Prof. Sami Haddadin is Director of the Munich School of Robotics and Machine Intelligence at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and holds the Chair of Robotics Science and Systems Intelligence. His research interests include robot design and control, robot learning, collective intelligence, human-robot interaction, embodied AI, human neuromechanics, intelligent prosthetics and robot safety.

From 2014 to 2018, Sami Haddadin was Full Professor and Director of the Institute of Automatic Control at Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität Hannover, Germany. Prior to that, he held various positions as a research associate at the German Aerospace Center (DLR). He received degrees in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and Technology Management from the Technical University of Munich and the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. He received his doctorate with high distinction from RWTH Aachen. He has presented his work at conferences and published more than 130 scientific articles in international journals. He has been honored with numerous prestigious awards and prizes for his scientific work.

Roberta Nelson Shea is the Global Technical Compliance Officer at Universal Robots, responsible for product safety and reducing barriers to global acceptance and deployment.

She has already spent more than 35 years as a professional within the field of manufacturing automation, 23 of them additionally chairing the US-American National Robot Safety Committee (ANSI/RIA R15.06). She has also been elected one of the top 100 Women in Safety by the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE). Most recently, as convenor of the committee ISO/TC 299 WG3 (ISO/TC 184/SC2), she lead the introduction of ISO/TS 15066, which, as an extension of the established ISO 10218, is the first document defining standardized safety requirements within human-robot-collaboration.

Erwin Prassler received the M.S. degree in computer science from the Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany, in 1985 and the Ph.D. degree in computer science from the University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany, in March 1996.,From 1986 to 1989, he held positions as a member of the scientific staff at the Technical University of Munich and as a Guest Researcher with the Computer Science Department, University of Toronto. In Fall 1989, he joined the Research Institute for Applied Knowledge Processing (FAW), Ulm, where he headed a research group working in the field of mobile robots and service robotics between 1994 and 2003. In 1999, he joined Gesellschaft fur Produktionssysteme (GPS) in Stuttgart as Director of the Department of Project Management and Technology Transfer. In this function, he coordinated the MORPHA Project (Interaction and Communication between Humans and Intelligent Robot Assistants, www.morpha.de) one of six national research projects in the field of Human Machine Interaction funded by the German Ministry for Education and Research. In February 2004, he accepted a joint affiliation as Associate Professor at B-IT Bonn-Aachen Int. Center for Information Technology and Fraunhofer AIS

Susanne Bieller is General Secretary of the IFR, the International Federation of Robotics, since May 2019. The International Federation of Robotics serves as the voice of the global robotics industry and represents about 70 robotics companies, research organizations and national robot associations from over twenty countries and was founded in 1987 as a non-profit organization.

Susanne is an experienced international association professional with extensive contacts and experience in robotics. She is highly involved in current advocacy topics in robotics concerning ethical, legal, societal, economic aspects of robotics and AI and has in-depth knowledge of the global robotics market, and current technology trends.

After receiving her doctorate in Chemistry, she gained experience as PR and communications manager, project manager and managing director in various positions at the European Commission, the Mechanical Engineering Industry Association VDMA and EUnited Robotics, the European robotics industry association. Susanne has been elected among the “30 women in robotics you need to know about” in 2019 and among the “Top 10 Women in Robotics Industry” in 2020.

Ira Moskowitz is the Chief Executive Officer of the Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing (ARM) Institute. Structured as a public-private partnership, the organization accelerates transformative robotic technologies and education to increase U.S. global manufacturing competitiveness. Prior to this, Mr. Moskowitz served as Director of Advanced Manufacturing Programs for the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative. Since 2017, he has led Massachusetts’ efforts for manufacturing innovation, overseeing the Massachusetts Manufacturing Innovation Initiative (M2I2), a $100 million economic development program affiliated with Manufacturing USA®. He serves on the boards of two DoD-led Manufacturing USA® Institutes, AFFOA and AIM Photonics, and has deep experience working directly with state and federal agencies.

Previously, Mr. Moskowitz spent 30 years managing global semiconductor technology development and manufacturing including wafer fabrication, assembly and test operations in the U.S., Europe and Asia. Most recently, he was the Vice President and General Manager of U.S. Operations at Analog Devices, responsible for the company’s domestic manufacturing operations and the technology development that supported it. He also started and managed the manufacturing and process development for a new MEMS venture within Analog Devices which resulted in the commercialization of disruptive airbag control technology. Prior to Analog Devices, Mr. Moskowitz was employed by AT&T Bell Labs where he was named a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff, the highest technical designation at Bell Labs.

Mr. Moskowitz holds a Master of Business Administration in Finance and International Business from the Stern School of Business, New York University (NYU), a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Rochester.

Andie Zhang is responsible for ABB’s portfolio of Collaborative Robots. She develops and drives ABB’s strategy and vision on collaborative robotics and technologies, their application across different industrial segments and customer groups, robot safety technologies, as well as ease-of-use developments. She has successfully developed and launched multiple key products in ABB’s collaborative robotics portfolio including the single-arm YuMi, GoFa and SWIFTI cobots.

Prior to joining ABB, she worked in various management positions in the fields of Sales Management, Marketing, as well as Supply Chain Management in industry-leading multinationals. She holds a Master’s degree in Engineering with focus on Human-Computer Interaction from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden.

Andie was named as one of the 25 Women in Robotics in 2018, as well as one of 50 most renowned women in Robotics in 2020, and has given keynote speeches at events including the World Robot Conference in Beijing in 2018, the Gather festival in Stockholm in 2019, European Robotics Week in 2020, European Robotics Forum 2021, etc.

Thomas Ryden is the Executive Director of MassRobotics. MassRobotics is a non-profit organization whose mission is to help grow the next generation of robotics companies. Prior to joining MassRobotics Mr. Ryden was the founder and CEO/COO of VGo Communications, Inc. While at VGo Mr. Ryden oversaw the development and launch of the VGo telepresence robot. The VGo is used by hospitals, eldercare facilities, schools and other organizations to help people stay better connected, allowing users to essentially be in two places at once.

Previously, Mr. Ryden was Director of Sales & Marketing at iRobot Corporation. Under his leadership iRobot secured over $300M in contracts and revenue from its government and industrial products increased from $2M to over $80M annually. In addition Mr. Ryden held roles in program management, overseeing the development of some of iRobot’s most successful products. Mr. Ryden serves as the co-chairman of the robotics cluster of the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council and is on the board of directors of AUVSI New England and the Robotics Technology Advisory Panel for ASME. Mr. Ryden has a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Vermont and an MBA from Bentley University.

Julie Shah is a Professor in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT and leads the Interactive Robotics Group of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Shah received her SB (2004) and SM (2006) from the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT, and her PhD (2010) in autonomous systems from MIT. Before joining the faculty, she worked at Boeing Research and Technology on robotics applications for aerospace manufacturing. She has developed innovative methods for enabling fluid human-robot teamwork in time-critical, safety-critical domains, ranging from manufacturing to surgery to space exploration. Her group draws on expertise in artificial intelligence, human factors, and systems engineering to develop interactive robots that emulate the qualities of effective human team members to improve the efficiency of human-robot teamwork. In 2014, Shah was recognized with a National Science Foundation CAREER award and by the MIT Technology Review TR35 list as one of the world’s top innovators under the age of 35. Her work on industrial human-robot collaboration was also recognized by MIT Technology Review as one of the 10 Breakthrough Technologies of 2013. She has received international recognition in the form of best paper awards and nominations from the International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the IEEE/ACM International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, the International Symposium on Robotics, and the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

Daniel Nikovski joined Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 2002 and is currently the Group Manager of the Data Analytics group. He is responsible for supervision of projects using artificial intelligence, machine learning, optimization, and time series analysis technology in multiple business domains of Mitsubishi Electric such as robotics and factory automation, elevator control systems, HVAC, transportation, and electrical power systems. Daniel holds a PhD degree in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon University. His research interests include artificial intelligence, robotics, machine learning, optimization and control, and numerical methods for the analysis of complex industrial systems. He has published over 150 papers on these subjects, and holds 44 US and international patents.

Aude Billard is Professor and head of the LASA Laboratory at the School of Engineering at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL). Prior to this, she was Research Assistant Professor at the Department of Computer Sciences at the University of Southern California, where she retains an adjunct faculty position to this day. Aude Billard received a B.Sc. (1994) and M.Sc. (1995) in Physics from EPFL, with specialization in Particle Physics at the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN), an M.Sc. in Knowledge based Systems (1996) and a Ph.D. in Artificial Intelligence (1998) from the Department of Artificial Intelligence at the University of Edinburgh. Her research interests focus on machine learning tools to support robot learning through human guidance. This extends also to research on complementary topics, including machine vision and its use in human-robot interaction and computational neuroscience to develop models of learning in humans.

Dr. Werner Kraus received his degree as Diplom-Ingenieur in mechanical engineering from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in 2011. He worked amongst other topics on applied control of cable-driven parallel robots at Fraunhofer IPA and received his PhD in 2015 from the University of Stuttgart. From 2016 to 2019, he was team leader in the department “Robot and assistive Systems”, responsible for bin picking, welding robots, and cable robots. Since June 2019, he is head of department Robot and Assistive Systems. With a team of 70 colleagues, he is researching and implementing latest robot technologies in industry like for bin picking, small lot size welding, autonomous mobile robots and assembly automation as well as for the service sector, care applications, retail, or agricultural robotics. His research focus lies on the introduction of cognitive functions for robots and the use of machine learning in robotics. Kraus is also involved in the national and international robotics community and holds various positions and memberships within this context.

Dr. Nguyen Dinh Quy is currently a Development Manager and Senior R&D engineer in Mitsubishi Electric in Cambridge, MA, USA. He is working on research collaboration with MIT on Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning and Factory Automation.

Ben Armstrong is the interim executive director and a research scientist at MIT’s Industrial Performance Center, where he co-leads the Work of the Future initiative. His research and teaching examine how workers, firms, and regions adapt to technological change. His current projects include a national plan for the U.S. manufacturing workforce in partnership with the Department of Defense, as well as a regional playbook developing lessons for struggling regional economies in the United States. In his work, Ben has collaborated with governments, non-profit organizations, and firms to understand how scholarship and education can be useful to practitioners and policymakers.

Previously, Ben was a Research Fellow and Postdoctoral Research Associate at Brown University, where he studied how workers, policymakers, and the public think about automation and taught courses on technology, public policy, and capitalism. He worked with the Provost to spearhead the Brown and the Innovation Economy initiative, which developed a strategy for the university to contribute to good job growth in the region, and a faculty colloquium on the future of work. In partnership with the State of Rhode Island and others, he studied the longest autonomous vehicle public transit route in the United States to date.