Catie is an entrepreneur, engineer, and artist working at the intersection of artificial intelligence, human–robot interaction, and performance. She is the founder and CEO of ART Lab (AI robot technology), building “presence objects” - a new class of intelligent everyday objects. She earned her Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at Stanford University, where she pioneered “choreorobotics,” a field that combines dance practice with robotic motion planning to create more expressive, human-centered robots. As a postdoctoral scientist in computer science at Stanford and an artist-in-residence at institutions such as the Exploratorium, Jacob’s Pillow, and the Smithsonian and Google X, she has created interactive installations and performances with dozens of different robots, from industrial arms to custom-designed machines. She led the first multi-robot machine learning project at Google’s robotics teams and founded Zenie, an AI-powered journaling app for women, designed to support mindfulness and emotional well-being. Her work has been featured in outlets including The New York Times, PBS NewsHour, WIRED, and in two TED Talks, which invite the public to imagine more welcoming and expressive futures with AI and robotics. She is currently also an adjunct professor in computer science at Stanford.
