Gill Pratt

Dr. Gill Pratt is the Chief Executive Officer of Toyota Research Institute (TRI), where he directs research to create new capabilities for Toyota in Active Safety, Automated Driving, Robotics, and other Human Amplification technologies. He also serves in a global role guiding Toyota’s research strategy as Chief Scientist and Executive Fellow for Research of Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) and Executive Advisor of Toyota Central R&D Labs., Inc. (TCRDL), both in Japan. Prior to joining TRI as its founding CEO in January 2016, Dr. Pratt served as an Executive Technical Advisor to Toyota Motor Corporation.

Dr. Pratt previously led the Robotics Challenge, Robotics Research, and Neuromorphic Computing research programs for the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), where he served as a program manager in the Defense Sciences and Tactical Technology Offices from January 2010 through August 2015.

Dr. Pratt was an Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Director of the Leg Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Subsequently, he was a founding Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs and Research at Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering. Dr. Pratt’s academic research focused on robotics and intelligent systems. Specific areas of interest included interfaces that significantly enhance human/machine collaboration, mechanisms and control methods for enhanced mobility and manipulation, low impedance actuators, the application of neuroscience techniques to robot perception and control, and the impact of Robotics and AI on society. Dr. Pratt holds several patents in series elastic actuation and adaptive control.

Dr. Pratt earned Doctor of Philosophy (1990), Master of Science (1987), and Bachelor of Science (1983) degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT. His Ph.D. thesis was in the field of spiking computation in natural and artificial neural systems. Dr. Pratt also worked for the Physics and Computer Science Research Departments of Bell Telephone Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey.