A robotics showcase in Berkeley on Thursday will bring together some of the industry’s top minds across multiple generations of innovators with the Berkeley Robotics Innovation Showcase.
Students at Berkeley High School and University of California, Berkeley will make presentations and hold demos of their latest projects, along with researchers and professionals with startups in the fields of artificial intelligence and robotics.
The day is meant to showcase Berkeley’s innovation, highlight robotics career paths, and connect students directly with professionals and experts in the field. The event’s organizer, the Berkeley Gateway Accelerator, is a fellowship program run by the venture capital firm Future Frontier Capital that seeks to grow startup companies into viable businesses, according to its website.
The event’s sponsors include Bay City News, The Fung Institute for Engineering Leadership, Berkeley High School Robotics Club, Berkeley Public Schools Fund, and Nova Robotics and AI.
Ken Goldberg, a distinguished UC Berkeley engineering professor, will be the keynote speaker at the event, which will be held at Berkeley Gateway Accelerator headquarters in downtown Berkeley.
Goldberg is an author, artist and inventor who holds 10 patents, has written three books, and published 450 academic papers, according to Berkeley Gateway Accelerator.
The event, which requires limited advance registration, will be held from 1 to 4 p.m.
“This is a showcase, not a competition, a room full of people who love robotics at every stage of the journey, learning from each other, getting inspired, and making connections that span generations,” organizers said in a statement.
The showcase will feature six to eight presentations on three stages featuring pictures, slides and demo clips from teams’ first robots to established startup products. Presentations will be about 5 minutes long.
Teams presenting will include Team Berkelium — a student-run robotics program at Berkeley High School that participates in international competitions, according to organizers.
The team focuses on STEM education, immersive engineering experience, business skills, and actively promotes students often less represented in the field, including women, non-binary students and others, organizers said in a statement.
Also presenting will be Team Bearium, a junior varsity affiliate that focuses on coding, fabrication, and product design.