James McLurkin

James McLurkin is a self-described "maker extraordinaire" at his company Kid-in-the-Box Consulting. He is an expert in artificial intelligence and robotics engineering.

McLurkin was as a senior hardware engineer at Google. He was one of the leads on the Google "Coral" project, where he designed Artificial Intelligence hardware that enables users to create their own AI-driven projects. He was an adjunct professor in the Department of Computer Science at Rice University and was a former lead research scientist at iRobot.

He was the 2003 recipient of the Lemelson-MIT Student Prize for invention. He holds a S.B. in Electrical Engineering with a Minor in Mechanical Engineering from M.I.T., a M.S. in Electrical Engineering from University of California, Berkeley, and a S.M. and Ph.D. in Computer Science from M.I.T. His doctoral research focused on distributed algorithms for multi-robot systems, which is software that produces complex group behaviors from the interactions of many simple robots.

McLurkin's work and influence extend beyond the engineering and academic communities. He was recognized by Time magazine as one of five leading robotics engineers in their "Rise of the Machines" feature, and by Black Enterprise magazine as a "Best and Brightest Under 40." He has delivered lectures at prestigious institutions and companies, including the Smithsonian Museum, Harvard University, IBM, and Honda Research and Development. His presentations, such as "Dances with Robots," which includes live robot demonstrations, explore the use of swarms in robotics and aim to engage and educate audiences about the future of this technology.