Speakers

Professor Sethu Vijayakumar

Programme Director | Professor of Robotics
The Alan Turing Institute, London and The University of Edinburgh

Sethu Vijayakumar is the Professor of Robotics at the University of Edinburgh, UK and the Director of the Edinburgh Centre for Robotics.  He has pioneered the use of large-scale machine learning techniques in the real-time control of several iconic robotic platforms such as the SARCOS and the HONDA ASIMO humanoids, KUKA-LWR robot arm and iLIMB prosthetic hand. One of his landmark projects (2016) involves a collaboration with NASA Johnson Space Centre on the Valkyrie humanoid robot being prepared for unmanned robotic pre-deployment missions to Mars. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, a judge on BBC Robot Wars and winner of the 2015 Tam Dalyell Prize for excellence in engaging the public with science. Professor Vijayakumar helps shape and drive the national Robotics and Autonomous Systems (RAS) agenda in his recent role as the Programme Director for Artificial Intelligence (AI) at The Alan Turing Institute, the UK’s national institute for data science and AI.