2026 TORONTO ROBOTICS CONFERENCE

21-22 July 2026
University of Toronto Mississauga

Powering connections across the GTA's AI-robotics research ecosystem

CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

TWO SMALL FISH PITCH COMPETITION

KEYNOTES, PANEL AND MINI-TALKS

EXHIBITORS

WHAT TO EXPECT

Hear from leading AI-robotics experts

Gain insight from the researchers leading breakthroughs in robotics — from autonomous driving and surgical robots to mobile manipulation, soft robotics and computer vision.

Experience demos of the latest tech

Explore indoor and outdoor demos of AI-robotics research from labs and student teams across the university.

Discover the next big idea

Students and postdocs will pitch innovative, concept-stage robotics ideas in the Two Small Fish Pitch Competition.

Network with experts, trainees and partners

Connect with U of T's robotics research and talent network to learn about partnerships opportunities or recruit talent.

TWO SMALL FISH PITCH COMPETITION

In just three minutes, students and postdocs will pitch their vision for a robotics start-up. Participants will present solutions to challenges across sectors — from healthcare and search and rescue, to autonomous vehicles, and more.

Participants and event details to be announced soon!

Judges

Abdel Ali

CEO & Founder

Kiwi Charge

Bio

Abdel Ali is the founder and CEO of Kiwi Charge, a startup on a mission to accelerate the deployment of EV charging infrastructure by eliminating the cost-prohibitive initial infrastructure costs.

Prior to founding Kiwi Charge, Abdel Ali was a Venture builder at R-LABS, where he was the project lead in launching a startup, from problem identification to securing over $1.5 M in funding.

Abdel's experience is further reinforced by his experience as an investor at Relay Ventures / Alate Partners.

Abdel holds an MBA from the Schulich School of Business and a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) certification. Abdel is committed to fostering diversity and inclusion in the venture capital space and is the Co-director of BLCK VC Canada.

Albert Chen

Partner

Two Small Fish

Bio

Albert is a visionary innovator and seasoned leader, bringing unmatched expertise across from technical innovation to product development to operational leadership in entrepreneurial startups. His academic background further highlights his exceptional capabilities. Albert earned his Ph.D. in BioMEMS, Acoustics, and Medical Engineering and completed his undergraduate studies in Systems Design Engineering, both from the University of Waterloo. Albert’s professional career is equally remarkable. Most notably, he served as the CTO of robotics and edge AI company Forcen. His diverse experience also includes roles at Metergy (smart energy), Excelitas (photonics), and North (smart glass, acquired by Google). With his profound understanding of deep tech, Albert is uniquely positioned to support founders in bringing their innovative visions to life.

Ria Khan

CEO

NephroTech

Bio

Ria Khan is an award-winning medical scientist, entrepreneur, and healthcare innovator dedicated to advancing patient care through technology, engineering, and entrepreneurship.

She holds an Honours Bachelor of Science with a double major in Human Biology and Neuroscience and is completing her Master of Science in Medical Science at the University of Toronto, where her research focuses on the development, testing, and evaluation of surgical medical devices and diagnostic technologies.

Ria is the CEO and Co-Founder of NephroTech, a medical device startup developing DialySnake, which is the world's first minimally invasive device to restore obstructed peritoneal dialysis catheters at the bedside. Under her leadership, NephroTech has been recognized as a Hult Global Accelerator Top 20 global student-led startup, a Canadian Enactus top 12 startup, a Startupfest Women in Tech Top 10 finalist, and the recipient of multiple innovation and entrepreneurship awards, including winner of the SICIEEIL Student Startup Award as well as the iCUBE Pitch with a Twist and H2i Pitch Perfect competitions and placing 3rd at Innovator’s Den at the University of Toronto.

Driven by a passion for making science and technology accessible, Ria joined Pueblo Science in 2025 to expand access to STEM education and inspire future innovators. In 2026, she travelled to the Philippines to teach STEM, medicine, and medical robotics to students, demonstrating how emerging technologies can be applied to solve real-world healthcare challenges. Through this work, she hopes to empower young people to pursue innovation that creates meaningful social impact.

Drawing on her experiences in medical device development, venture creation, healthcare innovation, and STEM mentorship, Ria brings a multidisciplinary perspective at the intersection of medicine, entrepreneurship, and technology. She is excited to support and celebrate the next generation of innovators using robotics and engineering to address global challenges.

Rahul Udasi

CTO

Trexo Robotics

Bio

Rahul Udasi is Co-Founder and CTO of Trexo Robotics, a Y Combinator–backed company building wearable robotic exoskeletons that help children with disabilities walk. He leads the technical development and manufacturing of devices that have helped children take over 100 million steps. Rahul holds a Master of Engineering from the University of Toronto and a B.A.Sc. in Mechatronics from the University of Waterloo, with prior experience at Willow Garage, Qualcomm, and BlackBerry.

Pitch competition sponsors

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KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Tuesday, July 21

Wednesday, July 22

KEYNOTE

Tania Morimoto

Associate Professor

Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering

Department of Surgery

Bio

Tania Morimoto is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and in the Department of Surgery at the University of California, San Diego. She received the B.S. degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University, Stanford, CA, all in mechanical engineering. Her research lab focuses on the design and control of soft and flexible robots for increased dexterity and accessibility in uncertain environments. They are also working to address the challenges of designing human-in-the-loop interfaces for controlling these soft continuum robots, including the integration of haptic feedback. She is a recipient of the Hellman Fellowship (2021), the Beckman Young Investigator Award (2022), the NSF CAREER Award (2022), the ASEE Outstanding New Mechanical Engineering Educator Award (2023), a 2024 National Academy of Science (NAS) Kavli Fellow, and the MassRobotics Rising Star in Robotics (2025).

KEYNOTE

Bridging the Interaction Gap in Embodied Search: Low-Level Control in Large-Scale Procedural Worlds

Bernadette Bucher

Assistant Professor

Robotics Department

Computer Science and Engineering Department

Abstract

The problem of object search has long been studied from interactive table top manipulation which involves rummaging among visual obstructions to navigation in large scale scenes which involves prioritizing likely locations from visual cues. However, the full complexity of object search encompasses simultaneous reasoning over navigation and manipulation, a true mobile manipulation challenge. In settings requiring search, the target is often inside a drawer, behind a door, or otherwise occluded. The amount of physical interactions required to search exhaustively with a mobile manipulator in large scale scenes is intractable. An autonomous robot must decide when physical interaction is worth attempting and reasoning about object affordances becomes part of semantic decision-making. Rigorous evaluation of this problem demands simulation that is simultaneously photorealistic, physically grounded, and controllably extensible. In this talk, I introduce PhyGS, a simulation framework designed for the controllable generation of photorealistic, building-scale indoor environments with high-fidelity low-level physics that enables high level visual reasoning for navigation together with low level manipulation control. I also introduce ForageBench, an interactive object search benchmark built on PhyGS. Evaluating state-of-the-art VLM-based agents isolates two bottlenecks that together define the interaction gap: deciding when and where to interact during navigation, and successfully executing the underlying manipulation skills.

Bio

Bernadette Bucher is an Assistant Professor in the Robotics Department and Computer Science and Engineering Department at University of Michigan. She is PI of the Mapping and Motion Lab studying active perception, visual representation learning, and mobile manipulation. Previously, Professor Bucher worked at the Robotics and AI Institute, NVIDIA Research, and Lockheed Martin Corporation. She received her PhD from the GRASP Lab at University of Pennsylvania.

KEYNOTE

Chris Pal

Professor

Canada CIFAR AI Chair

PANEL

Tuesday, July 21

Are robotaxis really safer than humans? First steps to a post-driving world

After 20 years of development and over $200 billion USD in investment, robotaxis are starting to gain traction in multiple markets, with thousands of successful trips per week and passengers often preferring the quiet convenience and smooth ride of a self-driving car. Industry leaders Waymo have reported impressive safety numbers, showing large reductions in both property damage and injuries over 70 million miles driven.

In this panel, we'll dive into the details of these claims, investigate when self-driving vehicles will come to Toronto, and discuss broader implications on our society now that the long-standing dream of autonomous vehicles is becoming reality.

MODERATOR

Steven Waslander

Professor

University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies

Bio

Prof. Steven Waslander is a leading authority on autonomous robotics, including self-driving cars and multirotor drones. He received his B.Sc.E.in 1998 from Queen’s University, his M.S. in 2002 and his Ph.D. in 2007, both from Stanford University in Aeronautics and Astronautics, where as a graduate student he created the Stanford Testbed of Autonomous Rotorcraft for Multi-Agent Control (STARMAC), the world’s most capable multi-vehicle quadrotor platform at the time. He was recruited to the University of Waterloo from Stanford in 2008, where he founded and directed the Waterloo Autonomous Vehicle Laboratory (WAVELab), extending the state of the art in autonomous robotics through advances in localization and mapping, object detection and tracking, integrated planning and control methods and multi-robot coordination. In 2018, he joined the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS), and founded the Toronto Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (TRAILab).

PANELIST

Mona Eghanian

Assistant Vice-President, Ontario Centre of Innovation (OCI)

Deputy Head, Ontario Vehicle Innovation Network (OVIN)

Bio

Mona Eghanian is an Assistant Vice-President at the Ontario Centre of Innovation and Deputy Head of the Ontario Vehicle Innovation Network, the Government of Ontario’s flagship initiative for the automotive and mobility sector. She oversees strategic programs that advance research and development, technology commercialization, and talent development, helping position Ontario as a global leader in next-generation transportation.

With deep expertise in strategy, technology transformation, and data-driven decision making, Mona brings cross sector experience spanning financial services and industrial manufacturing. Her leadership supports the growth of Ontario-made automotive technologies and strengthens the province’s capacity for safer, cleaner, and more efficient mobility solutions.

A licensed professional engineer, Mona holds a Bachelor of Engineering from Western University and an MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business. She was recognized as one of Automotive News Canada’s “Canadians to Watch” in 2024.

PANELIST

Matt Fisch

CEO, AEye

Bio

Matt Fisch is CEO of AEye, Inc. and a deeply technical C-level leader in software and systems engineering. With more than 15 years of experience leading large global software organizations, he has delivered breakthrough products across payments, banking, automotive, mobility, consumer electronics, and semiconductor industries. Matt specializes in building high-performance engineering teams that execute in complex, fast-moving markets and deliver solutions for the world’s most demanding customers. His expertise spans software, cloud, device engineering, IoT, DevOps, and strategic technology partnerships.

PANELIST

Andrew Miller

Author, The End of Driving

Author, Changing Lanes

Bio

Andrew Miller is a writer and speaker on innovative mobility, with 20 years of experience spanning academia; government at the municipal, provincial, and federal levels; and private-sector advisory.

Andrew is the co-author of The End of Driving (Elsevier, 2025), a book on driving automation and its opportunities and implications for cities. A fellow of the Roots of Progress Institute, he writes deep-dive articles on mobility, innovation, and transit at his weekly Substack newsletter, Changing Lanes. His work has been published in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, American Affairs, the Globe and Mail, and the Washington Post.

Andrew holds a BA from McGill University, an MA from Yale University, and a PhD from Johns Hopkins University. He's also fun at parties.

PANELIST

Kristen Thomasen

Associate Professor, Senior Chair in Law, Robotics, and Society

University of Windsor Faculty of Law

Bio

Dr. Thomasen researches and teaches on Tort Law and Law & Technology, with a focus on the legal treatment of robotic and automated technologies. She writes from a critical feminist perspective and is especially interested in how the regulation of automated technologies affects shared spaces. She is a co-editor of Robot Law II (Edward Elgar, 2025), and lead author of recent publications on imperial rhetoric in AI governance and the possible impacts of generative AI on medicalized children’s privacy.

INDUSTRY MINI-TALKS

Wednesday, July 22

INDUSTRY MINI-TALK

Matt Fisch

CEO, AEye

Bio

SPONSORED BY:

INDUSTRY MINI-TALK

Yasaman Soudagar

Co-founder & CEO, Exhilarare

Bio

Dr. Yasaman Soudagar holds a PhD in Experimental Quantum Optics under supervision of Dr. Aephraim Steinberg at UoT and Dr. Nicolas Godbout at École Polytechnique de Montréal. She is a second time founder. Her first company, Neurescene, commercialized two hardware/software brain imaging systems for neuroscience research and went through a high profile acquisition by Bruker in 2022. The solution to a manufacturing pain point faced by Neurescence became the subject of the second startup, Exhilarare. In her talk, Yasaman clarifies how the combination of Robotics, AI and a novel method of fabrication can significantly reduce the manufacturing and supply chain complexity for manufacturing of multicomponent goods that combine electronics and optics with plastic enclosure.

SPONSORED BY:

EXHIBITORS

SCHEDULE

Tuesday, July 21

Time and Location	Activity	Speakers
9 a.m.	Registration Coffee, tea, light refreshments
9:30 a.m.	Welcome Remarks	Lueder Kahrs, Conference Co-Chair
9:35 a.m.	Keynote	Tania Morimoto Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Department of Surgery, UC San Diego
10:30 a.m.	Break
11 a.m.	Panel: Are robotaxis really safer than humans? First steps to a post-driving world	Panelists: Mona Eghanian Matt Fisch Andrew Miller Kristen Thomasen Moderator: Steven Waslander
12 p.m.	Lunch Break
1 p.m.	PARALLEL SESSION: Research Talks	Session 1: Single-Track Faculty Talks
1 p.m.	PARALLEL SESSION: Two Small Fish Pitch Competition	Opening Remarks: Albert Chen, Partner, Two Small Fish
2 p.m.	PARALLEL SESSION: Research Talks	Session 2: Multi-Track Student and Postdoc Talks Topics: aerial, bio-inspired, continuum
2 p.m.	PARALLEL SESSION: Research Talks	Session 3: Multi-Track Student and Postdoc Talks Topics: medical, surgical, neuro
3:15 p.m.	Break
3:45 p.m.	PARALLEL SESSION: Research Talks	Session 4: Multi-Track Student and Postdoc Talks Topics: mobility, multi-robot coordination, navigation, human-robot interaction
3:45 p.m.	PARALLEL SESSION: Research Talks	Session 5: Multi-Track Student and Postdoc Talks Topics: localization, vision, human-robot interaction
5:15 p.m. The Blind Duck	Networking Social and Two Small Fish Pitch Competition Awards

Wednesday, July 22

Time and Location	Activity	Speakers
9 a.m.	Registration Coffee, tea, light refreshments
9:30 a.m.	Welcome Remarks	Steven Waslander, Conference Co-Chair
9:35 a.m.	Keynote	Bernadette Bucher Assistant Professor, Robotics Department, Computer Science and Engineering Department, University of Michigan
10:30 a.m.	Break
11 a.m.	Industry Mini-talks	Matt Fisch, CEO, AEye Yasaman Soudagar, Co-founder & CEO, Exhilarare
12 p.m.	Lunch Break Lab Demos Poster Session
1:30 p.m.	Keynote	Chris Pal Professor, Canada CIFAR AI Chair, Polytechnique Montréal
2:30 p.m.	Break
3 p.m.	Research Talks	Session 6: Single-Track Faculty Talks
4 p.m.	PARALLEL SESSION: Research Talks	Session 7: Multi-Track Student and Postdoc Talks Topics: aerial manipulation, manipulation
4 p.m.	PARALLEL SESSION: Research Talks	Session 8: Multi-Track Student and Postdoc Talks Topics: bio-inspired, material, surgical
5:15 p.m.	Closing Remarks and Poster Session Winners Announcement	Tim Barfoot, Director, Robotics Institute Lueder Kahrs, Conference Co-Chair Steven Waslander, Conference Co-Chair

Whether you would like to connect with top Robotics Institute graduate students, showcase your latest technology, demonstrate your thought leadership or promote your brand, there's a sponsorship package for you. Sponsorship can include:

SPEAKING OPPORTUNITIES

EXHIBIT SPACE

BRAND RECOGNITION

Are you a micro-, small-, or mid-sized Canadian robotics start-up? Ask us about our SME and custom sponsorship packages

Download the sponsorship prospectus

ORGANIZERS

PROGRAM CO-CHAIRS - Professor Lueder Kahrs, Professor Steven Waslander

COMMUNICATIONS - Amanda Hacio

PARTNERSHIPS - Tongjia Zheng

OPERATIONS - Tongjia Zheng, Jessica K. Bailey, Amanda Hacio

CONTACT

robotics@utoronto.ca

2026 TORONTO ROBOTICS CONFERENCE

21-22 July 2026
University of Toronto Mississauga

Powering connections across the GTA's AI-robotics research ecosystem

SPONSORS

Join the University of Toronto's expert network for a two-day, multi-track showcase of the latest AI-robotics research

Become an event sponsor

Get the latest event updates

WHAT TO EXPECT

Hear from leading AI-robotics experts

Experience demos of the latest tech

Discover the next big idea

Network with experts, trainees and partners

TWO SMALL FISH PITCH COMPETITION

Judges

Pitch competition sponsors

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Tuesday, July 21

Wednesday, July 22

Wednesday, July 22

Bridging the Interaction Gap in Embodied Search: Low-Level Control in Large-Scale Procedural Worlds

PANEL

Tuesday, July 21

Are robotaxis really safer than humans? First steps to a post-driving world

INDUSTRY MINI-TALKS

Wednesday, July 22

EXHIBITORS

SCHEDULE

Tuesday, July 21

Wednesday, July 22

ORGANIZERS

CONTACT

2026 TORONTO ROBOTICS CONFERENCE

21-22 July 2026 University of Toronto Mississauga

Powering connections across the GTA's AI-robotics research ecosystem

SPONSORS

Join the University of Toronto's expert network for a two-day, multi-track showcase of the latest AI-robotics research

Become an event sponsor

Get the latest event updates

WHAT TO EXPECT

Hear from leading AI-robotics experts

Experience demos of the latest tech

Discover the next big idea

Network with experts, trainees and partners

TWO SMALL FISH PITCH COMPETITION

Judges

Pitch competition sponsors

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Tuesday, July 21

Wednesday, July 22

Wednesday, July 22

Bridging the Interaction Gap in Embodied Search: Low-Level Control in Large-Scale Procedural Worlds

PANEL

Tuesday, July 21

Are robotaxis really safer than humans? First steps to a post-driving world

INDUSTRY MINI-TALKS

Wednesday, July 22

EXHIBITORS

SCHEDULE

Tuesday, July 21

Wednesday, July 22

SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES

ORGANIZERS

CONTACT

21-22 July 2026
University of Toronto Mississauga