Calendar

Dec
1
Wed
LCSR Seminar: LCSR Faculty “Panel on commercialization of robotics research” @ https://wse.zoom.us/s/94623801186
Dec 1 @ 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm

Link for Live Seminar

Link for Recorded seminars – 2021/2022 school year

 

 

Abstract:

In this seminar, we will have a panel of three LCSR faculty, Dr. Peter Kazanzides, Dr. Marin Kobilarov, and Dr. Axel Krieger discussing their experience in commercializing robotic research through licensing and start-up. The panel will include questions and answer sessions with the audience.

 

Jan
26
Wed
LCSR Seminar: Tomas Lozano-Perez “Generalization in Planning and Learning for Robotic Manipulation” @ https://wse.zoom.us/s/94623801186
Jan 26 @ 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm

Link for Live Seminar

Link for Recorded seminars – 2021/2022 school year

 

Abstract:

An enduring goal of AI and robotics has been to build a robot capable of robustly performing a wide variety of tasks in a wide variety of environments; not by sequentially being programmed (or taught) to perform one task in one environment at a time, but rather by intelligently choosing appropriate actions for whatever task and
environment it is facing. This goal remains a challenge. In this talk I’ll describe recent work in our lab aimed at the goal of general-purpose robot manipulation by integrating task-and-motion planning with various forms of model learning. In particular, I’ll describe approaches to manipulating objects without prior shape models, to acquiring composable sensorimotor skills, and to exploiting past experience for more efficient planning.

 

Biography:

Tomas Lozano-Perez is professor in EECS at MIT, and a member of CSAIL. He was a recipient of the 2011 IEEE Robotics Pioneer Award and a co-recipient of the 2021 IEEE Robotics and Automation Technical Field Award. He is a Fellow of the AAAI, ACM, and
IEEE.

Feb
2
Wed
LCSR Seminar: Xuesu Xiao “Deployable Robots that Learn” @ https://wse.zoom.us/s/94623801186
Feb 2 @ 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm

Link for Live Seminar

Link for Recorded seminars – 2021/2022 school year

 

Abstract:

While many robots are currently deployable in factories, warehouses, and homes, their autonomous deployment requires either the deployment environments to be highly controlled, or the deployment to only entail executing one single preprogrammed task. These deployable robots do not learn to address changes and to improve performance. For uncontrolled environments and for novel tasks, current robots must seek help from highly skilled robot operators for teleoperated (not autonomous) deployment.

 

In this talk, I will present two approaches to removing these limitations by learning to enable autonomous deployment in the context of mobile robot navigation, a common core capability for deployable robots: (1) Adaptive Planner Parameter Learning utilizes existing motion planners, fine-tunes these systems using simple interactions with non-expert users before autonomous deployment, adapts to different deployment environments, and produces robust autonomous navigation; (2) Learning from Hallucination enables agile navigation in highly-constrained deployment environments by exploring in a completely safe training environment and creating synthetic obstacle configurations to learn from. Building on robust autonomous navigation, I will discuss my vision toward a hardened, reliable, and resilient robot fleet which is also task-efficient and continually learns from each other and from humans.

 

Biography:

Xuesu Xiao is an incoming Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at George Mason University starting Fall 2022. Currently, he is a roboticist on The Everyday Robot Project at X, The Moonshot Factory, and a research affiliate in the Department of Computer Science at The University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Xiao’s research focuses on field robotics, motion planning, and machine learning. He develops highly capable and intelligent mobile robots that are robustly deployable in the real world with minimal human supervision. Dr. Xiao received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Texas A&M University in 2019, Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 2015, and dual Bachelor of Engineering in Mechatronics Engineering from Tongji University and FH Aachen University of Applied Sciences in 2013.

Feb
9
Wed
LCSR Seminar: Terry Peters “A journey in Image-guided Intervention” @ https://wse.zoom.us/s/94623801186
Feb 9 @ 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm

Link for Live Seminar

Link for Recorded seminars – 2021/2022 school year

 

Abstract:

This presentation overviews a number of the projects related to image-guided intervention that have taken place in my lab at the Robarts Research Institute at Western University in recent years. Projects cover applications in Image-guided Neurosurgery, Cardiac surgery, as well as the role of simulation phantoms and  technologies as motion magnification and  mixed reality in image-guided interventions.

 

Biography:

Dr. Terry Peters is a Scientist in the Imaging Research Laboratories at the Robarts Research Institute, London, ON, Canada, and is Professor Emeritus in the Departments of Medical Imaging and Medical Biophysics, and the School of Biomedical Engineering, at Western University. He obtained his PhD in Electrical Engineering at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch NZ,  in the field image reconstruction for CT in 1974, and following some time as a Medical Physicist at the Christchurch Hospital,   joined the Montreal Neurological Institute at McGill University as a research scientist in 1978.  In 1997 he joined the Imaging Research Labs at the Robarts Research Institute at Western University in London Canada, where he expanded his research focus to encompass image-guided procedures in multiple organ systems.  He has authored over 350 peer-reviewed papers, books  and book chapters, and has mentored over 100  trainees. Dr Peters is a Fellow of several academic and professional societies including the IEEE, the MICCAI Society, the Royal Society of Canada.

Feb
16
Wed
LCSR Seminar: Mark Savage (Life Design Educator) “Skills” @ https://wse.zoom.us/s/94623801186
Feb 16 @ 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm

Link for Live Seminar

Link for Recorded seminars – 2021/2022 school year

 

How many skills do think you have?  Mark Savage, Life Design Educator for Engineering Masters Students will explain how the truth may far exceed your estimate.  Knowing,  understanding, and communicating your major skills will prove useful as you pursue jobs and internships.

 

Feb
23
Wed
LCSR Seminar: Ahmed Ghazi “Enhancing Surgical Robotic Innovations through the integration of Novel Simulation Technologies” @ https://wse.zoom.us/s/94623801186
Feb 23 @ 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm

Link for Live Seminar

Link for Recorded seminars – 2021/2022 school year

 

Abstract:

TBA

 

Biography:

Dr. Ghazi MD, FEBU, MHPE, received his medical education from Cairo University, Egypt in 2000, where he also completed his Urology residency 2001-2005. He completed a series of fellowships in minimal invasive Urological surgery, in Paris and Austria (2009-2011), where he received accreditation from the European Board of Urology. He completed an Endourology and robotic surgery fellowship at the University of Rochester Medical Center, New York (2011-2013), after which was appointed Assistant professor of Urology at the University of Rochester (2013).

Dr. Ghazi specializes in the diagnosis and minimal invasive treatment of urological cancers as well as complex stone disease. In addition he perused research grants in education, simulation research and surgical training. To enhance his educational background, he was awarded the George Corner Deans Teaching fellowship (2014-2016), completed the Harvard Macy Institute program for Educators in Health Professions in 2016 and a Masters in Health Professions Education program at the Warner School of Education, University of Rochester (2016-2020). He is currently enrolled in a 2-year Senior Leadership Education and Development Program at the University of Rochester.

Mar
2
Wed
LCSR Seminar: Laurel Riek “Robots in Hospitals and in the Community: Supporting Wellbeing and Furthering Health Equity” @ https://wse.zoom.us/s/94623801186
Mar 2 @ 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm

Link for Live Seminar

Link for Recorded seminars – 2021/2022 school year

 

Abstract:

The pandemic exacerbated inequities faced by people with disabilities and healthcare workers — both are at high risk of adverse physical and mental health outcomes. Robots alone are not going to fix these major societal problems; however, our work explores how we can design technology to lessen the burden of systemic ableism and healthcare system stress. I will discuss several of our recent projects in acute care and community health contexts. In acute care, we are building hospital-based robots to support the clinical workforce, to support item delivery, telemedicine, and decision support. In community health, we are creating interactive and adaptive systems that aim to extend the reach of cognitive neurorehabilitative therapies, provide respite to overburdened caregivers, and explore how technology might serve as a means for mediating positive interactions during hardship. We focus on building robots that can adaptively team with and longitudinally learn from people, and personalize and tailor their behavior.

 

Biography:

Dr. Laurel Riek is a professor in Computer Science and Engineering at the University of California, San Diego, with a joint appointment in the Department of Emergency Medicine, and is affiliated with the Contextual Robotics Institute and Design Lab. Dr. Riek directs the Healthcare Robotics Lab and leads research in human-robot teaming and health informatics, with a focus on autonomous robots that work proximately with people. Riek’s current research interests include long term learning, robot perception, and personalization; with applications in acute care, neurorehabilitation, and home health. Dr. Riek received a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Cambridge, and B.S. in Logic and Computation from Carnegie Mellon. Riek served as a Senior Artificial Intelligence Engineer and Roboticist at The MITRE Corporation from 2000-2008, working on learning and vision systems for robots, and held the Clare Boothe Luce chair in Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Notre Dame from 2011-2016. Dr. Riek has received the NSF CAREER Award, AFOSR Young Investigator Award, Qualcomm Research Award, and was named one of ASEE’s 20 Faculty Under 40. Dr. Riek is the HRI 2023 General Co-Chair and served as the Program Co-Chair for HRI 2020, and serves on the editorial boards of T-RO and THRI.

Mar
9
Wed
LCSR Seminar: Franziska Mathis-Ullrich “Cognitive Robotics and Embedded AI for minimally invasive Surgery” @ https://wse.zoom.us/s/94623801186
Mar 9 @ 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm

Link for Live Seminar

Link for Recorded seminars – 2021/2022 school year

 

Abstract:

While human interaction remains key to a caring treatment, medical robotics holds the potential to improve surgical processes through enabling scaling of forces and actuation, providing safe and individual treatments to patients, and allowing for efficient use of health care personnel and resources. Machine learning algorithms and standardization of processes can increase the quality of medical diagnosis and treatments, particularly when analyzing large quantities of data. Technical and robotic systems can thus support the medical staff in all steps of a medical process.

This talk introduces several assistive robotic systems for minimally invasive surgical procedures being researched at the Health Robotics and Automation Lab at KIT, Germany. On one hand, we will discuss steerable flexible robotic tools for medical applications that require delicate tissue handling. On the other hand, cognitive robotic surgeons and augmented reality support in the operation room are presented for application in laparoscopy and neurosurgery.

 

Biography:

Franziska Mathis-Ullrich is Assistant Professor for Medical Robotics at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Germany. Her primary research focus is on minimally invasive and cognition controlled robotic systems and embedded machine learning with emphasis on applications in surgery. She received her B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in mechanical engineering and robotics in 2009 and 2012 and obtained her Ph.D. in 2017 in Microrobotics from ETH Zurich, respectively. Since 2019, she has been an Assistant Professor with the Health Robotics and Automation Laboratory at KIT.

Prof. Mathis-Ullrich is vice-president of the German Society for Computer- and Robot-assisted Surgery (CURAC) and has received the IEEE ICRA Best Paper Award in Medical Robotics (2014), the IEEE BioRob Best Student Paper Award (2016) and won twice with her team the first prize of the ICRA Microassembly Challenge (2014 & 2015). Furthermore, she made it onto the prestigious Forbes “30 under 30” list (2017).

Mar
11
Fri
Robotics in Healthcare: A Conversation with Ayushi Sinha, PhD (Engineering ’18)
Mar 11 @ 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm

 

Sponsored by the Hopkins Robotics Alumni Network, the Laboratory for Computational Sensing + Robotics, and the Healthcare Affinity

Join us as we hear from Dr. Ayushi Sinha, Senior Scientist in the Precision Diagnosis & Image Guided Therapy department at Philips Research North America. Dr. Sinha will discuss her time at Hopkins, her career journey, and her current role. We’ll have time for Q&A with our speaker and time to network with one another. This program will be presented by Zoom. A link will be shared with you in advance.

Disclaimer: The perspectives and opinions expressed by the speaker(s) during this program are those of the speaker(s) and not, necessarily, those of Johns Hopkins University and the scheduling of any speaker at an alumni event or program does not constitute the University’s endorsement of the speaker’s perspectives and opinions.

Ayushi Sinha
Senior Scientist, Phillips

Ayushi Sinha is a Senior Scientist in the Precision Diagnosis & Image Guided Therapy department at Philips Research North America. She currently leads a project focused on using machine learning to improve workflow during X-ray guided minimally invasive procedures and has worked on improving guidance during biopsy procedures in her previous roles at Philips. She also leads a group focused on generating intellectual property around machine learning solutions for X-ray guided interventions.

Ayushi completed her Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins University with Russ Taylor and Greg Hager in the Department of Computer Science with a focus on using statistical shape models to improve guidance during endoscopic sinus procedures. She continued at Hopkins as a postdoctoral fellow and research faculty to explore unsupervised learning in image-based tool tracking. Before her Ph.D., Ayushi received a Master of Science in Engineering degree in Computer Science at Hopkins working with Misha Kazhdan, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mathematics at Providence College.

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Mar
16
Wed
LCSR Seminar: Mark Savage “Interviews” @ https://wse.zoom.us/s/94623801186
Mar 16 @ 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm

Link for Live Seminar

Link for Recorded seminars – 2021/2022 school year

 

Mid-term Spring Semester can usher in the interview season for many students seeking internship or fulltime employment opportunities.  Mark Savage, Life Design Educator for Engineering Masters Students, will walk you through what to expect and how to ace the job interview.  Time permitting, we may also discuss the Elevator Pitch in preparation for your upcoming Robotics Industry Day.  Remember to convey some of those 800 skills that relate to some of the jobs you’ll be discussing.

 

Laboratory for Computational Sensing + Robotics