Abstract
This talk discusses research, technology development, and real-world applications of autonomous systems in aerial and maritime missions, followed by best practices for academia to enhance the impact of collaborations with industry. In the first part of the talk, I describe the development and application of unconventional and hybrid convertible autonomous vehicle systems including designs towards attaining carbon neutrality. In the second part, I use lessons from prior collaborations with academia to discuss ingredients for effective industry-academia partnerships to drive progress in and beyond autonomous systems. I will break down the overall industry-academia collaboration cycle into logical stages and highlight steps academia might take to understand industry’s strategic interests, maximize common understanding, and increase the likelihood of transitioning to impactful applications. Both parts of the talk will highlight specific examples.
About the Speaker
Kingsley Fregene is the Director of Technology Integration at Lockheed Martin. In this role, he oversees practices for defining and executing a strategic portfolio of research and technology development efforts. Prior to his current role, he held other roles at Lockheed Martin and Honeywell including Chief Engineer for Applied Research, and Group Leader for Robotics & Intelligent Systems. Across his industry roles and academic collaborations, Kingsley has focused on developing and fielding systems that save lives and keep humans out of harm’s way. He is an IEEE Fellow and has served on the editorial boards of the IEEE Control Systems, and Robotics & Automation Societies. He was the recipient of the 2021 American Automatic Control Council’s Control Engineering Practice Award. His work has been featured in National Geographic: Engineering Inspirations from Nature, a video and workbook series for middle school students, and in the children’s books Tiny Robots (2015) and Mimic-Makers: Biomimicry Inventors Inspired by Nature (2021). He received his Ph.D. and M.A.Sc. from the University of Waterloo, Canada, and his B.Eng. with first class honors from the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Nigeria, all in Electrical & Computer Engineering.
Host: Professor Geir Dullerud