Amazon is reinventing the future of work. with robots that can feel, AI smart glasses for delivery drivers, and new safety-first systems that transform how millions of packages move every day. In this episode, we go behind the scenes at Amazon’s “Delivering the Future” event to explore how technology, robotics, and human-centered leadership are transforming work at massive scale.
BIOS:
Aaron Parness works as a Director of Applied Science in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence at Amazon. His teams in Seattle and Berlin build robotic work cells to increase delivery speed and reduce the cost of order fulfillment for Amazon customers. Specializing in high contact and high clutter applications, he has led advances in giving robots a sense of touch by incorporating force and torque sensors into the robots’ motion plans and control loops. From 2010 to 2019, Aaron worked at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he founded and led the Robotic Rapid Prototyping Laboratory specializing in grippers and wall climbing robots. He received his PhD from Stanford in 2009 advised by Mark Cutkosky; and earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering and BS in Creative Writing from MIT in 2004.
Beryl Tomay has been at Amazon for 20 years having joined in 2005 as a Software Development Engineer. She was part of the small team that launched the original Kindle device and remained in the Devices organization for the subsequent 8 years. She joined the nascent Last Mile organization, the logistics business that gets packages through the final steps on their way to customers’ doorsteps, in early 2014 as one of its first employees. Today, she is responsible for Amazon’s Last Mile delivery technology and businesses as well as Amazon’s customer delivery and returns experiences. Prior to Amazon, Beryl received her undergraduate degree in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of Waterloo in Canada. Beryl and her husband love going to Kraken hockey games, walking their dog Luna, and visiting new and diverse restaurants.
