Ignacio Tartavull

About me

I was born/grew up in: Born and raised in Argentina.

I now live in: Toronto, Ontario

I completed my training/education at: I have a B.E. (Bachelor of Engineering) from the Universidad Nacional de Rosario in Rosario, Argentina. I also have a Masters of Industrial Engineering from the Universidad Nacional de Rosario. 

What I do at work

It varies widely from day to day. I'm just trying to help grow the business and sometimes that means talking with investors. At other times it means doing interviews or solving some deep technical issue that someone else is struggling with.

Our company, Tiny Mile, builds and operates remotely piloted delivery robots. Our robots – all of which are named Geoffrey, in homage to Geoffrey Hinton – work in a 2 km radius of the restaurant they deliver from. Human beings using gaming console controllers remotely pilot them. We build cameras and GPS systems into each Geoffrey. These help the human pilots in navigating the Toronto streets between the restaurant and the destination. It’s an innovative way of doing contactless delivery, and the community seems to really engage with it.

My career path is

I have had an unusual career, full of twists and turns. I began by running a hotel in Argentina, La Casa De Arriba. We were well rated on the most important travel booking sites within a few months! After that I moved to Princeton where I worked in the Sebastian Seung Lab. I worked with data infrastructure there as part of the IARPA-MICrONS project. This project aimed to revolutionize machine learning by reverse engineering the brain itself. After that, I moved to Uber where I worked as an Autonomy Engineer. My work there helped to develop self-driving technology, including mapping and vehicle safety. From there I took what I learned and started Tiny Mile. I guess you could say that my career has been one of simply following what seemed interesting at the time.

I am motivated by

I am obsessed with pushing the limits of what can be achieved with technology. I find it rewarding to spend my time trying to push such limits.

How I affect peoples’ lives

I hope that by building these delivery robots I can empower small businesses. I also hope these robots will help with reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Outside of work I

I love doing any sports.

My advice to others

Try it out!