Grishin, Raibert, and More: Join Us at Robo Madness Boston on Wednesday

The robots are coming. So, apparently, are you.

We are expecting a packed house at Google in Kendall Square this Wednesday, March 11. The occasion is Robo Madness Boston, our first-ever dedicated robotics event locally (hard to believe, I know). You can get registration info here, as well as the full agenda.

It will be a who’s who of the robot industry. Dmitry Grishin from Grishin Robotics and Mail.Ru Group is flying in to join us. Marc Raibert from Boston Dynamics (acquired by Google) will talk about the future of robotics. Paolo Pirjanian from iRobot will give us the latest thinking on commercial robots, as will Todd Dagres from Spark Capital, who’s particularly jazzed about the software aspects.

Rodney Brooks from Rethink Robotics will give us the latest advances in artificial intelligence. Mick Mountz and Pete Wurman from Kiva Systems (acquired by Amazon) will talk about automating warehouses. Helen Greiner from CyPhy Works will give her unique perspective on drones. Steve Chambers from Jibo and Rudina Seseri from Fairhaven Capital will talk about the future of social home robots. The list goes on.

We have a special area set aside for robot demos. The event will be highly interactive, and will include panels and discussions about emerging markets for startups, big-company strategy, the venture investing outlook, and the New England robotics ecosystem. This is a show of force for the Boston-area tech community in one of its strongest sectors.

So bring your questions, business cards, and robotic assistants. Looking forward to seeing you all on Wednesday.

Author: Gregory T. Huang

Greg is a veteran journalist who has covered a wide range of science, technology, and business. As former editor in chief, he overaw daily news, features, and events across Xconomy's national network. Before joining Xconomy, he was a features editor at New Scientist magazine, where he edited and wrote articles on physics, technology, and neuroscience. Previously he was senior writer at Technology Review, where he reported on emerging technologies, R&D, and advances in computing, robotics, and applied physics. His writing has also appeared in Wired, Nature, and The Atlantic Monthly’s website. He was named a New York Times professional fellow in 2003. Greg is the co-author of Guanxi (Simon & Schuster, 2006), about Microsoft in China and the global competition for talent and technology. Before becoming a journalist, he did research at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab. He has published 20 papers in scientific journals and conferences and spoken on innovation at Adobe, Amazon, eBay, Google, HP, Microsoft, Yahoo, and other organizations. He has a Master’s and Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, and a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.