Fresh on the heels of Friday’s big announcement about a new National Robotics Initiative, I thought now would be a great time to feature a recent talk by MIT CSAIL Professor Leslie Pack Kaelbling. Speaking at the “Computation and the Transformation of Practically Everything” symposium commemorating MIT’s 150th anniversary celebration back in April, Kaelbling described the emerging research frontiers at the intersection of robotics and AI: It used to be that the dream of what robots could do for us was big and romantic and exciting… all these robots from the movies. If you look at the commercial reality of robots… they’re sort of robot automata in factories that will weld whatever […]

A very impressive group of people came to CMU’s National Robotics Engineering Center for the announcement of the Advanced Manufacturing Program by President Barack Obama. I saw among the group: College Presidents: CMU, MIT, Georgia Tech, U Michigan, and RPI; US Senator: Bob Casey, Jr. (Pennsylvania); Government officials: Directors of DARPA and NIST, and the CTO of NASA; and Participants in the CCC Robotics Visioning effort: Henrik Christensen, Helen Greiner, Rod Brooks, and Matt Mason. President Obama was given a tour highlighting four projects: An IED detection robot developed at CMU; A sewer inspection robot developed at Redzone Robotics, a CMU spinoff; A military vehicle created for DARPA by Local […]

(This post has been updated; please scroll down for the latest.) In just a few minutes, President Obama will announce the launch of the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership (AMP) in a speech on U.S. innovation and competitiveness at Carnegie Mellon University, saying his administration will provide $500 million to encourage the Federal government, industry, and academia to work together to develop new technologies that spur high-tech manufacturing and boost job creation. (Watch the announcement live here.) A key pillar of this new initiative is a $70 million investment for major advances in robotics being made available today. According to advance press reports, the President will note that information technology, biotechnology, and nanotechnology are critical enablers — providing essential tools […]

President Obama is scheduled to address the nation from the campus of Carnegie Mellon University at 11am EDT today. The President’s speech is expected to focus on American innovation and competitiveness: The president will be highlighting the importance of manufacturing to the U.S. economy, as well as key steps that government, industry and universities will take together to create new industries and new jobs. He will deliver remarks on the need to focus on cross-cutting technologies that will enhance the global competitiveness of U.S. manufacturing and speed up ideas from the drawing board to the manufacturing floor.   The visit will take place at Carnegie Mellon University’s National Robotics Engineering Center […]

In a Dear Colleague Letter issued earlier this month, the NSF’s Directorate for Geosciences and Office of Cyberinfrastructure call for “an open, adaptable, and sustainable framework (an ‘Earth-Cube’) to enable transformative research and education in Earth System Science”: In a new partnership, GEO and OCI recognize the multifaceted challenges of modern, data-intensive science and education and envision an environment where low adoption thresholds and new capabilities act together to greatly increase the productivity and capability of researchers and educators working at the frontiers of Earth system science.   With the new FY2012 NSF budget thrust, Cyberinfrastructure for the 21st century (CIF21), NSF places significant emphasis on computational and data-rich science […]

A couple weeks ago, I briefly noted in this space the June 9-10 US Ignite and GigU Workshops held at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH. The highlight of the event — for me at least — was a two-hour demo session called “Living the Future Today” featuring 13 teams of researchers from around the country illustrating all different kinds of ultra-broadband uses. Now the organizers, led by CWRU CIO Lev Gonick, have posted a short video montage — compressing those two hours into just five minutes. It’s worth watching: For those interested, all the plenaries are now online, starting here. (Contributed by Erwin Gianchandani, CCC Director)