Robots: A Guided Tour

Dr. John Jordan, Clinical Professor of Supply Chain and Information Systems at the Smeal College of Business, offers a glimpse into the future of robotics.
  • What Free webinar Front Page Alumni
  • When Sep 13, 2017 from 12:00 PM to 12:00 PM (Etc/GMT-4 / UTC400)
  • Where Zoom Online Webinar Platform
  • Attendees Alumni, Faculty/Staff, Students, Friends
  • Add event to calendar iCal


Dr. John Jordan is a technology analyst and Clinical Professor of Supply Chain and Information Systems in Smeal College of Business at Penn State University. He has taught at the university for over 12 years and is a guest-lecturer for the computer science capstone course (annually), energy engineering, Information Sciences & Technology, and industrial engineering. John is the co-author of a widely cited article on cloud computing in Communications ACM and has written for the Wall Street Journal. In April of 2014, he gave a TedxPSU Talk titled “The Robotic Paradox.” Dr. Jordan got his undergraduate degree from Duke, his first masters at Yale University, and a second masters degree then PhD from the University of Michigan.

Robots are entering the mainstream. Technologies have advanced to the point of mass commercialization—Roomba, for example—and adoption by governments—most notably, their use of drones. Meanwhile, these devices are being received by a public whose main sources of information about robots are the fantasies of popular culture. We know a lot about C-3PO and Robocop but not much about Atlas, Motoman, Kiva, or Beam—real-life robots that are reinventing warfare, the industrial workplace, and collaboration. In this webinar, technology analyst, Dr. Jordan offers a glimpse into his research on where robots are heading.