Rajkumar, an internationally reputed researcher in embedded real-time systems, cyber-physical systems, operating systems and wireless sensor networks, holds three patents and founded Ottomatika, astartup that commercialized his research on intelligent software for self-driving vehicles. Ottomatika was acquired by Delphi Automotive in 2016.

A leading expert in autonomous vehicle research, Rajkumar helped Carnegie Mellon become a research hub for driverless technology. He is director of two U.S. Department of Transportation National University Transportation centers (UTC), including the recently announced Mobility21 and the Technologies for Safe and Efficient Transportation National UTC on Safety. He is co-director of the GM-CMU Connected and Autonomous Driving Collaborative Research Lab and director of Metro21, a center related to smart cities.