After running robotics labs at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Texas, Andrea Thomaz decided to move beyond academia. In 2017, she and her former grad student Vivian Chu founded Diligent Robotics to bring their technology for socially aware robotic coworkers into healthcare. Since September 2018, Diligent has been collaborating with nurses on monthlong pilot projects of Moxi, it's healthcare robot that can complete remedial tasks and use artificial intelligence to interact with nurses and patients, with plans to launch full service by year's end. Thomaz rejects the notion of trying to perfect a robot before debuting it. "We're going to get our product out in nine months," she says. "And then we're going to keep making it better."

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