Physical AI Builders Night
Come hang out with people who love hardware, build hardware, and invest in hardware. Brought to you by RiseLink, informal, and Agora.
Panel + Demo Night!
We're bringing together a fun group of physical AI builders in SF for a panel & demo night! Panelists include:
Jim Marggraff: Serial entrepreneur, inventor, and MIT-trained engineer building technologies for learning, play, and human connection shipping hundreds of millions of devices globally
Pengfei Zhang: CEO of a leading fabless semiconductor company specializing in connectivity chips and edge AI.
Rishabh Aggarwal: Robotics and Physical AI engineer building general-purpose robot platforms for reliable working fleets.
William Gao: Founder building AI wearables that bring personal agents into the physical world.
Mahek Parvez: Thermal tech innovator and a tech content creator bringing hardware developments to engineering enthusiasts.
Sadri Dridi: Co-founder and CTO of an AI sportswear startup using AI to optimize athlete performance and predict injury risk.
Moderated by Diana Zhu: Builder of playful devices for learning, productivity, and health.
And we will talk everything hardware building - trends in physical AI, the real challenges each faces from prototype to production.
At the second half of the event, we will feature 3 teams developing super fun physical AI devices.
📢 Want to demo?
RSVP and Answer the questions, then we'll choose 3-5 projects to showcase.
Agenda
5:30 – 6:30pm - Arrival, Food, & hanging out
6:30 – 7pm - Panel discussion - Physical AI Hot Takes
7 - 7:45pm - Demo Showcases and Q&A!
7-45pm - 8:30pm - Wrap up and More networking
Who should come
Enthusiasts and Builders of physical AI
Want to join a panel or just have something to say?
If you've built physical AI hardware and want to share your experience on this panel or a future event, reach out — we'd love to have you. Email diana@riselink.ai.
About the hosts
RiseLink Semiconductor company building WiFi chips for AI-connected devices. RiseLink works with hardware builders from prototype to production and is growing one of the first developer ecosystems for physical AI. riselink.ai
informal A freelance collective for the most talented independent professionals in hardware — from product development to go-to-market. informal fund is an angel syndicate connecting hardware-friendly capital with the founders building it.
Agora As a global leader in Real-Time Engagement (RTE) redefining Human-AI (H2AI) and Human-Human (H2H) interactions, Agora provides developers with simple, flexible, and powerful APIs and no-code deployment tools to rapidly embed real-time conversational AI, voice, video, interactive live streaming, and chat into applications and IoT devices.
Studio 45 - informal spaces SF is a physical space for entrepreneurs and teams building hardware in SF. Located in Mission/Bernal Area, the studio gathers the community, resources, space, and tools needed to build a business making physical products. Check out other informal spaces around the Bay Area!