S1E7 – Parag Batavia, Ph.D.

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Parag Batavia may not have been born with a robot in his hands, but he followed his passion and ventured to the city with a solid robotics reputation, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. From mastering Heathkits in high school to working with robotic theatre props, to getting his Ph.D. in robotics at Carnegie Mellon University, Batavia went on his own to build Neya Systems. Neya Systems develops and integrates advanced, vehicle-agnostic, off-road and airborne autonomy.

Tune in to Crazy Hard Robots as Parag Bataviia, entrepreneur and Instructor at Carnegie Mellon University, chats with Tom about his experiences and his lessons learned from building and selling a robotics company for a successful exit.

Listen to Batavia and Tom talk about:
  • How Heathkits opened doors for budding engineers during a time when First LEGO League wasn’t around.
  • What it was like working at the Carnegie Mellon University Navlab and how its research contributed to the maturing industry of autonomous vehicles.
  • Where the word robot came from.
  • What it is like to work with robots that save lives, like Talon.
  • Lessons learned from starting Neya Systems.
About Parag Batavia, Ph.D.

Parag Batavia is a robotics entrepreneur with a proven track record of starting, leading, growing, and exiting robotics and autonomy companies. His technology focus is on outdoor off-road autonomy, manned-unmanned teaming, and mission planning.
Batavia’s most recent company was Neya Systems, LLC, which he started as the sole founder in 2009. At Neya, the team focused on developing robust off-road autonomy for defense and commercial customers. In 2017, after eight years of continued growth, Batavia sold Neya to Applied Research Associates, which provided access to the resources and expertise needed to accelerate Neya Systems’ capabilities. Batavia continues to work at Neya part time, as the Chief Technology Strategist, where he helps guide Neya’s technology development efforts and lead key business development activities.
Batavia enjoys mentoring and teaching, and he is currently an instructor at Carnegie Mellon in the Robotics Institute, where he teaches “How to Build a Robotics Startup” in the Masters in Robotics Systems Development program. Batavia also serves on the Executive Board of the Pittsburgh Robotics Network.
Batavia received a B.S. in Computer Engineering from the University of Southern California in 1995, a Ph.D. in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon in 1999, and an MBA from Drexel University in 2009.

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