We first developed the idea for TC Sessions: Robotics because we wanted to bridge the gap between startups and investment in the robotics world — namely research, academia, government and industry. On July 17 at MIT’s Kresge auditorium in Cambridge, MA, those worlds will come together like never before for an event that we’re pleased to host alongside MIT’s CSAIL program.
Today, we’re pleased to announce more segments of programming for the show, joining some already announced exciting program you can see here and here. Tickets for the event are on sale now, if you would like to take part.
Amazon – The Robotics Upstart
Tye Brady is the chief technologist for Amazon Robotics, where his job is “to further establish Amazon Robotics as the preeminent industrial robotics company in the world.” Brady has more than 25 years of hands-on experience in team leadership, technical management and system design for advanced instrumentation, autonomous vehicles and robotic systems. Prior to Amazon Robotics, he spent 15 years with Draper Laboratory in a variety of technical and leadership roles, advancing robotics and spacecraft engineering. He holds a Master’s Degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics Engineering from MIT. Tye is a founding partner of MassRobotics, a not-for-profit organization serving as a world-class platform for robotic innovation.
ABB – The Incumbent Industrialist
Sami Atiya is a member of the Group Executive Committee of ABB and president of ABB’s Robotics and Motion division, which is one of the world’s top manufacturers of industrial robotics, with over 300,000 robots installed worldwide. He joined ABB last year after working for more than 10 years at Siemens, where his last role was CEO of the Mobility and Logistics division. Atiya has a PhD in Electrical Engineering, specializing in robotics, sensors and artificial intelligence from the University of Wuppertal / Karlsruhe Institute of Technology as well as an MBA from MIT.
The Robotic Brain
The rapid advances in sensor technology, GPUs and artificial intelligence are a big part of what is driving the rapid evolution of robotics, and Sessions: Robotics will devote a panel to the topic. We’re pleased to announce the first of those panelists.
Brian Gerkey is CEO of the Open Source Robotics Foundation, which is dedicated to the development of open source software for use in robotics. The Robot Operating System (ROS) developed at OSRF and before that Willow Garage (where Gerkey served as the Director of Open Source Development) is widely used in academic settings as well as startups. Gerkey was formerly a computer scientist in the Artificial Intelligence Center at SRI, and before that, a postdoctoral research fellow in the Artificial Intelligence Lab at Stanford University. He received his PhD in Computer Science from the University of Southern California.
Startup Pitch Competition and Student Demos
We are looking for five great early stage startups and student demos for our event. You can apply here and learn more here.
Here are some more key links:
- General admission tickets for July 17: Purchase here.
- Interested in sponsorship? More information here.
- General questions: Reach out here.