Our Story
Made in Portland, Oregon
We began in Portland affectionately known as the "Rose City", with a goal to make robotics and clean-tech education accessible, practical, and empowering as well as to advance the state of the art.
Today our industry-recognized certifications and project-based learning experiences equip students with the tools needed to thrive in a rapidly changing workforce. Additionally, we contribute to innovation through our open-source software and grant-funded research.
Founded company
Joseph Cole creates the company as an Oregon corporation.
Co-founder joined
Duncan Miller joins the company as Co-founder.
Grant funding
First grant secured through the State of Oregon SBIR support.
Waivolt Merger
Joining forces to create a new AI enabled ed-tech training platform.
Our Team
We are a dynamic team who love robotics, AI, and science and are dedicated to delivering the best results for our customers and for our future.
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Joseph Cole, Ph.D.
Co-founder / CTO
Joseph earned his PhD in applied physics from Rice University and a graduate certificate in applied statistics from Portland State. He is a retired Major with the US Army Reserves and has over 20 years of experience developing computer vision and machine learning algorithms at companies like Northrop Grumman, Applied Materials and YorLabs.
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Duncan Miller, MBA
Co-founder / CEO
Duncan is a software engineer with over 20 years of experience as a founder. He has expertise in education technology, automation software, test-driven AI development and clean energy technologies. Duncan earned an MBA in Entrepreneurship from Babson College and is a faculty member at the PSU Center for Entrepreneurship and Business Accelerator.
Our Mission
Educating builders and problem-solvers
At Rose City Robotics, our mission is to empower learners through education in robotics, AI, and clean-tech systems. We provide accessible training, certifications, and project-based learning experiences that prepare our students for the future of AI, robotics and clean energy.
Our educational programs are grounded in real-world R&D. For example, students train on our in-house robotics platform we are designing to autonomously disassemble lithium-ion batteries, an initiative that supports critical material recovery and electrification.
Our Values
We believe robotics and AI should be used to educate, empower, and build a more sustainable and equitable future.
- Integrity
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We are committed to ethical practices in everything we do. As an employee-owned, open-startup we act in service of people and planet, not profit alone. No investors, no VC, no private equity, no bullshit.
- Innovation
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We fuse cutting-edge research with real-world problem solving. Whether it's building autonomous systems or educational tools, we iterate quickly and share knowledge openly to help others do the same.
- Impact
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We measure success by how many people we educate, inspire, and support. From workforce readiness to sustainability, we're here to build tools and knowledge that make a lasting difference.
Our Services
Our team of consulting software engineers, computer vision experts, designers, machine learning engineers and PhDs develops custom solutions to meet each client's unique needs.
- Computer vision
- Integrating advanced computer vision into early-stage robotic products, we resolve critical perception challenges through seamless hardware-software integration.
- Digital twin technology
- Create digital replicas of physical systems with physics simulations, enabling iterative development and synthetic training data generation to enhance model accuracy.
- Algorithm development
- Develop advanced algorithms for robotics and automation, focusing on motion planning, sensor integration, and computer vision to address critical perception challenges.
- Physics engines, simulation
- Produce synthetic training data to augment real-world datasets, accelerating model training and improving performance in data-scarce scenarios.