2026 Robotics Summit, “The Next 25 Years of Robotics”

*This will be a special event by invitation only. Registration is required. An RSVP will be sent via email.

The summit will feature panel discussions from industry executives, founders, investors, and GRASP's own leading faculty. The talks will be centered around core themes connected to the future of robotics, networking events, and meetings to foster connections and collaborations among attendees, as well as demonstrations and expositions showcasing the cutting edge of robotics research at the GRASP Lab.

Speakers: 
Pulkit Agrawal – Associate Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Co-Founder, Eka Robotics
Vivan Amin – Director of Research Incubations & Technical PM, Microsoft Research
Charlie Andersen – CEO, Burro
Manmohan Chandraker – Professor, University California San Diego; Department Head, NEC Laboratories America
Henrik Christensen – Distinguished Professor, University California San Diego; Faculty Member, TILOS
Vivian Chu – Co-founder, Diligent Robotics
Anthony Cowley – Staff Engineer, Serve Robotics
Dieter Fox – Professor, University of Washington; Senior Research Director, Allen Institute for AI
Kris Hauser – Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Head of Robotic Intelligence, Samsung Research America
Eric Krotkov – President, EK Consulting AI
Giuseppe Loianno – Associate Professor, University of California, Berkeley
Jason Ma – Co-Founder, DYNA
Samuel Reeves – Founder & CEO, FORT Robotics
Al Rizzi – CTO, The RAI Institute
Vikas Sindhwani – Research Scientist, Google DeepMind
John Spletzer – VP of Robotics, Seegrid
Peter Tu – Distinguished Technical Fellow, GE Aerospace Research
Parris Wellman – Vice President, Engineering & Robotics at Amazon Robotics

Schedule:
8:30 AM – Check-In & Light Breakfast
9:00 AM – Welcome & Intro
9:30 AM – The New R&D Lifecycle (Panelists: Henrik Christensen, Kris Hauser, Eric Krotkov, Giuseppe Loianno, John Spletzer; Moderator: Dr. Ani Hsieh) 
10:30 AM – The Foundation Model Era In Robotics (Panelists: Manmohan Chandraker, Dieter Fox, Jason Ma, Vikas Sindhwani; Moderator: Dr. Eric Eaton)
11:30 AM - Spotlight Talks (Speakers: Charlie Andersen, Jason Ma, Samuel Reeves, Parris Wellman)
12:10 PM – Lunch
1:30 PM – Robotics for Good (Panelists: Vivan Amin, Charlie Andersen, Vivian Chu, Anthony Cowley, Samuel Reeves; Moderator: Dr. Rachel Holladay)
2:30 PM – Poster and Demo Session (Amy Gutmann Hall 105 A&B)
4:00 PM – The Hardware Bottleneck (Panelists: Pulkit Agrawal, Al Rizzi, Peter Tu, Parris Wellman; Moderator: Dr. Michael Posa)
5:00 PM – Spotlight Talk (Kris Hauser)
5:30 PM – Closing Comments

Please find the most updated information HERE.