Trevor Blackwell (born 4 November 1969, in Canada) is a computer

programmer A computer programmer, sometimes referred to as a software developer, a software engineer, a programmer or a coder, is a person who creates computer programs — often for larger computer software. A programmer is someone who writes/creates ...

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

and

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...

based in

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo County ...

. Blackwell is a developer of humanoid robots. Dr. Blackwell is the founder and former CEO of

Anybots Anybots Inc. is an American robotics company based in Santa Clara, California. It was founded in 2001 by Trevor Blackwell. History The company was incorporated as Anybots Inc. by Trevor Blackwell in 2001. David Rogan later became CEO in July 2012 ...

and a partner at

Y Combinator Y Combinator (YC) is an American technology startup accelerator launched in March 2005. It has been used to launch more than 3,000 companies, including Airbnb, Coinbase, Cruise, DoorDash, Dropbox, Instacart, Quora, PagerDuty, Reddit, Str ...

Life and career

Blackwell grew up in

Saskatoon Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Hig ...

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...

, Canada. Blackwell studied

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

Carleton University Carleton University is an English-language public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1942 as Carleton College, the institution originally operated as a private, non-denominational evening college to serve returning World ...

and received a

Bachelor of Engineering A Bachelor of Engineering (BEng) or a Bachelor of Science in Engineering (BSE) is an academic undergraduate degree awarded to a student after three to five years of studying engineering at an accredited college or university. In the UK, a Bache ...

in 1992, then studied

Computer Science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

and received a PhD in 1998. His dissertation applied randomized methods to analyzing the performance of networks and compilers. During graduate school Blackwell joined

Viaweb Viaweb was a web-based application that allowed users to build and host their own online stores with little technical expertise using a web browser. The company was started in July 1995 by Paul Graham, Robert Morris (using the pseudonym "John M ...

for which he wrote the image rendering, order processing and statistics software. The company was acquired by

Yahoo Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo! Inc. (2017–present), Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds ma ...

in 1998, and Blackwell moved to

to lead the Yahoo Store development group. He founded

in 2001 to build teleoperated humanoid robots. In 2006, Anybots announced a humanoid robot that walks and balances like people do, without depending on large feet for stability. As side projects, he has built two other balancing vehicles: a two-wheeled balancing scooter similar to the Segway but with different steering, and the self-balancing

Eunicycle A Eunicycle is a computer-controlled, partially self-balancing, motorized unicycle invented by Trevor Blackwell. It uses a computer control system similar to the one used by the Segway HT that servos its wheel to balance itself by keeping the co ...

. Several hobbyists have built vehicles based on the

open design The open-design movement involves the development of physical products, machines and systems through use of publicly shared design information. This includes the making of both free and open-source software (FOSS) as well as open-source hardwar ...

of the machine. He co-founded

in 2005.

References

External links

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Biography

The Robots Among Us
1969 births Canadian computer programmers Harvard University alumni Carleton University alumni Living people Canadian roboticists Canadian computer scientists American technology company founders Canadian company founders Canadian chief executives People from Saskatoon Businesspeople from Saskatchewan Canadian engineers Yahoo! employees American roboticists Y Combinator people {{Canada-compu-bio-stub