Kevin Dowling, PhD

Interim Managing Director, Robotics Factory

Dr. Dowling was the CEO of Kaarta, a company that provided world-class 3D mapping and localization solutions for people and robots. Previously, Kevin was VP of Engineering for 4Moms, a consumer products company where he led the 50 person engineering team. Before that, he was VP of R&D at Cambridge-based MC10, built and led the engineering team and drove MC10’s high-performance semiconductor-based stretchable electronics technology into products and applications.

Kevin was Vice President of Strategy & Technology for Philips Color Kinetics, the pioneering inventor and leader of LED illumination. Kevin was a key member of the senior management team as CK transitioned through an IPO (2004) and $800M acquisition by Philips (2007). In addition to technical leadership he created and chaired the first committees to standardize the measurement and lifetime of LEDs, LED standards and compliance listing activities. He brought industry members and government agencies together and was active in energy-related legislature as well and helped win the $10M L-Prize for Philips. He also led many educational programs and was a frequent speaker at industry events.

Prior to Color Kinetics, Kevin was Chief Robotics Engineer for PRI Automation, and has more than 20 years of experience in advanced robotics engineering at the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University where he built some of the world’s first autonomous vehicles.

Dr. Dowling is an inventor on over 85 issued U.S. Patents. He received his BS in Mathematics, and MS and PhD degrees in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon University.