Colloquium Series

Robotics Engineering

All Robotics Engineering colloquia are from 2:00 PM until 3:00 PM on Fridays throughout the academic year, unless otherwise stated. Potential and actual colloquium speakers should speak to the RBE Colloquium Committee for answers to typical questions about their visit. The Colloquium Coordinators for the 2021-2022 academic year are Professors Zhi (Jane) Li, Carlo Pinciroli, and Loris Fichera.

The schedule below is tentative and subject to change. Please check this page for the most up-to-date schedule.

Fall 2022
Date	Speaker	Affiliation	Presentation
08/31/2022	Dr.Nitin Sanket	Worcester Polytechnic Institute	AI-Powered Next Generation of Tiny Autonomous Robots!
09/07/2022	Dr. Andre Rosendo	Worcester Polytechnic Institute	Robot learning: A tentative course for RBE
09/14/2022	Robin Hall, Kehan Yang & Tess Meier	Worcester Polytechnic Institute	The Effect of Design and Control Parameters of a Soft Robotic Fish Tail to Maximize Propulsion Force in Undulatory Actuation A sEMG Proportional Control for the Gripper of Patient Side Manipulator in da Vinci Surgical System Individuals with Moderate to Severe Hand Impairments May Struggle to Use EMG Control for Assistive Devices
09/21/2022	Dr. Losey Dylan	Virginia Tech	Robots that Learn to Influence Humans
09/28/2022	Dr. Alireza Ramezani	Northeastern University	Bat-inspired Dynamic Morphing Wing Flight Through Morphology and Control Design
10/05/2022	Dr. Tesca Fitzgerald	Yale Univesity	Learning to Address Novel Situations Though Human-Robot Collaboration

Previous RBE Colloquiums

Spring 2022 Series

Spring 2022
Date	Speaker	Affiliation	Presentation
01/21/2022	Dr. Heather Cu;bertson	University of Southern California	Using Data for Increased Realism with Haptic Devices and Modeling
01/28/2022	Dr. Nitin Sanket	University of Maryland	Action-Perception Synergy: Bio-Inspired AI For Small Autonomous Robots
02/11/2022	Dr. Derya Aksaray	University of Minnesota	Reinforcement Learning for Dynamical Systems with Temporal Logic Specifications
02/21/2022	Dr. Andre Rosendo	Shanghai Tech University	Estimating Strain Orientation on Soft Robots
WIN 'Bridging the Gaps' Colloquium Series 02/25/2022	Mary Hayhoe	University of Texas Austin	Visually Guided Action Decisions in Human Natural Behavior
03/04/2022	Dr. Isuru Godage	DePaul University	Continuum robots: recent advances and future directions toward better human-robot collaboration
03/17/2022	Dr. Yayun Du	University of California, Los Angeles	Adaptive Autonomous Cyber-Physical Systems: Design, Perception, & Control
WIN 'Bridging the Gaps' Colloquium Series 03/18/2022	Dr. He (Helen) Huang	North Carolina State University and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	Restoring Motor Function of Individuals with Limb Loss via Bionic Prostheses
03/25/2022	Dr. Enrico Mingo Hoffman	PAL Robotics	Model-Based Optimization for Whole-Body Motion Planning & Control
04/01/2022	Dr. Matteo Laffranchi	Rehab Technologies Lab	User-centred development of healthcare wearable robotics
WIN 'Bridging the Gaps' Colloquium Series 04/08/2022	Dr. Holly Yanco	University of Massachusetts, Lowell	Designing Robots for Humans
04/15/2022	Dr. Cristian A. Linte	Rochester Institute of Technology	Biomedical Image Computing, Modeling and Visualization Tools for Computer-integrated Diagnosis and Therapy

Fall 2021 Series

Fall 2021
Date	Speaker	Affiliation	Presentation
Sept. 3, 2021	Dr. Siavash Farzan	Robotics Engineering, WPI	Underactuated Brachiating Robots Traversing Flexible Cables: From Concept to Reality
Sept. 10, 2021	Dr. Shan Lin	University of California, San Diego	Exploring Robust Real-time Instrument Segmentation for Endoscopic Sinus Surgery
Sept. 17, 2021	Dr. Andreagiovanni Reina	IRIDIA, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium	Collective Decision Making: From Bees to Robots via Multiscale Modelling
Sept. 24, 2021	Dr. Joshua Schultz	University of Tulsa	Run into it on purpose: How underactuation and compliance help robots make sense of an uncertain world
A FORW-RD Thinking Seminar: October 1, 2021	Dr. Axel Krieger	John Hopkins University	Smart and Autonomous Robots for Surgery
October 8, 2021	Nicholas Pacheco	RBE WPI	Beyond Constant Curvature: A New Mechanics Model for Unidirectional Notched-Tube Continuum Wrists
	Nathaniel Goldfarb	RBE WPI	Open-Source Dynamic Server and Modular Controller Package
	Farid Tavakkolmoghaddam	RBE WPI	NeuroPlan: A Surgical Planning Toolkit for an MRI-Compatible Stereotactic Neurosurgery Robot
Nov. 19, 2021	Dr. Luca Carlone	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	Metric-Semantic Mapping and High-level Scene Understanding for Single and Multi-Robot Systems

Spring 2021 Series

Spring 2021
Date	Speaker	Affiliation	Presentation
Jan. 29, 2021	Dr. Haichong (Kai) Zhang, Dr. Yihao Zheng, and Dr. Gregory Fischer	WPI	Robotics and COVID-19
Feb. 5, 2021	Dr. Rui Liu	Kent State University, Ohio	AI-Powered Cognition Modeling for Failure-Resilient Human-Robot Collaboration
Feb. 12, 2021	Dr. Dan Sameoto	University of Alberta	From Soft Robotics to Morphing Matter: Applications for Advanced Multi-material 3D Printing
FORW-RD Thinking Seminar Series Feb. 19, 2021	Dr. Arash Ajoudani	Italian Institute of Technology (IIT)	Anticipatory Control of Human-Robot Interation: Towards Enabling Flexible and Agile Work Practices
FORW-RD Thinking Seminar Series Mar. 5, 2021	Dr. Kris Dorsey	Picker Engineering Program, Smith College	Challenges and Opportunities in Designing Tunable, Soft Mechanical Sensors
WPI IEEE RAS Student Chapter presents Mar. 12, 2021	Gokul Narayanan Sathya Narayanan	WPI Alumni	Need for the Adoption of Industry 4.0 Technologies in the Age of Pandemic
Mar. 26, 2021	Dr. Ryosuke Tsumura	WPI	Be Free from Limitations with Robotics Technology
WPI IEEE RAS Student Chapter presents Apr. 2, 2021	Dr. Adnan Munawar	John Hopkins University	A Framework for Surgical Robot Simulation

Fall 2020 Series

Fall 2020
Date	Speaker	Affiliation	Presentation
Sept. 4, 2020	Dr. Yihao Zheng	Mechanical Engineering, WPI	Biomedical Manufacturing Innovation and Robotic Implementation
Sept. 11, 2020	Dr. Markus Nemitz	Robotics Engineering, WPI	Robotic Materials: Merging the Worlds of Hard and Soft Robotics
Sept. 18, 2020	Dr. Dimitrios Kanoulas	Computer Science, University College London	Towards Limbed Robot AI through Perception & Learning
Sept. 25, 2020	Mr. Roy Kornbluh	Robotics Laboratory, SRI International	Active Materials for Robotics: What High Voltage Can Do for You
Oct. 2, 2020	The FORW-RD Thinking Seminar Series Presents: Dr. Karina Liles	Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Claflin University	Ms. An (Meeting Students’ Academic Needs): A Socially Adaptive Robot Tutor for Student Engagement in Math Education
Oct. 9, 2020	Dr. Alessandra Sciutti	Cognitive Architecture for Collaborative Technologies (CONTACT) Unit, Istituto Italiano Di Tecnologia	Cognitive Robotics for Human-Robot Interaction
Oct. 16, 2020	Robotics Engineering Graduate Students	Research presentations	RBE PhD Students: Yinan Sun & Alex J. Chiluisa
Oct. 23, 2020	Dr. Tichakom (Nok) Wongpiromsarn	Computer Science, Iowa State University	Formal Methods for Control Synthesis of Autonomous Systems
Oct. 30, 2020	Dr. Heiko Hamann	University of Lubeck, Germany	Minimize Surprise in Robots: An Innate Motivation for Collective Behavior
Nov. 6, 2020	Dr. Vito Trianni	Italian National Research Council	Drone swarms for precision agriculture
Nov. 13, 2020	Dr. Angela Faragasso	University of Tokyo, Japan	Reproducibility and benchmarking in Robotics and Healthcare
Nov. 20, 2020	Dr. Cyrills Stachniss	University of Bonn	With Agricultural Robots Towards Sustainable Crop Production
Dec. 4, 2020	Dr. Dylan Shell	Texas A&M University	Robot illusions, fakery, and multi-experiments
Dec. 11, 2020	Dr. Dave Seltz	RTI

Spring 2020 Series

Spring 2020
Date	Speaker	Affiliation	Presentation
Jan. 17, 2020	Dr. Megan Chrobak	Boston Scientific	The Boston Scientific Approach to Competing with Robotics
Jan. 24, 2020	Dr. Markus P. Nemitz	Postdoctoral Fellow, Whitesides Research Group at Harvard University	From Silicon to Silicone: Merging the Worlds of Hard and Soft Robotics
Jan. 31, 2020	Dr. Xiangrui Zeng	Robotics Engineering, WPI	Data-Enhanced Automotive Intelligent Control and Active Route Planning
Feb. 7, 2020	Lifeng Zhou	Virginia Tech	Resilient and Risk-Aware Multi-Robot Coordination
Feb. 10, 2020	Dr. Paul Reverdy	Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, University of Arizona	Decision Making in Physical Contexts: From Human Supervisors to Autonomous Robots
Feb. 14, 2020	Dr. Marko B. Popovic	Physics, Biomedical, and Robotics Engineering, WPI	Wearable, Bioinspired Robots, and Universal Manipulation
Feb. 21, 2020	Mr. Kevin Harrington	Robotics Engineering, WPI	BowlerStudio: A Robotics Integrated Development Environment
Feb. 28, 2020	Dr. Loris Fichera	Robotics Engineering, WPI	Combining robotics and machine intelligence to enable advanced treatment modalities in the head and neck
Mar. 6, 2020	Dr. Akin Tatoglu	Mechanical Engineering, University of Hartford	Probabilistic Methodologies for Autonomous Mobile Robot Localization and Agile Motion Control

Fall 2019 Series

Fall 2019
Date	Speaker	Affiliation	Presentation
Aug. 30, 2019	RBE Graduate Students	Robotics Engineering, WPI	What did I do this summer?
Sept. 6, 2019	Dr. Greg Lewin	Robotics Engineering, WPI	Spoofing a positioning feedback system and other cruel tricks to play on students
Sept. 13, 2019	Joyce Sidopoulos	MassRobotics	Sensor Fusion Challenge Info Session
Sept. 20, 2019	Dr. Robert Platt	Computer Science, Northeastern University	Deictic action representations for robotic manipulation
Sept. 27, 2019	Dr. Ryosuke Tsumura	Robotics Engineering, WPI	A Role of Robotics Technology in Medical Applications
Oct. 4, 2019	Dr. Roberto Tron	Mechanical Engineering Department, Boston University	Intelligent, Safe, and Dynamic Multiagent Systems
Nov. 1, 2019	Dr. Val Schmidt	Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping, UNH	Autonomous Vehicles for Ocean Mapping - A Decade of Experience
Nov. 8, 2019	Dr. Lawson Wong	Khoury College of Computer Science, Northeastern University	Abstraction in robotics
Nov. 15, 2019	Dr. Pierre E. Dupont	Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School	Building Medical Robots and Devices inside a Hospital
Nov. 22, 2019	Dr. Emel Demircan	California State University, Long Beach	Human Movement Understanding for Intelligent Robots and Systems
Dec. 6, 2019	Dr. Daniel Flickinger	Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation	Unique Challenges in VTOL Autonomy
Dec. 13, 2019	Jie Fang	Mechanical Engineering, WPI	Interactive Route-Planning and Mobile Sensing with a Team of Multiple Robotic Vehicles in an Unknown Environment