Alexander Schmitz is one of the founders and shareholders of XELA Robotics, which he established with his partners in August 2018. He has been developing tactile sensors, both hardware and software, for more than 13 years, which is part of his broader work on human-collaborative robots. ‍He received his master's degree with honours from the University of Vienna, Austria, in 2007, and PhD degree from the University of Sheffield, England, in 2011. He performed his PhD research as part of a joint location program with the Italian Institute of Technology, Italy. Alex previously held positions as an Associate Professor at Waseda University, Japan, while also working at XELA Robotics. However, he has since shifted his focus to solely working at XELA Robotics. ‍He received numerous grants, including a grant of 117 million JPY from the JST START Program (Program for Creating STart-ups from Advanced Research and Technology) and support from the NEDO Entrepreneurs Program (NEP). ‍He has been featured in various magazines and news articles, including an article in the magazine Science about his experience as an entrepreneur. He has authored more than 100 research articles, including the world’s first research article about using deep learning for tactile sensing. He has received numerous awards for his work, such as the FANUC FA Foundation Award 2017. ‍