Over homecoming, Dr. Joshua Mangelson received the 2023 Robotics Department Alumni Merit Award. As part of the homecoming visit, Dr. Mangelson presented the Robotics Alumni Award Lecture, “Steps Towards Intelligent Large-Scale Marine Robotic Autonomy,” for the robotics community.
Dr. Mangelson became the very first person to earn a PhD degree in Robotics from the University of Michigan. He was one of five brave students in the first cohort who joined the new program. They accepted the risks, but also realized the reward, of defining the discipline of robotics.
Roboticists descend on the Motor City for the 2023 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) from October 1st through 5th. IROS serves as a significant annual platform for robotics researchers to present and investigate advancements in intelligent robots and smart machines. Researchers from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor have a short commute this year, as they showcase the work done at Michigan.
Below are highlights of what Michigan roboticists are bringing this year.
Jessi Carlson leads a summer camp activity for Discover Engineering. Photo by Marcin Szczepanski, Michigan Engineering.
The community among the Robotics Department is a key feature that sets it apart from other institutions. Many of our roboticists cite the collegiality and positive culture as the reason for joining Michigan as a student, faculty, or staff member. While each of us do our part in furthering this spirit through actions great and small, there are those who dedicate an extra amount of time in doing so.
To honor these leaders in community service, we established the Robotics Outreach Ambassador program in 2021. The title is given to those who have completed a certain amount of outreach work over the past academic year, and to a few standouts nominated by others. All of them exhibit enthusiastic outreach, a value of Michigan Robotics.
The 2023 Robotics Outreach Ambassadors are:
Arsha Ali
Brandon Apodaca
Hannah Baez
Zahraa Bazzi
Kaleb Ben Naveed
Kevin Best
Joseph Breeden
Emily Bywater
Jessi Carlson
Jaiwei Chen
Dylan Colli
Luis Cubillos
Challen Enninful Adu
Zariq George
Grant Gibson
Alia Gilbert
Karis Hu
Mohamad Louai Shehab
José Montes-Pérez
Eva Mungai
Mark Nail
Chris Nesler
Wami Ogunbi
Miquel Oller Oliveras
Liz Olson
Xiangyu Peng
Thomas Power
Abigail Rafter
Emma Reznick
Samanta Rodriguez
Anja Sheppard
Andrea Sipos
Katharine Walters
Nick Wohlfeil
Chae Woo Lim
Maggie Wu
Ziyou Wu
The wide range of community activities often goes beyond the frequent lab tour–though that will always be a favorite of those interested in robotics. A few highlight events from the past year include:
Educating the public on the current state of robotics, students led and helped put together an event to show how exoskeletons might impact our future.
Worked with Boy Scouts to earn merit badged and participated in a panel discussion for Girl Scout Leaders, addressing the gender gap in STEM and discussing factors of success for women in engineering.
Planned and hosted “How to Grad School” workshops in collaboration with FAMU-FSU, NSBE, and SWE.
Participated in the SHPE, the largest gathering of Hispanics in STEM, speaking about grad school and the Robotics Department at U-M.
Assisted with the Discover Engineering Camp, teaching students about Arduino code and breadboards, human factors, industrial engineering, optimization, and building a sunflower project.
The range and number of organizations that our students find time to work with is astounding. We are proud of these students and all the others who make an effort toward improving local and global communities.
A Digit robot holds a box in the Ford Robotics Building. Photo: Marcin Szczepanski
Michigan roboticists, many representing the new University of Michigan Robotics Department, will be presenting a total of nine papers at Robotics Science and Systems (RSS). Their research covers a wide range of topics from robot teams and trust propagation to trajectory design and motion planning. The RSS conference is held in Daegu, Korea, from July 11 to July 14.
In addition to the nine accepted papers, two of the papers are nominated for awards of Best Paper and Best Student Paper. Below is a summary of all the submissions.
Congratulations to Professor Elliott Rouse, who has earned the Robotics Department Faculty Award for his exceptional work in robotics. The award recognizes his achievements in several areas, including serving on the Robotics Executive Committee and being a key advocate for the establishment of the new Robotics Department, creating and teaching the new undergraduate course ROB 311: How to Build Robots and Make Them Move, and for his significant strides in advancing the field of robotics.
Bringing a positive attitude, honest approach, and rigorous observational mindset, Rouse’s work produces exceptional results from curriculum design to research.
