Fall Research Symposium & PhD Communication Competition
About the Event

The Amazon Robotics Fall Research Symposium and PhD Communicaiton Competition brings together PhD students, Amazon-funded Principal Investigators (PIs) from both the Amazon Research Awards (ARAs) and the Greater Boston Tech Initiative (GBTI), and Amazon Scientists for a day full of celebrating PhD research accomplishments, exchanging research outcomes, and networking opportunities. This event will be held in a hybrid format, with in-person programming at BOS21 (55 Pier 4 Blvd, Boston MA 02210), and remote programming over zoom.

As a new addition to the research symposium, PhD students from previously funded labs will be invited to present their research and receive competitive prizes for their research communication skills. We are very much excited to celebrate achievements of PhD students who have benefited from Amazon funding, directly or indirectly.

Throughout the event both Amazon scientists and academic PIs will give an assortment of tech talks and lead panel discussions. Recruiting opportunities will be highlighted at the event with recruiters in attendance. Please select an agenda item to learn more:
 
Email robotics-edu@amazon.com with any questions
 
All participants are invited to attend in person, but travel and accommodations will not be reimbursed*. If you are attending in-person, please let us know asap as we will need to obtain permissions for building entry and catering headcount.
*Travel and accommodations will be reimbursed for PhD communication competition finalists who will present in-person
 
Agenda
Topic Time (EST)
 
Breakfast & Refreshments
 
 9:00am
 
Welcome Note from Tye Brady and Dr. Shoba Subramanian (Amazon)
 
 9:30am
 
"Robotics Innovation at Amazon", Dr. Joey Durham (Amazon) 
 
 9:35am
 
Panel Discussion “Career Perspectives from Amazonians” presented by Dr. Taskin Padir, Dr. Yashoda Dadkar, Jaimie Carlson, and Dr. Kapil Katyal (Amazon)
 
 9:55am
 
Coffee & Networking Break
 
 10:45am
 
“Advanced Robotic Manipulation - tactile sensing and learning from demonstration”, Dr. Monroe Kennedy (Stanford University)
 
 11:00am
 
"Large scale multi-robot (re)planning", Dr. Nora Ayanian (Brown University)
 
 11:15am
 
“From Sensing to Action: Integrating Touch and Vision for Robot Planning and Control", Dr. Nima Fazeli (University of Michigan)
 
 11:30am
 
"Haptic Behavior Cloning at Scale", Dr. James Tompkin (Brown University) and Dr. Peter Whitney (Northeastern University)
 
 11:45am
 
"Contact Areas for Manipulation Capture, Retargeting, and Hand Design", Dr. Nancy Pollard (Carnegie Mellon University)
 
 12:00pm
 
"Rubik Tables and Multi-Robot Routing on Grids", Dr. Jingjin Yu (Rutgers University)
 
 12:15pm
 
Lunch Break
 
 12:30pm
 
“Understanding and optimizing physical interactions in the wild”, Dr. Kris Hauser (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)
 
 1:30pm
 
"Simultaneous Coalition Formation and Task Scheduling in Multi-Robot Swarms, Dr. Carlo Pinciroli (Worcester Polytechnic Institute)
 
 1:45pm
 
“Coordinating Multi-robot Fleets using RL”, Dr. Stephanie Gil (Harvard University)
 
 2:00pm
 
"Human-to-Robot Skill Transfer for Supervisory Control of Dexterous Manipulation.", Dr. Reza Azdeh (UMass Lowell), Dr. Berk Calli, Dr. Cagdas Onal, and Dr. Haichong Zhang (Worcester Polytechnic Institute)
 
 2:15pm
 
“Managing Complexity with Systems Engineering", Megan Mitchell (Amazon)
 
 2:30pm
 
“Autonomous Mobility at Amazon Robotics”, Dr. Andreas Kolling (Amazon)
 
 2:45pm
 
Coffee & Networking Break
 
 3:00pm
 
PhD Communication Competition (Contestant Names Below)
 
 3:30pm
 
Judging & Deliberation
 
 5:00pm
 
Dinner
 
 5:30pm
PhD Communication Competition Finalists
Student Name University
 
Albert Yu
 
 The University of Texas at Austin
 
Camilla Tabasso
 
 University of Iowa
 
Dominik Bauer
 
 Carnegie Mellon University
 
Huy Ha
 
 Columbia University
 
Jason Liu
 
 Brown University
 
Mahi Shafiullah
 
 New York University
 
Nathaniel Simon
 
 Princeton University
 
Omey Manyar
 
 University of Southern California
 
Stephen Tian
 
 Stanford University
 
Zixi Liu
 
 Harvard University
Confirmed Speakers
 
PI Presentations 
  1. Dr. Monroe Kennedy III, Stanford University: “Advanced Robotic Manipulation - Tactile Sensing and Learning from Demonstration”
  2. Dr. Carlo Pinciroli, WPI: "Simultaneous Coalition Formation and Task Scheduling in Multi-Robot Swarms"
  3. Dr. Kris Hauser, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign: “Understanding and Optimizing Physical Interactions in the Wild”
  4. Dr. Jingjin Yu, Rutgers University: "Rubik Tables and Multi-Robot Routing on Grids"
  5. Dr. Nora Ayanian, Brown University: "Large scale multi-robot (re)planning"
  6. Dr. Nancy Pollard, Carnegie Mellon University: "Contact Areas for Manipulation Capture, Retargeting, and Hand Design"
  7. Dr. Stephanie Gil, Harvard University: “Coordinating Multi-robot Fleets using RL”
  8. Dr. Nima Fazeli, University of Michigan: “From Sensing to Action: Integrating Touch and Vision for Robot Planning and Control"
  9. Dr. Reza Azdeh (UMass Lowell), Dr. Berk Calli (WPI), Dr. Cagdas Onal (WPI), and Dr. Haichong Zhang (WPI): "Human-to-Robot Skill Transfer for Supervisory Control of Dexterous Manipulation"
  10. Dr. James Tompkin (Brown University) and Dr. Peter Whitney (Northeastern University): "Haptic Behavior Cloning at Scale"
Amazon Presentations
  1. Dr. Joey Durham, "Robotics Innovation at Amazon"
  2. Megan Mitchell, "Managing Complexity with Systems Engineering"
  3. Dr. Andreas Kolling, "Autonomous Mobility at Amazon Robotics"
  4. Dr. Taskin Padir, Dr. Yashoda Dadkar, Jaimie Carlson, and Dr. Kapil Katyal, “Career Perspectives from Amazonians” Panel Discussion