OORB

Asma Basly is the COO and Co-Founder of OORB, a Tunisia-based startup working to democratize access to robotics across the African continent. With a background in AI and Cloud Engineering, she is committed to fostering innovation and making advanced technologies more accessible to underserved communities.

Brown University

Benedict Quartey is a PhD student at Brown University where he works on problems in robotics and machine learning, including the use of LLMs for robot instruction. Additionally, he has interned at the Boston Dynamics AI Institute, and has previously served as Faculty Engagement Chair for the Deep Learning Indaba.

Realtime Robotics

Arne Sieverling is Director of Motion Planning at Realtime Robotics, leading the Berlin team developing real-time, collision-free algorithms for industrial robotic arms. Since joining in 2018, he has driven R&D and technical initiatives that power production-deployed systems.

He earned his PhD at TU Berlin’s Robotics and Biology Lab under Prof. Oliver Brock, specializing in sensor-based, uncertainty-aware motion planning. Author of 12+ peer-reviewed papers, he was on the winning team of the 2015 Amazon Picking Challenge and helped create Realtime Robotics Resolver, a cloud-native engine for optimizing multi-robot workcells.

Tshwane University of Technology

Nico Steyn is a senior lecturer at the Tshwane University of Technology, holding dual doctoral degrees from the University of Versailles and Tshwane University of Technology. He collaborates with postgraduate students and French professors at the French South African Institute of Technology, focusing on enabling technologies and assistive system designs, driven by a passion for human-robot interaction and leveraging cutting-edge engineering advancements.