NREC’s mission is to mature laboratory-grade robotics technology into operationally relevant, field tested systems and transfer that technology to an industry or government client for commercialization. To accomplish this mission, NREC created the Commercialization Specialist job category, a unique faculty-level position that focuses on “making it work” rather than “developing theory.”  Commercialization Specialists typically possess Masters or Ph.D. degrees. They work closely with clients from project inception through delivery to ensure that robotic systems achieve the client’s schedule, cost and performance goals.  They help gather requirements, investigate promising new technologies, and evaluate different design options.  They build prototype systems and refine them to improve performance, robustness and reliability.   

Commercialization Specialists are experienced technologists with deep knowledge of an area of robotics technology: sensors, computer vision, planning and optimization, mechanical design, simulation, and more.  Senior Commercialization Specialists are experienced project managers who lead efforts to develop innovative technologies for use across many robotics applications, identify potential project sponsors, negotiate agreements, and license technologies for commercial use.

Several members of the NREC Commercialization Specialist team