Dr. Rodney Brooks is the CTO and Co-Founder of Robust AI. Prior to that, he was the Founder, Chairman, and CTO of Rethink Robotics. He is also a Founder, former Board Member, and former CTO of iRobot Corp. Additionally, Dr. Brooks is the former Director of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and then the MIT Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). He received degrees in pure mathematics from the Flinders University of South Australia and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford University in 1981.
He held research positions at Carnegie Mellon University and MIT, and a faculty position at Stanford before joining MIT in 1984. Dr. Brooks’ publications include model-based computer vision, path planning, uncertainty analysis, robot assembly, active vision, micro-actuators, planetary exploration, representation, artificial life, and more. He is the recipient of numerous and prestigious awards, including the 2023 IEEE Founders Medal, the Computers and Thought Award at the 1991 IJCAI (International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence). In 2008 he won the IEEE Inaba Technical Award for Innovation Leading to Production. In 2014 he won the Robotics Industry Association’s Engelberger Robotics Award for Leadership.