Industry Connections

Learning from engineers

We seek out working engineers to learn what's actually new in the field — then bring it back to the robot. Our Connect Awards are the judges telling us this part is working.

The team with a Meta researcher, each holding a Project Aria tote bag after their visit.
Project Aria visit · Meta Reality Labs
Computer vision

Meta Reality Labs

Vijay · Research Scientist

Vijay demonstrated how SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) computer vision works in Meta's Project Aria AI glasses — how a device figures out where it is in a space it has never seen before.

What it changed on our robot

  • Custom navigation paths instead of dead-reckoning alone.
  • The idea of fusing two imperfect position sources, which became our Kalman filter over Pinpoint odometry and AprilTag poses.
  • Machine learning as something we could actually reach for, not just read about.
An engineer presenting slides to the seated team in their build space.
AI agents session
AI & security

Microsoft

Dilip · Head of a cybersecurity branch

Dilip gave us an overview of AI agents and large language models, and explained ideas we'd only seen as buzzwords — agent workflows and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG).

What we took away

  • How AI agents are used in real industrial robotics, including inside Amazon fulfillment centers.
  • A clearer sense of where autonomy stops being hand-written logic and starts being learned behaviour.
The team standing with two staff members under the Amazon sign inside a fulfillment center.
Fulfillment center tour
Robotics at scale

Amazon fulfillment center

Facility tour

We toured a working fulfillment center and watched robotics transport, package and sort items at a scale we'd never seen — the same problems we solve on a 12-foot field, running all day in a warehouse.

What it changed on our robot

  • Ideas that fed directly into refining our transfer mechanism.
  • Seeing how industrial systems handle jams and misfeeds, which is exactly the failure mode our transfer kept hitting.
  • A concrete picture of robotics as a career, not just a competition.
A Microsoft employee showing the team fabrication equipment in a workshop.
Microsoft Garage · fabrication tools
Fabrication

Microsoft Garage

Sriram · Microsoft

Sriram walked us through the Garage's fabrication tools and what each one is for. The highlight was hands-on time with the laser cutter.

Still using it

  • We continue to use the laser cutter for robot parts when a 3D print isn't the right answer.
  • It widened what we consider buildable — flat plate geometry became an option alongside printed parts.

The payoff

From a conversation to a mentor

The point of these visits isn't the tour. It's the relationships that outlast it.

Connections that become mentorship

Several of the engineers we have met this way did not stop at a tour. They kept showing up — reviewing designs, working through the math with us, and pushing back when an idea was not ready yet. That is the part that compounds from one season to the next.

Meet our mentors →

Our logo

An industrial graphic designer guided our logo design, keeping it clean but meaningful. The colors show energy and radiate positivity; the lightning bolts stand for energy and the passion to learn.

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