Russell “RoboRuss” Nickerson is the Partner Engagement Liasion at MassRobotics, a non-profit robotics innovation organization advocating for robotics adoption and growth of robotics startups. Russell has assisted in developing and deploying Advanced Robots for Manufacturing Institute projects in collaboration with MIT, Raytheon and other stakeholders. He is the owner of Collabots where he does robotics consulting, training and speaking. Previously, Russell worked for over 5 years at Softbank Robotics, creators of the NAO and Pepper Humanoid Robots. One of Russell’s main goals is to change the public’s perspective on what a robot means to society. He has recently been published in the Robot and Automation Almanac 2019 and 2020 alongside leaders and peers of the industry. Often, you’ll find him behind the curtain at public and private events coordinating robot presentations and demos.