Robotics Innovation Start Up Style
Helen Greiner, CyPhy Works
Thursday, May 28
08:15-09:05
WSCC 4A
Abstract: Innovation gets a lot of air time. There are endless debates on how to achieve it, foster it, or schedule it. But innovation isn’t a monolithic concept. It has horizons and frontiers, and is approached differently by different parts of the creative technical ecosystem.
The field of robotics provides excellent examples of this. Universities innovate. Corporate research labs innovate. Start-up companies innovate. But they all approach the development of new ideas from different perspectives, and from different starting points on the creative timeline.
Universities should be taking the long view – targeting advancements in timeframes of 10-100 years out. Corporate research draws on current customer needs for impetus, for example, making improvements to existing products or technologies. Start-ups take a different view. To a start-up innovation is lifeblood, immediate; and time to market is critical. In fact, in a start-up a key innovation can be so compelling that the entire company’s direction may pivot around it.
All of these types of research are needed for successful economic growth. They are vital to the creation and maintenance of robotics’ technical ecosystem, and are critical to “moving the needle forward.” This talk uses examples from Helen Greiner’s past and continuing career as a leading robotics entrepreneur to elucidate the nature and influence of innovation in start-up companies.
Biography: Helen Greiner is CEO of CyPhy Works, a startup company that designs and delivers innovative aerial robots. In 1990, she co-founded iRobot (NASDAQ:IRBT), which has become the global leader of mobile robots with the success of the Roomba™ Vacuuming Robot and the PackBot™ and SUGV Military Robots. Ms Greiner served as President of iRobot until 2004 and Chairman until October 2008. She developed the strategy for and led iRobot's entry into the military market place. At iRobot, she created a culture of innovation that resulted in advanced but practical robot products. She also ran iRobot's financing projects which included raising $35M venture capital and a $75M initial public offering. Greiner holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and a master's degree in computer science, both from MIT. She was presented with an honorary PhD by WPI in 2009.
Helen is highly decorated for her visionary contributions in technology innovation and business leadership. In 2014, she was named as a Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship (PAGE) by President Obama and Secretary of Commerce Pritzker. She was named by the Kennedy School at Harvard in conjunction with the U.S. News and World Report as one of America's Best Leaders and was honored by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) with the prestigious Pioneer Award. She has also been honored as a Technology Review Magazine "Innovator for the Next Century" and has been awarded the DEMO God Award and DEMO Lifetime Achievement Award. She was named one of the Ernst and Young New England Entrepreneurs of the Year (with iRobot cofounder Colin Angle), invited to the World Economic Forum as a Global Leader of Tomorrow and Young Global Leader, and has been inducted in the Women in Technology International (WITI) Hall of Fame and the National Academy of Engineering. Helen is a Trustee of the Boston Museum Science (MOS). Ms. Greiner has served as the elected President and Board Member of the Robotics Technology Consortium (RTC), as Trustee of the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA), a Trustee of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), as a member of the Army Science Board (ASB), and a member of the Board of Visitors of the Army War College (AWC).
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Социальные закладки