ROBO Global

Henrik Christensen, PhD

Dr. Henrik I. Christensen is the Qualcomm Chancellor’s Chair of Robot Systems and a Professor of Computer Science at Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering UC San Diego. He is also the director of the Institute for Contextual Robotics. Prior to UC San Diego he was the founding director of Institute for Robotics and Intelligent machines (IRIM) at Georgia Institute of Technology (2006-2016). Dr. Christensen does research on systems integration, human-robot interaction, mapping and robot vision. The research is performed within the Cognitive Robotics Laboratory. He has published more than 350 contributions across AI, robotics and vision.

His research has a strong emphasis on “real problems with real solutions”. A problem needs a theoretical model, implementation, evaluation, and translation to the real world. He is actively engaged in the setup and coordination of robotics research in the US (and worldwide). Dr. Christensen received the Engelberger Award 2011, the highest honor awarded by the robotics industry. He was also named the “Boeing Supplier of the Year 2011” while at Georgia Tech. Dr. Christensen is a fellow of American Association for Advancement of Science (AAAS) and Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). He received an honorary doctorate in engineering from Aalborg University 2014. He collaborates with institutions and industries across three continents.

Raffaello D’Andrea, PhD

Raffaello D’Andrea is Professor of Dynamic Systems and Control at ETH Zurich, where his research redefines what autonomous systems are capable of. He is co-founder of Kiva Systems, now operating as Amazon Robotics, a robotics company that revolutionized material handling by deploying thousands of autonomous mobile robots in warehouses. He was the faculty advisor and system architect of the Cornell Robot Soccer Team, four-time world champions at the international RoboCup competition.

He recently founded Verity Studios, a company developing a new breed of interactive and autonomous flying machines. He is also a new media artist with exhibitions at various international venues, including the Venice Biennale, Ars Electronica, and the FRAC Centre. His most recent awards include the IEEE Robotics and Automation Award and the Engelberger Robotics Award, two of the highest achievements in the field.

Ken Goldberg, PhD

Ken Goldberg is Chair of the Industrial Engineering and Operations Research Department at UC Berkeley Professor, with secondary appointments in EECS, Art Practice, the School of Information, and Radiation Oncology at the UCSF Medical School. He is also the Director of the CITRIS “People and Robots” Initiative and the UC Berkeley AUTOLAB where he and his students pursue research in geometric algorithms and machine learning for robotics and automation in surgery, manufacturing, and other applications. 

Ken has over 250 peer-reviewed publications and 8 U.S. Patents. He co-founded and served as Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering. Ken was awarded the NSF PECASE (Presidential Faculty Fellowship) from President Bill Clinton in 1995, elected IEEE Fellow in 2005 and selected by the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society for the George Saridis Leadership Award in 2016.

Manish Kothari, PhD

Manish Kothari, Ph.D., is president of SRI Ventures and is a vice president of SRI International where he leads the creation of high-value venture opportunities. Kothari joined SRI in 2013 as a business development consultant and entrepreneur-in-residence. He became a program director in the Robotics Program in 2013. In 2014, he moved to SRI Ventures as director of commercial ventures and licensing, with an emphasis on healthcare, engineering, and physical sciences.

Prior to joining SRI, Kothari co-founded and was CEO of Mytrus, and was vice president of R&D quality and operations for Simpirica Spine. He holds multiple patents and is the author or co-author of several peer-reviewed publications and book chapters.

Kothari received his M.S. degree and Ph.D. in biomechanical engineering from Cornell University, and was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of California, San Francisco. His bachelor of technology degree in aerospace engineering (summa cum laude) is from the Indian Institute of Technology.

Wyatt Newman, PhD

Wyatt Newman’s research is in the areas of mechatronics, robotics and computational intelligence, in which he has 12 patents and over 130 technical publications. After earning degrees from Harvard College, M.I.T., and Columbia University, he was named an NSF Young Investigator in robotics, and subsequently was named a Herbold Fellow, a Tau Beta Pi “distinguished engineer”, a Woody-Flowers FIRST-robotics mentor awardee, and a CWRU awardee for teaching and for leadership. In 2007, he led “Team Case” in the DARPA Urban Challenge, involving autonomous vehicles operating among live and robotic traffic.

In addition to visiting appointments at Sandia Labs, NASA, and Princeton, he has held international appointments at Philips (Eindhoven, The Netherlands), as a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at U. Edinburgh, and The Hung Hing Ying Distinguished Visiting Professor at U. of Hong Kong. Prof. Newman is currently leading HKU’s team in the DARPA Robotics Challenge, involving humanoid robots for disaster response.

Illah R. Nourbakhsh, PhD

Illah R. Nourbakhsh is Professor of Robotics, Director of the Community Robotics, Education and Technology Empowerment (CREATE) lab and Associate Director for robotics faculty at Carnegie Mellon University. His current research projects explore community-based robotics, including educational and social robotics and ways to use robotic technology to empower individuals and communities. He has served as Robotics Group lead at NASA/Ames Research Center, and he was a founder and chief scientist of Blue Pumpkin Software, Inc.

Illah earned his bachelor’s, master’s and PhD in computer science at Stanford University and is a a Kavli Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences. He is also CEO and Chairman of Airviz, Inc., as well as a World Economic Forum Global Steward, a member of the Global Future Council on the Future of AI and Robotics, and the IEEE Global Initiative for the Ethical Considerations in the Design of Autonomous Systems, the Global Innovation Council of the Varkey Foundation and Senior Advisor to The Future Society, Harvard Kennedy School. 

Daniela Rus, PhD

Daniela Rus is the Director of CSAIL at MIT. She serves as the Director of the Toyota-CSAIL Joint Research Center and is a member of the science advisory board of the Toyota Research Institute. Rus’ research interests are in robotics and artificial intelligence. Rus is a Class of 2002 MacArthur Fellow, a fellow of ACM, AAAI and IEEE, and a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is the recipient of the 2017 Engelberger Robotics Award from the Robotics Industries Association. She earned her PhD in Computer Science from Cornell University.

Louis-Vincent Gave

After receiving his bachelor’s degree from Duke University and studying Mandarin at Nanjing University, Louis joined the French Army where he served as a second lieutenant in a mountain infantry battalion. After leaving the army, he worked as a financial analyst with Paribas in Paris and Hong Kong. Following Paribas, Louis launched GaveKal Research with Charles Gave and Anatole Kaletsky in London in 1999. Since 2002 he has been based in Hong Kong where he oversees GaveKal’s money management business as well as contributing to the firm’s research. He is the author of five books, including his latest Too Different for Comfort, published in October 2013.

Frank Tobe

Frank is the owner and publisher of The Robot Report. After selling his business and retiring from 25+ years as provider of targeted campaign materials and consultant to the Democratic National Committee as well as major local and national campaigns and initiatives across the U.S. and abroad, he has energetically pursued a new career in researching, writing about and investing in robotics.

In 2008 he started The Robot Report, a regularly updated web-based resource for news and links about the business of robotics. The site focuses on startups, acquisitions, IPOs, funding and failures; about successes, technological achievements, and forecasts; overall, the site tracks the business of robotics. Frank is also a panel member for the Robotics by Invitation series sponsored by Robohub, a Swiss-based online platform that brings together leading communicators in robotics research, start-ups, business, and education from around the world.

Morten Paulsen

Morten Paulsen is the Head of Research and a Managing Director at CLSA Japan. He has covered the Japanese robotics and machinery industry as a Tokyo based equity analyst since 1999. Mr. Paulsen was among the first financial analysts to highlight the Asian Automation trend as an underlying driver for the sector one decade ago, and he has built strong relationships with automation equipment suppliers and system integrators across Asia.

Mr. Paulsen joined CLSA Japan from WestLB Securities Pacific in 2003 and he has received numerous rewards for his research. He was among others ranked number one in his field by AsiaMoney every year from 2007 to 2013 (the Capital Goods segment was discontinued in 2014), and he was also ranked by Starmine as one of Japan’s top 10 stock pickers in 2013.