David Millard

David Millard is a roboticist and software engineer specializing in the automated manipulation of non-rigid objects. He holds a doctorate in a discipline blending mathematics, computer science, and robotics, with his academic research fully funded by a NASA Space Technology Research Fellowship. Millard previously served as a software engineer at Microsoft and IronOx, an agricultural robotics startup from the Y Combinator Winter 2016 cohort. He also worked as a software engineer at Google X on the Everyday Robots project, developing advanced systems for complex physical environments. Throughout his career, he has co-authored technical publications alongside researchers from the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab, the NASA Ames Research Center, and Google DeepMind. His current professional focus remains centered on bridging advanced artificial intelligence research with practical software engineering to solve complex robotic manipulation challenges across various automation sectors.