Keynote speaker Hiroshi Ishiguro is a trailblazing robotics engineer whose humanoid creations mark the way to the future. A technology  speaker, Hiroshi Ishiguro (sometimes accompanied by his android double) delivers keynote addresses to organizations around the world.

As CEO of Hiroshi Ishiguro Laboratories and director of the Osaka University’s Intelligent Robotics Laboratory, Hiroshi Ishiguro blurs the lines between human and machine. His androids have helped redefine our relationship with technology and have opened up new conversations about human nature.

Ishiguro rocked 2003’s International Robot Exposition with the introduction of his first “Actroid,” a remarkably lifelike android. Two years later, Actroids helped at exposition booths, and another even took the stage as an emcee. These early models marked Ishiguro’s first bold steps toward his goal of creating androids that are indistinguishable from humans.

He took a massive step forward in that regard with 2006’s Geminoid, an android build to mimic Ishiguro himself. Geminoid often appears with Ishiguro in lectures and in public appearances, for example at the 2016 SXSW Interactive Festival. Telenoid, on the other hand, represented a departure: a deliberately amorphous robot that uncannily mirrors its controller’s gestures.

A frequent guest on Japanese television, Ishiguro has long invited the public to tour his facilities. He also has won the Tateisi Prize and the Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Knowledge Award. His protégé Christian Peñaloza was named MIT Technology Review’s Innovator of the Year in 2016.