James Emerick is Co-Founder and CEO of Cosmic Robotics, a San Francisco-based startup building AI-powered autonomous robots to accelerate utility-scale solar construction and critical energy infrastructure.

James holds a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and honed his expertise as a Robotics Engineer at Built Robotics and a Robotics Research Engineer at Autodesk Research, with earlier experience at Blue Danube Systems in 5G wireless engineering.

Inspired by four generations of family roots in construction, James identified the convergence of labor shortages, renewable energy demand, and advanced robotics as a defining opportunity to modernize one of the world's most essential industries.

Prior to Cosmic Robotics, James was an early employee at Built Robotics, where he focused on autonomous heavy equipment for civil infrastructure, and contributed to adaptive robotic systems for manufacturing and construction at Autodesk Research.

Cosmic Robotics raised $4M in Seed funding led by Giant Ventures and has unveiled the Cosmic-1A, an autonomous all-electric robot capable of installing solar panels 10x faster than manual methods, targeting the deployment of over 600 million panels needed in the U.S. by 2030.