Speaker:
Moderator:
Panelist:
Event Description:
Have we finally reached a nexus today that combines culture, and trends, and affordable technology to make consumer robotics a viable market opportunity? The June forum will examine market and venture capital investment opportunities in the category of consumer robotics.
The Japan Robotics Association forecasts the worldwide robotics market (service and personal) to double in size over the next five years, approaching nearly $13 billion. Most recently, consumers have warmed up to robotics, early on with the likes of Furby, a plush toy that exhibited realistic form-factors and Lego Mindstorms, the programmable play set. The latest consumer robotics to hit the shelves include Robosapien, an affordable, mass-marketed humanoid robot, and Roomba, a robotic vacuum, and its sidekick, Scooba, a floor-scrubbing mechanical disk.
Startup Ugobe, creators of Pleo, a genetic descendant of Furby, develops robotic technology that transforms inanimate objects into creatures capable of exhibiting life-like movements and behaviors. Similar to the Terminator’s advanced robots, Pleo supersedes Furby’s single motor and microprocessor, sporting 8 processors that control 14 motors and receive signals from 38 sensors. It can also write its own code as it learns from its own experiences.
The driving vision behind the Ugobe team is to marry people’s emotional connections with technology. With consumers embracing virtual avatars and characters, such as Laura Croft and Super Mario, is there a budding opportunity to make screen-to-table products that are brand extensions of popular virtual characters? Come join this forward-thinking event, as VLAB brings together a panel of experts to discuss and debate how to form a business model that works.
Speaker:
Bob Christopher 
CEO & Co-founder
Ugobe
A seasoned entrepreneur, Bob Christopher has founded and led a number of successful start-up companies in the technology and consumer markets. Mr. Christopher helped launch the Voice-over- IP industry through the creation of ISPtel, an international clearinghouse connecting over 35 of the world’s largest phone companies.
Understanding market challenges and visionary opportunities, he has helped companies in their formative stages to develop market strategies, partnerships, operations and launch consumer and enterprise products. Mr. Christopher’s leadership skills have attracted talented management teams, industry alliances, strategic advisors and partnerships that are needed to execute on emerging business models. Both an excellent communicator and team builder Bob is able to lead diverse teams and inspire great performance that drives bottom line results.
An experienced executive leader, Mr., Christopher has contributed to the success of Zentera, Five 9, Circle 24, ValuCircle, Jopari, Mercotel, and NextSport
Moderator:
Chris Shipley
Executive Producer, DEMO Conferences; Co-founder
GuideWire Group
Chris Shipley is a leading technology and product analyst. Best known as the executive producer of the DEMO Conferences for IDG Executive Forums, Shipley has helped technology companies bring more than 1,000 new products to market since 1996. As a founding partner and editorial director in Guidewire Group, she consults with emerging technology companies in the U.S. and Europe to identify market opportunities and accelerate products to market. Fortune Small Business Magazine placed Shipley on its “Top 10 Minds in Small Business,” and the San Jose Business Journal named her a “Woman of Distinction.” She has often been cited as a leading influencer by Marketing Computers magazine. Shipley has covered personal technology since 1984 and has worked as a writer and editor for a variety of technology and consumer media. She is currently authoring a book on the social impact of technology-driven change.
Shipley holds BAs in Literature and Communication Arts from Allegheny College and pursues knowledge and understanding relentlessly.
Panelist:
Khalid Al-Ali Ph.D.
Director of Robotics
Carnegie Mellon University – West; CEO, Senseta
Dr. Khalid Al-Ali is a Senior Fellow and Director of Robotics at Carnegie Mellon University’s west coast campus. He is also the President and CEO of Senseta, a robotic sentry and patrol platform provider for the security industry. At both NASA Ames Research Center and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratories (JPL), he has been the principal investigator, project lead, and senior scientist on key projects involving advanced control sytems, intelligent avionics, novel power systems, planetary rovers and robots, spacecraft, and autonomous exploratory vehicles for Lunar, Martian, and Antarctic missions. He also serves as a member and principal test pilot for unmanned aerial vehicles for NASA Ames’ Intelligent Avionics Program. He founded the Carnegie Mellon Innovation Laboratory (CMIL) and directs its activities, where he is leading efforts to create compact, highly capable mobile autonomous vehicles covering ground, air and space operations. Some of these platforms are already used by NASA Ames and NASA JPL as research test beds for NASA-relevant technologies and educational tools to excite students about robotics, science and engineering. Dr. Al-Ali holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley.
Robert Capps
Senior Editor
Wired Magazine
Robert Capps has been covering technology for over 10 years. He is currently a Senior Editor at Wired magazine, where he edits news and feature stories. Robert is considered the publication’s go-to-guy on robotics, last penning Wired’s February cover article “The 50 Greatest Robots of All Time.” Previously he was the magazine’s Products Editor, responsible for tracking consumer electronics, toys, and other cool gear. Before coming to Wired, Robert was the Editor-in-Chief of MacAddict magazine.
Jason Morella
Regional Director
FIRST – For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology
As a Regional Director for FIRST, Jason works with local planning committees and sponsors to help plan and organize Regional Robotics Competitions in California, the Pacific Northwest and Arizona. Jason also assists schools in the Western United States to implement the FIRST Robotics Competition program and helps provide guidance, resources and training for teachers to include it in their curricula. He has integrated the FIRST program into a continuation school (schools for at risk-students removed from other city high schools due to drug use, gangs, poor attendance or performance, etc) and was the recipient of the 1998-1999 San Jose Unified School District Teacher of the Year award.
Warren Packard
Managing Director
Draper Fisher Jurvetson
Warren Packard is a Managing Director at Draper Fisher Jurvetson. He currently serves on the Boards of 422 inc., Anagran, BinOptics, Eoplex, Imago Scientific Instruments, Media Lario, Ooma and Xfire. Mr. Packard also led the firm’s investments in Feedburner , Hypernex, Microfabrica, Primet Precision Materials, Chilisoft (acquired by Sun Microsystems), Digital Impact (NASDAQ: DIGI), Direct Hit Technologies (acquired by Ask Jeeves), Enviz (acquired by Keynote Systems), Fogdog Sports (acquired by Global Sports), and NetMind (acquired by Puma Technology).
Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Packard co-founded Angara Database Systems, a main-memory relational database company, which was acquired by Personify. Prior to Angara, he was an Associate at Institutional Venture Partners, investing in early-stage technology companies. Before IVP, Mr. Packard was a Senior Principal Engineer in the New Business and Advanced Product Development Group at Baxter International. In this position, he led professionals from product development, marketing, and manufacturing in the design and manufacture of next-generation kidney dialysis machines. During his tenure at Baxter, Mr. Packard received a number of domestic and international patents for his engineering work – including designs of silicon-based micro-electromechanical systems. Mr. Packard is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Stanford University and holds a BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering: Smart Product Design. He received his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar.
