PhD Thesis Proposal
PhD Student
Robotics Institute,
Carnegie Mellon University

Sensorimotor-Aligned Design for Pareto-Efficient Haptic Immersion in Extended Reality

GHC 4405

Abstract: A new category of computing devices is emerging: augmented and virtual reality headsets, collectively referred to as extended reality (XR). These devices can alter, augment, or even replace our reality. While these headsets have made impressive strides in audio-visual immersion over the past half-century, XR interactions remain almost completely absent of appropriately expressive tactile [...]

PhD Thesis Proposal
PhD Student
Robotics Institute,
Carnegie Mellon University

Evaluating and Improving Vision-Language Models Beyond Scaling Laws

GHC 6501

Abstract: In this talk, we present our work on advancing Vision-Language Models (VLMs) beyond scaling laws through improved evaluation and (post-)training strategies. Our contributions include VQAScore, a state-of-the-art alignment metric for text-to-visual generation. We show how VQAScore improves visual generation under real-world user prompts in GenAI-Bench. Additionally, we explore training methods that leverage the language [...]

PhD Thesis Defense
PhD Student
Robotics Institute,
Carnegie Mellon University

Whisker-Inspired Sensors for Unstructured Environments

NSH 4305

Abstract: Robots lack the perception abilities of animals, which is one reason they can not achieve complex control in outdoor unstructured environments with the same ease as animals. One cause of the perception gap is the constraints researchers place on the environments in which they test new sensors so algorithms can correctly interpret data from [...]

RI Seminar
Nils Napp
Assistant Professor
Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cornell University

RI Seminar with Nils Napp

1403 Tepper School Building

RI Seminar
Axel Krieger
Associate Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering

RI Seminar with Axel Krieger

1403 Tepper School Building

Special Events

Robotics Institute Winter Party

All Robotics Institute Faculty. Staff, Students, and Visitors are invited to attend this event. Please join us for food, beverages, and casual conversation with colleagues. A calendar invite including details will be sent closer to the event.

RI Event

Robotics Institute Picnic

Please mark your calendars and plan to join us for the 2025 Robotics Institute Picnic! More information and RSVP e-vite to follow as we get closer to the event.