Towards a Robotic Architecture

Dr. Mahesh Daas is a designer, provocateur, technologist, theorist and an innovator with intersectional work that crosses many disciplinary boundaries. Daas currently serves as the dean of the School of Architecture and Design at the University of Kansas. The Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture (ACADIA) has elected him twice as its president. He's also been elected thrice to serve on the editorial board of the International Journal of Architectural Computing (Sage Publications). Daas is a prolific scholar whose interdisciplinary work has been featured in scholarly journals, conference proceedings, federal publications and academic books. Most recently, Daas is the author of the critically-acclaimed book Leading with Aesthetics: The Transformational Leadership of President Charles M. Vest at M.I.T. (Lexington Books, 2015). The book chronicles how Vest, Dean William J. Mitchell and others helped transform Massachusetts Institute of Technology from "the gray factory on the River Charles" into a world class campus for innovative architecture. The book has been hailed by critics as "a tour de force of interdisciplinary scholarship." Throughout his career, Daas has been honored for his creative achievements, leadership, and innovative approach to teaching. He has delivered invited lectures and keynote speeches at scholarly forums all over the world. Daas was recognized for his longstanding contributions to design computing with the 2013 ACADIA Society Award of Excellence. In 2011 he became the youngest educator and the second person of Asian origin to be chosen as an Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture Distinguished Professor, the highest national recognition for an architectural educator. At the University of Texas at San Antonio, where he served as the associate dean for Academic Affairs and Research, he won the 2007 President's Distinguished Achievement Award for Creative Production. Daas is a seasoned designer with many competitions and commissions under his belt. He is a co-recipient of a Kansas City chapter of American Institute of Architects Merit Award for the Baron BMW Dealership building in Merriam, KS in 2001; and a co-recipient of International Fabrics Foundation Outstanding Achievement Award for the design and construction of Advanced Fabrics Exhibition in San Antonio, TX. In 2007. In 2000, he won the second place in the high-profile American Institute of Architects + U.S. Department of Energy Sun Wall national competition in Washington, D.C. Daas has been actively involved with federal funding agencies. He has been a peer reviewer for the National Science Foundation (NSF). He was a member of the United States NSF delegation to Israel in 2010 to explore bilateral research opportunities between the countries in sustainable materials and technologies. Daas also has served on research grant review panels for the Canadian government. In 2011, Daas co-chaired a National Science Foundation symposium and workshop entitled Research in Materials and Manufacturing for Extreme Affordability in collaboration with ASME and IEEE. Daas earned a bachelor's degree from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad, India, in 1990; a master's degree from Kansas State University in 1994; and a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania in 2013.

Andrew John Wit is a co-founder of the interdisciplinary research group WITO, Laboratory for Intelligent Environments, and an assistant professor of Digital Practice within Temple University's Division of Architecture and Environmental Design where he leads research and teaching focused on novel building systems generated through the integration of lightweight composites, digital tools/fabrication + robotics. Wit also serves on the board of directors and the scientific technical committee for the Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture (ACADIA). Prior to his appointment at Temple University, Wit taught courses and led workshops in design, urbanism and robotics in the United States and Japan within institutions such as the University of Texas at San Antonio, MIT, Meiji University in Tokyo and as the international practitioner in residence fellow at Ball State University where he initiated the Indiana school's research program in industrial robotics in architecture. Wit's projects and avant-garde research have been recognized with a 2007 AIA Best of Practice recognition for UTenSAils design-build project, a 2007 IFAI Outstanding Achievement Award for the Advanced Fabrics Exhibition structure, the 2013 Guangzhou Vanke Project of the Year for the Guangzhou Vanke Marketing Center completed with TDStudio. Wit has also received numerous research/production grants and sponsorships. His research has also been published in academic forums including ACSA, SIGRADI, ACADIA, CAADRIA and the AAG, as well as in trade magazines such as 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing (3DP+), Interior Design Magazine and Texas Architect. Wit's research investigates the fecund intersection between intelligent machines, lightweight materials and novel design methodologies that result in the formulation of new processes for design, innovatively constructed artifacts and buildings with the ability to adapt both computationally and physically to their surrounding environments. Through experimentations with computational systems, digital production tools and hand and robotically placed composites such as pre-impregnated carbon fiber reinforced polymers, his research questions our current methods of building and material systems, while reimagining built structures capable of being easily robotically or hand fabricated in factories, on-site or in unknown environments. Through the lens of the One Day House initiative for intelligent housing, his research redefines our known conception of buildings and their roles within our society, economy and environment. Professionally, Wit has practiced in renowned offices such as Atelier Bow-Wow in Tokyo, Poteet Architects in San Antonio, TDStudio in Tokyo, and with the Pritzker prize winning architect Toyo Ito also in Tokyo. Wit earned a bachelor's in architecture from the University of Texas at San Antonio and a master's in architecture from MIT where he also researched in the Media Lab's Smart Cities Lab.