Undergraduate Robotics Pathways and Careers Speaker Series

Andrew J. Farah, most recently the Executive Director of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) at General Motors, has stepped back from his 36-year career with the automaker in September 2023. He has held various leadership positions in Engineering, Planning, and Aftersales. He plans to continue in the industry to advise leaders and businesses, while also focusing on developing the engineering talent that the industry needs today and tomorrow.

With over 40 years of total automotive technical and business experience, Mr. Farah has had the opportunity to work on and lead many groundbreaking vehicle programs. He made major contributions to the EV1 electric vehicle as Engineering Manager for Propulsion Software & Controls, the Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric vehicle as Vehicle Chief Engineer, and the Cruise AV and Cruise Origin as vehicle Chief Technical Architect and program Executive Director. He has also been involved in the automotive launch of several electrical/electronic technologies that are now considered commonplace in the industry. In his most recent ADAS role he was responsible for the development and execution of active safety features, Super Cruise, and Ultra Cruise for GM’s retail and fleet portfolio.

Mr. Farah holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering (BSE CE ’82) and a master’s degree in Electrical Science (MSE ’84), both from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He is also a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE).

Demarcus Edwards is a driven and hands-on tinkerer in the field of machine learning (ML) with a strong focus on generative AI. As a Ph.D. candidate, he is on the verge of defending his thesis within the next two weeks.

In the private sector, DeMarcus has worked with notable companies such as Google X, Facebook, Netflix, and Apple, where he has worked on a broad range of Applications of AI from Recommendation to Language and Video Generation. His experience includes leading the development of the currently used Graph entity resolution at Netflix, Text to Kinematics sequence modeling systems at Google X, implementing novel attention-based ranking models at Instagram Reels, and designing a 3D perception-based kinematic modeling system for action recognition at Apple. His passion for generative AI has been a driving force in his research and career journey, as he explores the creative potential of AI systems to generate novel and realistic outputs.

In the public sector, DeMarcus has contributed his expertise to organizations such as NightVision Research Labs and the DOD Center of AI/ML Excellence. His research in adversarial machine learning, GAN algorithms for infrared imagery, and spectral image recognition has advanced the field and demonstrated his commitment to making a positive impact beyond the industry.

Karl is a Software Engineer on the autonomy team at Skydio, where he helps develop Skydio’s Visual Positioning System. Karl graduated from UM with a BSE and MSE in Computer Engineering and started his career at Google working on Adwords and Android before leaving to start his own company in the food / tech space. After continuing to work in that space for a bit, Karl decided to shift gears and get into robotics. This is where U of M came back into the picture, as Karl worked in the UM Ford Center for Autonomous Vehicles as a research engineer, which launched him solidly into the robotics field, first at Toyota Research Engineer (TRI) working on autonomous vehicles, and now Skydio.

Dr. Laksh Kumar Punith is a Research Investigator in the Neurobionics Lab at the University of Michigan’s Robotics Department. He holds a B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from the National Institute of Technology Karnataka (‘15), and a Ph.D. in Robotics from Georgia Institute of Technology (‘22). As a roboticist, Dr. Punith has been fascinated by how animals move so much better than any robots we’ve ever built – all while having hardware that should make their job much harder – namely, slower communication (i.e. neurons), state-dependent actuators (i.e. muscles) and squishy transmission (i.e. tendons). To solve this conundrum, he (1) develops hypotheses of how animals move from comparative biomechanics literature and experiments in the lab and (2) directly tests them by attempting to generate movement in mathematical models and organic robots. He hopes this approach will not only shed light on the basic science of animal locomotion, but also serve as an accelerant to build better organic and inorganic robots.

Matthew is a Software Engineer at Woven By Toyota (Formerly: Toyota Research Institute), where he develops large-scale SLAM algorithms with a superb team. As a UM alumnus, BSE in Computer Science (2018) and Masters in Electrical and Computer Engineering wth a focus on Robotics (2020), he was among the first employees at Mcity, an autonomous vehicle test track.

Karthik is currently a Mechatronics Engineer at NASA Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) building actuators for Mars robots. Before JPL, he earned a MS in Robotics (2021), BSE in Computer Engineering (2020), and BSE in Mechanical Engineering (2020) at University of Michigan. At the University, Karthik also spent two years as a Research Assistant in EMBiR Lab under Prof. Talia Moore building legged robots and actuators; instructed ME350 as a GSI and IA for seven semesters; and worked on the MRover project team in various capacities for four years. His interests lie in robotic mechanism design, actuation, system identification, and control.

Leon Pryor received his B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor in 1997. After graduating from Michigan, Leon joined Microsoft, where he helped launch the Xbox and Xbox 360 game consoles and dozens of games from Electronic Arts, Microsoft Game Studios, Disney, and Lucasarts. Leon is currently a Senior Video Game Producer for META’s(Facebook) reality lab group, building games for Augmented and Virtual Reality headsets. Outside work, Leon is a passionate advocate for STEM enrichment in Detroit, Michigan, where he co-founded the Motor City Alliance: A non-profit organization that supports over 100 robotics teams in Detroit in after-school programs, summer camps, and FIRST Robotics competitions. Leon is also the coach of two FIRST Robotics teams: FIRST Robotics Challenge team 8280 K9.0 Robotics from the School at Marygrove and FIRST Tech Challenge team 14010 TechnoPhoenix from the Foreign Language Immersion and Cultural Studies school. Team TechnoPhoenix recently made history as the first Detroit Public school to qualify for the World Championships. Additionally, Leon was recognized as the Michigan State  FIRST Robotics Coach of the Year and was runner-up for the award at the World Championships in Houston, TX.

Dr. Zhen Zeng is currently an AI Research Scientist on the AI Research team at J.P. Morgan. Her research interests are semantic robot programming, perception for mobile manipulation, and novel representations of financial data. She received her Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 2020. She worked in the Laboratory for Progress with her advisor Prof. Chad Jenkins. Her research focused on enabling users to program the world through a mobile agent through robot programming by demonstration, semantic mapping, and active vision. Her research motivation is rooted in assisting people with impaired physical mobility to live independent lives with dignity. At J.P. Morgan AI Research, she works on unique ways of visually interpreting financial data and activities, and is active in promoting the presence of women in the field of AI.

Bruce earned his Ph.D. in Robotics at the University of Michigan (UofM), Ann Arbor. He received a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering at National Taiwan University and an MS degree in Robotics at U-M in 2018. He worked in the Biped Robotics Lab under the supervision of Professor Jessy W. Grizzle. His research focused on autonomy of bipedal robots, encompassing sensor fusion, pose estimation, and motion planning. He was in charge of building a full stack of autonomy pipeline for the system integration of Cassie Blue, a bipedal robot with 20 degrees of freedom.

Dr. Kimberly Hambuchen currently serves as the acting Deputy Manager for the Systems Engineering and Integration Office of the International Space Station Program. As SE&I deputy manager, she oversees the performance of the ISS including robotics, modeling, safety, and mission success. Previously, she served as the chief of the Robotic Systems Technology Branch at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, where she directed the development of advanced robotic technologies for space exploration missions. Prior to this, she was the Principal Technologist for Robotics in NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate’s (STMD) serving as the STMD technical expert and advocate for robotics across all NASA centers for STMD programs. During her 20-year career as a robotics engineer at Johnson Space Center, Dr. Hambuchen developed human-robot interaction techniques and tools for the Robonaut and Centaur robots, the Space Exploration Vehicle (SEV), and bipedal humanoid, Valkyrie (R5), among many others. Dr. Hambuchen was a member of the International Space Exploration Coordination Group’s (ISECG) Telerobotics Gap Assessment team, providing gap analysis in the field of operating space robots for the international space community, and in 2016 was named “One of the 25 Women in Robotics to Know” by RoboHub.

Nia Jetter is passionate about changing the world through innovation, technology planning, teaching, mentoring and solving tough problems in Autonomy and AI that can be applied across different platforms.  She has a dedicated focus on helping people who may not have easy access to educational materials to understand topics like artificial intelligence.  Nia is enthusiastic about working the human-AI interface as artificial intelligence is further integrated into our society. 

Nia is an Aerospace Engineer who has 20 years of experience in the Aerospace Industry and has supported a variety of programs across the product-lifecycle from design and development to mission and anomaly resolution and through customer delivery and support.  In January 2021, Nia left the Aerospace Industry as a Technical Fellow to join Amazon as a Senior Principal Technologist for Robotics AI. In this role she is a leader in technical development for autonomy as well as strategic planning for robotics and other autonomous applications.

Nia has a bachelor’s degree in Math with Computer Science and a minor in Earth Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences from MIT as well as a Master’s Degree in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering from Stanford.  Nia enjoys reading (especially science fiction), astronomy, baking, travelling, dancing and creating short videos that break down complex topics like AI and explains them simply for her YouTube channel (Thinque Bytes).  For more information, please see her website: www.niajetter.com.

Dr. Ryan Eustice is a Professor at the University of Michigan (UM) and the Senior Vice President of Human-Centered AI, Human Interactive Driving, and Tech Adoption at the Toyota Research Institute (TRI). Dr. Eustice received a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology / Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program in Ocean Engineering in 2005 and was a Postdoctoral Research Scholar at Johns Hopkins University. He joined the faculty at the University of Michigan in 2006 in the Department of Naval Architecture & Marine Engineering. He also holds an appointment as a core Robotics faculty member in the newly formed Robotics Department and remains the Director of the Perceptual Robotics Laboratory (PeRL) at UM. Dr. Eustice is perhaps best known for his work in advancing large-scale simultaneous localization and mapping, including visual mapping of the RMS Titanic. He has published over 160 technical papers, is the recipient of an NSF CAREER award and ONR Young Investigator Award, has been an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Robotics, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, and IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering, and is widely cited in the mobile robotics literature. He was a core member of Team IVS in the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge (one of 11 finalist teams). He worked collaboratively with Ford Motor Company for over a decade in self-driving vehicle research as a PI at the University of Michigan before going on leave in 2016 to launch TRI and lead the Automated Driving Division prior to taking on his current role at TRI since May 2022.