Illah Nourbakhsh

Professor of Robotics at Carnegie Mellon University

Pittsburgh Advisory Board Member

Illah R. Nourbakhsh is Professor of Robotics, Director of the Community Robotics, Education and Technology Empowerment (CREATE) lab and Associate Director for robotics faculty at Carnegie Mellon University. His research explores community-based robotics. The CREATE Lab’s researchers lead diverse projects, from scientific, citizen science and educational endeavours internationally to creative art and robotics fusion in middle school. The CREATE Lab’s programs have engaged more than 40,000 people globally, and the CREATE Satellite program is forging additional CREATE lab partners in new geographic zones. While on leave from Carnegie Mellon in 2004, Illah served as Robotics Group lead at NASA/Ames Research Center. Illah earned his bachelor’s, master’s and PhD in computer science at Stanford University and has been a faculty member of Carnegie Mellon since 1997. In 2009, the National Academy of Sciences named him a Kavli Fellow. In 2013 he was inducted into the June Harless West Virginia Hall of Fame. He is co-author of the second edition MIT Press textbook, Introduction to Autonomous Mobile Robots. He is author of the MIT Press book for general readership, Robot Futures. Most recently he published Parenting for Technology Futures, as an Amazon paperback. He is a trustee of the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation, a trustee of Winchester Thurston School, and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Environmental Health Project. He is also CEO and Chairman of Airviz, Inc., a company dedicated to empowering individuals regarding home air quality. He is a World Economic Forum Global Steward, a member of the Global Future Council on the Future of AI and Robotics, and the IEEE Global Initiative for the Ethical Considerations in the Design of Autonomous Systems, the Global Innovation Council of the Varkey Foundation and Senior Advisor to The Future Society, Harvard Kennedy School.