Robert Ambrose

An Interview Conducted by Peter Asaro, IEEE History Center, 12 November 2010 Interview # 665 for Indiana University and the IEEE History Center, The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.

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, Kosecka talks about her education, evolution of her research interests, her doctoral dissertation thesis, her time as a postdoctoral researcher, collaboration with different colleagues and students, her involvement with the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, and women in robotics. In addition, Kosecka gives advice to young people who are interested in a career in robotics.

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.

In this interview, Jean-Daniel Nicoud discusses his career in robotics and at Lausanne and DIDEL. Describing the state of roboics at EPFL, he reflects on the evolution of the field and his research work. Moving from academia to form a private company (DIDEL), he outlines its motivations and influences, as well as the challenges and potential of robotics applications.