Dennis Hong: From Hollywood Robots to Magic, Art, and Automated Kitchens | Andreas Orthey #10

"Well designed machines are sexy!"Join me for Episode 10 of the podcast. This time my guest is the legendary Dennis Hong, Professor of Robotics at the University of California, Los Angeles. The Washington Post called him the Leonardo da Vinci of robotics, he is the go-to expert whenever Hollywood needs a robot, and he has appeared on shows like MasterChef USA and Magic for Humans. Dennis is truly one of the few remaining modern polymaths, and it was a pleasure to talk with him not only about robotics, but also about his expert-level knowledge in fields as diverse as magic, cooking, and art.For me, Episode 10 was definitely 10/10 on the fun scale. Go watch it now!Outline02:23 Childhood in USA and Korea07:45 Academic Career13:06 Car For The Visual Impaired19:10 RoboCup World Champion22:58 Pioneering Breakthrough Technology25:22 Becoming An Artist29:56 Hollywood and Robotics31:47 Reinforcement Learning vs. MPC for Locomotion35:50 Cooking and MasterChef USA39:17 Automatic Ghost Kitchen43:32 Becoming a Magician46:35 Live Magic Trick48:19 On Making People HappyEpisode LinksSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7auQAJvcCXdVFomgSX5tC3?si=eWVM6LP5TSGEKm43m1341gApple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dennis-hong-from-hollywood-robots-to-magic-art-and/id1812910570?i=1000769489626X: https://x.com/andreas_orthey/status/2058916537868726453Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory (RoMeLa): https://www.romela.org/Dennis Hong's Website: https://samueli.ucla.edu/people/dennis-hong/Dennis Hong's TED Talks: https://www.ted.com/speakers/dennis_hongDennis Hong on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hong.dennis/Podcast LinksYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/andreasortheyX/Twitter: https://x.com/andreas_ortheySpotify: https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/andreasorthey/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aorthey/Support: https://buymeacoffee.com/aortheyPersonal Website: https://aorthey.comPodcast Website: https://aorthey.com/src/podcast