Entrepreneurial Thursday Jazz Night Invitation

Please join us on THURSDAY, MAY 1st, from 5:30 PM - 8:00 PM, for an Entrepreneurial Thursday Jazz, Soul & Blues Happy Hour Show highlighting the Robotics Industry, featuring live music, networking and open-mike interviews between musical sets with the evening's Featured Sponsors at ROBOT JAZZ NIGHT - 1) Carnegie Mellon University (The First RoboCup American Open), 2) the Robotics Foundry, and 3) Pittsburgh Gateways Corporation. The FIRST 100 in attendance will receive FREE RAFFLE TICKETS to win two robots that sweep your floors while you watch (each a $750 value)!

FEATURED SPONSORS:

1. Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) - The Kick-Off of the First RoboCup Open at CMU (April 30 - May 4). The RoboCup Open is a sanctioned international competition in ROBOT SOCCER and a celebration of robots and robotics. The 4-day event includes robot soccer matches that will showcase the best and the brightest teams from the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and South America, including the world champion CMU team of soccer-playing dog robots. ASIMO, the celebrity robot from Honda, will perform daily on May 1st, 2nd and 3rd! CMU will demonstrate its most famous robots, including GRACE, Nursebot, Snakebot, the Millibots, the robot helicopter, robot mine mappers, and robots in medicine. The public is encouraged to attend Saturday, May 3rd, and Sunday, May 4th. Most events are free, and information is available at www.cmu.edu, www.ri.cmu.edu, and www.americanopen03.org. PLEASE JOIN US TO LEARN MORE ABOUT ROBOCUP AND TO MEET SELECTED ROBOTS AT DOWE'S!

Participating in an open-mike interview between musical sets from CMU are DR. MANUELA VELOSO (Co-Chair of RoboCup, responsible for bringing the event to CMU and for its sanctioning by the International RoboCup Federation; Professor, School of Computer Science; V.P. of International RoboCup Federation; pioneer of breakthrough research in artificial intelligence and major force in the development of international RoboCup competition); DR. CHUCK THORPE (Director of CMU's Robotics Institute in the School of Computer Science and a founder of the Institute's Master's Degree program; has worked on the development of outdoor robotic vehicles, focusing on computer vision, planning and architectures for these machines); and DR. JIM MORRIS (Dean of CMU School of Computer Science; goal of showcasing CMU as world leader in robotics and Pittsburgh as an American city reinventing itself through robotics and robot manufacturing by using RoboCup to begin the development of a robot sports arena and a world-class robot exhibit through a partnership with the Carnegie Science Center).

2. The Robotics Foundry - The Robotics Foundry is a non-profit organization that develops and directs various, interrelated economic development programs and initiatives intended to accelerate the growth of the emerging applied robotics industry, with the goal of establishing Western PA as the leading end-to-end center for the design, development, engineering, and manufacture of agile, autonomous products that incorporate various advanced robotics and related artificial intelligence technologies.

3. Pittsburgh Gateways Corporation - Pittsburgh Gateways Corporation has worked closely to assist with the start-up of the National Center for Defense Robotics and its successor organization, the Robotics Foundry, as a proven business accelerator with the mission of generating new business growth in the Pittsburgh region.

Participating in an open-mike interview between musical sets are BILL THOMASMEYER (President, Robotics Foundry), PATTI ROTE (VP, Robotics Foundry Alliance), and DR. BOB MEEDER (President, Pittsburgh GatewaysCorporation).

• PUMP (Pittsburgh Urban Magnet Project) - www.pump.org
• Innovation Works - www.innovationworks.org
• CommuniTech - www.mktgcommunications.com
• SplashMax/ Party Geek - www.splashmax.com
• Pyramid Consulting Group - www.pyramid-group.com
• Pittsburgh Venture Capital Association - www.the pvca.org
• The Optima Group - www.OptimaLLC.com
• KIBAN Corporation - www.KIBAN.com