Joining me today is Professor Sarath Kodagoda  is the Acting Director of the UTS Robotics Institute, President of the Australian Robotics & Automation Association (ARAA) and ambassador to the NSW Smart Sensing Network (NSSN). He was a visiting Associate Professor at Stanford University, the Deputy Director (Teaching & Research Integration) of the Centre for Autonomous Systems (CAS) and Coordinator of the Mechanical and Mechatronics programs at University of Technology Sydney (UTS). He is instrumental in the development of the Mechatronics courses at UTS and received 3 teaching awards including the prestegious UTS Medal for teaching & research integration and Australia wide OLT awards. He has over 20 years of experience in robotics, published over 150 papers, attracted over $6M industry grants and 5 research awards including state, national and international awards. He is a co-chair of the first Robotic Roadmap for Australia, which was launched in 2018. He supervised 12 PhD students for successful completions. He has been a keynote speaker, conference general chair, session chair, editorial board member, associated editor, member of program committees and reviewer of prestigious robotic conferences and journals. He has contributed to 20 media articles including ABC TV, The Australian and The Sydney Morning Herald.

His broad research interest is to develop robotic solutions for humans to safely and efficiently carry out dirty, dull and dangerous tasks. Robotics, sensor technology, sensor networks, data processing and decision making through machine learning are his research directions.

Contact Sarath at sarath.kodagoda@uts.edu.au