Mundane co-founder Maximilian Drach was among the speakers at Purdue Engineering's Bay Area Tech Summit, held on June 18, 2026 in the Hahn Auditorium at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View.
The summit brings Purdue faculty, alumni and industry partners together to close the gap between academic research and industry practice. This year's program focused on artificial intelligence as it relates to three areas: physical AI, nuclear energy and space, through a day of presentations and panel discussions.
From the demo to the job site
Maximilian spoke about the challenges facing robotics today, and what it takes to move robots out of demos and into real production environments.
Plenty of robots can perform in a lab or on a stage. Far fewer can be relied on day after day in places where conditions change, equipment varies and mistakes are expensive.
On the program
Maximilian shared the stage with speakers including Purdue Engineering Dean Mark Lundstrom, NVIDIA founder Chris Malachowsky, Astranis co-founder and CEO John Gedmark, Gatik co-founder and chief engineer Apeksha Kumavat, and representatives of BWXT, the Electric Power Research Institute and the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, alongside Purdue faculty in aeronautics, electrical and computer engineering, and nuclear engineering.
Thank you to Purdue Engineering for the invitation.