After almost 6 years at Willow Garage, I have moved on. Its hard to find one word to describe my time at Willow - it was exciting, exhilarating, tumultuous and certainly a roller-coaster ride of a lifetime. Its a place where I met and worked with incredible people, had the fortune of finding the best student interns and contributed to an industry taking off. The end of my time at Willow was bittersweet - a feeling of a vision not yet fulfilled yet pride at what had been done.
The Robotics industry today seems to be at a crossroads, ready to take that next leap into the promised world where robots will play bigger roles in our daily lives, in no small part because of what Willow Garage was able to do. And yet, there is still a lot of work to be done for that promise to be fulfilled. I have watched and been a part of the growth of robotics in the Bay Area which has now become the premier destination for robotics-focused startups. Willow Garage itself spun out 8 of them. I will continue to do my part in this effort, building the next-generation of robotic systems at SRI International along with an incredibly talented group of robotics scientists and engineers in the Robotics program. Among other things, I will also continue leading new development there for the MoveIt! software platform. I can't wait to see what the next few years in Robotics will bring.
The Robotics industry today seems to be at a crossroads, ready to take that next leap into the promised world where robots will play bigger roles in our daily lives, in no small part because of what Willow Garage was able to do. And yet, there is still a lot of work to be done for that promise to be fulfilled. I have watched and been a part of the growth of robotics in the Bay Area which has now become the premier destination for robotics-focused startups. Willow Garage itself spun out 8 of them. I will continue to do my part in this effort, building the next-generation of robotic systems at SRI International along with an incredibly talented group of robotics scientists and engineers in the Robotics program. Among other things, I will also continue leading new development there for the MoveIt! software platform. I can't wait to see what the next few years in Robotics will bring.