Meet the 2022 RI Summer Scholars!

Hey! I'm Aryan, a rising senior at the Delhi Technological University, New Delhi, pursuing a major in Electronics and Communication Engineering with a minor in Computer Science. I am keen on exploring robotics perception and have major research interests in Localisation and Mapping. I have participated in projects and competitions that combine embedded systems, learning and vision for automation of ground vehicles from my freshman year. This summer, I will be working on Object Based Indoor Re-Localization. I'm looking forward to working at the Air Lab with Dr. Sebastian Scherer and Dr. Chen Wang, as well as becoming a part of the greater RISS community and expanding my robotics skills. I'd want to express my gratitude to Dr. John M. Dolan, Ms. Rachel Burcin, the CMU RISS organizers, and sponsors for providing me with this fantastic opportunity. I'm looking forward to an amazing summer research experience!

Hey! I‘m Jana, a second year CS student from Karlsruhe, Germany. I am both interested in how we perceive and analyse our surroundings. Thus, I‘m fascinated by trying to teach a computer seemingly easy tasks, such as „What emotion are present in this text?“ and „How is a frame in a video related to the frame before?“. Thanks to RISS I will have the opportunity to work on efficiently solving the latter questions this summer. I will be joining the Argo AI lab under supervision from Deva Ramanan and his visiting PhD student Jonathon Luiten. It is with their and my sponsors‘ support that I am able to attend RISS. Thank you!

Hello! My name is Abdel Zaro. I am a rising junior studying Mechanical Engineering at UC Berkeley. As a summer scholar, I am working in Dr. Aaron Johnson's lab on multi-agent robotics. Broadly, I'm passionate about research that involves robots in the real world. Multi-agent robotics can be applied to things like Amazon package warehouses, autonomous vehicles, and aircraft swarm flying. This summer, I'll be focusing on collision detection between robots in these multi-robot environments. I am grateful for the opportunity to participate in the RISS program and would like to thank the RISS team, my sponsors, Dr. Johnson, and my mentor for making this research experience possible.

Hello! My name is Renos Zabounidis, and I am a graduating senior majoring in Computer Science and Mathematics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. At UMass, I have focused on research in statistical machine learning (specifically Normalizing Flows), interpretability, and Deep Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning. I am interested in applying techniques from Machine Learning, Statistics, and Cognitive Science to create more cooperative, social artificial agents. This summer, I will be continuing my work with Dr. Katia Sycara on developing interpretable Multi-Agent Reinforcement learning models whose policy can be understand and influenced by human intervention. Following RISS, I will join RI as a PhD student funded by an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. Huge props to Rachel Burcin, Dr. Dolan, and all the other RISS mentors / sponsors making RISS in person this year! I’m looking forward to meeting everyone in person for the first time and hopefully seeing some old faces from my cohort.

Hello! My name is Allison Yang. I am a rising senior at New York University, majoring in computer engineering and minoring in mathematics. In the past few years, I have done much research in machine learning and game theory. This summer I am working on the AutoML project in the AutonLab under the mentorship of Dr. Dubrawski. AutoML is a system to automatically search plausible machine learning models and rank them according to their performance. Our goal is to evaluate the performance of AutoML system on massive datasets and analyze its behaviors under different circumstances. I am so grateful to learn and grow here as a scholar and meet you all. Learning is fun, and research is more fun.

Hello. My name is Wenli Xiao, and I am a Computer Engineering student at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen. I am interested in AI and intelligent systems. In the past few years, I have worked on federated learning and its application to IoT and mobile robot systems. This summer, I will be working on the safe autonomous driving system with Prof. John M. Dolan and Yiwei Lyu. We plan to leverage the control barrier function to multi-agent reinforcement learning to ensure safety exploration. It is an honor to be part of this program that allows me to meet excellent researchers worldwide. I am excited to meet each cohort member and share experiences and ideas. I am grateful for the opportunity to grow as a researcher and learn more about different research areas of robotics from CMU professionals. Thank you so much to the sponsors, organizers, and mentors that make this possible.

Hello! My name's Shuangge Wang. I'm a rising senior at University of Southern California, double-majoring in Electrical and Computer Engineering and Applied and Computational Mathematics. Prior to joining RISS, I was a research fellow at USC Autonomous Networks Research Group, focusing on dynamic system optimization in the field of blockchain technologies. Over this summer, I'll be working with Dr. John M. Dolan and Yiwei Lyu on multi-agent system probing and manipulation, specifically on how could this theory be applied to the context of autonomous and human-controlled vehicles. I'm super excited and humbled to be a part of this year's cohort, and I wish to thank my mentors, sponsors, and the entire CMU RISS community for their amazing support.

Hello everyone! My name is Will Scott, and I am a Computer Engineering student at the University of Pittsburgh. I am interested in learning more about path planning based on the Anytime A* algorithm for autonomous robots and systems. This summer, I will be researching in the Search-Based Planning Lab under the guidance of Dr. Maxim Likhachev. I am excited to collaborate in a team-oriented environment, as opposed to the test-based model in classrooms within academia. I feel this environment aligns with my work style more by granting me the freedom to explore my interest without the overt fear of failure. Furthermore, I look forward to refining my communication skills and building my professional network with like-minded peers. I cannot wait to use the technical knowledge and skills learned from RISS to empower my local community: building a framework for after-school programs designed to expose underrepresented minorities to robotic concepts in a safe environment. Thank you to my sponsors and RISS staff for believing in me and supporting me to pursue this opportunity.

Hi, my name is Brad Shook. I am a rising senior at Davidson College pursuing a major in computer science and a minor in mathematics. This summer, I will be working under Dr. Artur Dubrawski in the Auton Lab. My research will focus on probabilistic deep learning for large-scale vision tasks. Through this experience, I hope to expand my knowledge of the wide-ranging applications of machine learning. I would like to thank my mentors, sponsors, and the entire RISS community for this exciting opportunity.

Hello everyone! My name is Tim Storm and I am in the final semester of my Computer Science degree at the University of Paderborn, Germany. So far I have been mostly interested in IT security and theoretical computer science, but I am trying to expand my horizon, which is why I will be working on applications of computer vision in traffic under Dr. Christoph Mertz this summer. Apart from the topic itself, I am trying to explore the idea of working in academia and applying for grad school following my bachelors degree. I am very excited about this opportunity and cannot wait to meet you all!

Hello, my name is Grace Su and I am a rising senior, computer science major, and Egleston Scholar at Columbia University in the School of Engineering. I am interested in human-centered AI, computer vision, and perception for autonomous systems to explore how computers can intelligently gather meaning from their surroundings and ultimately better people’s lives. As a part of the RISS program, I am excited to learn more about cutting-edge robotics research, with both depth and breadth, from cohort peers and faculty researchers while experiencing the entire research process. This summer, I will be working with Professor Narasimhan at the Illumination & Imaging Lab to conduct research in computer vision for traffic analytics. I would like to thank my mentors, sponsors, the RISS program organizers, and CMU for making this wonderful opportunity possible.

Hello! My name is Teodor Tchalakov. I am a Computer Engineering student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. My focus is in motion planning and control with an interest in holistic robotic systems design from hardware to software. I enjoy exploring robotics by testing the limitations of theory on physical systems and finding new approaches from the problems that arise. My previous research experience is with data-driven model predictive control optimization at the Intelligent Motion Lab at UIUC. This summer, I will continue to research the full breath of intelligent robot motion with Dr. John M. Dolan and Dr. Qin Lin at the Argo AI Center for Autonomous Vehicle Research. My goal is to design and improve upon safety-critical control methods using reachability analysis to formally verify systems while balancing optimality and safety. I am grateful to the RISS community mentors and sponsors for their efforts to enable this diverse and collaborative research experience.

Hello! My name is Conner Pulling and I am a RISS’21 alumni and an incoming MSR graduate student at Carnegie Mellon University. I am interested in researching and developing robotic capabilities for autonomy, reasoning, and perception in unstructured environments such as in space or underground. This summer, I am excited to work with the AirLab under the mentorship of Dr. Sebastian Scherer and Dr. Yaoyu Hu. My research with RISS will build on previous work and focus on developing novel learning-based omnidirectional depth estimation methods using multiple fisheye camera images. The goal is to run a deep learning model in real-time on an edge device to get a full 360° depth map around an agent, which could be used for 3D reconstruction, collision avoidance, and much more. I look forward to continuing my robotics research with world-renown experts while having the chance to explore Pittsburgh, CMU, and RI in-person. I believe my time with the AirLab and RISS will give me the chance to be both a mentor and a student, helping begin my graduate journey with CMU on a positive note. I want to thank my mentors, Rachel Burcin, John M. Dolan, the RISS sponsors, and the AirLab for the opportunity to learn and grow this summer!

My name is Ernest, a returning RISS alumnus from Warsaw, Poland, currently residing in Stockholm, Sweden. Studying Machine Learning at KTH Royal Institute of Technology where I also work half-time as research engineer in the Division of Robotics, Perception and Learning, with a focus on Computer Vision. An enthusiast of effective altruism and incorporating such philosophy into research and AI-driven solutions, wishing to have a positive impact on our world with my career. Fan of good coffee, extreme music and extreme sports.

My name is Indu Panigrahi, and I am a rising senior studying computer science at Princeton University. My research interests center around computer vision and its applications in other fields. As part of RISS, I will be joining the Navigation Laboratory (Navlab) under the mentorship of Dr. Christoph Mertz. My research will involve developing vision systems to detect hazardous conditions near bus stops. This project contributes to the Smart City initiative in Pittsburgh, and more generally in any city, by facilitating bus route maintenance. I look forward to expanding my research experience and would like to thank the RISS team and sponsors for organizing and supporting this opportunity.

Hi! My name is Chigozie Ofodike and I am currently a senior at Kean University where I study computer science with an emphasis on data science. My past research has been on object detection and tracking with the help of computer vision and the applications of these technologies. Some use cases are determining if a parking spot is filled or not, detecting people in an image, then determining the distance between them for a social distancing calculator. This summer I am excited to say that I will be working under Dr. Artur Dubrawski in the Auton Lab. After my first experience with the RISS program, I became enthralled by the work happening here so much that I hope to pursue an advanced degree from CMU. At this stage, I am sure I want a degree but I am quite unsure of what I would like to focus on. My goal this time around is to explore deeply the programs available.

Hello! My name is Ekechi Nzewi. I am currently a junior majoring in Software Development at Georgia Gwinnett College. I am interested in Combinatorial Game Theory, Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), and Reinforcement Learning (RL). Being interested in AGI, one of my goals is to hopefully create a sentient AI. To achieve this, I have been studying the software aspect of artificial intelligence. To further aid this, I have recently been trying to get into the robotics/hardware aspect because one thing science fiction has taught me is that to achieve AGI, a physical body is necessary. In the past, I’ve done research in computational neuroscience, and data analysis. This summer, I will be working with Dr. George Kantor in the Field Robotics Centre. Dr. Kantor’s research is focused on using AI and RL in agriculture. I am looking forward to expanding my horizons and interacting with world-class researchers. I am also excited to interact with other cohort members, as well as other Carnegie Mellon researchers. I would like to thank the RISS community for providing me this great opportunity, and the sponsors for making this possible.

Hey! My name is Vihaan Misra, and I am studying Electrical Engineering with a minor in Artificial Intelligence at the Netaji Subhas University of Technology in India. I have an innate passion for the field of computer vision and for understanding how we can combine it with language modelling to create some fascinating use cases. Over the summers, I will be working under the supervision of Dr Jean Oh in the Bot Intelligence Group. My project will involve converting hand-drawn sketches into natural and life-like images using textual inputs. I am very excited to work on the project. I want to thank Dr John M. Dolan, Ms Rachel Burcin, the CMU RISS organizers, and sponsors for making this wonderful opportunity possible. I am thrilled to have this chance, and I am looking forward to a productive and fun summer!

I am a graduate student at Polish Air Force University. I have graduated with a specialization in Aircraft Piloting and actually I am in the process of learning and passing the ATPL (Air Transport Pilot License). In my spare time, I truly enjoy doing sport, drawing and playing chess.

I am a rising senior at the University of California Santa Barbara majoring in Mechanical Engineering. I am interested in robotics, mechatronics, and prototyping, and am excited to continue developing my understanding of these fields. I have participated in microfluidic and bio-inspired robotic research. This summer, as a summer scholar, I look forward enriching my experience with micro-robotics working with Dr. Bergbreiter in the Micro-Robotics Lab. During this program, I plan to research design, prototype, and fabrication of microsensors or actuators applicable to robotic systems of all scales.

Hello, my name is Parv Maheshwari and I am currently pursuing an Integrated Masters course at Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur. I am majoring in Mathematics and Computing. My major research interest lies in motion control and path planning of autonomous ground vehicles. I have been working on the same for more than two years now. I am very excited to participate in the RISS program this summer and have the opportunity to work under distinguished researchers in the field of robotics. This summer, I will be working under Dr. Wenshan Wang and Dr. Sebastian Scherer at AirLab. Our project will primarily focus on improving the robustness of autonomous off-road driving by replacing classical vehicle models by a neural network and field testing our algorithms for real-time performance in off-road environments. I hope to contribute to research that will improve the robustness of autonomous off-road driving. I would like to thank my mentors, the RISS sponsors partners as well as the AirLab for this wonderful opportunity

Hello, my name is Mingzhu and I am a senior studying computer science at the University of Michigan. My primary research interest lies in machine learning in healthcare and robotics. I have been doing research on computer vision for medical and biochemical data at my school for one year. I plan on attending graduate school to pursue my research interest further. This summer, I will be joining the Auton Lab under the mentorship of Dr. Artur Dubrawski, where I will work on radiograph datasets of patients susceptible to cancer and their long-term follow-up and mortality incidence. Specifically, my project will involve the use of deep learning techniques along with survival analysis methods for mortality prediction. Needless to say, I am exhilarated to be in this lab. In addition to making connections with and learning from my fellow cohort members, I will also get a close look at what constitutes day-to-day life for professionals in my desired field. I would like to thank the RISS sponsors for providing such an amazing opportunity and anticipate great growth for myself this coming summer!

Hello. My name is Wesley Lewis, and I'm a third-year computer science and math student from the University of Virginia. This summer, I will join Professor Zackary Erickson at the Robotic Caregiving and Human Interaction (RCHI) Lab. My research interests include machine learning, robotics, and security. This summer, I will be exploring spectroscopy applications in healthcare robotics. I am passionate about doing research, and this experience will help me prepare for grad school. I want to thank my mentor, RISS, and the sponsors for making this opportunity possible.

Hi, I am Muhan Lin, a junior student at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen. I major in computer engineering, and my research interest is in cooperation between multi-robots and multi-sensor fusion, which are the basis of making robots realize complex but interesting group tasks. I once researched relative pose estimation supervised by Professor Tin Lun Lam at Shenzhen Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Institute. This summer, I will work in the Air Lab under the guidance of Professor. Sebastian Scherer and Dr. Shibo Zhao. I will explore pushing the boundary of SLAM in challenging environments utilizing my experience in relative pose estimation. I am looking forward to improving my research ability and gaining insights into robotics research in communication and cooperation with researchers of the RISS cohort. I appreciate my supervisors and sponsors for this valuable experience.

Hi, I’m Van Le, a rising senior at Hollins University, double majoring in Mathematics and Applied Economics. I am from Vietnam but moved to the USA in 2019 to pursue my undergraduate study. I am grateful to be a scholar of RISS 2022 and guided by Professor Artur Dubrawski and his graduate student, Chirag. My research at RISS is about equity in policy making and discovering heterogeneous treatment effects in clinical and econometric trials. I hope to improve my computer programming skills, research skills, learn about graduate application and contribute to the ongoing research at the Auton Lab. I look forward to the research and would like to thanks my mentors, sponsors, the RISS staff and everyone for making this possible.

Hello everyone! I am Joel Julin, a senior Computer Science student at the University of Pittsburgh. My research interests primarily concern the topics of computer vision and deep learning. This summer I will be working with Dr. László Jeni’s Computational Behavior Lab where I will be researching applications for neural radiance fields (NeRF). Prior to this experience, I researched the role of spatial mixing in 2D convolutions under Dr. Simon Lucey’s Ci2Cv computer vision lab at CMU. I am eager to progress my knowledge within the field as well as gain valuable exposure to surrounding studies. I want to thank all who made the RISS program possible; I will forever appreciate this pivotal opportunity.

Hi, my name is Yash Jangir, and I am studying Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering at the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani. I am excited to be part of this year's RISS cohort. I am primarily interested in the Controls, Navigation, and State estimation in aerial robotics, but I also want to develop a deep understanding of the field. I aspire to attend graduate school and continue research in robotics. I have previous experience working with Vision-based Navigation and controls for aerial vehicles. I have also worked on optimal and classical control for robotic manipulators. This summer, I am honored to be working under the mentorship of Prof. Sebastian Scherer and Dr. Junyi Geng at the Air Lab. I will be working in the area of Visual Servoing for Aerial Manipulation using Fully-actuated Multirotor UAVs. I look forward to making meaningful contributions to the ongoing research in the Lab and gaining research experience in robotics. I want to thank Prof. Sebastian Scherer, Dr. Junyi Geng, and the RISS community for this outstanding opportunity and the sponsors for making this precious experience possible.

Hello my name is Skyler Hughes. I am a senior pursuing majors in Computer Science and Physics at the University of New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. I have research interests in Reinforcement Learning (RL), Discrete Differential Geometry, Planning, the Material Point Method, and Physics Simulation. I am interested in high speed, long horizon planning problems. As well as material simulation and structure optimization. Previously I have worked on telemetry visualization software for an experimental aircraft, and I am currently the computer science team lead for my school’s NASA lunabotics competition team. My hobbies include recreational programming, Blender3D modeling, skateboarding, breadboard electronics, and photography. This summer I will be working under Dr. Corah and Dr. Scherer in the Airlab focusing on autonomous drone planning algorithms for multi-drone reconstruction. I am very excited to expand my knowledge in these complex fields, and look forward to applying them to future projects across a variety of fields! I am very grateful to Rachel Burcin and the other RISS leaders for making this such an unforgettable experience!

Hello my name is Guanqi He. I am an undergraduate student in the major of Computer Science from ShanghaiTech University. Previously I have been involved in projects mainly related to control theory and optimization. This summer I will be working in AirLab under the supervision of Prof. Sebastian Scherer and Junyi Geng. My project will mainly focus on the force control and visual servo of fully-actuated multi-rotors. I suppose to achieve a hybrid force and visual based motion control for fully-actuated multi-rotors. I would like to thank my mentors, sponsors, the RISS program organizers, and CMU for making this wonderful opportunity possible.

Hello, I am Stephane Hatgis-Kessell. I am a rising Junior at the University of Texas at Austin, and am a computer science major in the Turing Scholars Honors Program. I have previously conducted research on preference based reinforcement learning at UT Austin and with the Bosch autonomous driving division, where we analyzed how to learn more human-aligned reward functions using preferences from both a normative and descriptive lens. This summer I will be joining Dr. Katia Sycara’s lab, where I am studying emergent communication for multi-agent reinforcement learning. I hope to apply this work to improve an agents ability to cooperate with human teammates. I am very excited to conduct original research while learning more about robotics. I am exploring next steps and possible pathways, and I will be applying for a PhD program in fall 2023. I would like to thank the RISS program for giving me this amazing opportunity to work under top robotics researchers and meet like minded peers.

Hi, my name is Rayna Hata, and I am a rising senior at Colby College in Maine studying computer science. I am interested in human-computer interaction, human centered robots, and multi-robot interactions with accessibility applications. This is my second year in the RISS program, and I am excited to further my knowledge in research, different areas of robotics, collaborative work, and graduate programs. I am thrilled to be working under Dr. Stephen Smith and Dr. Isaac Isukapati again this year at the Intelligent Coordination and Logistics Laboratory. I will be continuing my research on pedestrian localization of blind or visually impaired people. This research aims to make a system that helps guide pedestrians safely across a series of intersections in urban areas. My previous research includes creating a VR space to display a network of interactive sound systems and creating a four-wheel robot to assist others with carrying objects. This summer, I want to thank Dr. Stephen Smith, Dr. Isaac Isukapati, and the RISS sponsors and partners for making this opportunity possible.

Hi, I am Jan-Malte Giannikos, student at the University of Bielefeld, Germany. I am currently working on my Bachelors degree in cognitive computer science. During my studies I have developed an interest in planning algorithms and how they can be combined with other machine learning methods to deal with uncertain environments. This summer I will be joining the Intelligent Autonomous Manipulation Lab under the mentorship of Dr. Oliver Kroemer. There I will be working on modelling tree canopies and planning around them for the purpose of robotic manipulation. I am thrilled to be working with world renowned researchers and to meet many other people with a passion for robotics. I want to thank Dr. Oliver Kroemer, Rachel Burcin, Dr. John M. Dolan, DAAD, the RISS sponsors and CMU as a whole for giving me this amazing opportunity.

Hello, I am Srujan Deolasee, a rising senior at the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani, and I am pursuing a major in Computer Science. My research interests include motion planning for autonomous robots and learning-based algorithms for navigation. I have previously worked on developing a modified Hybrid A* planning algorithm for a tractor-trailer robot. This summer, I am working under the supervision of Dr. John Dolan and Dr. Qin Lin at the Argo AI Center for Autonomous Vehicle Research. I will be researching safety-guaranteed motion planning for autonomous vehicles. I hope to contribute to the previous research in speed profile planning techniques which deal with dynamic obstacle avoidance given a planned path. I aim to optimize Bezier polynomials to find a comfort-optimal trajectory for the vehicle. Being a part of the RISS community allows me to network with world-class roboticists at CMU RI. It is an invaluable opportunity to grow as a researcher as it will enable me to learn "how to ask good research questions". This experience will prepare me to pursue graduate school research in robotics. I am grateful to my mentors, the entire CMU RISS organization, and the sponsors for making this opportunity possible. I'm looking forward to a fantastic summer research experience!

Hi everyone, my name is Eva Damon and I am a rising senior Electrical and Computer Engineering major and Autonomous Systems minor at the United States Air Force Academy. In my undergraduate research thus far, I have worked on teaming robotics and assistive technologies in order to better enable handicapped persons to navigate in a wheelchair without using their extremities. I then started pursuing how to allow robots to navigate in environments without GPS whilst simultaneously communicating amongst themselves. This summer, I will be working with Dr. Isaac Isukapati and Dr. John M. Dolan on developing a scheduler for task planning. I am very excited to work with everyone at the Robotics Institute this summer. I would like to thank USAFA, CMU, and my Department Head, Col. Brian Neff, for this incredible opportunity!

My name is Jacob M. Delgado-López, and I am a rising junior studying computer science and engineering at the University of Puerto Rico. I am very excited to participate in the RISS program this summer to gain exposure to novel robotics research and strengthen my research and interpersonal skills. This summer, I am grateful to have the opportunity to work under the supervision of Yufei Wang in the Robotic Caregiving and Human Interaction (RCHI) Lab led by Dr. Zackory Erickson. This lab focuses on developing new computational, control, and sensing methods with the objective of advancing the viability of robotic caregivers. I will be working on a project focused on the development of capacitive sensors to facilitate the physical interaction and assistance of people. More specifically, I will be building upon previous research with the goal of breaching the gap between capacitive sensor data collected in simulation and the real world and optimizing capacitive sensor design/configuration in simulation. I hope to contribute to research that will pave the way for the innovation in assistive technology for caregiving services. I would like to take the opportunity to thank the RISS sponsors, organizers, and mentors as well as Dr. Zackory Erickson and the RCHI Lab for making this experience possible!

Hi. I’m Zhengyu Fu, a rising senior at the Hong Kong University of science and technology majoring in integrative systems and design, with a dual major in computer engineering. I am a robotics fanatic with a particular passion for model-based and optimization-based control of complex mechanical systems. With extensive hands-on experience in robot design, manufacturing, and control gained from robotic competitions, I am down to bring crazy and frontier ideas into real life. This summer, it is my great honor to work in the Robotic Exploration Lab with Professor Zachary Manchester and lab members one legged locomotion and contact-rich model predictive control for quadrupeds. I am profoundly grateful to Professor Zachary for giving me this opportunity and for providing me with a scholarship. I would also like to thank the RISS team, the sponsors, and everyone who makes the RISS Program possible. Your efforts open up the possibilities of a young enthusiastic researcher and light up his way forward.

Hi! My name is Ana Paola Garcia Alonzo and I study Biomedical Engineering at Tecnologico de Monterrey, Campus Guadalajara. I happen to find a perfect match for my passions in my profession. Especially because I aspire to focus my line of work in developing biologically inspired dynamic technology to enhance human-computer interactions. My main passions right now include neuroengineering and biomechanics. Back at home I am a member of the robotics club, RoboTec, where we are constantly working on multidisciplinary and pioneering projects. During this summer, I will be working with Dr. Melisa Orta, in the Social Haptics Robotics and Education (SHRED) Laboratory working on a novel proposal for robotics, mathematics and its educational applications. I am very thankful to my sponsors and excited about this opportunity to be a part of the RISS program, since it will help me acquire a wide range of robotics, soft, and scientific skills. I look forward to the research alongside my mentor, peers, and the entire RISS team.

I am an undergraduate (2019–2023) in the School of Information Science and Technology (SIST) at ShanghaiTech University. My major is computer science, and I also minor in finance. I joined the PLUS (Perception, Learning and UnderStanding) Group at SIST (School of Information Science and Technology) as an undergrad research assistant. My research interests include uncertainty in deep learning, Bayesian modeling, generative modeling, and deep learning with its various applications. My current research focuses on uncertainty in segmentation problems. I will work with Yaoyu Hu and Sebastian Scherer this summer, and communicate with many excellent researchers. Thanks for the world's top academic atmosphere and culture that Carnegie Mellon University will bring to me.

Hi! I am Eric Chen, a rising junior studying Computer Science and Mathematics at Harvey Mudd College. At Harvey Mudd, I lead a team of undergraduates to develop an autonomous underwater robot for the Robosub competition as the Vice President of Software, and I work as a machine learning research to investigate ways to quantitatively compare model assumptions, bias, and capacity with Mudd's AMISTAD Lab. I enjoy learning about all forms of perception (computer vision, deep learning, multisensor) and developing robot infrastructure. This summer, I am excited to work with Professor Sebastian Scherer and Cherie Ho in the Air Lab on an adaptive long-range perception system that predicts lidar labels using a camera for off-Road driving in the DARPA RACER competition. For this project, I aim to use the LIDAR to automatically label image data to train the model online. This self-supervised, online approach will allow our image segmentation model to adapt to the constantly changing environment of off-road driving. Working on this project allows me to contribute to the cutting edge of autonomous driving and will help me grow as a vision researcher. With my remaining time as a RISS Scholar, I hope to enrich my knowledge of robotics, meet experts in the field, and connect with the other students in my amazing cohort. I am grateful to the RISS staff, sponsors, and the AirLab team for providing me with this valuable experience.

Hello, my name is Caleb Chang and I am a rising senior studying Electrical Engineering at Georgia Tech. I am interested in controls, signal processing, and anything else robotics-related! This summer, I have the opportunity to dive deeper into the field of robotics–specifically in autonomous vehicle safety. As part of RISS, I will be working under Dr. John M. Dolan at the Robotics Institute to tackle three primary goals regarding safety-critical control. The first is to develop a method to determine pairwise interactions between vehicles. The second is to estimate the parameters of a control barrier function from noisy observations. Third, by combining results from the first and second goals, we can develop an appropriate strategy for the ego agent to better interact with the target agent and its surrounding vehicles allowing for safer and more effective locomotion. I am super grateful to John M. Dolan, Yiwei Lyu, and those at the Robotics Institute for giving me this opportunity to work, learn, and grow to be a more mature researcher this summer.

Hello! I am Anisa Callis and I am a current mentee pursuing my passion for human-centered design majoring in Human-Centered Design and Development at Pennsylvania State University as a rising junior and a member of the Millennium Scholars Program, a highly selective program for underrepresented groups students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. I have and currently am engaged in active learning and developing skills in programming languages such as Java, Python, and R, and other tools used in my field such as Figma. I gained valuable experience with research last during my research experience for undergraduates (REU) at Rochester Institute of Technology. Through that opportunity, I learned how to conduct and run an experiment for the first time. My REU experience was virtual, presenting challenges that helped me grow in new ways. I learned to work in groups differently since all interaction was over zoom. I also found ways to connect and communicate with my groupmates through a screen and develop lasting relationships with my mentors. I ultimately wish to use last summer's REU and this summer's internship to gain experiences that will help me take my skills with human-centered design and software design into industry. I also have a desire to further my curiosities by gaining my Ph.D. in Human-centered design. My goal with my future career is to use my experiences and degree to create technological solutions that are beneficial and not harmful to the targeted users while supporting others to do the same and find their enthusiasm for technology. Through Robotics Institute of Summer Scholars (RISS) working with Dr. Jack Mostow on his project RoboTutor, I wish to continue to gain confidence in my academic and research abilities, grow in my learned ability to work in teams, gain valuable mentorship and advice with long-lasting relationships, and experiences to further my future in Human-Centered Design.

I’m Gus Brocchini, a rising junior majoring in Computer Science at Yale University. I’m interested in machine learning, especially reinforcement learning and inherently interpretable models. I’ve previously worked at Microsoft and the Human Rights Data Analysis Group. This summer, I’m excited to work on the Artificial Social Intelligence for Successful Teams (ASIST) project under the supervision of Dr. Katia Sycara and Dr. Dana Hughes in the Advanced Agent-Robotics Technology Lab. The ASIST project focuses on human-agent collaboration, which necessitates model interpretability so that the human can trust and understand the actions and intentions of the agent. I’m thrilled to get to work on this material at RISS.

Hello! My name is Jacob Adkins, a returning RISS alum. I am a recent graduate of New College of Florida who studies mathematics and computer science. My research interests are in reinforcement learning and optimal control. I am excited to intern in Abhinav Gupta's lab this summer to work on a project related to tactile sensing. I am also very excited to connect with other labs at CMU to learn about the broader robotics community as a whole.

Hello, my name is Kaylie Barber. I am a rising third-year student studying Mechanical Engineering and Mechatronics in the Schreyer Honors College at Penn State University. I am also an identical twin! I conduct research as part of the Mechanism Collective Lab within the Engineering Design and Optimization Group at Penn State in the manufacture of minimally-thick compliant mechanisms. As part of the 2022 RISS Program at Carnegie Mellon, I am furthering my knowledge of compliant mechanisms through robotic applications. Under the guidance of Dr. Zeynep Temel in the Zoom Lab, I am exploring the areas of compliant mechanisms, soft robotics, multi-stability, biomimetics, and origami for swimming locomotion. I am passionate about engaging through creating hands on prototypes to help visualize, understand, and test new concepts, and I have experience working as a student supervisor at the Penn State engineering makerspace where I work with many manufacturing tools and methods including rapid prototyping, machining, welding, and woodworking! I am grateful to my recommenders who encouraged me to pursue such an amazing opportunity and thankful to the CMU community for welcoming me!

Hello, my name is Kylie Barber. I am a rising third-year student at Penn State in the College of Engineering and Schreyer Honors College. I am studying mechanical engineering and mechatronics. A fun fact about me is that I am an identical twin! My current research at Penn State is with the Engineering Design and Optimization Group and my research at Carnegie Mellon is with the Zoom Lab. Areas of research I have worked in include biomimetics, bistability, multistability, soft robotics, origami engineering, and compliant mechanisms. I have designed and manufactured compliant bistable hyperelastic hinges and am currently working on a compliant origami swimming robot. I also work at the engineering makerspace and machine shop at Penn State as a student supervisor where I have learned woodworking, machining, welding, additive manufacturing, and other skills. I love working on hands-on projects that allow me to apply my engineering coursework knowledge to the real world. I would like to thank my mentors at Penn State for introducing me to this opportunity and helping me prepare for it as well as my Carnegie Mellon RISS mentor, Dr. Temel, and everyone else at Carnegie Mellon for giving me the opportunity!

Hello, my name is Shaden Alshammari, and I am a rising senior at MIT studying Computer Science and Mathematics. My research interests include machine learning, networks, and algorithms. This summer, I will be working in Professor Abhinav Gupta's lab under the supervision of Victoria Dean. I am excited to be a part of this year's RISS cohort, and this experience will be a significant step toward my goal of becoming a researcher who constantly learns and develops solutions to real-world problems. Finally, I'd like to thank KGSP and the RISS community for making this opportunity possible.

Hello everyone! My name is Jessica Ahner and I am a rising senior studying Electrical/Computer Engineering and Applied Mathematics at The United States Air Force Academy. In the past three years of college, I have tried to immerse myself in the world of robotics and get as much hands-on experience as I can. It has been so interesting to see the diverse ways that robotics applies in the real world and I am excited to find out even more about robotics applications. I am working with Dr. Oliver Kroemer in the Intelligent Autonomous Manipulation lab, designing and building a structure to implement on the Franka robots. I am so thankful for this opportunity from the Robotics Institute at CMU and I am also thankful that USAFA has allowed me to forgo the traditional military-oriented summer in order to build my education in the field of robotics.