Ken Goldberg

Award-winning Roboticist, Filmmaker, and UC Berkeley Engineering Professor Ken Goldberg is a popular public speaker who combines compelling images and videos in dynamic presentations on emerging AI and Robotics technologies, sharing insights about what isn’t new, what is new, and how we can prepare for the future.

Goldberg, who holds the William S. Floyd Distinguished Chair in Engineering at UC Berkeley, trains the next generation of researchers and entrepreneurs in his research lab. He has published over 300 papers, three books, and holds 9 US Patents that have been cited in over 15,000 publications. Goldberg is the Chief Scientist at Ambi Robotics and is on the advisory board of the RoboGlobal ETF.

He is a pioneer in technology and artistic visual expression, bridging the “Two Cultures” of Art and Science. With unique skills in communication and creative problem solving, invention, and thinking on the edge, Goldberg has presented over 600 keynote and invited lectures to audiences around the world at events such as the World Economic Forum, Aspen Ideas Festival, Amazon re:MARS, Google Zeitgeist, and TEDx.

Goldberg and his students pioneer research in robot grasping, motion, and design for applications ranging from surgery to manufacturing to home automation to precision agriculture. His projects like "TeleGarden" and "AlphaGarden" involve public interaction with robotic systems in garden settings. His artwork has appeared in 70 exhibits, including the Whitney Biennial, and he developed the first provably complete algorithm for part feeding and the first robot on the Internet. Goldberg served as Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering (T-ASE), Co-Founder of the Berkeley Center for New Media (BCNM), Hybrid Wisdom Labs, the Moxie Film Studio, the African Robotics Network (AFRON), and Founding Director of UC Berkeley's Art, Technology, and Culture Lecture Series. Goldberg’s projects are regularly featured on television, radio, and in publications such as the New York Times, The Atlantic, MIT Tech Review, BBC, Fast Company, der Spiegel, and Rolling Stone.

Goldberg was awarded the NSF Presidential Faculty Fellowship from President Bill Clinton in 1995 and elected IEEE Fellow in 2005. His talks also cover the cultural and existential implications of AI and robotics, drawing on historical and contemporary art and literature, which underscore his reputation as a thought leader in blending technology and creative fields.