Abigail DeFranco

Hi, I am Abigail DeFranco, a rising senior studying Artificial Intelligence at Carnegie Mellon University. I am passionate about the intersection of robot learning and human-robot collaboration, with the goal of designing data efficient interactive algorithms that enable robots to intelligently and effectively learn from and work with humans. During the summer of 2022, I worked on tactile sensing and machine-learning enhanced dexterous manipulation under the guidance of Professor Abhinav Gupta and Raunaq Bhirangi. In the summer of 2023, I leveraged AI techniques to help automate Deep Space Network communications at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory-JPL under the mentorship of Dr. Mark Johnston. Currently, I am a member of the Intent Lab here at CMU, and am focusing on improving inverse reinforcement learning by leveraging expert data to reduce the amount of interaction required for real world robot tasks. In the RISS program I am very excited to collaborate with Professor Andrea Bajscy and Gokul Swamy to characterize and mitigate fundamental assumptions in imitation learning. I would like to sincerely thank Professor Bajscy, Gokul Swamy, Rachel Burcin, and all those involved in making this incredible opportunity possible.