Compute Midwest 2014: Get Inspired With iRobot Founder, IBM Watson & More!
Chris Kemp – Founder, Nebula – Speaks At Compute Midwest 2013
We’re extremely excited to announce the Compute Midwest 2014 conference, slated for November 13th (+ hackathon Nov 15th-16th)!
Watch the inspiring, 1 minute Compute Midwest Conference video above!
What Is Compute Midwest?
As seen in some of the world’s top tech publications like Forbes, Fast Company and The Next Web, Compute Midwest is a 2 day convergence of tech: new people, new ideas and new frontiers in Kansas City.
With 1 conference, amazing speakers, a hackathon and more, Compute Midwest provides a fantastic opportunity to connect you with 500+ forward thinking tech minds.
Engage in conversation about the future, exchange/build new ideas and gather several takeaways that can move your career or company forward!
Andrew Hessel – Autodesk’s Futurist – Speaks At Compute Midwest 2013
Imagine The Future
Kauffman Center For Performing Arts – Ranked 3rd Most Beautiful Concert Hall In The World
Get inspired & learn about what’s next in technology – straight from tech leaders, startup founders & visionaries.
Hear the stories of innovators who are building companies that change our life, our work & our business.
Who’s Speaking?
Rodney Brooks
Robotics Pioneer – Founder of iRobot & Rethink Robotics
As a pioneer in Robotics, Rodney is the founder of Rethink Robotics and co-founder of iRobot (makers of the Roomba vacuum).
Rodney was previoiusly on the faculty of MIT as the Panasonic Professor of Robotics, and was the director of MIT CSAIL, the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.
Peter Weijmarshausen
Co-Founder and CEO of Shapeways
Peter Weijmarshausen is Co-Founder and CEO of Shapeways, the leading marketplace and community for 3D printing.
Printing more than 2 million products to-date (with 100K new products added monthly), he’s made 3D printing accessible to all, empowering anyone to be a designer and turn an idea into a physical reality. He’s also collaborated with fashion powerhouses Neiman Marcus and Victoria’s Secret on 3D Printed clothing.
Rob High
CTO, IBM Watson & IBM Fellow
Rob High is IBM Fellow, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for Watson Solutions, IBM Software Group.
As a key member of the Watson Solutions Leadership team, Rob works collaboratively with the Watson engineering, research, and development teams across IBM to drive cognitive solutions to help clients resolve their more important problems.
Jane Poynter
CEO, World View Enterprises / Co-Founder Paragon Space Development Corporation
Ms. Poynter is currently Chief Executive Officer of World View Enterprises, Inc. which will be taking Voyagers to the edge of space.
She is co-founder of Paragon Space Development Corporation, which develops technologies for extreme environments (like outer space and under water). The firm has been named on Inc 500’s list of fastest growing companies for four years in a row.
She’s had experiments in her patented self-sustaining habitats flown on the International Space Station, the Russian Mir Space Station, and the U.S. Space Shuttle.
Jane is a member of the Biosphere 2, design team and a member of the original crew who lived inside the sealed, self-sustaining habitat for two years.
Poynter is also the developer of the crew and life-support systems for the Inspiration Mars free-return mission to Mars planned for launch in January 2018. The two person spaceflight mission was originally to be a private, nonprofit venture of 501 days duration which will allow a small human-carrying spacecraft to use the smallest possible amount of fuel to get it to Mars and back to Earth.
In 2009, she was awarded the Entrepreneur of the Year by the National Association for Female Executives.
Brian David Johnson
Chief Futurist, Intel
As a futurist at Intel Corporation, Brian’s develops an actionable 10 -15 year vision for the future of technology. He uses ethnographic field studies, technology research, trend data, and even science fiction to provide Intel with a pragmatic vision of consumers and computing. Brian has been pioneering development in artificial intelligence, robotics, and using science fiction as a design tool.
He speaks and writes extensively about future technologies in articles (The Wall Street Journal, Slate, IEEE Computer). He appears regularly on Bloomberg TV, PBS, FOX News, and the Discovery Channel and has been featured in Scientific American, The Technology Review, Forbes, INC, and Popular Science.
Aaron Grant
Co-Founder, Thalmic Labs
Aaron is Co-Founder of Thalmic Labs, a company building the future of wearable gesture control, known as Myo.
He has an extensive software engineering background, having spent time in Silicon Valley working for Zynga. His passion for software engineering has led him to create his own embedded microprocessor operating system.
Aaron graduated from the Mechatronics Engineering program at the University of Waterloo. Thalmic Labs has appeared in numerous top tier media outlets for their innovation, including the Wall Street Journal, Discovery Channel, Wired, TechCrunch & more.
Dan Kaufman
Director, Information Innovation Office @ DARPA
Mr. Dan Kaufman is the Director of the Information Innovation Office (I2O) at DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency).
He is responsible for identifying and creating promising new information technologies and developing DARPA programs to exploit these advances for the benefit of the DoD (Department Of Defense).
Prior to his current role, he served as the DARPA Defense Science Office (DSO) Program Manager for the RealWorld Program, a computer system designed to allow soldiers to rapidly create their own mission rehearsal scenarios in geo-specific terrain over a scalable and fully distributed network
Before joining DARPA/DSO, Mr. Kaufman has worked at Auratio Consulting, Kalisto Entertainment and served as Co-Chief Operating Officer at Dreamworks Interactive
Mr. Kaufman co-authored an 800 page textbook entitled: Corporate Partnering: Structuring and Negotiating Domestic and International Strategic Alliances. He has lectured at Harvard, MIT, Stanford, and U.C. Berkeley.
Vern Brownell
CEO, D-Wave
Vern Brownell is the CEO of D-Wave, a company that built the world’s first quantum computer.
He joined D-Wave from Egenera, a company he founded and at which he held various executive roles including CEO. Egenera was a pioneer of infrastructure virtualization and today is a global leader in converged infrastructure and cloud management software.
Prior to his tenure at Egenera, Mr. Brownell served as the Chief Technology Officer at Goldman Sachs.
He holds an MBA degree from Anna Maria College and a BEng. degree in Electrical Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology.
Create The Future: Nov 15th-16h
Create, learn & make new friends our Compute Midwest Hackathon!
Developers & designers: join us October November 15th & 16th for an epic 24 hour hackathon! Build awesome apps for a chance to win thousands of dollars in prizes!
Ticket Packages
We’re offering a few different ticket packages this year.
- Conference only – this gives you an all day pass for November 13th to hear our awesome speaker lineup. Includes breakfast and lunch.
- Conference + Hackathon – this gives developers and designers an all day pass to the conference on November 13th and the Hackathon on November 15th. Includes breakfast and lunch at the conference & meals provided during 24h hackathon.
- Hackathon Only – this gives developers and designers a pass to the Hackathon on November 15th.
- Sign up for our Newsletter get career tips, the hottest job postings and special event invites!
- Join us on Linkedin for lively debate and discussions
- Follow us on Twitter for real time news and interaction
- Like us on Facebook!
Need Help Convincing Your Boss or Company?
Here’s a company justification letter to help convince your boss to pay
Sponsors
Compute Midwest and other KCITP events are made possible by the support of the forward thinking companies you see on our Compute Midwest event site.
Interested in sponsoring? Get in touch!
Stay Connected
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