Benjamin Johnston

Benjamin Johnston is a highly accomplished and experienced social robotics researcher, educator and innovator. Currently, serving as Deputy Director of Australia's leading Social Robotics research laboratory, he also teaches cutting-edge classes on Entrepreneurship, the Craft of Software and Robotics at the University of Technology Sydney. He's a world champion in RoboCup@Home's social robotics league (SSPL) and designs compelling experiences with intelligent robots using a range of technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Commonsense Reasoning, Simulation and Formal Logic. His robots are designed to work with people, understand people, influence people and improve everyday lives. He has studied Graduate Certificate in Professional Accounting, Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science, and Bachelor of Information Technology (Honours), at University of Technology Sydney and The University of Queensland. Moreover, he has been a Visiting Scholar at the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford (d.school), a Data Mining Engineer/IT Manager at Genetraks, Java Software Developer at Trysoft (Software Services), and an Independent Contractor at Australian SMEs. He has many interests, including robotics, artificial intelligence, simulation, education, entrepreneurship, social robots, and software development.