Travels from Pennsylvania, USA
Vijay Kumar's speaking fee falls within range: $15,000 to $20,000
A world expert in the collective behaviors of biological and robotic systems, Vijay Kumar is the Dean of Penn Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. His groundbreaking team works on creating autonomous ground and aerial robots as well as robot swarms, all of which are revolutionizing numerous industries.
Dr. Kumar is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, a Fellow of the Institution of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. He has held many administrative positions in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, including director of the GRASP Laboratory, chair of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, and the position of the Deputy Dean. He served as the assistant director of robotics and cyber physical systems at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
Dr. Kumar headed this lab from 1998-2004; he′s now the Deputy Dean for Education in the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, where he continues his work in robotics, blending computer science and mechanical engineering to create the next generation of robotic wonders.
Dr. Kumar received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from The Ohio State University in 1985 and 1987 respectively. He has been on the Faculty in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics with a secondary appointment in the Department of Computer and Information Science at the University of Pennsylvania since 1987.
Engineering mastermind, Vijay Kumar demonstrates the stunning abilities of his cooperating “swarm” of small flying robots and how they are being utilized to increase agricultural yields. He explains that his lab’s early robot models faced limitations due to their weight: they needed high levels of energy and couldn’t be used for tasks that required extensive periods of flight.
“So we asked ourselves a question: what consumer product can you buy in an electronics store that is inexpensive, that's lightweight, that has sensing onboard and computation?” he narrates. “And we invented the flying phone.” Dr. Kumar introduces his team’s creation, a flying robot that has been built from a regular market Samsung Galaxy and is piloted using an app.
With over 8 million views on Youtube of his flying swarms of nano quadrotors, Dr. Kumar and his presentations add excitement to any event. A two-time TED Talk presenter, he discusses ways in which robotics and automated systems have changed the way humans interact with the world around us, and/or ways in which current areas of research might be expected to affect transformation in the future. Dr. Kumar is a popular speaker for audiences with backgrounds in engineering, industrial design, defense, and technology. He has presented at numerous international conferences and academic institutions.
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