Turn Left: An Immigrant’s Life of Connection and the Search for Belonging

Illah R. Nourbakhsh is Professor of Robotics at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he has taught for twenty-eight years. He is vice president of the school board for Winchester Thurston School and on the board of directors of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Environmental Health Project. He is also a trustee of the Benedum Foundation, which provides funding for local health, education, and small business development. Currently, Nourbakhsh is honored as a Kavli Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, a Hastings Fellow, and an inductee of the June Harless West Virginia Hall of Fame. Whether with NASA, the Jet Propulsion labs, or otherwise, Illah’s research centers on ethics and technology, engaging with communities around the world to co-invent technologies that provide power and agency to marginalized populations that have a right to shape their own destiny. He has also authored Robot Futures, AI and Humanity, and Introduction to Autonomous Mobile Robots.