OK, she isn't going to grace the cover of Playboy - but still. Unlike most beltway bandits - I bet she doesn't smell like stale Honduran cigars, Aqua Velva, Old Spice, and wears Sansabelt slacks.
Helen Greiner is the President of IS Robotics, ... Helen holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and an M.S. in Computer Science, both from MIT. Her 10 years of experience in robotic technology includes work at NASAÂ’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and MIT'’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. For more information on the ongoing work at IS Robotics, visit the CompanyÂ’s homepage, www.isr.com.Heaven. Smart, sharp, easy on the eyes. Just like Mrs. Salamander (put in for Force Protection reasons).
You already know her company.
...the company has already proved its mass appeal with the success of the Roomba, a vacuum cleaner that has become the bestselling consumer robot in history.But here is why she is Salamander Dream Girl of the Month.
More important, iRobot's products are saving lives. In Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. Army is deploying 300 of the company's PackBots, 42-pound track-wheeled rovers with arms and antennae that seek out suspicious objects and remove them to safe places for possible detonation. Sensitive enough to sniff out a bomb, they are also tough enough to climb stairs and to survive a drop from 10 feet onto a concrete floor.
Gender conventions suggest that Angle, the company's chief executive officer, would be running the military side of iRobot's business, and Greiner the consumer end. Yet, as anyone who really knows Greiner might have predicted, the case is exactly the opposite. It is Greiner who secures government contracts and networks with generals.
Angle recalls the day he and Greiner went target shooting with a military client, a three-star admiral. The weapon of choice was the AK-47, but for safety reasons the automatic function had been disabled. "Of course Helen was the only woman there," says Angle, "and she kept saying 'I want to fire the automatic.' " After much protesting, the mechanism was restored. Greiner blasted away.I bet John wishes she was his boss. And here is why her company, and Helen herself, should be loved by everyone in uniform.
iRobot's PackBot is the new standard in unmanned reconnaissance and bomb disposal. It is a lightweight, rugged robot that can be carried and deployed by a single soldier. PackBot offers unprecedented mobility and durability—it can be thrown into a building through a window, climb stairs, drop 20 feet and still function properly. The robot was originally developed under the Tactical Mobile Robotics program, which was sponsored by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Designed as a versatile payload carrier, iRobot has added reconnaissance payloads with pan/tilt head and night vision, Chem/gas/rad payloads, and a bomb disposal (EOD) payloads.I know the EOD guy's wives love her too.
The PackBot EOD has been used on thousands of bomb disposal missions and we are very proud of its life saving function. The one pictured was sent back to us from Iraq for analysis after a bomb detonated. In most missions, the PackBot EOD returns safely, but in the case where it is blown up, better a robot than a soldier. A geek aside: the PackBot is running a Linux OS with iRobot's Aware robot control software.
No, LBG - not the Woomba - the Roomba!
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