2025 Fall Research Symposium & PhD Communication Competition
2025 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), 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 room 04.100 & 04.101 (55 Pier 4 Blvd, Boston MA 02210), and remote programming over zoom. Please note that we hold separate events for our Amazon Science Hub partner institutions at their respective campuses.
The Amazon Robotics Fall Research Symposium and PhD Communicaiton Competition brings together PhD students, Amazon-funded Principal Investigators (PIs), 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 room 04.100 & 04.101 (55 Pier 4 Blvd, Boston MA 02210), and remote programming over zoom. Please note that we hold separate events for our Amazon Science Hub partner institutions at their respective campuses.
Based on last year's successful competition, PhD students from previously funded labs were again invited to present their research and will compete for prizes based on their research communication skills. We are very excited to have received stellar nominations and are looking forward to celebrating the 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 |
|
"Learning with Less: Exploiting Structure for Efficient Multi-Robot Coordination" Dr. Pratap Tokekar (University of Maryland & Amazon Scholar)
|
9:40am |
|
"Towards More Scalable Human-Centered Evaluation of Robot Navigation", Dr. Marynel Vázquez (Yale University)
|
10:00am |
|
"From Plans to Reality: Robust Execution Frameworks for Multi-Agent Path Finding", Dr. Jiaoyang Li (Carnegie Mellon University)
|
10:20am |
|
Coffee Break
|
10:40am |
|
|
11:00am |
|
"Gentle Giants: Handling Delicate Items with Industrial Robots", Dr. Mani Nambi (Amazon)
|
11:30am |
|
Lunch Break
|
12:00pm |
|
Amazonian Panel
|
1:15pm |
|
Towards Complex Language in Partially Observed Environments", Dr. Stefanie Tellex (Brown University)
|
2:00pm |
|
"From Robotic Assembly to Dense Packing in the Presence of Uncertainties", Dr. Jing Xiao (Worcester Polytechnic Institute)
|
2:20pm |
|
"Physical AI for Autonomous Tool Manipulation in Semi-Structured Environment", Dr. SK Gupta (University of Southern California)
|
2:40pm |
|
Coffee & Networking Break
|
3:00pm |
|
PhD Communication Competition (Contestant Names Below)
|
3:15pm |
|
Judging & Deliberation
|
4:30pm |
|
Happy Hour
|
5:00pm |
PhD Communication Competition Finalists
| Student Name | University |
|
Amisha Bhaskar
|
The University of Maryland, College Park |
|
Arjun Lakshmipathy
|
Carnegie Mellon University |
|
Arthur Zhang
|
The University of Texas at Austin |
|
Christopher Lee
|
University of Texas at Dallas |
|
Joy Hsu
|
Stanford University |
|
Mingxi Jia
|
Brown University |
| Rishi Veerapaneni |
Carnegie Mellon University |
| Shambhuraj Mane |
Worcester Polytechnic Institute |
|
Sharfin Islam
|
Columbia University |
|
Yuna Yoo
|
University of California at Berkeley |
Confirmed Speakers
PI Presentations
- "From Plans to Reality: Robust Execution Frameworks for Multi-Agent Path Finding", Dr. Jiaoyang Li, Carnegie Mellon University
- "From Robotic Assembly to Dense Packing in the Presence of Uncertainties", Dr. Jing Xiao, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
- "Towards More Scalable Human-Centered Evaluation of Robot Navigation", Dr. Marynel Vazquez, Yale University
- "Learning with Less: Exploiting Structure for Efficient Multi-Robot Coordinarion", Dr. Pratap Tokekar, University of Maryland, College Park & Amazon Scholar
- "Physical AI for Autonomous Tool Manipulation in Semi-Structured Environment", Dr. SK Gupta, University of Southern California
- "Towards Complex Language in Partially Observed Environments", Dr. Stefanie Tellex, Brown University
Amazon Presentations
- Amazonian Panel: Anna Davydova, Dr. Ameya Agaskar, and Dr. Fan Wang
- "DeepFleet: Multi-Agent Foundation Models for Mobile Robots", Dr. Joey Durham
- "Gentle Giants: Handling Delicate Items with Industrial Robots", Dr. Mani Nambi