Building a Robotics Ecosystem: Q&A with UC San Diego’s Al Pisano

Albert "Al" Pisano (UC San Diego image used with permission)

context is not being fully addressed in academia, though it’s central to the future of robotics. Addressing context will unlock next-generation robotics—systems that are able to determine the context of a situation involving humans, determine a course of action, and then accomplish that action. Contextual robotics systems integrate mobile platforms empowered with sense, machine learning, adaptive control, communications and locomotion functions. This robotics technology could include collaborating robots working toward a common goal. We are taking a broad approach to this topic, looking at it from the perspective of a diverse group of engineers, cognitive scientists, and social scientists.

X: Who conceived the contextual robotics event?

AP: This event is part of a campus-wide move to get more involved in robotics research and education. There are many people at UC San Diego working to develop a stronger robotics focus on campus. But in terms of the October 10 robotics forum, the driving force has been the organizing committee and more than a dozen UC San Diego faculty.

X: Why is the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering holding this event? What are you trying to accomplish?

AP: The robotics forum is a key part of our effort to reach out to technologists and thought leaders from a wide range of industries in the San Diego region. This is part of the planning and building process for our contextual robotics institute.

Al Pisano
Al Pisano

San Diego is ready to make big advances in contextual robotics and related technologies. Nearly all the pieces are in place. A number of people and organizations are going in this direction organically, but unless you get a world-class university aligned with industry, aligned with students, aligned with the markets, you don’t get a major surge forward. UC San Diego is joining the fray to help San Diego achieve this forward surge.

X: How does this event reflect efforts to build a robotics curriculum at UC San Diego?

AP: As this community works together more closely, a more robust robotics ecosystem will start to form in San Diego. Once that level of collaboration between all the players gets established, we will have a

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Author: Bruce V. Bigelow

In Memoriam: Our dear friend Bruce V. Bigelow passed away on June 29, 2018. He was the editor of Xconomy San Diego from 2008 to 2018. Read more about his life and work here. Bruce Bigelow joined Xconomy from the business desk of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was a member of the team of reporters who were awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for uncovering bribes paid to San Diego Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in exchange for special legislation earmarks. He also shared a 2006 award for enterprise reporting from the Society of Business Editors and Writers for “In Harm’s Way,” an article about the extraordinary casualty rate among employees working in Iraq for San Diego’s Titan Corp. He has written extensively about the 2002 corporate accounting scandal at software goliath Peregrine Systems. He also was a Gerald Loeb Award finalist and National Headline Award winner for “The Toymaker,” a 14-part chronicle of a San Diego start-up company. He takes special satisfaction, though, that the series was included in the library for nonfiction narrative journalism at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Bigelow graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1977 with a degree in English Literature and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1979. Before joining the Union-Tribune in 1990, he worked for the Associated Press in Los Angeles and The Kansas City Times.