Event Location: NSH 1305
Bio: Sonia Chernova is the Catherine M. and James E. Allchin Early-Career Assistant Professor in the School of Interactive Computing, and the director of the Robot Autonomy and Interactive Learning (RAIL) lab. Her research interests span robotics, interactive machine learning, adjustable autonomy, human computation and human-robot interaction. Dr. Chernova received her Ph.D. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University in 2009, and was a Postdoctoral Associate at MIT before joining the Robotics Engineering Program at Worcester Polytechnic Institute as an Assistant Professor from 2010 to 2015. Dr. Chernova’s research is supported through funding from NSF, ONR and DARPA, and she is the recipient of the NSF CAREER and ONR YIP awards. Her work has been covered by national and international press, including the New York Times, National Geographic and the BBC.

Abstract: The development of robots that work alongside human users and are adaptable to changing task and user needs is of critical importance for furthering industries as diverse as manufacturing, healthcare, defense, and consumer services. To operate effectively in these complex domains, robots must have the ability to adapt to user preferences and learn from user input. In this talk, I will discuss how my lab’s research has leveraged innovations in cloud computing, crowdsourcing and remote access technologies to gain unprecedented access to data and users, fundamentally altering the way in which interactive robotic systems are developed and deployed. I will present applications of this research paradigm to robot learning from demonstration, object manipulation and semantic reasoning, as well as discuss exciting avenues for future research in this area.