How AI Will Be / Is (?) Moving Freight
EVENT CO-CHAIRS
Hani S. Mahmassani - Patterson Transportation Chair / Director, NUTC
Bret Johnson - Senior Associate Director, NUTC / Director, CCITT
Six early-stage AI companies — Augment, FleetWorks, GenLogs, HappyRobot, Qued and Vooma —are coming together with the Northwestern University Transportation Center at the Spring 2025 Industry Technical Workshop to show “how AI will be or is (?) moving freight.”
The Workshop will explore the growing role and potential of AI in automating communication, streamlining workflows, and improving overall efficiency in logistics management. The panelists will discuss real applications of how AI-powered automation is improving task efficiency, reducing operational costs, enhancing service reliability, and potentially reshaping the industry.
• Augment is building AI assistants for the logistics industry to automate tedious tasks for operators.
• FleetWorks helps automate brokerage operations and handles inbound and outbound communication channels.
• GenLogs provides freight intelligence on every carrier, shipper, and asset via a nationwide sensor network.
• HappyRobot automates communication across logistics channels using AI workers that integrate with existing systems, manage conversations, and log data.
• Qued is an AI-enabled smart workflow automation platform that automates the entire scheduling process, securing time slots for all types of loads for brokers, 3PLs and carriers.
• Vooma automates logistics operations using AI agents to help brokers and carriers secure contracts and move freight.
ABOUT NUTC
The Northwestern University Transportation Center (NUTC) is one of the world’s leading interdisciplinary education and research institutions, serving industry, government and the public sectors. Founded in 1954 to generate substantive and enduring contributions for the better movement of materials, people, energy, and information, NUTC stands at the forefront of transportation research and education. NUTC brings together academic researchers, students and business affiliates in a joint open exploration of transportation and supply chain operations. NUTC aims to influence national and international transportation policy, management and technological developments with the goal of making transportation and supply chain operations more productive, efficient, safe, secure, environmentally friendly and socially beneficial.
2:00 PM
2:10 PM
3:15 PM
3:45 PM
4:45 PM
Workshop Agenda
WEDNESDAY, MAY 7, 2025
Motor Company
Welcome / Opening Remarks
Hani Mahmassani | Director | NUTC
Design Center – Hive (2nd floor, room 350)
Bret Johnson | Senior Associate Director | NUTC
Presentations
Harish Abbott | Co-Founder & CEO | Augment LLC
Jesse Buckingham | Co-Founder | Vooma
Kris Forrest | Head of Sales | GenLogs
Prasad Gollapalli | CEO and Chairman | Qued
Pablo Palafox | Co-founder & CEO | HappyRobot Inc.
Paul Singer | Co-founder & CEO | FleetWorks
Networking Break
Panel Discussion
Moderator
John Larkin | Senior Investment Partner | Venture53
End of Program
Speaker Bios
Harish Abbott
Co-Founder & CEO Augment LLC
Jesse Buckingham Co-Founder Vooma
Kris Forrest Head of Sales GenLogs
Prasad Gollapalli CEO and Chairman Qued
Bret Johnson
Senior Associate Director, Transportation Center Northwestern University
John Larkin
Senior Investment Partner Venture53
Hani S. Mahmassani
William A. Patterson Distinguished Chair in Transportation Director, Transportation Center Northwestern University
Pablo Palafox
Co-founder & CEO HappyRobot Inc.
Paul Singer
Co-founder & CEO FleetWorks
THANK YOU
HARISH ABBOTT
Co-Founder & CEO
Augment LLC
Harish Abbott is the Co-Founder and CEO of Augment, an AI-driven logistics platform transforming freight operations. In 2025, Augment secured $25 million in seed funding led by 8VC to develop its flagship product.
Prior to launching Augment, Harish co-founded Deliverr, a fast-growing e-commerce fulfillment platform acquired by Shopify for $2.1 billion in 2022. His career includes pivotal roles at Amazon, where he contributed to building global fulfillment infrastructure.
Harish holds degrees from the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.
JESSE BUCKINGHAM
Co-Founder Vooma
Jesse is a founder of Vooma, the AI agent for freight brokers and carriers that executes workflows across email, text and voice. Before Vooma, Jesse was the CEO of a logistics software company that sold to brokers, carriers and fleet owners. Previously Jesse was a strategy consultant with Bain & Company and earned his MBA from Stanford GSB.
KRIS FORREST
Head of Sales
GenLogs
Kris Forrest is the Head of Sales at GenLogs, a leading provider of real-time freight visibility powered by a proprietary nationwide network of roadside sensors. Since joining GenLogs, Kris has driven sales strategy and growth, helping logistics professionals integrate AI-driven insights into their operations. With a background in business development, intelligence operations, and risk assessment, he brings a unique perspective on leveraging data and automation to improve freight efficiency. Prior to GenLogs, Kris worked for the Central Intelligence Agency for over a decade and also co-founded an American-made barware company.
PRASAD GOLLAPALLI
Chief Executive Officer and Chairman
Qued
Prasad Gollapalli is chief executive officer, founder and chairman of the board of Qued, a pioneering cloud-based AI workflow automation plat-
form transforming load appointment scheduling into the future. With nearly three decades of industry experience, Prasad is a seasoned entrepreneur renowned for his success in start-up ventures and leadership roles within trucking and shipping software companies. Prior to Qued, Prasad founded and led Trucker Tools, the industry’s premier digital freight management platform with the most popular Trucker Tools driver app.
Prior to his tenure at Trucker Tools, Prasad held various leadership positions focused on the design and implementation of advanced transportation technology solutions. As Director of Product Management at Getloaded. com, later acquired by DAT, he led business and product strategy efforts. Prasad’s expertise extends to the shipping industry, where he served as a product manager for the Liberian International Ship & Corporate Registry (LISCR, LLC).
Prasad holds an MBA with a focus on strategy and entrepreneurship from the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, as well as a master’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Alabama-Huntsville. He earned his bachelor’s degree in computer science and engineering from the University of Madras, India. Prasad resides in Ashburn, Virginia, with his wife and daughter.
BRET JOHNSON
Sr. Associate Director
Northwestern University Transportation Center
Bret Johnson is the senior associate director of the Northwestern University Transportation Center (NUTC), and the director of the Center for the Commercialization of Innovative Transportation Technology at Northwestern. Prior to joining Northwestern, Bret held senior engineering and project management positions at 3COM, Grayhill, Northrop-Grumman, and GE Astrospace. He received an M.A. in Science, Technology and Public Policy from The George Washington University, an M.S. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford University, and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
JOHN G. LARKIN
Senior Investment Partner
Venture53
John joined Clarendon in 2019 and has over thirty-five years of experience in prominent transportation and logistics leadership roles in buyside research, investment banking and as a corporate executive. Prior to joining Clarendon, John was Managing Director of Stifel’s Transportation & Logistics Investment Banking Team and has advised numerous publicly traded and privately held transportation and logistics companies as well as many financial sponsors with investments in the transportation and logistics space. Prior to joining the Investment Banking Team at Stifel, John
led Stifel’s transportation & logistics research effort for 17 years, having founded the original group at Legg Mason (later sold to Stifel, Nicolaus & Company), where he developed one of the largest and most prominent annual investment conferences in the industry.
HANI MAHMASSANI
William A. Patterson Distinguished Chair in Transportation Director, Northwestern University Transportation Center
Hani S. Mahmassani is Director of the Transportation Center, and the William A. Patterson Distinguished Professor in Transportation at Northwestern University, which he joined on September 1, 2007, with joint appointments in the McCormick School of Engineering and the Kellogg School of Management. He previously served in endowed faculty positions at the University of Maryland and at the University of Texas at Austin. Mahmassani has over 35 years of experience as a researcher, scholar and professional in the transportation and logistics area.
Mahmassani is recognized nationally and internationally for a broad array of transportation research achievements; his applications span both passenger and freight, and he has been especially effective at connecting advanced models to emerging policy issues. He has pioneered the use of novel data sources and real-time data streams in transportation modeling and decision-making, including sensor data from intelligent transportation systems deployments, probe data from GPS and smartphones, transaction records from payment systems, and vehicle-based tracking systems. His current research is focused on autonomous vehicle deployment, including fleet operations for emerging mobility service models.
PABLO PALAFOX
Co-founder & CEO HappyRobot Inc.
Pablo Palafox is the CEO and co-founder of HappyRobot, the enterprise-grade AI agent platform for logistics and supply chain. With dual Master’s degrees in Industrial Engineering from the Technical University of Madrid and the Technical University of Munich (TUM), Pablo pursued a Ph.D. in AI and Deep Learning at TUM. After a research internship at Meta in 2022, he left academia to launch HappyRobot, which is backed by Y Combinator and Andreessen Horowitz. HappyRobot serves today some of the largest enterprises in logistics and supply chain, automating their communications with AI agents that work via email, text or phone calls, and in multiple languages.
PAUL SINGER CEO and Co-Founder FleetWorks
Paul Singer is the CEO and co-founder of FleetWorks, an AI startup pioneering the use of autonomous AI agents in the logistics industry. FleetWorks empowers brokers like Capstone, Flock Freight, Loadsmart, and many others by automating repetitive tasks, freeing up teams to focus on building meaningful relationships. Before founding FleetWorks, Paul led the Carrier Product Team at Uber Freight, where he discovered his passion for creating tools that empower carriers and brokers to succeed. Paul holds a degree in Economics from Yale University. Outside of work, he’s an avid marathon runner, always chasing his next finish line.
Verlyn joined the company in 1997 as Staff Counsel, and over the years, was promoted to Senior Counsel, Director & Assistant General Counsel, Senior Director & Assistant General Counsel, and finally Vice President, General Counsel in 2007. Verlyn has been a key leader in formative years of growth, overseeing negotiations of major new contracts and strategic contract renewals. Leaving the company in 2016 to pursue other opportunities, he returned in 2020 in a Strategic Partnerships role, directly leading major customer relationships and our exploration and entry into cold chain logistics.
Before his return to CJ Logistics America, Verlyn held the position Of Counsel at Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan & Aronoff, with a general corporate practice in the firm’s Transportation & Logistics Practice Group. Verlyn has a BS in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania, The Wharton School, a Juris Doctorate (JD) from DePaul University College of Law, and an MBA from Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management.
