Dale Dougherty
O'Reilly Media, Inc.

Theme: Machine

Dale Dougherty is the founding editor and publisher of Make and Craft magazines, both of which focus on DIY projects, and the creator of Maker Faire, which showcases the projects of creative individuals and communities. Dale has been instrumental in many of O'Reilly's most important efforts, working closely with Tim O'Reilly to establish O'Reilly as a leading technical publisher. An early Web pioneer, Dale was the developer and publisher of Global Network Navigator (GNN), the first commercial Web site launched in 1993 and sold to America Online in 1995. Dale was developer and publisher of Web Review, the online magazine for Web designers from 1995-1999, which was sold to CMP in 1999. He developed the Hacks Series of books in 2003, which includes the bestselling Google Hacks and Excel Hacks. He coined the term Web 2.0 as part of developing the Web 2.0 Conference. Dale is General Manager of the Maker Media division of O'Reilly Media. He lives and works in Sebastopol, California.

Rodney Brooks
Director, MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory

Theme: Machine

Rodney Brooks is Panasonic Professor of Robotics at MIT. He is also Chief Technical Officer of iRobot Corp (NASDAQ: IRBT). From 1997 - 2003 and from 2003 - 2007, respectively, he was Director of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab and Director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). He received degrees in pure mathematics from the Flinders University of South Australia and the Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford University in 1981. He held research positions at Carnegie Mellon University and MIT, and a faculty position at Stanford before joining the faculty of MIT in 1984. His research is concerned with both the engineering of intelligent robots to operate in unstructured environments, and with understanding human intelligence through building humanoid robots. He has published papers and books in model-based computer vision, path planning, uncertainty analysis, robot assembly, active vision, autonomous robots, micro-robots, micro-actuators, planetary exploration, representation, artificial life, humanoid robots, and compiler design.

Dr. Brooks is a Member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), a Founding Fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts &Sciences (AAAS), a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (the other AAAS), a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), a Corresponding Member of the Australian Academy of Science (AAS) and a Foreign Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE). He won the Computers and Thought Award at the 1991 IJCAI (International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence). He has been the Cray lecturer at the University of Minnesota, the Mellonlecturer at Dartmouth College, and the Forsythelecturer at Stanford University. He was co-founding editor of the InternationalJournal of Computer Vision and is a member of the editorial boards of various journals including Adaptive Behavior, Artificial Life, Applied Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous Robots and New Generation Computing. He starred as himself in the 1997 Errol Morris movie "Fast, Cheap and Out of Control" named for one of his scientific papers, a Sony Classics picture, available on DVD.

Oussama Khatib
President of the International Foundation of Robotics Research, Stanford University

Theme: Machine

Prof. Khatib received his Ph.D. in 1980 from Sup'Aero, Toulouse, France. He is Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University.

His current research is in human-centered robotics, human-friendly robot design, dynamic simulations, and haptic interactions. His exploration in this research ranges from the autonomous ability of a robot to cooperate with a human to the haptic interaction of a user with an animated character or a surgical instrument.

His research in human-centered robotics builds on a large body of studies he pursued over the past 25 years and published in over 200 contributions in the robotics field. Prof. Khatib was the Program Chair of ICRA2000 (San Francisco) and Editor of "The Robotics Review" (MIT Press).

He has served as the Director of the Stanford Computer Forum, an industry affiliate program. He is currently the President of the International Foundation of Robotics Research, IFRR, and Editor of STAR, Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics. Prof. Khatib is IEEE fellow, Distinguished Lecturer of IEEE, and recipient of the JARA Award.

Janne Kyttanen
Founder, Freedom of Creation

Theme: Machine

If there is a single designer associated with rapid prototyping technology it’s Janne Kyttanen of Freedom of Creation (FOC). Some of the world's most innovative design now available is available thanks to rapid prototyping and rapid production (a.k.a. digital manufacturing) and Janne is one of the pioneers.

Janne Kyttanen was born 1974 in Hameenlinna, Finland. He started his industrial design studies at the Escola De Disseny, Elisave in Barcelona -96. He then moved to The Netherlands to continue his studies at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. He graduated in the spring 2000 from the same Academy.

Right after his graduation he was offered a position as a freelance designer and 3D visualizer at one of the leading industrial design bureaus in The Netherlands, SDA. During his 2 year stay at SDA, he was involved with work for clients in the banking, public transport, aviation, consumer electronics and cosmetics industries.

During his studies Janne proved the potential of using Rapid Prototyping techniques as manufacturing tools and introduced a line of Augmented Reality based Rapid Manufactured products as his thesis for graduation. The project was sponsored by the Human Interface Laboratory, of the University Of Washington and the European leader in Rapid Prototyping, Materialise.

At the Salone Internationale Del Mobile 2003 in Milan, for Freedom Of Creation, Janne designed the first animated 3-Dimensionally printable lights as well as the first economical series of lights produced in this manner. For Milan he also co-designed a variety of products with Jiri Evenhuis using the patent pending 3-Dimensionally printable textiles.

Atsuo Takanishi
Waseda University, Japan

Theme: Machine

ATSUO TAKANISHI is a Professor of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Waseda University and a concurrent Professor and one of the core members of the HRI (Humanoid Robotics Institute), Waseda University.

He is a member of Robotics Society of Japan (a board member in 1992 and 1993), Japanese Society of Biomechanisms, Japanese Society of Mechanical Engineers, Japanese Society of Instrument and Control Engineers and Society of Mastication Systems (a major board member from 1996 to current), IEEE and other medicine and dentistry related societies in Japan.

He received Best Paper Award (Application) IEEE/RSJ IROS2003, JSME Distinguished Research Activity Award in Robotics and Mechatronics in 2003, the Best of Asia Award from BusinessWeek Magazine in 2001, the Finalist of Best Paper Award in ICRA1999 from IEEE and RSJ in 1999, the ROBOMECH Award from RSJ and Japanese Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1998 and the Best paper Award from Robotics Society Japan(RSJ) in 1998.

Mitchell Tseng
Chair, Professor and Director, Advanced Manufacturing Institute, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Theme: Machine

Professor Mitchell M. Tseng joined the HKUST faculty as the founding department head in 1993 after working in industry for almost two decades. The focus of Professor Tseng's research are designs of effective systems to serve business and public needs. Based on the insights of designing mechanical and electronic systems as well as the industrial experiences of integrating information systems for business applications, Professor Tseng attempts to develop a new approach for designing systems that are economical, adaptive and responsive to needs.

Frank Piller
Chair professor of management, Technology & Innovation Management Group, RWTH Aachen University

Theme: Machine

Frank Piller is a chair professor of management at the Technology & Innovation Management Group of RWTH Aachen University, Germany, one of Europe's leading institutes of technology. He is also a founding faculty member of the MIT Smart Customization Group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA. Before entering his recent position in Aachen in March 2007, he worked at the MIT Sloan School of Management (BPS, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Group, 2004-2007) and has been an associate professor of management at TUM Business School, Technische Universitaet Muenchen (1999-2004).

His research focuses on value co-creation between businesses and customers/users and the interface between innovation management, operations management, and marketing. Frequently quoted in The NYT, Financial Times, The Economist, and Business Week, amongst others, he is regarded as one of the leading experts in the fields of mass customization and customer centric value creation.

As a founding partner of Think Consult, a management consultancy, he helps his clients to serve their customers better by using truly customer-centric strategies. Frank Piller has consulted and delivered executive workshops for more than fifty companies. In addition, he is a frequent corporate speaker and keynote presenter at various conferences. As a member of the board of directors of several innovative companies like corpus-e, Selve, or My Virtual Model, he strives to transfer his research insights into practice and to provide creative input and feedback to these companies on how to build a profitable business by serving their customers individually.

Mahender Singh
Research Director, Supply Chain 2020

Theme: Machine

Dr. Mahender Singh is a Research Director for the MIT Supply Chain 2020 Project, a multi-year research effort looking into the future of logistics and supply chain management. His research and teaching focus on operations and supply chain management, with particular interest in exploring the underlying structure of complex supply chains.  

Dr. Singh has over ten years of experience in the field of supply chain management and has worked on multiple global supply chain projects to analyze and redesign planning systems. He has taught Operations Management at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where he received his Ph.D.; he is also a graduate of MIT-CTL's Master of Engineering in Logistics Program.

Barrett Comiskey
Managing Partner, Nicobar Group

Theme: Machine

Barrett Comiskey has deep experience in international technology transfer, US/Asia partnerships, and building new businesses. He grew up in New York City; speaks Mandarin, French, Spanish, English, and lives in Shanghai. He has spent the last ten years in technology and the last five years building working relationships with manufacturing and finance organizations throughout Asia, with a focus on Greater China. He was a co-founder of E Ink in 1997. After pioneering the original research at the MIT Media Lab, he led the development and transfer to manufacturing of E Ink's electronic materials. He then moved to the business side and structured manufacturing alliances with multi-billion dollar electronics companies throughout Asia, where he was first exposed to the opportunities and challenges in setting up East-West partnerships.

He is sole or co-inventor on 40 US Patents, has been profiled in the Wall Street Journal, Wired, and Fortune, and was recognized by the World Economic Forum as a Technology Pioneer. E Ink technology has been featured in hundreds of media reports worldwide and has won dozens of awards such as Industry Week's "Technology of the Year" and "Display Component of the Year" by the Society of Information Displays. He has taught in Harlem and the Bronx and was a bike courier in Manhattan.

Barrett holds a BS from MIT in Mathematics with a minor in Mechanical Engineering, and an MBA from Stanford where he studied under Hau Lee and Jin Whang, two of the thought leaders in Supply Chain Management.