Tahiya Salam is a PhD student studying robotics in the GRASP Lab at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research interests lie at the intersection of multi-robot teams, dynamical systems, and machine learning.

On this episode, we talk with Tahiya about some of the different ways one can have a social impact on the world through research and reflect on what it was like for us to transition from college to grad school. We also dive into research and briefly talk about her work on creating systems for robots to collaborate with each other and close with some advice for grad students starting this fall.

Music:

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Kiri Wagstaff works at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA, as a researcher in the Machine Learning and Instrument Autonomy Group, investigating ways that machine learning can be used to increase the autonomy of space missions. From 2013 to 2017, she also served as a tactical planner and uplink lead for the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. She’s also an Associate Research Professor at Oregon State University, where she is teaching classes in Computer Science and doing research on competency-aware machine learning.

Kiri is a prolific researcher and an expert learner. Her career is an example in how awesome life can be when you love going to work and love the challenges you get to tackle every day. Talking to her made me feel much more optimistic about getting to shape my own research career, if I decide to go down that route, and I hope our conversation will leave you with a similar feeling.

Links:

Read your Kindle highlights: https://read.amazon.com/notebook

Kiri’s website: https://www.wkiri.com/

Music:

Changing World by Ben Beiny www.premiumbeat.com

Aaron Parness is a Principal Research Scientist at Amazon Robotics & AI, where he focuses on robotic manipulation, developing new capabilities for the fulfillment process both inside and outside the warehouse. He helps set the direction of the Robotics & AI organization, consults with other teams across Amazon, and owns technical deliverables like new end of arm tools, workcell designs, and process flow concepts.

Prior to joining Amazon, he spent 9 years at NASA JPL, where he founded and built the Robotic Prototyping Lab into a group more than 20 strong with funding from multiple agencies. They embrace iterative design principles and rapid prototyping processes to quickly invent and develop robotic systems for mobility and manipulation. His final project was leading the Moon Diver Discovery Mission from concept through Step-1.

YouTube videos of climbing robots:

NASA Climbing Robot Scales Cliffs and Looks for Life

Crash Proof Rotary Microspine Robot

1:30 min Gecko Tool Summary

NASA JPL Robotic Microspines

Rock Climbing Robot

Music: Changing World by Ben Beiny (www.premiumbeat.com)

Hannah Kerner is an Assistant Research Professor at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her research focuses on developing machine learning solutions for remote sensing applications in agricultural monitoring, food security, and Earth/planetary science. She is also the Machine Learning Lead and U.S. Domestic Co-Lead for NASA Harvest, NASA’s agriculture and food security initiative run out of the University of Maryland. She completed her Ph.D. at Arizona State University on machine learning methods (especially novelty detection) for planetary exploration missions.

Learn more about Hannah on her website.

Links and References (not affiliate links):

Deep Work

African Independence

The Professor is In

Homegoing

Obama’s Memoir, A Promised Land

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Akash Trivedi is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford where he recently obtained his DPhil (or PhD) in Engineering Science. His research focuses on the impact behavior of soft polymers and composites. Akash also aspires to be an astronaut for the European Space Agency, works with younger aspiring engineers as a mentor, coach and tutor, and has supported more than 950 students through their education, graduate studies and personal development.

Check out his website and Interstellar Academy tutoring. Also follow him on Twitter @MrAkashTrivedi

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Julia Gonski is a post-doctoral physicist at Columbia University, and a recent Ph.D. graduate and from the Harvard ATLAS group. Her research applies novel machine learning techniques to find interesting events in the terabytes of data produced by the Large Hadron Collider. Her work led to the first neural net-based tool to find evidence of high momentum Higgs particles that decay in a common way via data produced by the ATLAS detector.

Learn more about her work on Twitter @JuliaGonski and check out her Forbes 30 Under 30 feature.

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Matthew Clarke is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University. His research focuses on the development of tools to design, analyze and optimize non-conventional, supersonic and electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft.

Reach out to Matthew via his website, where you can find his email, or on Twitter @matthew_ac.

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Naia Butler-Craig is an Aerospace Engineering PhD Student, NASA Space Technology Graduate Research Fellow and GEM Fellow at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She is a member of the High-Power Electric Propulsion Lab. She obtained her B.S in Aerospace Engineering with special concentration in Astronautics and a minor in Computational Mathematics Engineering at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. She hopes to become a mission specialist astronaut and to contribute to deep space exploration.

Check out Naia's website! She was also recently selected as a Forbes 30 Under 30 Science Fellow.

Kwesi Rutledge is a PhD Student at the University of Michigan's Electrical and Computer Engineering Department. His research focuses on an area called Correct-By-Construction Control.

Check out Kwesi’s website and find him on Twitter @FerventEcrivain

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Jennifer Polk, PhD, is a career coach and expert on PhD careers. She launched From PhD to Life, a career coaching and speaking business, in 2013. She co-founded Beyond the Professoriate in 2014, a business she exited in 2020. Jen writes on graduate education and careers for doctoral-degree holders. She is also a guest speaker on university campuses and at academic and professional conferences throughout North America and beyond. Her University Affairs blog is a three-time gold winner from the Canadian Online Publishing Awards. Jen earned her PhD in history from the University of Toronto. Follow her on Twitter at @FromPhDtoLife.