Speakers
RoboDevelopment 2008 Keynote Speakers include:
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.
MAJA J. MATARIC
Founding Director, USC Center for Robotics and Embedded Systems
Director, USC Robotics Research Lab
University of Southern California
Check back soon for full bio
JEANNE DIETSCH
| | CEO MobileRobots Inc |
In 1980, shortly after the introduction of the Apple II, Jeanne Dietsch submitted a thesis outline on the future of computers as a mass medium, only to have it denied because “Computers are not a mass medium.” After Jeanne left school and was handpicked by Pat McGovern, founder of IDG and ComputerWorld, to lead his PC market-research start-up. After selling that firm, she partnered in a venture that developed award-winning game and educational software. In 1995 she founded ActivMedia Research, the first e-commerce market research firm. At a London seminar, when Jeanne predicted 1000% e-commerce growth in five years, a senior executive of British Telecom replied, “There’s not enough fiber in the whole world to make that happen.” Actuality exceeded that prediction. Meanwhile, Jeanne led MobileRobots Inc from a kitchen-table start-up to a global manufacturer of thousands of robots and intelligent software for commercial and industrial applications. As CEO of MobileRobots Inc, Jeanne provides strategic leadership as well as managerial steering for the privately held, profitable company leading the autonomous robot industry forward.
General Session Speakers Include:
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.
DAVID BRUEMMER
| | Technical Director for Unmanned Ground Vehicles, Department of Energy Idaho National Laboratory |
David J. Bruemmer is the Technical Director for Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) at the Idaho National Laboratory where he directs research focused on providing intelligent autonomy for characterization of high radiation environments, mine sweeping and search and rescue. David was selected as an Inventive Young Engineer by the National Academy of Engineers and is the recipient of the 2006 Stoel Rives Idaho Innovation Award, recipient of a 2006 R&D 100 Award and a Federal Laboratory Consortium Award. David has also authored over 60 peer-reviewed publications. Before joining INL, he worked at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency on several robotics programs.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
KEITH McFARLANE
| | Lead Software Architect Avaya |
Keith R. McFarlane is a Lead Software Architect with the CTO Organization of Avaya, Inc. His current focus is on service-oriented architecture (SOA), session initiation protocol (SIP), and complex event processing (CEP) technologies. He is also one of the founders and the current mentor of the Pleasanton Donlon elementary FIRST Lego League Robotics Club.
PETER NORDIN
| | Vice President of Research Institute of Robotics in Scandinavia |
Peter Nordin is a pioneer in the field of automated machine learning; particularly in an area of automated induction of machine code using genetic programming. His work in the private sector has led to a series of successful commercial applications. His work on robotics began with a multi-year research project at Chalmers University of Technology, starting in the 1990s. He is currently VP of Research and an active researcher at the Institute of Robotics in Scandinavia AB, which was founded to in 2006 to provide mobile autonomous and semi-autonomous robotics systems with advanced highly organized multi-level adaptive intelligence.
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.
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.