About Me
Julia Ebert, apprentice robot herder, PhD
I'm a roboticist and software engineer specializing in making weird robots autonomous. Whether you have robots navigating a ship underwater (Fleet Robotics), autonomous trucks coordinating in a busy yard (Outrider), or a swarm of hundreds of collaborating robots (Harvard PhD) — I can make it work.
I am currently Autonomy Lead at Fleet Robotics; we're making robots that clean ship hulls, and I lead the software team to make that happen. I took our software stack and team from zero to an operational underwater robot in just over a year. This is a challenging world for robots: stuck to a curved surface, underwater, on a moving ship, and it requires continuous creative problem solving when we can't rely on traditional sensing and navigation techniques. Along the way, I developed the practical skills to make a safe, reliable, and modular system that can grow with the team, and I learned how to effectively lead a team of software engineers to achieve ambitious goals in a fast-paced environment.
My educational background prepared me to tackle novel algorithmic problems in robotics. I completed my PhD in computer science at Harvard University, where I developed algorithms for a variety of multi-agent systems, from robots to satellite constellations. I also draw on my prior degrees in neuroscience and bioengineering to take an interdisciplinary approach to robotics: integrating bio-inspiration and mathematical modeling to develop algorithms that can be applied in a multitude of new settings.
In my free time, I'm into curling, baking awesome cinnamon rolls, making fun things, and tackling a multitude of home renovation projects.