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Meeting Location:
Emerging Enterprise Center at
Foley Hoag the Bay Colony Corporate Center
1000 Winter Street, Suite 4000 (North Entrance)
Waltham, MAMeeting Time: 6:30 - 9:30 pm
Meeting Cost:
$25 public, $10 students
and active military; Promotional Registrations
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
6:30 - 9:30 PM
Location: Emerging Center at Foley Hoag the Bay Colony Corporate Center, Waltham, MARobotics: Saving Lives, Delivering Results
Robotics: Saving Lives, Delivering Results
The Robotics field continues to evolve rapidly in the Boston area, with an increasingly well defined cluster of researchers, start-ups, and well-established firms pushing the envelope of new robotics capabilities in the region. With over 150 companies, institutions, and research labs oriented to delivering robots or robot components locally it is hard to imagine a better place to gain access to the technologists and resources necessary to launch a new venture.
The April 20 EntreTech Forum brings together a panel of leading researchers in the robotics field to define the cutting edge of research and commercialization of new robotics technologies.
Moderator:
Joe Ayers – Northeastern University
Panelists:
Anthony Aponick - Foster Miller
Sangbae Kim - MIT
Dave Barrett – Olin College
Rob Wood - Robobee, Harvard University
Organizer:
Dr. Paul Zavracky – Northeastern UniversityModerator Bio:
Joseph Ayers, Professor of Biology, Northeastern University - Department of Biology and Marine Science Center
Professor Ayers is tenured Professor of Biology at Northeastern University, where he teaches a range of courses primarily organized around neurobiology and related technological/engineering applications. Through his work with the internationally recognized Marine Science Center in Nahant, Professor Ayers’ work and research focuses on the ocean environment, marine life and its diversity, ecology, and discovering biotechnological and medical potentials in the sea. His current projects include work as diverse as: Underwater biomimetic robots; Electronic nervous systems and neurotechnology for biomimetic robots, and biomechanisms for swimming and flying.
Dr. Ayers received his BA in Biology from UC-Riverside, his PhD in Biology from UC-Santa Cruz, and has done extensive post-doctoral work with the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Marseilles, France and UC-San Diego.
Panel Bios:
Tony Aponick, Vice President of Advanced Programs, Foster Miller
Mr. Aponick is Vice President Advanced Programs of Foster Miller, a major technology and product development company with a long history of success in the robotics field. Mr. Aponick oversees Foster Miller’s relationships with the military venture community and the academic research community, matching university-level talent to the research process. Much of Mr. Aponick’s time is spent working with DARPA and the Naval Research Lab, focused on theoretically challenging systems that represent the cutting edge of robotics technology.
Mr. Aponick did his PhD work at MIT and Yale University.
Dr. Sangbae Kim – Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering - MIT
Dr. Sangbae Kim is an expert in bio-inspired robot design. His research focuses on the convergence of mechanical engineering, biology, and material science on robotic systems. His design approaches integrate technologies based on biological observations as manifested in his previous research on the world’s first synthetic, directional adhesive and robotic gecko, Stickybot, capable of climbing vertical surfaces using van der Waals forces.
Dr. Kim’s work was selected as one of the Best Inventions of 2006 by Time Magazine, the Best Student Paper Award at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation in 2007, and the Best Paper Award for the IEEE Transactions on Robotics in 2008. He is pursuing a new research field called hyper-dynamic robotics by establishing a multi-disciplinary research foundation that includes elastomeric compliance design, composite manufacturing, high power density actuator development and hierarchical control architecture.
Dr. Kim received his PhD in mechanical engineering from Stanford in 2008 and joined the MIT faculty in May 2009.
David Barrett, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Design and Director of the SCOPE Program
Franklin W. Olin College of EngineeringDr. Barrett is responsible for developing the SCOPE program, establishing the strategic corporate partnerships that support it and directing the student/faculty SCOPE teams. Prior to joining the Olin faculty, Dr. Barrett was Vice President of Engineering at the iRobot Corporation. Before iRobot, Dr. Barrett held positions as a Director of the Walt Disney Imagineering Corporation, as a Research Engineer at MIT's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, and as a Technical Director at the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory. With over 25 years of experience in the robotics industry, Dr. Barrett has built robots that walk, hop, swim, roll and entertain for a wide variety of government, commercial and industrial customers.
Dr. Barrett received his Ph.D. and M.S. in ocean engineering and M.S. in mechanical engineering from MIT. He received his B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Lowell.
In addition to his many published articles, Dr. Barrett holds nine patents with previous colleagues on a variety of robotic systems. He is a member of numerous professional societies including IEEE Robotics and Automation, Vehicular Technology and Ocean Engineering Societies. Robotics, intelligent/unmanned vehicles, mechanical design, agricultural engineering, ocean engineering, design for manufacturing, and product design are a few of Dr. Barrett's teaching and research interests.
Dr. Robert J. Wood - Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering – Harvard University
Robert Wood is an Assistant Profesor in Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Prof. Wood completed his M.S. (2001) and Ph.D. (2004) degrees in the Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the U. C. Berkeley.
He was a postdoctoral researcher in Berkeley's Biomimetic Milli-Systems Lab for one year before joining the faculty at Harvard. While at Berkeley, he invented a novel process for rapidly creating sub-millimeter to centimeter scale articulated, actuated, and rigid micromechanical structures. He has demonstrated both flying and ambulatory microrobot prototypes created using this paradigm.
At Harvard, he founded the Harvard Microrobotics Lab and has demonstrated the world's first robotic insect capable of generating sufficient thrust to takeoff. His current research interests involve the creation of biologically-inspired aerial and ambulatory microrobots, minimal control of under-actuated nonholonomic nonlinear dynamical systems, and decentralized control of multi-agent systems. He is the winner of a 2008 NSF CAREER award, a 2008 ONR Young Investigator Program award, and multiple best paper/video awards.
Dr. Wood's research covers the areas of mobile and fixed microrobotics, micro air vehicles, biomimetic systems, composite materials for microrobotic applications, surgical robotics, and sensors and actuators. His past research has yielded a number of enabling technologies for microrobotic systems including rigid and articulated microstructures, ultra-high energy density actuation systems, and a low-power sensor suite. Biological insights continue to provide useful shortcuts in the development of microrobotic systems and Wood's research is facilitated through emerging rapid prototyping techniques.
Paul Zavracky - Dean of School for Technological Entrepreneurship - Northeastern University
Professor Zavracky obtained his Ph.D. in Solid State Physics at Tufts University in 1984 and an MS degree at Northeastern University in 1975. He has extensive experience both in material and device technology. Professor Zavracky holds over 30 patents on material and device fabrication. Dr. Zavracky joined Northeastern University in January of 1991. He has been responsible for initiating a research program aimed at the development of microsensor fabrication techniques. This program specializes in bulk micromachining (accelerometer), silicon on insulator(SOI) sensors, and nickel plated surface micromachined structures (spectrometer and microrelays). Prior to joining Northeastern, Zavracky was the Chief Operating Officer of Kopin Corporation where he managed the operations of the company, and coordinated sales and manufacturing activities for Kopin's Solar, SOI and GaAs products. While at Kopin, he spearheaded drive to establish Kopin's SOI materials capability as a potentially enabling technology for Flat Panel Development in the US.
Between 1980 and 1985, Zavracky established a microsensor program and facility at The Foxboro Company. He helped design and supervise the construction of a 3000 sq ft class 100 clean room facility. His program was aggressively aimed at creating micromechanical structures in silicon, quartz and metals. During this period, Dr. Zavracky developed such diverse devices as silicon resonant hollow beam pressure sensors, quartz double tuning fork force sensors, and silicon piezoresistive pressure sensors. Prior to Foxboro, Zavracky spent five years a Coulter Information Systems were he developed a series of electrophotographic films for use in the copier, lithographic and image storage industries. The work focused on CVD and sputter deposited electrophotographic materials including CdS, CdTe and amorphous Silicon. He also spent 5 years at MIT Lincoln Laboratory.
At Northeastern, his group is developing silicon micromachined sensors including accelerometers, pressure sensors and gas sensors. Devices under investigation include a bulk micromachined accelerometer being fabricated under contract from Jet Propulsion Laboratory. This device employs a tunneling tip to enable sensitivity to accelerations as small as 10-8g. A thin single crystalline silicon diaphragm pressure sensor is being fabricated in collaboration with Kopin Corporation and The Foxboro Company. Silicon-on-Insulator wafers are used in the process and promise high temperature smart sensor operations.
