Navin Sriram Ravie

Hello!, I’m Navin Sriram, a junior at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, pursuing an integrated Master’s in Robotics and Engineering Design. My current interest lies in the field of robot learning and controls. I have always been eager to solve real-world problems and make an impact by leveraging technology in everyday human functions. At my home university, I’ve been working towards the control and behavior planning of Autonomous Vehicles in the Autonomous Systems Lab with Prof. Bijo Sebastian and on the topic of force-controlled grasping of soft objects and affordance modeling from point clouds with Prof. Asokan Thondiyath. I have also been a part of the institute’s Formula Student EV Racing team working on developing the controls and tractive system, laying down the foundations for the shift to becoming driverless. I am excited to join Dr. David Held’s team at RPAD working along Yufei Wang on using Reinforcement Learning for deformable object manipulation for dressing this summer. This opportunity will be vital to grasping the idea of a career in the robotics and AI sphere and achieving it while developing my technical knowledge and communication skills to grow as a researcher. I am grateful to all the coordinators and sponsors for being given the opportunity to participate in the RISS program.