ETH Global Lecture Series: Designing Next Generation Robots
24 February 2022 - Online Event - The Softies are coming! Join us as we explore the state of the art in robotics and consider the advance of robots to become gentler and more compliant.
Free public online event
Moderated by Chris Luebkeman, ETH Zurich
Thursday, 24 February 2022
16.00 - 17.00 Zurich (CET)
Remember Mickey Mouse summoning the brooms in Fantasia? According to Daniela Rus, Professor and Director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at MIT, this is a future we are sure to see. Not with magic, like in the Sorcerer’s Apprentice, but with robots and AI. In this discussion with ETH Professor Robert Katzschmann, who is the Founder of the Soft Robotics Lab at ETH Zurich, we explore the state of the art in robotics and consider their advance to become gentler and more compliant, ushering in an era where they are more broadly present in our daily lives. Daniela and Robert work on developing technology that will enable a world with more capable tools in the form of robots. These are designed to be used in human-centered environments for the benefit of regular citizens, not just in industrial settings where they do carefully specified operations.
Join Daniela and Robert in conversation with ETH’s Head of Foresight, Chris Luebkeman, to discover the exciting future of fully functional robots you can summon at any time, and how these are being brought to life.
external pageDaniela Rus is the Andrew (1956) and Erna Viterbi Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at MIT, and Deputy Dean of Research in the Schwarzman College of Computing at MIT, and the Director of the USA Air Force - MIT AI Accelerator program. Prof. Rus's research interests are in robotics and artificial intelligence with a key focus on developing the science and engineering of autonomy.
Prof. Rus served in the White House as a member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), on the Defense Innovation Board (DIB), and for the UN Pathways to Prosperity Commission. She is a senior visiting fellow at MITRE Corporation and was named among the World’s Most Influential Women Engineers by Academic Influence and Top Women in AI by Forbes in 2021. She earned her PhD in Computer Science from Cornell University.
Robert Katzschmann is an Assistant Professor of Robotics at ETH Zurich. Robert earned his Diplom-Ingenieur in 2013 from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering in 2018 from the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2018. Robert worked on robotic manipulation technologies as Applied Scientist at Amazon Robotics and as CTO at Dexai Robotics.
In July 2020, Robert founded the Soft Robotics Lab at ETH Zurich to push robots' abilities for real-life applications by being more compliant and better adapt to their environment to solve challenging tasks.