PhD Speaking Qualifier
PhD Student
Robotics Institute,
Carnegie Mellon University

On Interaction, Imitation, and Causation

GHC 6501

Abstract: A standard critique of machine learning models (especially neural networks) is that they pick up on spurious correlations rather than causal relationships and are therefore brittle in the face of distribution shift. Solving this problem in full generality is impossible (i.e. there might be no good way to distinguish between the two). However, if [...]

PhD Thesis Proposal
PhD Student
Robotics Institute,
Carnegie Mellon University

Learning via Visual-Tactile Interaction

NSH 3305

Abstract: Humans learn by interacting with their surroundings using all of their senses. The first of these senses to develop is touch, and it is the first way that young humans explore their environment, learn about objects, and tune their cost functions (via pain or treats). Yet, robots are often denied this highly informative and [...]

PhD Thesis Defense
Robotics Institute,
Carnegie Mellon University

Accelerating Numerical Methods for Optimal Control

NSH 3305

Abstract:  Many modern control methods, such as model-predictive control, rely heavily on solving optimization problems in real time. In particular, the ability to efficiently solve optimal control problems has enabled many of the recent breakthroughs in achieving highly dynamic behaviors for complex robotic systems. The high computational requirements of these algorithms demand novel algorithms tailor-suited [...]

PhD Thesis Proposal
PhD Student
Robotics Institute,
Carnegie Mellon University

Tactile SLAM: perception for dexterity via vision-based touch

NSH 3002

Abstract: Touch provides a direct window into robot-object interaction, free from occlusion and aliasing faced by visual sensing. Collated tactile perception can facilitate contact-rich tasks---like in-hand manipulation, sliding, and grasping. Here, online estimates of object geometry and pose are crucial for downstream planning and control. With significant advances in tactile sensing, like vision-based touch, a [...]

Faculty Events

RI Faculty Business Meeting

Newell-Simon Hall 4305

Meeting for RI Faculty. Discussions include various department topics, policies, and procedures. Generally meets weekly.

PhD Thesis Proposal
PhD Student
Robotics Institute,
Carnegie Mellon University

Resource Allocation for Learning in Robotics

NSH 3002

Abstract: Robots operating in the real world need fast and intelligent decision making systems. While these systems have traditionally consisted of human-engineered behaviors and world models, there has been a lot of interest in integrating them with data-driven components to achieve faster execution and reduce hand-engineering. Unfortunately, these learning-based methods require large amounts of training [...]

RI Seminar
Nidhi Kalra
Senior Information Scientist
RAND Corporation

What (else) can you do with a robotics degree?

1305 Newell Simon Hall

Abstract: In 2004, half-way through my robotics Ph.D., I had a panic-inducing thought: What if I don’t want to build robots for the rest of my life? What can I do with this degree?! Nearly twenty years later, I have some answers: tackle climate change in Latin America, educate Congress about autonomous vehicles, improve how [...]

VASC Seminar
Michael Zollhoefer
Research Scientist
Reality Labs Research

Complete Codec Telepresence

Newell-Simon Hall 3305

Abstract:  Imagine two people, each of them within their own home, being able to communicate and interact virtually with each other as if they are both present in the same shared physical space. Enabling such an experience, i.e., building a telepresence system that is indistinguishable from reality, is one of the goals of Reality Labs [...]

VASC Seminar
Kayvon Fatahalian
Associate Professor of Computer Science
Stanford University

R.I.P ohyay: experiences building online virtual experiences during the pandemic: what works, what hasn’t, and what we need in the future

Newell-Simon Hall 3305

Abstract:  During the pandemic I helped design ohyay (https://ohyay.co), a creative tool for making and hosting highly customized video-based virtual events. Since Fall 2020 I have personally designed many online events: ranging from classroom activities (lectures, small group work, poster sessions, technical papers PC meetings), to conferences, to virtual offices, to holiday parties involving 100's [...]

PhD Thesis Proposal
PhD Student
Robotics Institute,
Carnegie Mellon University

Planning with Dynamics by Interleaving Search and Trajectory Optimization

NSH 4305

Abstract: Search-based planning algorithms enable autonomous agents like robots to come up with well-reasoned long-horizon plans to achieve a given task objective. They do so by searching over the graph that results from discretizing the state and action space. However, in robotics, several dynamically rich tasks require high-dimensional planning in the continuous space. For such [...]