About – CASPAR.AI

caspar's journey

When Ashutosh Saxena’s (CEO) smart speakers didn’t work as he had initially hoped, he built a better system. Saxena and his roommates purchased devices such as the Amazon Echo, which can order goods online, turn the lights on and off, and do many other things around the house. However, Ashutosh struggled to connect the gadgets so that they can work seamlessly together. The virtual assistant would sometimes turn off the wrong light or not adapt to his or his roommates’ schedules as they changed over time.

So, Ashutosh built an artificial intelligence system called Caspar that automates the home so that residents can talk and interact with it. Caspar is installed in apartments and can manage around 100 devices such as motion and humidity sensors, microphones, cameras, thermostats, motorized shades, and automated appliances. These integrations help Caspar’s AI adapt the home to people’s preferences gradually.

Leadership

The rare creative spirits and independent thinkers who are shaping the future of living

Ashutosh Saxena has over a decade of experience in building Artificial Intelligence Systems for embodied systems such as robots and homes. In 2018, Ashutosh received a TR35 Innovator award by MIT Technology Review. Also, he has been recognized as one of the Eight Innovators to Watch by the Smithsonian Institution.

Previously, Ashutosh was a Professor of Computer Science at Cornell University, where he founded the Robot Learning Lab. He also co-founded Cognical Zibby, which provides a no credit required alternative to traditional financing for online retailers.

Ashutosh received his M.S. & Ph.D. in Computer Science with an emphasis on Artificial Intelligence from Stanford University under advisor Andrew Ng where he was an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow and Microsoft Faculty Fellow.

David Cheriton is a Professor of Computer Science, Emeritus at Stanford University. He is a world-renowned researcher in the areas of high-performance distributed systems, and high-speed computer communication with a particular interest in protocol design.

David was presented with the SIGCOMM Lifetime Achievement award by the Association for Computing Machinery “… for his contributions in data networking and systems, and for his keen talent for questioning the assumptions behind all of our work.”

David was Co-Founder and Chief Scientist of Arista Networks (IPO), Kealia (acq. Sun Microsystems), and Granite Systems (acq. Cisco Systems). He also wrote Google their first check and was an early investor in VMware where he was an advisor to Diane Greene.

David was listed on the Forbes Midas List, a roster of the best deal makers in technology venture capital published yearly by Forbes Magazine.

A true Silicon Valley engineering veteran, Corey Gates has over 20 years of both hardware and software systems development experience in managing full product lifecycles from inception to market availability. Prior to CASPAR, Corey was CTO & VP of Engineering at iControl Networks (acq. Comcast). Before iControl Networks, Corey co-founded Essentel, a telecommunications technology company, where he was the Chief Technology Officer developing voice solutions for the mobile phone industry.

Earlier, Corey co-founded AudioTalk Networks and, as Vice President of Technology, was responsible for technology and system architecture development that helped position the company for purchase by HearMe.

Corey received his Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley.

Navneet Yadav is responsible for setting the overall direction and product strategy for the company. Previously, he was a Senior Director of Product Management & Head of Product for Cisco Network Assurance Engine, where he focused on transforming data center network operations. Before Cisco, Navneet served as Co-Founder and Architect of CloudGenix, which is a leader in software-defined wide area networks (SD-WANs). Cloudgenix raised $34 million in venture capital from Intel Capital, Bain Capital Ventures, Mayfield Fund, and CRV.

Navneet was formerly a Distinguished Engineer at Juniper, architecting and incubating enterprise products as part of the CTO office.

Mr. Yadav holds a B.S. and M.S. in Computer Science and Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.

Maja Rudinac is the Vice President of Business Development for Caspar. Maja’s expertise is in designing technology-enabled products for elderly people and end-consumers.

Previously, Dr. Rudinac was Co-Founder and CEO of Robot Care Systems, which developed autonomous healthcare devices for people with cognitive or motion restrictions.

In 2019, Princess Mabel and former Queen of Netherlands presented Maja Rudinac with the prestigious Prince Friso Engineering Prize for creating an intelligent assistant robot walker that helps people who are not strong enough to walk or who may sometimes lose their navigational capabilities due to dementia.

Dr. Rudinac received her Doctor of Philosophy in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence from the Delft University of Technology with an emphasis on Exploration and Learning for Cognitive Robots. At Delft, she led the Interactive Robotics Group.