Robots Rise Up At Atlanta Science Festival

The robots are rising up in Atlanta!

The Atlanta Science Festival returns for its fifth year, and it launches with an event featuring a number of robots doing everything from music to stand-up comedy.

“Rise Up, Robots!” will feature a number of speakers and their computerized companions, including Oregon State University robotics professor Heather Knight with Data, a robot comedian, as well as the founder of the Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology, Gil Weinberg. He will be bringing Shimon, a marimba-playing robot that has the ability to listen to other musicians and improvise along.

Gil Weinberg, founder of the Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology, will be bringing Shimon, a marimba-playing robot that has the ability to listen to other musicians and improvise along. (Georgia Tech)
Gil Weinberg, founder of the Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology, will be bringing Shimon, a marimba-playing robot that has the ability to listen to other musicians and improvise along, to the event. (Georgia Tech)

“We’re trying to present some of the ways that robots are enhancing our lives,” festival co-director and co-founder Jordan Rose tells “City Lights” host Lois Reitzes, “and helping us laugh and create.”

“I really am excited about creativity,” Weinberg says, “about trying to combine data-based learning and rule-based improvisation, trying to actually understand how we humans become creative.”

The Atlanta Science Festival takes place March 9 to 24.

On March 18, join WABE’s Molly Samuel for the “Ask a Scientist” event, hosted in partnership with the Atlanta Science Festival. Gil Weinberg will be one of the featured scientists.