Will Maddern completed a Bachelor of Mechatronic Engineering at the University of Queensland in 2008 and is currently finalising a PhD in appearance-based SLAM at Queensland University of Technology. While at the University of Queensland he was involved in the Thinking Systems Project, which brought together biologists, neuroscientists and engineers to study spatial perception and navigation in animals, humans and robots. Will also spent a brief period in 2011 as a lab visitor at the University of Oxford's Mobile Robotics Group, where he worked on fast extrinsic calibration of 2D and 3D laser scanners on a moving vehicle.