Abstract:

The talk will revisit my career in manipulation research, focusing on projects that might offer some useful lessons for others. We will start with my beginnings at the MIT AI Lab and my MS thesis, which is still my most cited work, then continue with my arrival at CMU, a discussion with Allen Newell, an exercise to envision a coherent research program, and how that led to a second and third childhood. The talk will conclude with some discussion of lessons learned.

Bio:

Matt has spent 50 years conducting research in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, starting as a student in the MIT AI Lab where he earned the BS, MS, and PhD degrees. He spent much of his career at CMU’s Robotics Institute, where he was the founder and co-director of the Manipulation Laboratory, and for ten years served as the Director of the Robotics Institute. Matt’s group studied the basic physics governing grasping and manipulation, and demonstrated that sophisticated grasping and manipulation can be produced by the simple and robust grippers used in industrial automation.

Mason is a Fellow of the AAAI, AAAS, ACM, and IEEE, and a winner of the IEEE R&A Society’s Pioneer Award, and the IEEE Technical Field Award in Robotics and Automation (the R&A Prize).

Matt now focuses his attention on logistics and warehouse robotics, helping to produce industry-leading solutions at Berkshire Grey.