Guest
Speakers

William Knoke, Founder and President, Harvard Capital Group. Author and lecturer, an internationally recognized expert on the 21st century.  He is  a graduate of both Stanford University and Harvard Business School.  Mr. Knoke is the author of the international bestseller Bold New World:  The Essential Road Map to the 21st Century, which is focused on the future business and social structures just unfolding, and is now available in ten languages.

Tom Furness, Founding Director, Human Interface Technology Lab and a professor at the University of Washington. Prior to joining the University of Washington, Dr. Furness served as the chief of the Visual Display Systems Branch, Human Engineering Division of the Armstrong Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory (USAF), Wright-Patterson AFB, OH. While in this position, Dr. Furness developed and evaluated visually coupled systems and virtual interface concepts to improve the communication of information and control functions between the pilot and advanced cockpits. In 1986 he organized the Super Cockpit program for the Air Force and served as the program director until leaving for the University of Washington. Dr. Furness has received the Air Force Systems Command Scientific Achievement Award and the Air Force Meritorious Civilian Service Award.

John Evans, Chief, Intelligent Systems Division (ISD), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), is known for his technical and managerial accomplishments in automation and robotics. He started the Automation Technology Program at NIST in the 1970s to develop standards and technology for computer-based machine systems.

From 1978 until 1981, he served as Vice President, Engineering and Operations, of Gerber Systems Technology, a subsidiary of the Gerber Scientific Instrument Company, dealing with a CAD/CAM product line. During the three fiscal years that Dr. Evans was there, sales rose from $4 million to $17.5 million.

Dr. Evans subsequently found Nova Robotics to develop industrial robots and co-founded Transitions Research to develop service robots. Nova Robotics was known for innovative software that allowed generative program development for low-volume batch manufacturing, and Transitions Research, later renamed HelpMate Robotics, achieved a world leadership position in indoor mobile robot navigation technology for floor cleaning and for materials transport in hospitals.

He returned to NIST in 1998 to lead the Intelligent Systems Division. ISD is engaged in developing open architecture standards for machine tools, robots, and metrology equipment and in carrying out research in intelligent machine systems that will have significant impact on manufacturing productivity in the future. ISD also develops architectures and controls for mobile autonomous systems for military applications, highway safety, and manufacturing.

Dr. Evans received his bachelor's in physics from Yale University and his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Colorado. He has published more than 50 papers in robotics and automation, has eight patents, and has been a member of several professional societies.

Bob Culver

Prior to this appointment, he served as Policy & Business Strategy Manager, Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV) at Ford. Mr. Culver joined Ford in 1968 as a quality control engineer in the Climate Control Division and held several positions in that division leading to principal engineer in 1977. Following this initial assignment, he served as a staff planning associate on the Engineering and Research staff and led the formation of the company’s Corporate Technical Information System. In 1989 he was appointed project manager in Manufacturing Strategy and Planning and became planning manager in the Ford Research Laboratory in 1992.

Mr. Culver received a bachelor’s in chemical engineering and a master’s in business administration from the University of Michigan.

Before founding Zyvex in 1997, Mr. Von Ehr was the founder, president, chairman and CEO of Altsys Corporation. Von Ehr's team spent ten years developing several major products, including FreeHand and Fontographer, the first commercially available PostScript drawing program. The company products achieved total worldwide sales of over $100 million. Altsys was sold to Macromedia in 1995.

He is co-founder of the Feynman Grand Prize, a $250,000 prize for a particular embodiment of nanotechnology. He manages the Von Ehr Foundation, a private charitable foundation he established in 1999. He also has several venture capital investments in other companies.

Mr. Von Ehr has a master of science in mathematical science from the University of Texas at Dallas, and a bachelor of science degree in computer science from Michigan State University.

He has held positions as: Program Director for Robotics and Machine Intelligence with the National Science Foundation; Professor, School of Information Technology and Engineering at George Mason University; and Head of Systems Research, Long Range Research Division, Exxon Corporation. He is a past vice-president of the IEEE Society for Robotics and Automation and Program Chair of the 1994 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. His research interests are in distributed automation and microsystems engineering.

Dr. Stephanou received his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Purdue University.