Free Websites Las Vegas, LLC | Co-founder & Partner
• MedStar Institute for Innovation | Director of Usability Services & Senior Advisor
• Virginia Tech Transportation Institute | Senior Research Associate & Research Associate
• Daimler Chrysler | Human Factors Intern
• Idaho Visual Performance Laboratory, University of Idaho | Graduate Research Assistant
• Battelle | Human Factors Intern

Recent Press/Media

• Hoag & Co Podcast: #152-Andy Schaudt, Program Director, Automated Vehicle Systems
• Appearance in documentary feature film “Autonomy” from executive producer Malcom Gladwell and director Alex Horwitz, 2019. IMDB Page and Movie Trailer
• Wired Magazine: Want to Teach Self-Driving Vehicles to Talk?

Awards & Honors

•  Recognition of Teaching Excellence for Undergraduate Research, Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, VT, 2022
• Robert T. Sumichrast Outstanding Faculty Fellow Award, Apex Center for Entrepreneurs, Virginia Tech, 2022
• National Distinction & Outstanding Contributor, 2021, Virginia Tech
• Innovation Award: ICAT Creativity and Innovation Day, Virginia Tech, 2019. Awarded to VTTI interdisciplinary design team of the self-driving car seat suit: Andy Schaudt, Matthew Moeller, Josh Skole, Zack Crane.
• Top 10 of 2014 Med Device Online, "A Human Factors Engineering Primer for Medical Device Development"
• Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Arch T. Colwell Merit Award, 2008
• Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Presentation Excellence Award, 2007 & 2006
• Graduate Student Association Teaching Excellence Award, University of Idaho, 2002
• Phil Mohan Award:  Academic Research Excellence, University of Idaho, 2001

Selected Publications

• Schaudt, W.A., Russell, S., & J.M. Owens (2019). The Role of Human Factors in the Design of Automated Vehicle External Communication. In G. Meyer & S. Beiker (Eds.), Road Vehicle Automation 6. Springer International Publishing AG. ISBN 978-3-030-22932-0, DOI 978-3-030-22933-7_4.
• Schaudt, W.A., and Hernandez, A. (2014).  Preventing medication errors: Through the proactive application of systems thinking and human factors engineering. Journal of the British Association of Pharmaceutical Physicians, 25(3), pp. 6-11.
• Bowman, D.S., Schaudt, W.A., & Hanowski, R.J. (2012). Advances in Drowsy Driver Assistance Systems through Data Fusion. In A. Eskandarian (Ed.), Handbook of Intelligent Vehicles, pp. 896-912. Springer-Verlag London Ltd.
• Abts, N. & Schaudt, A. (2015, February). How Medtech Companies Can Reduce Costs And Increase Revenue Through Human Factors. Med Device Online. Retrieved from http://www.meddeviceonline.com/doc/how-medtech-companies-can-reduce-costs-and-increase-revenue-through-human-factors-0001