HARDWIRED // Vol. 01 with Josef Chen

​HARDWIRED is a new meetup series by the TU Wien Robotics Club for anyone at the intersection of hardware and intelligence. Robotics, embedded systems, agentic AI, or anything where bits meet atoms.

​Made possible by the Hans(wo)men Group.
Hosted by the Home of InnoVation.

​Every edition brings in one builder to share real lessons from real projects, followed by an open session where you can bring your own builds, ask for feedback, find collaborators, or just hang out with people who know what a tolerance stack-up is.

​Vol. 01 features Josef Chen, founder of Kaikaku, a London-based startup building robot-operated restaurants from the ground up. They're not retrofitting existing kitchens with off-the-shelf robots. They're engineering the entire system from scratch: custom hardware, modular stations, AI-driven processes. They opened the UK's first robot-powered restaurant and develop everything in-house in what they call a "living lab." Josef grew up in his parents' Chinese restaurant in Austria, founded his first startup at 17, and recently made the Forbes 30 under 30 list.

​He'll talk about their hardware development process and anything you'd like to ask him.

​After the keynote there's an open floor. If you're working on something, bring it. No slides, no deck, no prep needed. Just stand up, show what you've got, and get feedback from the room. Whether it's a half-soldered PCB, a CAD model on your laptop, or a 3D-printed part that doesn't fit yet.

​The rest of the time is co-working. Work on your own build, find collaborators, or just talk shop.

​This isn't a conference. There's no dress code, no agenda that runs until 9pm. Come when you can, stay as long as you want.

​Limited to 40 spots.