David Hanson Ph.D. built a worldwide reputation for inventing the world’s most human-like, empathetic, intelligent character robots, inspiring massive media coverage and public acclaim. To accomplish this, Hanson integrated figurative arts with science and engineering, and invented novel skin materials, facial expression mechanisms, and intelligent software to animate the robots in face to face interactions with people.
Dr Hanson is the creator of Sophia, Hanson Robotics’ latest human-like robot. She is a personification of our dreams for the future of AI, as well as a framework for advanced AI and robotics research, and an agent for exploring human-robot experience in service and entertainment applications. She has become a much-sought-after media personality, helping to advocate for AI research and the role of robotics and AI in people’s lives. She has appeared on CBS 60 Minutes with Charlie Rose, the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Good Morning Britain, and has been a keynote speaker and panel member at some of the world’s most prestigious conferences. She has also addressed members of the UN, ITU, and NATO. Sophia has also received the title of Innovation Champion for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to promote sustainable development with the use of technology and innova- tion in developing countries and named the new ambassador and future AI Tutor for iTutorGroup, the premier online education platform and largest English-language learning institution in the world. She was also named the 2018 Gold Edison AwardTM winner in Robotics.
Dr Hanson started as a Walt Disney Imagineer, working as both a sculptor and a technical consultant in robotics. As a researcher, he published dozens of papers in materials science, artificial intelligence, cognitive science, and robotics journals — including SPIE, IEEE, the International Journal of Cognitive Science, IROS, AAAI, AI magazine and more. He wrote two books including “Humanizing Robots” and received several patents. Dr. Hanson was featured in the New York Times, Popular Science, Scientific American, WIRED, BBC and CNN. He also received earned awards from NASA, NSF, Tech Titans’ Innovator of the Year, RISD, Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial, and the 2005 AAAI first place prize for open interaction of an AI system.
