Joint ECSE-ISE Seminar: Launching an Automation Startup

Bill Fosnight
CTO
Alert Innovation
Master Practitioner Seminar
DCC 318
Wed, October 04, 2023 at 4:00 PM

Bill Fosnight, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Alert Innovation will present his journey from engineer to entrepreneur. He will share the story behind how he and Founder, John Lert met, co-invented the Alphabot®, established a relationship with the world’s largest retailer and built a company capable of changing one of the world’s largest industries, grocery.

Bill will discuss the key challenges and risks he and John faced, and how their backgrounds prepared them to successfully launch an automation start-up. He will share key requirements that had to be met, and how Alphabot is technically different from all other mobile robot solutions.

Finally, Bill will address the rapidly growing demand and opportunities for robotic solutions in grocery supply chain, on-line order fulfillment and e-commerce.

Bill Fosnight

Bill Fosnight, is a VP, Chief Technology Officer at Walmart and Co-Founder of Alert Innovation, a Boston based robotics start-up with a mission to improve people's lives through innovation.

He was previously Senior Director of Manufacturing Technology at GLOBALFOUNDRIES where he was responsible for the design and deployment of manufacturing automation, software and data analytics systems worldwide.

Prior to joining GLOBALFOUNDRIES, Bill was Senior Vice President of Engineering at Brooks Automation where he led the development and commercialization of factory automation and semiconductor process equipment.

Bill has been awarded 92 patents in manufacturing automation over the course of his 35-year career.

He holds a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an MBA from Cornell University.