As part of the Immigrant Entrepreneur Video Interview Series, I go over what it meant to come to US as an immigrant to study for my PhD and found Neurala alongside my colleagues. Given 2/3 of Neurala's founders are immigrant, this is a main character of Neurala as a company. Being born in North Italy from a family of South Italian immigrant, I have been raised with deep familiarity with what it means to live in a place where you are'not from'. Since my early years, I have learned that immigrants start'a little behind the official starting line', whether at school, in job interviews, and in virtually any process or interaction where people are selected based on some personal criteria. This is how the human mind works (perhaps this is material for another post…) – and I have come to terms with it.

I am the co-founder and CEO of Neurala Inc., a Boston-based company building Artificial Intelligence emulating brain function in software. Neurala's deep learning tech makes robots, drones, cars, consumer electronics, toys and smart devices more useful, engaging and autonomous. Neurala stems out of 10 years of research at Boston University Neuromorphics Lab, where as AI Professor I have pioneered the research and fielding of brain-inspired (also called Deep Learning, or Artificial Neural Networks) algorithms that allow robots and drones to perceive, navigate, interact and learn real-time in complex environments. Over my academic and industrial career, I have lectured and spoken at dozens of events and venues, including TEDx, keynote at Mobile World Congress Drone Summit, NASA, the Pentagon, GTC, InterDrone, Los Alamo National Lab, GE, Air Force Research Labs, HP, iRobot, Samsung, LG, Qualcomm, Huawei, Ericsson, BAE Systems, AI World, Mitsubishi, ABB and Accenture, among many others. My work has been featured in TIME, IEEE Spectrum, Fortune, CNBC, The Boston Globe, Xconomy, The Chicago Tribune, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, Nasdaq, Associated Press and many other media.

About Massimiliano Versace I am the co-founder andam the co-founder and CEO of Neurala Inc., a Boston-based company building Artificial Intelligence emulating brain function in software. Neurala commercializes a new Deep Learning technology called Lifelong-DNN which revolutionizes AI by enabling continuous learning even on small compute devices. Over my academic and industrial career, I have co-founded the Boston University Neuromorphics Lab, authored dozens among academic papers, book chapters, and patents, and lectured at dozens of events and venues, including TEDx, keynote at Mobile World Congress, DARPA, the Pentagon, GTC, InterDrone, Los Alamo National Lab, GE, Air Force Research Labs, HP, iRobot, Samsung, LG, Qualcomm, Huawei, Ericsson, BAE Systems, AI World, Mitsubishi, ABB and Accenture, among many others. My work has been featured in in TIME, IEEE Spectrum, Fortune, CNBC, The Boston Globe, Xconomy, The Chicago Tribune, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, Nasdaq, Associated Press and many other media. Career and company awards include: CB Insights 100 Most Promising AI Companies, Draper Venture Network Most Innovative Company, Disruptor Daily 100 Most Disruptive Companies, Edison Award Best New Product in Social Innovation.