Get an inside look at Toyota Research Institute’s robotics efforts, and learn how you can be part of their call for innovation!

When:
October 10, 2018 @ 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm America/New York Timezone
2018-10-10T18:30:00-04:00
2018-10-10T20:00:00-04:00
Where:
Robotics Lab - Suite 1-201
One Kendall Square
Building 100, Cambridge, MA 02139
USA

Robotics and Automation Society

Join IEEE’s RAS chapter at Toyota Research Institute’s (TRI) offices in Cambridge, MA for a free evening event, Wednesday, October 10, 2018 from 7-8.30pm featuring a presentation by TRI’s chief science officer Dr. Eric Krotkov. Driven by TRI’s mission to improve the quality of human life, the robotics group is focused on developing technologies that improve perception, movement, manipulation, and reasoning for service robots that can assist with in-home care. Learn more about TRI’s goals, how it fits into the larger Toyota family, and the research the robotics group is pursuing.

Following his presentation, Dr. Krotkov will be joined by Jim Adler, managing director of TRI’s venture capital subsidiary Toyota AI Ventures for an interactive discussion about their first call for innovation. Launched earlier this summer, the call for for innovation is designed to find and fund entrepreneurs that are solving key technology challenges in areas like artificial intelligence, automated driving, and robotics. The first call is focused on mobile manipulation technologies for assistive robots that can help people in and around the home, and Toyota AI Ventures is looking to invest up to $2M in one or more startups.

Don’t miss this chance to find out more about the call for innovation, and to get answers to your questions about how TRI and Toyota AI Ventures are engaging with robotics startups.

Eric Krotkov Bio

Dr. Eric Krotkov serves as the Chief Science Officer of the Toyota Research Institute, where he directs research for the company, with responsibility for Robotics, Accelerated Materials Discovery and Design, and the University program.

Before joining Toyota, Dr. Krotkov founded Griffin Technologies, a consulting and software firm specializing in robotics and machine perception. From 2001 to 2015, Griffin consulted on robotics and for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and other Government agencies.

From 1999 to 2001, Dr. Krotkov served as Vice President for Software at Cytometrics, a medical imaging technology start-up. Responsible for image analysis research and for product software, he helped the company grow from 10 people to 125.

From 1997 to 1999, Dr. Krotkov served as a program manager at DARPA, where he created the Tactical Mobile Robotics program. The TMR program developed man-packable robots used for defusing road-side bombs in areas of armed conflict including Iraq and Afghanistan, and made early investments in Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM). Dr. Krotkov led other programs developing automation systems for surface ships and navigation systems for submarines.

From 1988 to 1997, as a faculty member of the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, Dr. Krotkov taught and researched computer vision, machine perception, and mobile robotics, with a focus on planetary rovers.

Dr. Krotkov earned his Ph.D. degree in Computer and Information Science from the University of Pennsylvania, for pioneering work in active computer vision. Dr. Krotkov earned his B.A. degree magna cum laude from Haverford College.

Jim Adler Bio

Jim Adler, Managing Director, Toyota AI Ventures

Jim Adler is the founding managing director of Toyota AI Ventures, and an executive advisor at Toyota Research Institute (TRI). He also serves on the Investment Committee of JetBlue Technology Ventures and on the Department of Homeland Security Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee.

Jim joined Toyota AI Ventures from TRI, where he served as vice president of data and business development. Prior to that, Jim was vice president of products and marketing at Metanautix, a big data analytics startup funded by Sequoia Capital and Workday that was acquired by Microsoft.

Previously, Jim was the vice president of data systems and chief privacy officer at Intelius, which was acquired by H.I.G. Capital. In addition, he founded VoteHere, a pioneer in cryptographic secure and secret online voting for public elections that was funded by Cisco and HP, among others. Jim started his career as a rocket engineer for Lockheed Martin.

He received his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering with high honors from the University of Florida, and a master’s degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of California, San Diego.

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