Robotics Pioneer Brooks Called to Jury Duty—at Sundance Film Festival

I know for a fact that robotics guru and Xconomist Rod Brooks was looking forward to next Thursday’s Xconomy Battle of the Tech Bands 2, both because it’s across the street from his Central Square-based Heartland Robotics company—and because he’s spoken enthusiastically about rocking out with us several times.

So it was a blow when he e-mailed me that he can’t make it because he’s going to be out of town. I was readying my protest until I clicked on the link he sent me by way of explanation: Turns out Brooks is one of 24 privileged people called to sit on juries for the Sundance Film Festival, which opens today in Park City, Ogden, Salt Lake City, and Sundance, Utah. The event runs through Jan. 25, several days after the Battle.

Brooks will be sitting on the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation jury, one of six juries at the festival. Its job is to award the Alfred P. Sloan Prize to “the writer and director of an outstanding feature film focusing on science or technology as a theme, or depicting a scientist, engineer, or mathematician as a major character,” according to indieWIRE.

“I don’t really know how this came about,” Brooks wrote me, “but perhaps it has to do with this thing I did out in LA in November.” Then he sent another link (guess he likes links) to a story about a symposium he took part in, led by Family Guy’s Seth McFarlane, that discussed new technologies for science and entertainment. Brooks also has a film-industry connection through Bedford, MA-based iRobot, which he co-founded. He and fellow iRobot founders Helen Greiner and Colin Angle (who had a small part in last year’s film 21, about the MIT blackjack team) appeared in the 2004 documentary Sentient Machines: Robotic Behavior. Before that, Brooks landed a spot in the 1997 Errol Morris film, Fast, Cheap and Out of Control.)

Whatever the reason for his jury selection, we wish him a great time. Ski on, Watch on, Rod.

Author: Robert Buderi

Bob is Xconomy's founder and chairman. He is one of the country's foremost journalists covering business and technology. As a noted author and magazine editor, he is a sought-after commentator on innovation and global competitiveness. Before taking his most recent position as a research fellow in MIT's Center for International Studies, Bob served as Editor in Chief of MIT's Technology Review, then a 10-times-a-year publication with a circulation of 315,000. Bob led the magazine to numerous editorial and design awards and oversaw its expansion into three foreign editions, electronic newsletters, and highly successful conferences. As BusinessWeek's technology editor, he shared in the 1992 National Magazine Award for The Quality Imperative. Bob is the author of four books about technology and innovation. Naval Innovation for the 21st Century (2013) is a post-Cold War account of the Office of Naval Research. Guanxi (2006) focuses on Microsoft's Beijing research lab as a metaphor for global competitiveness. Engines of Tomorrow (2000) describes the evolution of corporate research. The Invention That Changed the World (1996) covered a secret lab at MIT during WWII. Bob served on the Council on Competitiveness-sponsored National Innovation Initiative and is an advisor to the Draper Prize Nominating Committee. He has been a regular guest of CNBC's Strategy Session and has spoken about innovation at many venues, including the Business Council, Amazon, eBay, Google, IBM, and Microsoft.