AUTONOMY

Dr. Marc Raibert founded Boston Dynamics in 1992 as a spin-off from MIT. Boston Dynamics develops some of the world’s most advanced dynamic robots, such as BigDog, Atlas, Cheetah and Spot. These robots are inspired by the remarkable ability of animals to move with agility, mobility, dexterity and perception. A key ingredient of these robots is their dynamic behavior, which contributes to their effectiveness and their life-like qualities. Before starting Boston Dynamics, Raibert was Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT (1986–1995) and an Associate Professor of Computer Science and Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon (1980–1986). At CMU and MIT Raibert founded the Leg Laboratory, which helped establish the scientific basis for highly dynamic robots. Raibert is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a fellow of the AAAI.

Dr. Robert D. Howe is the Abbott and James Lawrence Professor of Engineering, Area Dean for Bioengineering, and Director of Undergraduate Studies for Biomedical Engineering, at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. He founded the Harvard BioRobotics Laboratory, which investigates the roles of sensing and mechanical design and motor control, in both humans and robots, in 1990. His research interests focus on manipulation, the sense of touch, and human-machine interfaces. Biomedical applications of this work include of robotic and image-guided surgery. Howe earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from Reed College, then worked as a design engineer in the electronics industry in Silicon Valley. He received a doctoral degree in mechanical engineering from Stanford University in 1990, and then joined the faculty at Harvard. Dr. Howe is a Fellow of the IEEE and the AIMBE.

Dr. Julie Shah is an Associate Professor in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT and leads the Interactive Robotics Group of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Shah received her S.B. and S.M. from the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT, and her Ph.D. in Autonomous Systems from MIT. Before joining the faculty, she worked at Boeing Research and Technology on robotics applications for aerospace manufacturing. She has developed innovative methods for enabling fluid human-robot teamwork in time-critical, safety-critical domains, ranging from manufacturing to surgery to space exploration. Her group draws on expertise in artificial intelligence, human factors, and systems engineering to develop interactive robots that emulate the qualities of effective human team members to improve the efficiency of human-robot teamwork. In 2014, Shah was recognized with an NSF CAREER award for her work on “Human-aware Autonomy for Team-oriented Environments," and by the MIT Technology Review TR35 list as one of the world’s top innovators under the age of 35. Her work on industrial human-robot collaboration was also recognized by Technology Review as one of the 10 Breakthrough Technologies of 2013, and she has received international recognition in the form of best paper awards and nominations from the International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the IEEE/ACM International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, the International Symposium on Robotics, and the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

Dr. Pam Mueller completed her Ph.D. in social psychology at Princeton University in 2015.  In addition to her research on note taking, current projects include work on consumer expectations in product liability, criminal versus civil justice, and perceptions of victimhood and agency. She received her B.S. in psychology from Loyola University Chicago, and her J.D. from Harvard Law School, after which she practiced trademark, copyright, and false advertising law, and was a research associate at the American Bar Foundation and Northwestern Law School. Mueller is also a past Jeopardy! champion.

Dr. Amit Zoran is a Senior Lecturer in Computer Science at the Benin School of Computer Science and Engineering of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His interests include digital design and fabrication, Human-computer interaction, and craft. Zoran’s Ph.D. is from MIT, where he developed a number of smart tools that combine human craftsmanship with machine accuracy. The FreeD, for example, is a hand-held digital milling device, monitored by a computer that preserves the maker’s freedom to creatively manipulate the work by slowing down the spindle speed only when the milling bit risks the objects integrity.

Dr. Duncan Wass is Professor of Catalysis at the Bristol University School of Chemistry. He leads Bristol’s involvement in the Bath-Bristol-Cardiff EPSRC CDT in Catalysis, sits on the steering group for the EPSRC UK Catalysis Hub, and is Research Director for The School of Chemistry at Bristol. He previously worked at BP Chemicals Ltd in its Sunbury-on-Thames laboratories on various olefin polymerisation and oligomerisation projects, later moving to BP’s research site in Brussels, Belgium. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Durham (1992-1995). He then studied for his Ph.D. at Imperial College, London in the area of late transition metal olefin polymerisation catalysis.

Mr. Ian Glenn is the Chief Executive Officer, Chief Technology Officer, and owner of ING Robotic Aviation. Over the past 15 years, ING has integrated and invented robust UAV systems and provided services across the globe in harsh conditions for oil and gas, mining, agriculture, forestry, utility generation and transmission, film, construction, and defense and emergency response, and war zones. He was previously an Armoured and EME Officer in the Canadian Forces for 21 years. He has a B.Eng. (Mechanical Engineering) from the Royal Military College of Canada and an M.S. (Electrical Engineering) from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School.

Dr. Hod Lipson is a Professor of engineering at Columbia University and directs the Creative Machines Lab, which pioneers new ways to make machines that create, and machines that are creative. He is co-author of Fabricated: The New World of 3-D Printing (2013) and Driverless: Intelligent Cars and the Road Ahead (2016). His work on self-aware and self-replicating robots, food printing, and bio-printing has received widespread media coverage including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Time, CNN, and the National Public Radio, and TED. Lipson has co-authored over 200 technical papers. He previously taught at MIT and Cornell and was a postdoctoral researcher at Brandeis University. He has a Ph.D. (Mechanical Engineering) from Technion Israel Institute of Technology.

Dr. Robin Hanson is an Associate Professor of Economics at George Mason University and the author of The Age of Em (Oxford University Press, June 2016), a futuristic look at the nature of “work, love, and life when robots rule the Earth.” His major fields of interest include health policy, regulation, and formal political theory. He is also Chief Scientist at Consensus Point and is considered the “father of prediction markets.” His Ph.D in social sciences is from Caltech. He joined George Mason's economics faculty after completing a two-year post-doc at U.C. Berkeley. He also has master’s degrees from University of Chicago in physics and in the philosophy of science.

Mr. Rodolphe Gelin is Chief Scientific Officer at Aldebaran, the creators of the Romeo robot platform, and of Pepper, a service robot that reads and reacts to emotions as well as words. His first job after college was at the French Atomic Energy Commission (Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique) where he worked on the control of mobile robots for service applications, cleaning and helping the disabled. As a member of the European CARE project he handled the European professional service robotics roadmap. On behalf of the ISO (International Organization for Standardization), he led the working group on the definition of the robotic vocabulary. He has a Research Master’s Degree (DEA) in Artificial Intelligence from the University of Paris VI’s School of Civil Engineering.

Mr. Antoine Blondeau is Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Sentient Technologies. He has 25 years of experience in the technology industry, having held senior leadership positions at Good Technology, Salesforce.com and Sybase. Career highlights include leading Dejima as CEO, the company that powered DARPA’s foundational CALO project, which later evolved into Apple’s Siri. He was also chief operating officer of Zi Corporation, whose smart text input software was embedded in hundreds of millions of devices. Blondeau is an investor, board member and advisor in a number of companies in California, New York, Greater China and Japan, and is the author or co-author of 5 patents. Antoine holds a M.B.A. from the Paris Graduate School of Management.

Dr. Sonia Chernova is the Catherine M. and James E. Allchin Early-Career Assistant Professor in the School of Interactive Computing and the director of the Robot Autonomy and Interactive Learning (RAIL) lab. Her research interests span robotics, interactive machine learning, adjustable autonomy, human computation, and human-robot interaction. Chernova received her Ph.D. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University in 2009 and was a postdoctoral associate at MIT before joining the Robotics Engineering Program at Worcester Polytechnic Institute as an assistant professor. Her research is supported through funding from NSF, ONR, and DARPA, and she is the recipient of the NSF CAREER and ONR Young Investigator awards.

Mr. Jeff Legault is the Director of Strategic Business Development at the National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC) at Carnegie Mellon University. He works closely with commercial and government clients to identify problems and operational needs that can be addressed with NREC expertise and technology. He works with end-users and equipment manufacturers from around the world to bring robotics and automation to the industry.

Mr. Chad Bouton heads the Center for Bioelectronic Medicine at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research and is the Institute’s division leader for Neurotechnology and Analytics. He is also Vice President of Advanced Engineering at Northwell Health. Prior to joining the health system, Bouton was a research leader at Battelle, the world’s largest nonprofit R&D organization, and was involved in medical device R&D programs for 18 years. He developed cancer detection algorithms in the late 1990s to help surgeons pinpoint and remove tumors more effectively. Later, he developed neural decoding methods that allowed the first paralyzed person with a brain implant to move again with their own thoughts. Bouton’s work has been featured on 60 Minutes and TEDx, and he holds over 70 patents worldwide. He earned his B.S. (Electrical Engineering) and M.S. (Engineering Mechanics) degrees at Iowa State University.

Mr. Jeremy Heffner is Senior Data Scientist at Azavea and Product Manager for HunchLab, which supports predictive policing programs with crime modeling and forecasting. His professional interests include predictive modeling, data visualization, and SaaS architecture. Prior to joining the team at Azavea, he worked with NPower PA helping local nonprofits to leverage technology to better accomplish their missions. He also has past experience in the nonprofit sector from his work at Clean Air Council, a grassroots nonprofit based in Philadelphia. He studied mathematics and computer science at the Schreyer Honors College at Pennsylvania State University.

Mr. Ian Stewart is a Partner and Chief Economist at Deloitte where he advises boards and companies on macroeconomics. Ian devised the Deloitte Survey of Chief Financial Officers and writes a popular weekly economics blog, the Monday Briefing. His previous roles include Chief Economist for Europe at Merrill Lynch, Head of Economics in the Conservative Research Department, and Special Adviser to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. Ian was educated at the London School of Economics.