Greater Boston Area Robotics and Mechatronics Research
Special Session
2020 IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics (AIM 2020)
http://aim2020.org/
Greater Boston is one of the world's leading centers for robotics and mechatronics. Over 350 institutions, companies, and research labs in the region are actively engaged in research, education, and technological development in the areas of robotics and mechatronics. While AIM 2020 was planned to be held in Boston but now moves to a virtual event due to COVID-19 pandemic, this special session aims to help expose the wide range of robotics and mechatronics related activities and facilities in Greater Boston to the conference attendees as well as a broader audience worldwide. In this special session, invited speakers from Greater Boston who are driving and promoting the transformative advancement of robotics and mechatronics will unfold to us the central role of the region in leading the world on various key fronts of education, research, and innovation.
Invited Speakers
Joyce Sidopoulos
Co-Founder, VP for Programs and Community | MassRobotics |
Joyce is a Co-Founder and VP for Programs and Community at MassRobotics, the nation’s leading innovation hub for robotics and smart connected device start-ups (founded in 2015). MassRobotics brings together startups and existing technology organizations to nurture the next generation of talent and promote economic growth and innovation. Joyce promotes the New England’s Robotics Ecosystem and facilitates dialogue and partnership between Robotics companies, technologists, and academia, as well as the public and investors. She earned a BSEE from Cornell University and prior experience includes 14 years of civil service with NUWC as a Chief Scientist, Systems & Test Engineer and Sonar Systems Analyst, and 10 years at General Dynamics in Business Development and Engineering & Technical Resource Manager roles.
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Taskin Padir
Professor Robotics Director of Institute for Experiential Robotics Northeastern University |
Taskin Padir received his PhD and MS degrees in electrical and computer engineering from Purdue University. He is the Founding Director of the Institute for Experiential Robotics at Northeastern University, as well as the Director of Robotics and Intelligent Vehicles Research Laboratory (RIVeR Lab). His research interests include supervised autonomy for humanoid robots, shared autonomy for intelligent vehicles, and human-in-the-loop control systems with applications in exploration, disaster response, personalized in-home care, and nuclear decommissioning. His projects have been sponsored by NSF, NASA, DARPA, AFRL, and many industry partners. He led project teams for the NASA Sample Return Robot Centennial Challenge, SmartAmerica Challenge, and the DARPA Robotics Challenge. He presented at the Innovation on the Edge: Accelerating Solutions in the Fight Against Ebola event hosted by OSTP and USAID at the White House in 2015 and organized and hosted OSTP/NRI Workshop on Safety Robotics for Ebola Workers in 2014.
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Jing Xiao
Professor Computer Science Director of Robotics Engineering Program Worcester Polytechnic Institute |
Jing Xiao received her Ph.D. degree in Computer, Information, and Control Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She is the Deans' Excellence Professor, William B. Smith Distinguished Fellow in Robotics Engineering, Professor of Computer Science, and Director of the Robotics Engineering Program, Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). She joined WPI from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Her research spans robotics, haptics, and intelligent systems. She has co-authored a monograph, holds one patent, and published extensively in major robotics journals, conferences, and books. She is the recipient of the 2015 Faculty Outstanding Research Award of the College of Computing and Informatics, University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Jing Xiao was named among 25 Women in Robotics You Need to Know About in 2015. Prof. Xiao is an IEEE Fellow.
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Holly Yanco
Professor Computer Science Director of New England Robotics Validation and Experimentation (NERVE) Center University of Massachusetts Lowell |
Holly Yanco received her PhD and MS degree in Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She was named Distinguished University Professor at the University of Massachusetts Lowell in 2015. Her research interests include human-robot interaction, multi-touch computing, interface design, robot autonomy, fostering trust of autonomous systems, evaluation methods for human-robot interaction, and the use of robots in K-12 education to broaden participation in computer science. Yanco's research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Army Research Office, DARPA, the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management (DOE-EM), NIST, and Google. Yanco was the General Chair of the 2012 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction. She served on the Executive Council of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) from 2006-2009. She is a senior member of AAAI.
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Presentations (Youtube) |
A Virtual Tour of MassRobotics (Joyce Sidopoulos)
A Virtual Tour of NERVE Center (Dr. Holly Yanco)
Organizers
Yan Gu
Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering Univ. of Massachusetts Lowell |
Hao Su
Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering The City College of New York |