Robert Ambrose

In this interview, Jodi Forlizzi discusses her early involvement with robotics and her eventual career in human-robot interaction. She outlines her work at UPenn and CMU, as well as her involvement in various projects and companies. Commenting on the many challenges and breakthroughs throughout her career, she reflects on the evolution and future of the field as a whole.

Brian Gerkey is co-founder and CEO of Open Robotics, which drives the development and adoption of open software and hardware for robotics. Prior to Open Robotics, Brian was a postdoc in the Stanford AI Lab, a Computer Scientist in the SRI AI Center, and Director of Open Source Development at Willow Garage.

In this interview, Bruyninckx recounts his career and his contributions to the field of robotics. He discusses past projects and the challenges that roboticists faced and will face. He reflects on the future of the field and its applications, and provides advice for young people interested in robotics, stressing the importance of a broad, multidisciplinary scientific education.

Vijay Kumar was born in Patna, India in 1962. Dr. Kumar received his Bachelor of Technology degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and his Ph.D. from The Ohio State University in 1987.

In this interview, Daniel Lee discusses his career in robotics, focusing on his research at Bell Labs and UPenn’s GRASP Lab. Describing his work on machine learning algorithms and in robotics projects, such as the robot dog and the DARPA Urban Challenge, he comments on the challenges of the field and his research. Reflecting on the evolution of the GRASP Lab and of the field of robotics, he comments on its potential and future.

In this interview, Illah Nourbakhsh discusses his work in robotics, focusing on artificial intelligence and planning, and the challenges and future of the field. Describing his involvement in projects, such as the Book Store Project and the automated highway system project, he outlines the state of robotics at Stanford, the start of his company (Blue Pumpkin Software), and his arrival and work at Carnegie Mellon. Additionally he discusses his work on educational projects, such as the Dinosaur Hall, and at NASA, and comments on the potential for robotics in education and space exploration.