Robert J. Shillman
| Robert J. Shillman | |
|---|---|
| Born |
April 6, 1946 Boston, Massachusetts (USA) |
| Occupation | CEO, Cognex Corporation (Nasdaq: CGNX) in Natick, Massachusetts |
Robert "Bob" Shillman (born April 6, 1946 in Boston, Massachusetts) is founder, chairman and CCO (Chief Culture Officer) of Cognex Corporation. Cognex is a provider of machine vision systems, sensors, and industrial ID readers used in automated manufacturing. Shillman holds a B.S.E.E. from Northeastern University as well as an M.S.E.E. and a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Shillman founded Cognex Corporation in 1981 while a member of the Electrical Engineering faculty of Tufts University. He left academia to start Cognex, investing his life savings of $86,000 into the company. He invited two MIT graduate students-–Bill Silver and Marilyn Matz–-to embark on this business venture with him, offering free racing bicycles to convince them to leave MIT for a summer. These three individuals gave Cognex its start and its name, which was derived from the phrase "Cognition Experts".
Cognex was one of the first companies to explore commercial applications for machine vision in the early 1980s. By the 1990s, Cognex’s business had grown substantially due to the demand for machine vision to help automate semiconductor and electronics manufacturing. The company went public on the NASDAQ exchange in 1989.
Shillman was named Inc. magazine's Entrepreneur of the Year in 1990, received an Achievement Award in Leadership from the Automated Imaging Association in 1992, and received the North American SEMI Award in 2005 for his contributions to the semiconductor industry. He has published more than 20 technical papers and is recognized as an expert in the field of optical character recognition (OCR) and industrial uses of machine vision.
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