Global robot scientist Dennis Hong explores a future where humanoids, built to mirror human intellectual and locomotive capabilities, take on repetitive, scaled, and even dangerous tasks. Washington Post Magazine called Dr. Dennis Hong, PhD “the Leonardo da Vinci of robots.” Dr. Hong, a TED alumnus, is a Professor and Founding Director of RoMeLa (Robotics & Mechanisms Laboratory) of the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department at UCLA. His research focuses on robot locomotion and manipulation, autonomous vehicles and humanoid robots. He is the inventor of several novel robots and mechanisms, including the ‘whole skin locomotion’ for mobile robots inspired by how amoeba move and the world’s first car that can be driven by the blind. Dennis has been named to Popular Science’s “Brilliant 10”, “Forward Under 40” by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Alumni Association and honored as “Top 40 Under 40” alumni by Purdue University. Hong’s other awards include the National Science Foundation’s CAREER award, the SAE International’s Ralph R. Teetor Educational Award and the ASME Freudenstein/GM Young Investigator Award to name a few. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx