IRIM’s Robotics Days for Industry 2026 | The Future of Physical AI: Academic and Industry

IRIM will host a two-day Industry event, The Future of Physical AI: Academic and Industry, on Wednesday and Thursday, December 2-3, 2026, at the Klaus Advanced Computing Building (Room 1116), located at 266 Ferst Drive, Atlanta, GA 30332.

To ensure we have enough food for everyone, each attendee must register in advance.

Parking is available nearby in Visitor Area 5, State St. NW, Atlanta, GA 30332. Please bring your parking ticket with you for validation. Use this address for GPS: State St. NW., Atlanta, GA 30332

There is no cost to attend this event.

If you would like more information on our program, including how to join, please visit our webpage.

Registration closes Friday, November 27, 2026

Event Overview (Tentative)

December 2, 2026 (Klaus 1116, 266 Ferst Drive)

8:30 a.m. - 9:00 a.m.   Registration (continental breakfast)
9:00 a.m. - 9:15 a.m.   Welcome & Overview (Greg Sawicki)

9:15 a.m. - 10:45 a.m  Research and Industry Presentations:
Discussions will focus on emerging research directions, opportunities for collaboration, funding and proposal development, technology transfer, workforce development efforts, and industry engagement strategies.

•    Sam Coogan – Safety for Physical AI

•    Lu Gan - Physical AI in Unstructured Environments

•    Dennis Siedlak, Slip Robotics - Physical AI in Industry

10:45 a.m  – 11:00 a.m. Break
11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.  Keynote: Yashraj "Yash" Narang, NVIDIA
12:15 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.    Networking Lunch   

1:30 - 2:15   Has AI Solved Industrial Robotics Discussion

•    Animesh Garg - Has AI Solved Industrial Robotics?

•    Stephen Balakirsky - GTRI

•    Kevin DeMarco - RIF Robotics - Does Physical AI Work in real world?
 

2:15 p.m. - 3:00 p.m  Has AI Solved Robotics?
Foundation models have made tremendous progress in improving robot capabilities, generalizing to new environments and solving some tasks zero-shot. Will learned models solve robotics in the manufacturing space in the near future. In this panel, academics and industry representatives will debate the future of AI and robotics.

Moderator: Gary McMurray
Panelists

•    Animesh Garg

•    Stephen Balakirsky

•    Kevin DeMarco
 

3:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.  Poster Session (*Graduate Student Only)

December 3, 2026 (Klaus Atrium, 266 Ferst Drive)

8:30 a.m. - 9:00 a.m.   Registration
9:00 a.m. - 9:30 a.m.   Welcome & Overview
9:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. Industry & Student Mixer (Speed Networking)