Researcher to Founder: Building from -1 to 0
South Park Commons is excited to host a panel discussion as part of CMU Startup Week on building from -1 to 0, making the transition from academia to startups, and the future of robotics.
Panelists include:
Damion Shelton is the Associate Vice President & Executive Director of Swartz Center, a serial entrepreneur and co-founder/chairman of Agility Robotics, the pioneer and leading provider of humanoid robots for warehouse and logistics work. He was CEO of Agility from 2015-2024, raising in excess of $200M over multiple funding rounds, and leading commercialization of one of the first humanoid robots to ever be sold for non-research use. In 2024, he stepped down as CEO to focus on public policy and engagement, dusting off his credentials in Philosophy of Science to contribute to the national dialog on robot ethics and the nature of work in a post-AI world.
Deva Ramanan is a Professor in the Robotics Institute at Carnegie-Mellon University and the former director of the CMU Center for Autonomous Vehicle Research. His research interests span computer vision, computer graphics, and machine learning. He was awarded the Longuet-Higgins Prize for fundamental contributions in computer vision in 2024 and 2018, was recognized for best paper finalist / honorable mention awards in ICCV 2021, ECCV 2020, and CVPR 2019.
Additionally, he was named a National Academy of Sciences Kavli Fellow in 2013, named one of Popular Science's Brilliant 10 researchers in 2012, was awarded the IEEE PAMI Young Researcher Award in 2012, and won the PASCAL VOC Lifetime Achievement Prize in 2010, and the David Marr Prize in 2009. His work is supported by NSF, ONR, DARPA, as well as industrial collaborations with Intel, Google, and Microsoft.
Howie Choset is the Kavčić–Moura Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University and a leading robotics educator, researcher, and entrepreneur. He has co-founded six startups spanning medical robotics, manufacturing, infrastructure, and autonomous systems, including Medrobotics, whose surgical robot has been used in more than 1,500 procedures. Recently, he led a team deploying snake robots for earthquake search and rescue in Venezuela and developed algorithms for a robot launched into space. This fall, Choset will serve as the general chair for IROS, the largest robotics conference to be held in the US this year. His broader mission is the democratization of robotics—making robotic capabilities accessible so anyone can accomplish tasks otherwise beyond their reach.
Moderated by SPC Partner Dylan Itzikowitz.
Agenda:
4pm: Doors Open
4:30pm-5:15pm: Panel Discussion
5:30pm: Mixer
About South Park Commons (SPC)
SPC is a technical community and venture fund dedicated to helping founders, researchers, and technologists figure out what to work on next—what we call the -1 to 0 stage of your career. We believe this is best accomplished in the most talent-dense community possible. Apply here.