HOWIE CHOSET

Kavcic-Moura Professor, Robotics Institute

School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University

Howie Choset is a professor of Robotics at Carnegie Mellon University. Motivated by applications in confined spaces, Choset has created a comprehensive program in snake robots, which has led to basic research in mechanism design, path planning, motion planning, and estimation. These research topics are important because once the robot is built (design), it must decide where to go (path planning), determine how to get there (motion planning), and use feedback to close the loop (estimation). By pursuing the fundamentals, this research program has made contributions to coverage tasks, dynamic climbing, and mapping large spaces. Already, Choset has directly applied this body of work to challenging and strategically significant problems in diverse areas such as surgery, manufacturing, infrastructure inspection, and search and rescue. Choset directs the Undergraduate Robotics Minor at Carnegie Mellon and teaches an overview course on Robotics which uses series of custom-developed Lego Labs to complement the course work. Professor Choset's students have won best paper awards at the RIA in 1999 and ICRA in 2003; his group's work has been nominated for best papers at ICRA in 1997, IROS in 2003 and 2007, and CLAWAR in 2012 (best biorobotics paper, best student paper); won best paper at IEEE Bio Rob in 2006; won best video at ICRA 2011, and was nominated for best video in ICRA 2012. In 2002 the MIT Technology Review elected Choset as one of its top 100 innovators in the world under 35. In 2005, MIT Press published a textbook, lead-authored by Choset, entitled "Principles of Robot Motion." Recently, Choset co-founded a company called Medrobotics (formerly Cardiorobotics) which makes a small surgical snake robot for minimally invasive surgery.

ANDREW MOORE

Commissioner, The National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence 

Dr. Andrew W. Moore currently serves as the Director of Google Cloud AI. A distinguished computer scientist with expertise in machine learning and robotics, he served as dean of the Carnegie Mellon University School of Computer

Science from 2014-2018. He had previously served as a professor of computer science and robotics before taking a leave of absence to become founding director of Google’s Pittsburgh engineering office in 2006.

Moore’s research interests broadly encompass the field of “big data”–applying statistical methods and mathematical formulas to massive quantities of information, ranging from Web searches to astronomy to medical records, in order to identify patterns and extract meaning from that information. His past research has also included improving the ability of robots and other automated systems to sense the world around them and respond appropriately

LYNNE PARKER

Director, National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Office

White House Office of Science and Technology Policy

Dr. Lynne E. Parker is Assistant Director of Artificial Intelligence at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). She is detailing to OSTP from her position as Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK). She previously served as Interim Dean of the Tickle College of Engineering (TCE) at UTK, and before that was the Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and Engagement in TCE. She also previously served at NSF as Division Director of Information and Intelligent Systems. She spent several years at Oak Ridge National Laboratory as a Distinguished Research and Development Staff Member. She received her PhD in Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Dr. Parker has been on the UT faculty since 2002, and is the founder of the Distributed Intelligence Laboratory at UT, which has conducted research in multi-robot systems, sensor networks, machine learning, and human-robot interaction. She has made significant research contributions in distributed and heterogeneous robot systems, machine learning, and human-robot interaction. Her dissertation research (1994) on ALLIANCE, a distributed architecture for multi-robot cooperation, was the first PhD dissertation worldwide on the topic of multi-robot systems, and is considered a pioneering work in the field. She has published extensively in these areas and has received numerous awards for her research, teaching, and service, including the PECASE Award (U.S. Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers), the IEEE RAS Distinguished Service Award, and many UT Chancellors, College, and Departmental awards. Dr. Parker served as the General Chair for the 2015 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, as the Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE RAS Conference Editorial Board, and as Editor of IEEE Transactions on Robotics. She is a Fellow of IEEE and a Distinguished Member of ACM.