Undergraduate Robotics Pathways and Careers Speaker Series

Mario Santillo received the B.S. degree in Aeronautical and Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2003, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Michigan in 2005 and 2009, respectively. Mario currently leads the robotics research efforts within Ford Motor Company’s Research & Advanced Engineering Organization, where he focuses on the development and application of advanced control methods and artificial intelligence algorithms to next-generation robotic technologies in manufacturing and package-delivery automation.

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.

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. 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.

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. 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.