Listen to this article

Dr. Peter Wurman, the director at Sony AI America, was named a fellow by the IEEE technical professional organization. He is being honored by IEEE for his contributions to computational auctions, multiagent systems and robotics.

Wurman joined Sony AI in 2019 when Sony acquired Cogitai, the AI startup Wurman was working for at the time. Before working at Cogitai, Wurman was a co-founder of Kiva Systems. Kiva was founded in 2003 and acquired by Amazon in 2012 for $775 million. Kiva played an important role in bringing mobile robots to the forefront of the logistics industry.

Now Amazon Robotics, the company’s mobile robots retrieve items and transport them to workers who pack and ship them. Today, more than 250,000 robots have been deployed in Amazon warehouses.

Wurman earned his Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Michigan in 1999, and his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from M.I.T. in 1987.

“I am humbled by this recognition from the IEEE community, and very honored to be among this distinguished group of Fellows,” Wurman said.

Wurman also received the IEEE/IFR Invention and Entrepreneurship Award in 2008, and in 2020 was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

IEEE has over 400,000 members in 160 countries. The IEEE Board of Directors elevates members to fellows based on their achievements in an IEEE field of interest. Each year, the total number of members elevated can’t be more than one tenth of one percent of the voting membership.