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The Massachusetts Know-how Collaborative (MassTech) has launched an initiative to spice up the robotics sector throughout the state, an effort funded via $5 million in funding. The brand new division, established throughout the Innovation Institute at MassTech, will assist catalyze a complete statewide cluster growth effort for robotics that can give attention to enlargement of analysis and growth (R&D), testing, commercialization, and workforce growth.
The division will likely be led by the brand new director of the Division of Robotics, Peter Haas, who involves MassTech from the personal sector, the place he was the CEO of Avendly, the restaurant robotics firm. Previous to his startup work, Haas served because the analysis director for pc imaginative and prescient AI software program at IDC and the affiliate director of Brown College’s Humanity Centered Robotics Initiative. As a frontrunner within the robotics area, he has spoken at The Economist’s World Forward Gala and DHL Robotics Days, plus was on the qualifying groups for each the AI and robotic Avatar X-PRIZE competitions.
“This new robotics division will assist Massachusetts craft an progressive wave of robotics applied sciences that can solidify our international management on this subject,” mentioned financial growth secretary Yvonne Hao. “We’re dedicated to equipping our college students and workforce with the correct instruments to check future developments as they create autonomous merchandise that can play a pivotal function in shaping the business’s future. Peter Haas has the information and experience wanted to make sure that we keep forward of the competitors.”
“Robotics extends past Boston and Cambridge; it’s a statewide business in Massachusetts, with cohorts of robotics corporations clustered in Central Massachusetts and North of Boston, in addition to the marine-focused autonomy startups clustered throughout Cape Cod and the South Coast,” mentioned Carolyn Kirk, government director of the MassTech Collaborative. “Peter’s multifaceted experience in robotics, each as a technologist, college chief, and startup government, make this a significant addition to our MassTech staff. His profession expertise will make him a pure associate for our present stakeholders throughout the Massachusetts robotics ecosystem. He’s the suitable individual to assist us design and launch game-changing packages that assist analysis, workforce, and ecosystem growth and can assist us preserve our international management in robotics and autonomy.”
3 keys to rising Massachusetts robotics ecosystem
The brand new Robotics Division will design packages to deal with three key focus areas:
Ecosystem Growth: Applications to strengthen connections between stakeholders to develop and additional form state’s profile as a worldwide chief in robotics
Know-how Commercialization: Goal to offer startup assist providers, entry to assets, and skilled mentorship to early-stage robotics corporations
Workforce Growth: Efforts to deal with business’s want for middle-skill staff skilled to work with robotic programs and increase entry to careers in robotics, notably for populations which have confronted underrepresentation within the tech and innovation economic system
“The Robotics cluster in Massachusetts is main the best way amongst robotics clusters throughout the nation. It’s a powerhouse in warehouse and logistics robotics, and has a density of distinctive educational packages that’s unparalleled, main the US in per capita robotics patents,” mentioned Haas. “It additionally has a variety of sectors represented that’s distinctive among the many robotics clusters, from undersea to humanoid and shopper to protection. If you wish to design or construct robots, few locations can match the expertise pool the exists within the Bay State. This funding offers MassTech the chance to construct on a tremendous basis to make Massachusetts a famend international vacation spot for robotics innovation.”
MassRobotics Accelerator
The primary program funded underneath the brand new initiative is the brand new accelerator program launched in early November 2023 by Boston-based MassRobotics, the “world’s main international impartial robotics innovation hub.” The inaugural MassRobotics Accelerator powered by MassTech will assist 10 robotics corporations by offering “programming, particular person mentorship, and immersion within the world-class robotics community” that exists throughout Massachusetts, together with the robotics and autonomy startups housed at MassRobotics’ headquarters in Boston’s Seaport. The primary accelerator cohort, which will likely be introduced in early 2024, will take part in a 13-week program that can present direct mentorship, entry to expertise and enterprise assets within the area, and an funding of $100,000 in non-dilutive funding to spice up their improvements.
“The funding for a robotics division inside Mass Tech Collaborative will likely be impactful to the rising robotics business right here throughout the Commonwealth,” mentioned Tom Ryden, government director MassRobotics. “The division will likely be in a singular place to spotlight the wide selection of efforts and assets Massachusetts has to make it the premier place to start out and develop robotics and automation corporations.”
The MassRobotics Accelerator will culminate in a Demo Day on the Robotics Summit & Expo on Might 2, 2024. Collaborating startups can have the chance to pitch their corporations to buyers, business leaders, and the broader tech group. MassRobotics is a strategic associate of the Robotics Summit & Expo, which is produced by The Robotic Report and father or mother firm WTWH Media.
“I’m actually excited to listen to about MassRobotics’ new non-dilutive accelerator program funded by the Massachusetts Know-how Collaborative,” mentioned Peter Howard, CEO of RealTime Robotics, headquartered in Boston. “Each MassRobotics and the Collaborative have extremely skilled and insightful robotics entrepreneurs, able to each selecting nice applied sciences, and nurturing nice groups. Realtime Robotics had the nice fortune to land at MassRobotics shortly after each they and we shaped. They have been unbelievable companions in serving to us construct our enterprise and make the suitable connections. They’ve grown right into a regional, nationwide, and now internationally famend robotics incubator. The Collaborative’s funding is being put in nice arms that can guarantee nice issues come to life with it.”
The newly launched robotics initiative builds upon MassTech’s assist and funding within the state’s robotics sector over the past decade-plus, together with over $28 million in awards advance the robotics sector in Massachusetts. Earlier investments embody a multi-year dedication to MassRobotics’ Jumpstart Fellowship program, which gives coaching alternatives for various highschool ladies to achieve a foothold within the robotics business, in addition to bigger investments in robotics testbeds statewide.
Different focus areas for Innovation Institute at MassTech
The Innovation Institute at MassTech has made a number of main investments in robotics infrastructure and expertise growth via its Collaborative Analysis & Growth Matching Grant Program and Know-how and Innovation Ecosystem grant packages, together with:
- A $2 million grant to Worcester Polytechnic Institute for New Autonomous Methods Lab, a testing floor for progressive autonomous applied sciences which are advancing future capabilities within the automotive, transportation, healthcare, robotics, and automation and manufacturing sectors
- A $4.4 million investment in Boston College’s Robotics and Autonomous Methods Instructing and Innovation Heart (RASTIC), a three-year, $8.78 million challenge managed by BU in collaboration with MassRobotics and 6 business companions
- A grant of $2 million to assist the creation of BlueTech OCEAN (Open Collaborative Experimentation and Acceleration Community) at MITRE in Bedford, a two-year challenge that supported the latest launch of a world-class take a look at tank for marine robotics and a knowledge sharing collaboration
- Over $3 million in assist for a research center led by Harvard and BU centered on assistive robotics and wearable applied sciences, to spur the event of rehabilitation, diagnostic, and assistive gadgets which are extra light-weight, reasonably priced, and linked, instruments designed to assist folks with neuro-motor impairments.
MassTech’s new robotics division will strategically deploy funding with the goal of boosting the robotics ecosystem’s affect on the state’s tech and innovation economic system, as effectively with industries with robust regional significance, together with superior manufacturing, healthcare, local weather tech, and protection. The capacities developed via this initiative are supposed to spice up the state’s aggressive benefit and spur job development, to assist tackle growing competitors from areas globally.
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