Treeswift and the Penn Journey: From Research to Startup

Monday
September 20, 2021
2:00pm - 3:00pm
Webinar
Treeswift drone

Treeswift is building the next generation of forest monitoring systems, providing forest stakeholders with precision data and analyses that are easily accessible and flexible. Treeswift's services are used in carbon capture estimation, timber value estimation, deforestation monitoring, advanced growth forecasting, and forest management.

Treeswift makes complex forests easier to manage using robotics and artificial intelligence. This event is a talk and discussion by Treeswift CEO (and Penn CIS PhD student) Steven Chen on his experience of bringing academic research out of the lab and into the world.

Speakers

Steven Chen headshot

Steven Chen

CEO and Co-founder Treeswift

Steven W. Chen is the co-founder and CEO of Treeswift, and a Ph.D. student in Computer and Information Science at the GRASP Laboratory, University of Pennsylvania. He is a member of NSF Engineering Research Center for the Internet of Things for Precision Agriculture (IoT4Ag). His research focuses on robotics, control theory, and machine learning, applied to perception, action, and communication using ground and aerial robots. He works on applications in precision agriculture and forestry, specifically in developing algorithms to deploy UAVs for autonomous under-canopy flights and semantic mapping. Steven believes that robots play a critical role in addressing climate change, as robots that are more intelligent, autonomous, and scalable will enable entirely new capabilities to sense and interact with the natural world. Steven received the M.S.E. degree in Robotics from the University of Pennsylvania in 2019, and the B.S. degree in economics, math and finance at Northwestern University in 2012.