The fourth Kelly Distinguished Lecturer, Raffaello D’Andrea, will present “Preparing for the Coming Machine Revolution” on Wednesday, November 8, from 3:00–4:00 p.m in the Bill Moore Student Success Center, Clary Theatre. A reception will immediately follow the event.

D’Andrea is a professor of dynamic systems and control at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, where his research redefines the capabilities of autonomous systems.

Bio

Spanning academics, business, and the arts, Raffaello D’Andrea’s career is built on his ability to bridge theory and practice. At the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, his research redefines the capabilities of autonomous systems. D’Andrea is a co-founder of Kiva Systems (acquired by Amazon in 2012, and now operating as Amazon Robotics), a robotics and logistics company that develops and deploys intelligent automated warehouse systems, with over 100,000 autonomous mobile robots deployed in Amazon warehouses alone.

D’Andrea was the faculty advisor and system architect of the Cornell Robot Soccer Team, four-time world champions at the international RoboCup competition. With his startup, Verity Studios, he recently created the flying machine design and choreography for Cirque du Soleil’s Paramour on Broadway, Zhang Yimou’s 2047 Apologue, and Metallica’s WorldWired tour. 

Additionally, D’Andrea is a new media artist with exhibitions at various international venues, including the Venice Biennale, the FRAC Centre and the National Gallery of Canada. Other creations and projects include the Flying Machine Arena, the Distributed Flight Array, the Balancing Cube, Cubli, Flight Assembled Architecture, the Blind Juggler, the Robotic Chair, and RoboEarth.

D’Andrea’s TED talks, viewed more than 10 million times, have inspired a generation to pursue engineering, robotics, and computer science.