C2ST Speakeasy: “Robot Revolution” with Anna Brill and Kathleen McCarthy

November 17, 2015

Geek Bar Beta
1941 West North Avenue, Chicago, IL, USA

Program Series:
Technology and Engineering

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The Museum of Science and Industry (MSI) recently opened a one-of-its-kind temporary exhibit, Robot Revolution. This unprecedented exhibit features more than 40 robots from all over the world. MSI’s robot wrangling team spent five years developing this program with the help of esteemed robotics advisors. The team scoured the world — including Japan, China, Germany, and France — to find the most advanced and exciting robots to showcase to the public. Kathleen McCarthy was part of this team.

McCarthy and the team realized that having more than 40 robots in one exhibit, many of which had never been showcased in a museum environment, would require extra handling. The team hired three robot specialists to work exclusively in the Robot Revolution space. Anna Brill, a 21-year-old college student from Massachusetts, is one of those specialists. Brill and the team can be seen working in the exhibit, from making 250 battery changes a day to tinkering with the robots in the public-facing “robot garage” — a windowed space where guests can see the specialists at work.

Event Details

C2ST Speakeasy is held on the first and third Tuesdays of every month. Attendance is free, but registration is strongly encouraged. To register, click HERE or on the “Get Tickets” button below. Seating is first come, first serve, and registration does not guarantee a seat.

People under 21 are welcome at Geek Bar until 9:00pm. (See Geek Bar’s age policy)

Food and beverages are available for purchase. (See menu)

Featured Guests

Anna Brill

Anna Brill is one of the three robot specialists working at the Robot Revolution exhibit. She handles all of the day-to-day tasks associated with the exhibit — from keeping more than 40 robots running properly, to troubleshooting issues, to chatting with curious young museum guests. She is currently taking a gap year from her studies at the University of Pennsylvania where she is pursuing her bachelor and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering. Her fascination with robots began when she joined a FIRST Robitcs Competition team in high school and continued with the robotics research she was involved in while at Penn. Through her research at the Kod*lab, a subsidiary of the Penn Engineering GRASP Lab, she has studied the behavior of six-legged robots on low-friction surfaces. She recently published a paper on her work with a leaping, tailed, bipedal robot, which landed her the honor of presenting at a robitcs conference in Hamburg, Germany this fall.

Kathleen McCarthy

Kathleen McCarthy is the director of collections and head curator at the Museum of Science and Industry. McCarthy is responsible for the care of MSI’s 35,000 artifacts and those on loan for display, as well as the research and development of content for exhibits. Since joining MSI in 2000, McCarthy has overseen the development and installation of multiple exhibits and added high-profile artifacts to the collection. During the development of Robot Revolution, McCarthy spent several weeks in Japan visiting the top robotics companies. A key to the success of Robot Revolution are the relationships and knowledge she has built, and throughout the four-year run of the traveling exhibition, McCarthey will ensure the robots are updated to showcase the latest breakthroughs in robotis technologies. Prior to joining MSI, McCarthy was the registrar for the Haifa Faisal Collection of Saudi Arabian Artifacts. She has also worked for the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, Krannert Art Museum, and taught glassblowing at the Toledo Museum of Art. McCarthy earned her MFA in Sculpture from the University of Illinois, during which she studied art history in Cairo. The recipient of a fellowship award from the Illinois Arts Council, her sculptures have been exhibited across the U.S. and Japan.