Join UCSB Engineering for this free event, a special seminar with Professor Raffaello D'Andrea - autonomous systems visionary,  co-founder of Kiva Systems, and professor of dynamic systems and control at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, Switzerland.

We are at the cusp of a revolution: we can now create machines that adapt their behavior based on their environment and the results of their actions. The enablers for this revolution are sensing, communication, and computation technologies, innovative designs and novel mechanisms, and the feedback control algorithms that rule the machines. These creations will have unprecedented effects on our lives - some welcome, others not. In this talk, D'Andrea outlines how we got here, where we are going, and the consequences.

Biography: Spanning academics, business and the arts, Raffaello D'Andrea's career is built on his ability to bridge theory and practice: At the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich his research redefines what autonomous systems are capable of. He is co-founder of Kiva Systems (acquired by Amazon in 2012), a robotics and logistics company that develops and deploys intelligent automated warehouse systems. He was the faculty advisor and system architect of the Cornell Robot Soccer Team, four time world champions at the international RoboCup competition. In addition, he is a new media artist with exhibitions at various international venues, including the Venice Biennale, Ars Electronica, the Smithsonian, and the Spoleto Festival; his work is in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Canada (Robotic Chair, Table), the FRAC Centre in France (Flight Assembled Architecture), and the Heinz Nixdorf Museum in Germany (Blind Juggler). Other creations and projects include the Flying Machine Arena, the Distributed Flight Array, the Balancing Cube, Cubli, actuated wingsuits, and RoboEarth.