William L. "Red" Whittaker
Dr. William L. "Red" Whittaker is the Fredkin Professor of Robotics, Director of the Field Robotics Center, and founder of the National Robotics Engineering Consortium, all at Carnegie Mellon University. He is also the Chief Scientist of RedZone Robotics.

He has an extensive record of successful developments of robots for craft, labor and hazardous duty. Examples include robots in field environments such as mines, work sites and natural terrain. Dr. Whittaker's portfolio includes the development of computer architectures for controlling mobile robots; modeling and planning for non-repetitive tasks; complex problems of objective sensing in random and dynamic environments; and integration of complete field robot systems.

Steve Squyres, Ph.D
Keynote: Roving Mars: Spirit, Opportunity and the Exploration of the Red Planet
In January 2004, the twin robotic explorers Spirit and Opportunity landed on Mars. Expected to last for 90 days, the two rovers have now been exploring the Martian surface for more than three years. Their objective is to search for evidence of past water on Mars, and to determine if Mars ever had conditions that would have been suitable for life. 

To develop Spirit and Opportunity, a team of more than 4,000 highly motivated engineers and scientists overcame a host of technical challenges. The challenges were multiplied by an extraordinarily tight schedule that was driven by the motions of the planets. This talk provides an up-to-date summary of the missions of Spirit and Opportunity, from their initial conception through their development, launch, landing, and operations on the surface of Mars.