Robots and their role in the future

Participants in the MBZUAI Executive Program will learn how their organization can use robotics to achieve competitive advantages in this week’s module. University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) Professors Pieter Abbeel and Ken Goldberg will deliver the fifth module on ‘The Future of Robotics: The New Human Frontier.’

They are among 16 eminent faculty in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning from across the globe to be featured as part of the Executive Program. Abbeel is director of the Robot Learning Lab at UC Berkeley, and co-director of the Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Lab Research (BAIR) Lab. He will deliver a session on ‘The Impending Deep Learning Revolution in Robotics’. Abbeel is a founding partner at AIX Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on AI startups. He advises many AI and robotics startups, and is a sought-after speaker worldwide for C-suite sessions on AI future and strategy.

Goldberg will share further insights into how robotic technologies are currently being deployed in the business sector in his session on ‘E-Commerce, Surgery, and Agriculture: Robots and Reality in the Roaring 2020s.’ Goldberg is the Chief Scientist at Ambi Robotics—a firm that offers advanced AI-powered robotic systems designed for businesses—and leads research in robotics at UC Berkeley. He holds eight US patents.

The Executive Program, which is headed up by MBZUAI President, Professor Eric Xing, is a uniquely powerful learning experience for high-level decision makers. Participants spend 12 weeks learning from the global elite in AI-related research, with the end goal of supporting a range of improvements in healthcare, transportation, education, industry, and more.
42 participants in total make up the first cohort of the Executive Program that includes a large number of ministerial leadership and top industry executives. The program seeks to support the UAE’s mission to become a world leader in AI through education, capacity building, innovation, and research and development.

About the instructors

Pieter Abbeel – Professor and Director of the Robot Learning Lab UC Berkley Executive 

Pieter Abbeel is Professor at UC Berkeley and Director of the Berkeley Robot Learning Lab and Co-Director of the Berkeley Artificial Intelligence (BAIR) Lab. Abbeel has founded two companies: Gradescope (AI to help instructors with grading homework and exams) and Covariant (AI for robotic automation of warehouses and factories).

Abbeel is a founding partner at AIX Ventures, a Venture Capital firm focused on AI start-ups. Abbeel is the host of The Robot Brains podcast, which explores what AI and Robotics can do today and where they are headed, through conversations with the world’s leading AI and Robotics pioneers. Abbeel has received many awards and honors, including the PECASE, NSF-CAREER, ONR-YIP, Darpa-YFA, TR35. His work is frequently featured in the press, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, BBC, Rolling Stone, Wired, and Tech Review.

Ken Goldberg – Chief Scientist at Ambi Robotics Leads research in robotics UC Berkley 

Professor Ken Goldberg is Chief Scientist at Ambi Robotics and leads research in robotics at UC Berkeley where he is Professor of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research with appointments in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Art Practice, the School of Information, and UCSF Radiation Oncology.

Goldberg is Chair of the Berkeley AI Research (BAIR) Steering Committee and Director of the CITRIS “People and Robots” Initiative (75 faculty across four UC campuses) and co-founder and Editor-in-Chief Emeritus of the IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering (T-ASE). He and his students have published more than 300 refereed papers. Goldberg has been awarded the NSF Presidential Faculty Fellowship (PECASE 1995), the Joseph Engelberger Award (top honor in Robotics, 2000), and the IEEE Major Educational Innovation Award (2001), and was also elected as an IEEE Fellow in 2005.