Leila Takayama is a senior user experience researcher at Google[x], a lab that aims for moonshots in science and technology. Prior to joining Google[x] in 2013, Leila was a research scientist and area manager for human-robot interaction at Willow Garage. She is also a World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council Member for the area of AI & Robotics. Last year, she was presented the IEEE Robotics & Automation Society Early Career Award. In 2012, she was named a TR35 winner and one of the 100 most creative people in business by Fast Company.

With a background in Psychology, Cognitive Science, and Human-Computer Interaction, she examines human encounters with new technologies. Dr. Takayama completed her PhD in Communication at Stanford University in 2008, advised by Professor Clifford Nass. She also holds a PhD minor in Psychology from Stanford, a master's degree in Communication from Stanford, and bachelor's of arts degrees in Psychology and Cognitive Science from UC Berkeley (2003). During her graduate studies, she was a research assistant in the User Interface Research (UIR) group at Palo Alto Research Center (PARC).

Formerly with Microsoft, Groupon and IBM, Thavidu now heads the Software side of Fellow Robots, revolutionizing the future of the Retail experience.

He has been programming since he was 8 years old and has a wealth of experience in a wide variety of software development areas, encompassing everything from web technologies to embedded systems. However, his strongest passion is for all things Machine Learning (especially Neural Networks), Computer Vision and Robotics.

Thavidu graduated from the Australian National University with a Bachelor of Software Engineering majoring in Mechatronics (essentially, Robotics). He also spent some time on exchange at the University of California, San Diego.

Thavidu has lived in five countries and loves to travel, but grew up mostly in Australia.