Trends in Robotics
Webinar
Date
Wednesday, July 22, 2026
Time
11:00 am
ET
Humanoid robots are stepping out of R&D labs and into the working world. But how can people co-exist safely around them and how is trust in these industrial machines earned? The key isn’t making them look human, but making them entirely predictable.
Join Mario Bollini, Director of Human-Robot Interaction at Boston Dynamics, and Leland Hepler, UI designer and former Disney and video game animator, as they take you under the hood of the Atlas robot. Discover how Boston Dynamics is merging engineering and AI with classic animation techniques to shape the future of industrial workplace collaboration.
In this webinar, you’ll discover:
Director of Human-Robot Interaction
Mario leads the Interaction Design team at Boston Dynamics. He studied robotics at MIT, was a serial entrepreneur, and was one of the first commercial hires at Boston Dynamics. As the Spot product management lead he helped create the dynamic sensing product category and scale Spot to thousands of deployed robots. He led the Atlas product management team, guiding the program from its R&D pivot through product design and launch of our new production-grade humanoid at CES. Now in charge of human-robot interaction and user experience for all robots at Boston Dynamics, he's working to design a human-centric future where robots assist, empower, and inspire.
Distinguished Product Designer
Leland he has worked at Boston Dynamics since 2018 developing UX/UI/HRI experiences for robots. Before Boston Dynamics, he was the director of UX at Rethink Robotics, spent a decade art directing and creating simulated AI characters for video games, and was a character animator for 14 years at Disney Studios on films such as "The Lion King" and "Chicken Little." He studied film and illustration at the Rhode Island School of Design.