Dr. Ross Mead has been an active participant in competition robotics since 2000, previously serving as a Botball competitor, game designer, and instructor. Since 2016, Dr. Mead has served on the KIPR Board of Directors.
Dr. Mead is the Founder and CEO of Semio, and the Executive Director of Semio Community. Semio is a for-profit Los Angeles-based robotics software startup defining the way in which people live, work, and play with robots in their everyday lives. Semio Community is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization facilitating community-driven robotics hardware, software, and studies to foster reproducible, replicable, and generalizable science within human-robot interaction (HRI).
Dr. Mead received his PhD and MS in Computer Science from the University of Southern California in 2015, and his BS in Computer Science from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville in 2007. His dissertation work focused on socially assistive robots, specifically, on the principled design and computational modeling of fundamental social behaviors (such as speech, gestures, eye gaze, social spacing, etc.) that serve as building blocks for autonomous face-to-face human-robot interactions. His research provides the foundations upon which Semio software is being built.
Dr. Mead also serves as the Vice President of Artificial Intelligence Los Angeles (AI LA), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that facilitates discussions surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) and its impact in the Greater Los Angeles (LA) community and beyond. In 2018, he co-founded the Social Robot Community Slack team to spark an international community around robotics and multimodal natural language technologies. Previously, Dr. Mead also served as a scientific and technical advisor to Disney (Big Hero 6), National Geographic (ROBOTS 3D IMAX), and Intel, among others, and was a contestant on Syfy’s Robot Combat League.
Sabri Sansoy is a robotics innovator and AI engineer with a career spanning aerospace, defense, entertainment, and education. A graduate of MIT (S.M. Aeronautics & Astronautics) and the University of New Mexico (B.S. Astrophysics), he brings a systems-level approach to designing intelligent machines that solve real-world problems.
Sabri leads the AI and robotics division at Brecourt Solutions, where his team is developing a groundbreaking AI system for detecting active weapon shooters using computer vision and behavioral recognition—a platform designed to enhance public safety in schools and urban environments. He is also co-founder of NewMexico.ai, a mission-driven company helping small businesses and industries adopt practical AI and robotics solutions.
His portfolio includes self-targeting aerial and ground-based robots for AI vs. Humans (Ridley Scott), AI-powered sanding robots for manufacturing, and an interactive color-shifting dress powered by IBM Watson for the Met Gala. He has competed on BattleBots with Team GhostRaptor, bringing hands-on robotics experience to global audiences.
Sabri’s work has been featured in WIRED, Santa Fe Reporter, and The Albuquerque Journal. He has presented at CES, VIVA Technology Paris, and the Fast Company Innovation Festival. Whether developing surveillance UAVs or building inspection bots for fusion reactors, Sabri is driven by a passion to inspire the next generation of roboticists.