People

Principal Investigator

1. Ross Knepper

   

   Ross A. Knepper is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Cornell University. His research focuses on the theory, algorithms, and mechanisms of automated assembly and human-robot collaboration. Previously, Ross was a Research Scientist in the Distributed Robotics Lab at MIT. Ross received his M.S and Ph.D. degrees in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon University in 2007 and 2011. Before his graduate education, Ross worked in industry at Compaq, where he designed high-performance algorithms for scalable multiprocessor systems; and also in commercialization at the National Robotics Engineering Center, where he adapted robotics technologies for customers in government and industry. Ross has served as a volunteer for Interpretation at Death Valley National Park, California.

PhD Students

1. Christoforos Mavrogiannis

   

   Christoforos is a 5th year Ph.D. candidate in Mechanical Engineering. His current research interests lie in the areas of human-robot interaction, motion planning and artificial intelligence. His PhD research is focused on the design of motion planning algorithms for mobile robots operating in crowded human environments. In the past he has worked on robotic grasping and robotic/prosthetic hand design. He holds an MS in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell (2017) and a Diploma in Mechanical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens (2013).

2. Claire Liang

   

   Claire is a first-year PhD student in computer science who is currently working on spacetime representations for robot motion. She has previously worked on the Hanabi Implicature Project. She also has a robot unrelated history of work on stem cell population simulation and protein crystallizability prediction.

3. Julia Proft

   

   Julia is a second-year PhD student in computer science. Her research interests are in robotics and human-robot interaction, in particular facilitating efficient collaboration for human-robot teams by enabling robots to leverage situational context when communicating. She also works part-time for the Anita Borg Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to connecting, supporting, and inspiring women in technology.

4. Valts Blukis

   

   Valts is a second-year PhD student in computer science, co-advised by Yoav Artzi in Cornell Tech. He applies machine learning techniques to robotics problems, attempting to scale them beyond instrumented environments and towards more complex real-world scenarios. Currently he trains robots to follow natural language instructions and perform manipulation behaviors in simulation, with the goal of transfer to a real robot. This involves using reinforcement learning, imitation learning, transfer learning, domain adaptation and other learning methods, but also designing new models and algorithms that are uniquely tailored for robotics tasks. In the past he has also worked on rescue robots, stereo vision and participated in various robotics competitions.

5. Wil Thomason

   

   Wil is a third-year PhD student in computer science. He is interested in a broad range of topics in robotics and CS, including multi-agent planning, human-robot interaction (with a particular focus on language and gesture understanding), and machine learning for robotics.

Masters Students

1. Nathan Adara

   

   Nathan received his B.S.E. in Computer Science from Cornell Engineering in 2016. He is now a final-year M.S. student in an experimental program in Virtual Reality Technology who is working on a minor degree project with RPAL: Particle Filter Visualization for Latency Compensation in VR Robotic Teleoperation. He has too many interests, and the greatest of them lie in real-time online rendering, virtual reality game/experience design, robotic teleoperation, rapid tooling, 3D user interfaces, computer architecture, and woodworking.

Undergraduates

Lab Alumni

1. Alex Volkov

   

   ECE undergraduate, moved on to a Master’s at the CMU Robotics Institute.

2. Daryl Sew

   

   Computer Science undergraduate interested in computer vision, machine learning and robotics.

3. Minae Kwon

   

   I’m interested in facilitating collaboration between robots and humans by computationally expressing findings from social and cognitive psychology to model human behavior and appropriately design robot behavior. Currently, I am working on how humans form expectations of social robots and how we can help people form more accurate mental models of them. When not doing research, I enjoy debating (competitively), watching movies, and traveling.

4. Vitchyr Pong

   

   Undergraduate in ECE and CS, moved on to a PhD at UC Berkeley.

5. Zach Zweig Vinegar

   

   I was a computer science major in the College of Engineering at Cornell University. My current research interests lie in the areas of human-robot interaction, computer vision, and augmented reality. I am also a member of Cornell’s Robotic Personal Assistants Lab run by Prof. Ross Knepper. Currently, I am working on a telepresence robot equipped with a 360 degree RGB-D sensor. The goal is to use the data coming from the sensor to enable the robot to seamlessly and smoothly navigate crowded pedestrian environments. More details about me can be found on my website.