Speakers

Adam Jacoff is a robotics research engineer in the Intelligent Systems Division of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce.  He is leading an international effort to develop a suite of 50 standard test methods that objectively evaluate ground, aerial, and aquatic system capabilities. He has conducted more than 30 international robot competitions using these test methods as challenge tasks to guide innovation and measure progress (2000-present). He has conducted more than 100 robot exercises to refine and validate the test methods with emergency responders and robot manufacturers (2005-present). And he has conducted dozens of comprehensive robot evaluations using the test methods to quantify key capabilities guiding more than $200M of purchasing decisions for civilian and military organizations (2010-present). He is currently validating use of the test methods as repeatable practice tasks to focus training and measure remote operator/pilot proficiency in ways that can be compared over time and against regional or national averages to support credentialing (2015-present).