PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

David Bourne

David Bourne is a robotics researcher whose AI work connects automated manufacturing with multi-sensor data fusion. He holds an M.S. from the University of Pennsylvania and joined Carnegie Mellon in 1980. With Paul Wright, he coauthored Manufacturing Intelligence in 1988 and presented an intelligent manufacturing workstation in 1994. He helped design Carnegie Science Center’s robotics exhibit in 1996, served as a principal investigator on CMU’s Profile-3D-Printing project in 2018, and coauthored a robotic-assembly error recovery study in 2020. As of October 2026, he is a Principal Systems Scientist in Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute.

Works
58
Citations
520
h-index
13
Badges

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 22 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 1980

    Joining Carnegie Mellon

    He holds an M.S. from the University of Pennsylvania and joins Carnegie Mellon in 1980. He works in the Robotics Institute.

  2. 1988

    Manufacturing Intelligence

    He coauthors Manufacturing Intelligence with Paul Wright in 1988; the book connects manufacturing processes with artificial intelligence.

  3. 1994

    An intelligent manufacturing workstation

    In 1994, he presents an intelligent manufacturing workstation. It is a planning system, controller, and machine tool that acts as a standalone design-to-production system.

  4. 1996

    A Science Center robotics exhibit

    In 1996, he helps design the Science Center’s robotics exhibit.

  5. 2018

    Profile-3D-Printing for facade panels

    In 2018, he serves as a principal investigator on CMU’s Profile-3D-Printing project. His team develops a robotic additive-manufacturing process for architectural facade panels with complex surfaces.

  6. 2020

    Robotic assembly error recovery

    In 2020, he coauthors a strategy for automatic error classification and recovery in robotic assembly. The battery-insertion experiment covers 1,500 assembly attempts and achieves a 99.6% classification rate and a 98.8% recovery rate.

  7. As of October 2026

    Sensor fusion for manufacturing

    As of October 2026, his research includes sensor fusion that combines information from acoustic emission, accelerometers, and vision based on the task description.

  8. As of October 2026

    Principal Systems Scientist

    As of October 2026, he is a Principal Systems Scientist in Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute.

Career

  1. Since 1980Carnegie Mellon UniversityPrincipal Systems Scientist

Education

  1. University of PennsylvaniaM.S.

From the biography and OpenAlex affiliations (the years of papers that list the organization), so some years are approximate.

  1. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes Carnegie Mellon University. We estimate where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led. Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads with 467 former students, including 291 recorded doctorates.
  2. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974Includes Carnegie Mellon University. We estimate where the people shaping AI worked when their most-cited papers appeared: the company share was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974, and Google led all organizations in 2020–2024.
  3. Google has the highest combined h-index among AI organizationsIncludes Carnegie Mellon University. We estimate that Google holds the highest combined h-index at 8,016, while universities account for 73% of the deduplicated total across AI organizations.
  4. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labsIncludes Carnegie Mellon University. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labs. We compare publishing careers, recent citations, dual appointments and job moves across 2,420 university researchers and 308 frontier-lab researchers.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

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  1. School of Computer Science < Carnegie Mellon University coursecatalog.web.cmu.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. WRIGHT TALK/ABSTRACT cs.cmu.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. RI SEMINAR, Friday, Feb 18, 1994 cs.cmu.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. About Town: Robotic Wonder (Summer 2008) carnegiemuseums.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. Profile-3D-printing thermally tuned concrete panels to offset mechanical loads in buildings manufacturingpa.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  6. A Novel Strategy for Automatic Error Classification and Error Recovery for Robotic Assembly in Flexible Production orbit.dtu.dk. Checked 21 October 2026.
  7. David Bourne - The Robotics Institute - CMU ri.cmu.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.