His research focuses on developing distributed algorithms for multi-robot systems, which is software that produces complex group behaviors from the interactions of many simple individuals. McLurkin was the 2003 recipient of the Lemelson-MIT student prize for invention. He holds an S.B. in electrical engineering, as well as a minor in mechanical engineering from MIT; a master’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley; and a S.M. and Ph.D. in computer science from MIT. His presentation is titled Dances with Robots: The Story of One Engineer, 112 Little Robots, and the Toys, Insects, and Star Wars Movies that Made it all Possible. A book signing will follow his talk.