Automotive Electronics Data Expert
Founder and president of AIRMIKA, INC. Tom Kowalick is widely recognized as a global expert
on Event Data Recorder (EDR) technologies and data storage systems for automated and
autonomous vehicles.
Tom has been central to the international debate over EDR black box technologies for over
twenty years.
Tom wrote FATAL EXIT: The Automotive Black Box Debate (Wiley) and six other books covering
EDR standardization, legislation, and regulation. He was a member of the National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration EDR workings groups, created the NHTSA EDR research website,
and was a panel member on the National Academies project studying EDRs.
Tom presented testimony to the National Academies study The Safety Promise and Challenge of
Automotive Electronics and served as an expert witness for the Congressional Research Service
(CRS) and Government Accounting Office (GAO).
Tom contributed testimony to the U.S. House and Senate regarding the Toyota Sudden
Acceleration (SUI) and the General Motors Ignition Key defects.
Tom is a Senior Member and Chair of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics (IEEE) Global
Standards for Motor Vehicle Event Data Recorders (EDRs) IEEE-1616 and IEEE-1616a and IEEE-
Std-1616.1): Data Storage Systems for Automated Driving (DSSAD).
Tom was a U.S. Army paratrooper and later a DOD GS-12 PACE Professor Afloat USS-NIMITZ
CVN-68 from 1977 to 1982 while the world’s largest aircraft carrier participated in Operation
Eagle Claw – the aborted attempt to rescue the American hostages in the U.S. embassy at
Tehran, Iran.
Tom is a proud member of the Raeford D.Z. Class of 72 with 3000+ skydives.
Tom is also a Professor Emeritus from Sandhills Community College, Pinehurst, NC, where he
taught the history of the Holocaust (as a graduate of Yad Vashem, Jerusalem).
Tom wrote the course establishing HUM 170: The Holocaust in fifty-nine N.C. Community
Colleges.