Speakers
RoboDevelopment 2008 Keynote Speakers included:
SEBASTIAN THRUN
| | Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering Director, Artificial Intelligence Laboratory Stanford University |
Sebastian Thrun, PhD, is a Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at Stanford University, where he directs the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Thrun's research focuses on Artificial Intelligence and Robotics. He is probably best known for his victory in the DARPA Grand Challenge and his second place finish in the DARPA Urban Challenge – both robotic competition organized by the US Government to foster the field of autonomous robotics. Thrun has published 11 books, over 300 technical papers, and has won numerous awards, including most recently the Science Prize of the City of Braunschweig, Germany. Thrun is an elected member of the National Academy of Engineering (USA) and of the German Academy of Sciences. He is also a Principal Engineer at Google.
MICHAEL BRUCH
| | Section Head, Unmanned Systems Branch Space and Naval Warfare (SPAWAR) Systems Center |
Michael Bruch is currently a Section Head in the Unmanned Systems Branch at SPAWAR Systems Center, Pacific, where he has been developing unmanned systems for the past 10 years. Bruch has led the development of numerous unmanned ground vehicle (UGV), unmanned surface vehicle (USV), and command and control projects. His current focus is on enhancing autonomous navigation of small UGVs and USVs and developing better command and control interfaces for those systems. Bruch also serves as one of the Navy representatives to the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) Joint Ground Robotics Enterprise (JGRE) technical advisory board.
MAJA J. MATARIC
| | Founding Director, USC Center for Robotics and Embedded Systems Director, USC Robotics Research Lab University of Southern California |
Maja Mataric' is a professor of Computer Science and Neuroscience at the University of Southern California, founding director of the USC Center for Robotics and Embedded Systems, co-director of the USC Robotics Research Lab, and Senior Associate Dean for Research in the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and recipient of the Okawa Foundation Award, NSF Career Award, the MIT TR100 Innovation Award, the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Early Career Award, the USC Viterbi School of Engineering Service Award and Junior Research Award, the Provost's Center for Interdisciplinary Research Fellowship, and is featured in the documentary movie "Me & Isaac Newton." She is an associate editor of three major journals and has published extensively in various areas of robotics. Her Interaction Lab's research into socially assistive robotics is aimed at endowing robots with the ability to help people through individual assistance (for convalescence, rehabilitation, raining, and education) and team cooperation (for habitat monitoring and emergency response). She holds a PhD in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence from MIT.
JEANNE DIETSCH
| | CEO MobileRobots Inc |
Jeanne Dietsch is a serial entrepreneur whose third start-up began in 1995 under the name ActivMedia Robotics, now MobileRobots Inc. Dietsch has led the company from a kitchen-table concept to a global manufacturer of thousands of robots and intelligent software for commercial and industrial applications. She spearheaded the movement to get robots out of the robotics lab and under the control of the commercial community. The result, MOBILEROBOTSindoors, is the first general-purpose, off-the-shelf autonomous robot platform that could be deployed without programming, using drag-n-drop software. As CEO of MobileRobots Inc, Dietsch provides strategic leadership as well as managerial steering for the privately held, profitable company leading the autonomous service robot industry forward.
TANDY TROWER
| | General Manager Microsoft |
Tandy Trower has a 27 year history with new products and technology initiatives at Microsoft bringing to market new products as diverse as Microsoft Flight Simulator to Microsoft Windows. In addition, as a strong proponent of the importance of design in human-computer interaction he has contributed to the company’s investment in improving its user interfaces, founding the company’s first usability labs and product design roles. He continues to investigate and drive strategic new technology directions for the company and incubating new projects.
General Session Speakers Include:
DAVID BAGGALEY
| | Sales & Marketing Director Inspired Energy |
Dave Baggaley has worked in the battery industry for the last 22 years, in various engineering, technical marketing and sales positions, the last 12 of which have involved working with smart battery systems – predominantly Lithium Ion at companies such as General Electric, Gates Energy, Energizer & Moltech before forming Inspired Energy. In the mid 1990's as part of Energizer's Smart Battery Business Strategic business unit, Dave & the other members of the Inspired Energy team assisted in the establishment of the Smart Battery System with the Smart Battery Implementers' Forum - an industry body that included, Energizer, Duracell, Intel, Benchmarq (Now TI) Linear Technology and others. Dave holds an Honors Degree in Minerals Engineering from the University of Birmingham (UK) and has three patents filed for his battery design innovations.
TOM BENSON
| | Director and Chief Product Architect Readybot Robot Challenge |
Tom Benson is a 20-year veteran technology developer in Silicon Valley. His prior start-ups include Timepoint Corporation, a company that sold complex artificial intelligence and optimization software into healthcare, gaming, and government markets, which was acquired in 1999. He is currently director and chief technology architect for the Readybot Robot Challenge, a non-profit team of developers who have been working for the past five years to develop a mass-production-capable kitchen-cleaning robot.
BRUCE BOYES
| | Founder and Chief Technical Director Systronix Inc |
Bruce Boyes is the founder and CTO of Systronix Inc, a manufacturer of industrial embedded Java solutions with trade names such as TStik/TINI, JStamp, and JStik. Systronix has developed successful commercial products for companies such as Lockheed Martin Aerospace, Milex Deltek Strobes, and Mainstream Data. In the past he was a professor at the University of Utah School of Computing. His background also includes ASIC design, mixed signal embedded control systems, and multi-board systems.
CHRIS BROWN
| | Business Development Manager Autonomous Solutions |
A graduate of MIT, Chris Brown has worked in small ground robotics development for 8 years. On the military side, he has worked in developing custom robotic systems for submarine and other shipboard maintenance and inspection applications, as well as with EOD robots such as Foster-Miller’s TALON and iRobot’s Packbot. On the commercial side, he has developed new robotic solutions for the energy industry (on both the power generation and power transmission sides), the mining industry, and the agriculture industry. After being Business Development Manager for Foster-Miller’s Power Systems Technology Group for over 5 years in Boston, he recently moved to Utah to be a Business Development Manager for Autonomous Solutions.
RICHARD BYRNE
| | Senior Computer Scientist Applied Research Associates |
Richard Byrne is a Senior Computer Scientist at Applied Research Associates (ARA), an employee owned company which specializes in national defense and aerospace ; homeland security, disaster management and transportation, where he has written software for remote control of large wheel and tracked based vehicles. Prior to ARA he was a Senior Level Engineer at Concepts NREC, Inc. and expert at Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) software for turbo-machinery. Richard holds a Physics degree from the University of NH.
BRIAN COLANDREO
| | Partner, Intellectual Property Law Practice Group Holland & Knight' |
Brian J. Colandreo is a partner in the Intellectual Property Law Practice Group of Holland & Knight and is the Leader of Holland & Knight's Boston Patent Practice. An electrical engineer and registered patent attorney, Brian focuses his practice on client management, general intellectual property prosecution, transactional work, litigation support, due diligence work and opinion work.
STEVE COUSINS
| | CEO and President Willow Garage |
Steve Cousins is a seasoned executive, entrepreneur, and innovator with a strong track record for managing research and development organizations and creating a significant return on investment. Prior to joining Willow Garage, Steve was the senior manager of the User-Focused Systems Research Group at the IBM Almaden Research Center, one of the top Human-Computer Interaction Research groups in the world. Before he assumed his roles at Willow Garage and Almaden Research, Steve managed the Advanced Systems Development Laboratory at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). Earlier in his career Steve was a member of the research staff in the Information Sciences and Technology Laboratory, where his research interests were in information visualization, personal information management, and digital libraries. Steve's career in research began at the Medical Informatics Laboratory at Washington University School of Medicine, followed by research at Interval Research while completing his doctoral work at Stanford. Steve received his Ph.D. in computer science from Stanford University and his B.S. and M.S. degrees in computer science from Washington University in St. Louis, where he currently serves on the Computer Science department's external advisory board.
BRIAN COX
| | Unmanned Systems Tactical Area Manager Applied Systems Intelligence |
Brian Cox, Director of Unmanned Systems at Applied Systems Intelligence (ASI), a provider of cognitive technology used in advanced decision-aiding systems, has 20 years of experience in robotics, intelligent systems and distributed system development. From 1989 to 1999 Brian supported the Dexterous Robotics Laboratory at the NASA Johnson Space Center. While at NASA, he developed an associate system to help the astronauts launch the Chandra X-Ray Observatory on Shuttle Mission STS 93. While working for Lunar Exploration Inc., Brian helped create the Lunar Prospector Mission which was flown to the Moon by NASA in 1998.
DAVID DONLEY
| | Senior Field Applications Engineer Microchip Technology |
Bio to come.
MICHAEL DUNBAR
| | Business Development Manager Velodyne Lidar |
Mike Dunbar, Business Development Manager at Velodyne Lidar, has over 20 years of sales and marketing experience in the sensor field, mostly with physical sensors (pressure, acceleration) using MEMS technology. He also has extensive experience bringing new technologies to market, establishing sales channels. Michael has been the author of numerous articles in trade publications and technical conferences in the sensing field, and has contributed to the success of many companies including IC Sensors, Texas Instruments, Crossbow Technology, and Silicon Microstructures, Inc.
BRAD DOLBIN
| | Manager, Digital Drive Design Advanced Motion Controls |
Brad Dolbin is the design manager in charge of new digital product design at ADVANCED Motion Controls, a California-based manufacturer of high performance servo drives and servo amplifiers. He has over 15 years of experience in the motion control industry and over 20 years of experience in power electronics.
JAMES ENGLISH
| | President and CTO Energid Technologies |
James English is the President and CTO of Energid Technologies, an engineering company providing software and products for robotics, machine vision, and simulation. At Energid, he has overseen the development of the Actin robotic control toolkit and the Selectin 3D visual object identification and tracking toolkit. He began his career in automation at the Raytheon Missile Systems Company in Tucson, Arizona, developing the high-fidelity AIM-9X missile simulation. Prior to starting Energid Technologies in 2001, he designed and oversaw the development of a battlefield simulation focused on helicopter dynamics and control for MAK Technologies in Cambridge, Massachusetts. James holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University, has written many articles on robotics and machine vision, and has authored patents on robotics and machine vision applications.
ROGER GAY
| | Vice President of Business Development Institute of Robotics in Scandinavia |
Roger F. Gay is a co-founder of Institute of Robotics in Scandinavia AB (iRobis) and its current VP for Business Development. Educated in engineering at Purdue and Texas A&M, his 30 year career has spanned software engineering and product development, marketing, project management, policy analysis and business. He was a key contributor in the creation of iRobis' R&D program and is now focusing on product and market development. He is stepping in on this occasion as a substitute speaker for iRobis' lead scientist and VP of Research Peter Nordin.
STEVEN GENTNER
| | Founder RoboRealm |
Steven Gentner is the founder of RoboRealm, the company responsible for the popular RoboRealm machine vision software application. Prior to RoboRealm, Steven began his technical career at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles were he participated in the groundbreaking Mercury Project and Robotic Telegarden systems. Both projects connected online users with the real world by deploying robotic arms that interacted with the environment. After receiving his MS in Computer Science, Steven went on develop some of the first Internet controlled mobile robots which lead to the development of RoboRealm.
SHELLEY GRETLEIN
| | Senior Group Manager, Real-Time and Embedded Systems National Instruments |
Shelley Gretlein is the senior group manager of the real-time and embedded software group at NI. Gretlein specializes in embedded software design for domain experts. She has been asked to speak on a variety of topics from the importance of time and concurrency to ESL to instrumenting embedded designs around the world including technical conferences in the US, India, Germany, and China.
BRUCE HALL
| | President Velodyne Lidar |
In his role Velodyne’s President, Bruce Hall brings over 22 years of executive experience providing the strategic leadership to drives Velodyne's growth. He is responsible for running the day-to-day operations of the company, in particular spearheading the company's development of new products. Prior to joining Velodyne, Bruce held positions as a Gartner Group Research Analyst, Senior Director of Product Management for Xevo Corporation and Vice President of Marketing at InCert Software and Trigent Software. In these positions, he was responsible for defining the companies' products and services, as well as defining and implementing marketing strategies including positioning, business development and partner enablement. Along with his brother Dave, Bruce participated in the first two DARPA Grand Challenges as Team D.A.D., and brought to market the HDL-64E LIDAR sensor that was in use by all the top teams in the subsequent DARPA Urban Challenge
JOSEPH JACOB
| | Senior Vice President Objective Interface Systems |
Jacob is Senior Vice President of Objective Interface Systems, a provider of high-performance communications middleware for the mil/aero, robotics, telecommunications, medical devices, process control and transportation markets. Objective Interface Systems has also developed DO-178B certifiable versions of its software, as well security certifications for its software under the internationally recognized Common Criteria security standards. Joe is currently chair of the Avionics Special Interest Group at the SDR Forum, where he is leading the project to analyze how to design and certify software-defined radios for use in high-assurance safety-critical avionics. He is a frequent lecturer on real-time, embedded and high-assurance secure and safety-critical communications middleware at various technical conferences throughout the United States and Europe.
KYLE JOHNS
| | Principal Software Developer Microsoft |
Kyle Johns is a principal software developer at Microsoft, where he is currently a member of the Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio Team. After receiving a master's degree in computer science from the University of Utah, he designed 3D graphics hardware for flight simulators at Evans and Sutherland. He joined Microsoft as one of the original members of the DirectX Team and then went on to help develop the graphics system software in the early days of the Xbox project. Recently he has been enjoying the opportunity to apply his 20 years of 3D graphics experience to the field of robotics by developing the Robotics Developer Studio Simulation Environment.
CHARLIE KNAPP
| | US Program Manager for Unmanned Systems and Robotics National Instruments |
As the US Program Manager for Unmanned Systems and Robotics at National Instruments, Charlie Knapp is responsible for providing expert design, control, and automation solution guidance to current and potential customers throughout the United States. Charlie has nearly 20 years of engineering experience. Prior to joining NI, he spent eight years working as a research and development engineer for AlliedSignal (now Honeywell) in New Jersey. Prior to his current position at NI, Charlie acted as an Account Manager in Southern California where he supported the design and testing of numerous autonomous vehicle systems and subsystems at organizations such as the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Boeing, and Parker Hannifin. In addition to driving and sustaining business in unmanned systems and robotics, Charlie keeps NI at the forefront of industry trends by developing, and promoting related technologies. As a member of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI), he has presented at industry events and published articles in several trade journals. Charlie also takes part in government-industry consortiums and non-profit organizations such as FIRST, championing the NI robotics platform in education.
EMILIE KOPP
| | Robotics Engineer National Instruments |
Emilie Kopp is an engineer on the robotics strategy development team and manages business impact studies at National Instruments. Her areas of expertise include haptics and mechatronics. Kopp has designed and developed numerous demonstrations to exhibit haptic concepts as well as a custom hardware platform for a commercial robotics device . She also has published several papers and spoken at industry conferences on the topic. Kopp holds a master’s degree in mechanical engineering with an emphasis in robotics and electromechanical and control systems from Rice University.
JONAS LAMIS
| | Executive Director SciVestor Corporation |
Jonas Lamis is the founder and Executive Director of SciVestor, a research company focused on Singularity enabling technologies. He is also Director of Partnerships of the Singularity Institute where he focuses on building collaborative relationships between companies, institutions, foundations, and the Singularity Institute. Previously, Jonas had ten years of experience in corporate strategy, business development, and technology marketing with venture-backed enterprise software companies. He is also the founding editor of Architecture and Governance Magazine. Jonas received his MBA from The University of Texas at Austin and an MS in Systems Engineering and Optimization from The Georgia Institute of Technology.
BRIAN LONG
| | Innovation Manager Bayer MaterialScience |
Brian Long is Innovation Manager for Robotics at Bayer MaterialScience LLC. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. As member of Bayer’s New Business Creative Center, he is responsible for scouting megatrends and future markets, including the mobile robotics sector.
AKHIL MADHANI
| | Project Lead and Lead Mechanical Engineer Walt Disney Imagineering |
Bio to come.
KEITH McFARLANE
| | Senior Software Architect LiveOps, Inc. |
Keith R. McFarlane is a Senior Software Architect with LiveOps, Inc. His current focus areas are software as a service, service-oriented architecture (SOA), session initiation protocol (SIP), and complex event processing (CEP) technologies. He is also one of the founders and is the current mentor of the Pleasanton Donlon Elementary FIRST Lego League Robotics Club.
SHAUN MURPHY
| | Manager of CAD Product Management SolidWorks Corporation |
As the Manager of CAD Product Management, Shaun Murphy is responsible for laying out the future strategy for the CAD product line, which includes management of the global CAD product management team and administration of new product integration. Murphy comes from years of executive level operations, marketing and sales experience. He also has extensive experience in the definition and development of award winning design products and China-based outsourcing and off shoring. Prior to joining SolidWorks, Murphy was the business development director for Hanna Strategies, LLC, a software development firm. Previously, he served as the vice president of worldwide marketing and sales for IronCAD, LLC, a leading provider of 3D design productivity solutions. Murphy’s deep CAD and FEA experience stems from additional work with Alventive/Visionary Design Systems, 3D/EYE, Inc., Hewlett Packard and WICAT Systems. Murphy received his bachelor’s degree in design and engineering technology from Brigham Young University. He also studied at Wakefield College in Yorkshire, England.
CURTIS NIELSEN
| | Research Scientist, Robotics and Human Systems Idaho National Laboratory |
Curtis Nielsen is a research scientist at the Idaho National Laboratory. Nielsen’s research focuses on human-robot interaction, particularly how to present the right information to a human to support decision making and how to support simplified robot tasking. His research has led to the development of novel interaction tools that have been shown to improve the utility of mobile robots and unmanned vehicles to a variety of end users. Nielsen is the technical lead for the interface software used at the INL to interact with unmanned air and ground vehicles. Nielsen along with others at the INL received an R&D 100 award in 2006 for the development of the Robot Intelligence Kernel. Nielsen holds a PhD in Computer Science from Brigham Young University.
LAURO OJEDA
| | Chief Engineer Microinfinity |
Lauro Ojeda is Chief Engineer for Microinfinity, a developer of solutions for commercial and military navigation, home & computer application, and industrial application, based on high-level signal processing and system design expertise. Microinfinity’s expertise is based on the resources and the knowledge base, built over the last twenty years, of Seoul National University's Guidance Control Lab, Konkuk University's GPS Lab, and Seoul National University of Technology. Lauro is also a part time research scientist at the Mobile Robotics Laboratory of the University of Michigan. He holds a MS in Electronics from the Army Polytechnic School - Ecuador.
GUY PAILLET
| | CEO General Vision |
Guy Paillet has been researching artificial vision for the past 30 years. Back in 1976, Guy started developing an image recognition system, leading, in 1982, to the worldwide commercialization by his French company, Data Sud Systems, of a unique vision system on VME Bus. This lead him to the research of artificial neural networks. In 1993, Guy brought the concept of a fully hardwired neural network to IBM France as an independent inventor. There, he co-developed ZISC36 (Zero Instruction Set Computer with 36 neurons) for which five core patents and their International equivalent where granted and co-owned by IBM Corp and Guy. Afterwards, joined General Vision and began work on non-software solutions for emulating biological vision. In January 2008, with the help of their financial partner Cognimem Ltd, General Vision commercially released CM1K, the Cognimem chip with 1024 neurons that can be trained for pattern recognition.
SERGEY POPOV
| | Chief Scientist Skilligent |
Sergey Popov is Chief Scientist at Skilligent, a developer of control system for autonomous multi-task service robots, including a behavior control and coordination system, task and skill learning functions, a powerful computer vision system, a social human-to-machine interface, a database for storing knowledge and other integrated components. Prior joining Skilligent, he was in charge of a few large RND teams for multinational technological companies and later served at product management and marketing positions.
REGIS VINCENT
| | Senior Research Scientist SRI International |
Regis Vincent is a senior research scientist at SRI International where his work focuses on the field of robotics and multi-agent systems. He has published over 30 papers. He views robots as a solution for a long list of dangerous, repetitive tasks that humans should not do. In addition to leading the technical team for Karto, an SDK for robotic navigation, mapping and exploration, he also worked as the technical lead for the DARPA Software for Distributed Robotics. During this project, SRI has demonstrated the use of 100 robots for a search and rescue mission. Previously Regis was a research scientist at the University of Massachusetts in the Multi-Agent System Laboratory.
RALPH WEBER
| | Director, Standard Products Division New Scale Technologies |
Ralph Weber is Director of the Standard Products Division of New Scale Technologies, Inc., a supplier of innovative integrated, micro-miniature motion systems for use in consumer electronics, industrial automation and biomedical applications. He previously served as General Manager of Aviso USA, Ltd., a provider of cell harvesting and lab automation solutions to the life science industry. He has also led technical development efforts in production printing systems at Durst Image Technologies and Xerox Corporation and has extensive experience in research and development with Mobil Chemical Company. Ralph has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Clarkson University and a MS in Material Science and Engineering from Rochester Institute of Technology.