Kevin Dowling, PhD is the Managing Director of the Robotics Factory and Hardware. He brings decades of leadership in robotics, hardware, and advanced engineering. Previously, he served as CEO of Kaarta, a company known for delivering world-class 3D mapping and localization solutions for people and robots. Before that, he was VP of Engineering at 4Moms, where he led a 50-person team developing innovative consumer products. Earlier in his career, Kevin was VP of R&D at MC10 in Cambridge, where he built and led the engineering team and helped bring the company’s high-performance, semiconductor-based stretchable electronics into real-world applications.
Kevin was Vice President of Strategy & Technology for Philips Color Kinetics, the pioneering inventor and leader of LED illumination. Kevin was a key member of the senior management team as CK transitioned through an IPO (2004) and $800M acquisition by Philips (2007). In addition to technical leadership he created and chaired the first committees to standardize the measurement and lifetime of LEDs, LED standards and compliance listing activities. He brought industry members and government agencies together and was active in energy-related legislature as well and helped win the $10M L-Prize for Philips. He also led many educational programs and was a frequent speaker at industry events.
Prior to Color Kinetics, Kevin was Chief Robotics Engineer for PRI Automation, and has more than 20 years of experience in advanced robotics engineering at the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University where he built some of the world’s first autonomous vehicles.
Dr. Dowling is an inventor on over 85 issued U.S. Patents. He received his BS in Mathematics, and MS and PhD degrees in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon University.
