Wesley H. Huang

Institute for Complex Engineered Systems
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890

Phone: 412/268-6846
FAX: 412/268-5229
Email: mongoose@ices.cmu.edu
Home page


Education

Ph.D. in Robotics, Carnegie Mellon University
August 1997

Coursework included graduate level classes in robotic manipulation, mobile robot design, numerical methods, control, perception, and computer vision. My thesis, entitled Impulsive Manipulation, studied the mechanics, control, and planning for using impulsive forces for robotic positioning. Advised by Matthew Mason and Eric Krotkov.

B.S. in Electrical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
June 1991

Coursework included digital electronics, computer control, circuits and electronics, artificial intelligence, mechanical design, probability, chaos, computer science, and robotic manipulation. Thesis: A Simple Robot Pool Player. Thesis advisor: Christopher Atkeson.

Work Experience

Institute for Complex Engineered Systems, Carnegie Mellon University
September 1997 - present

Postdoctoral Fellow, working on distributed cooperative mobile robotics and novel locomotion mechanisms.

Interval Research Corporation, Palo Alto, CA
Fall 1996

Did hardware debugging on a mobile robot with custom digital video cameras and adapted stereo vision code for tracking in a project to study social behavior of mobile robotics, in particular, human-robot interaction.

NSF Summer Institute in Japan
Summer 1993

Spent two months in Japan taking Japanese language classes, visiting research laboratories, and working at the Electrotechnic Laboratory (ETL) in Tsukuba.

MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
Summer 1990

Programmed a real time image processing system to track balls for juggling robots. Supervised by Professor Christopher Atkeson.

MIT Parsons Laboratory
Summer 1990

Refined infrared scatterometry hardware and automated a data acquisition system for a laboratory wave tank. Supervised by Professor W. Kendall Melville.

MIT Media Laboratory
January 1988 - June 1989

Implemented a real time passive range camera. Developed C libraries and a LISP environment for a real-time image processing system. Supervised by Professor Alexander Pentland.

Supervisory Experience

Manipulation Lab, Carnegie Mellon University
Fall 1995, Spring & Summer 1996, Spring 1997

Supervised three undergraduates, both in conjuction with my thesis research and in conjunction with other lab projects.

Teaching Experience

Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Sciences
Summer 1995 & 1996

Taught Computer Science to 90 high school seniors. (The Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Sciences is a college level academic summer program for talented high school seniors.) Also managed a team of teaching assistants (three in 1995 and four in 1996).

Andrew's Leap, Carnegie Mellon University
Summer 1994

Coinstructor for the robotics portion of this 6 week summer program for talented Pittsburgh area teenagers. Taught C programming, instructed students in use of robots, and oversaw student group projects.

Carnegie Mellon University
Fall 1993

Teaching Assistant for Analysis I, a freshman level theoretical calculus class. Taught a recitation section twice per week and helped grade homework and exams. Was also "immortalized" in The Adventures of Secret Agent Wes Huang.

CTY Program, Johns Hopkins University
Summer 1992

Instructor for Data Structures and Algorithms and Digital Logic courses in the CTY program (an intensive academic summer program for talented 12 - 16 year olds).

CTY Program, Johns Hopkins University
Summer 1991

Teaching Assistant for Computer Science I and Digital Logic courses in the CTY program.

MIT Experimental Study Group
Spring and Fall 1990, Spring 1991

Taught freshman physics (mechanics in the fall, electricity and magnetism in the spring) and calculus to small groups of students in this alternative freshman year program.

Awards

NASA Graduate Student Research Program Fellow
September 1993 - August 1996

IBM Thomas J. Watson Memorial Scholarship
1987 - 1991

Publications

W. Huang and M. Mason, Experiments in Impulsive Manipulation, accepted to the 1998 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

W. Huang and M. Mason, Mechanics, Planning, and Control for Tapping, accepted to the 1998 Workshop on the Algorithmic Foundations of Robotics.

W. Huang, Impulsive Manipulation, PhD Thesis, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, August 1997. Available as Robotics Institute Technical Report CMU-RI-TR-97-29.

W. Huang and M. Mason, Mechanics for Vibratory Manipulation, Proceedings of the 1997 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Albuquerque, NM.

S. Akella, W. Huang, K. Lynch, and M. Mason, Sensorless Parts Orienting with a One Joint Manipulator, Proceedings of the 1997 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Albuquerque, NM.

W. Huang and E. Krotkov, Optimal Stereo Mast Configuration for Mobile Robots, Proceedings of the 1997 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Albuquerque, NM.

W. Huang and M. Mason, Limiting Cases of Impulsive Manipulation, Robotics Institute Technical Report CMU-RI-TR-96-24, Carnegie Mellon University, September 1996.

S. Akella, W. Huang, K. Lynch, and M. Mason, Sensorless Parts Feeding with a One Joint Robot, Workshop on the Algorithmic Foundations of Robotics, 1996.

S. Akella, W. Huang, K. Lynch, and M. Mason, Planar Manipulation on a Conveyor with a One Joint Robot, International Symposium on Robotics Research, 1995, Munich, Germany.

W. Huang, E. Krotkov, and M. Mason, Impulsive Manipulation, Proceedings of the 1995 IEEE Conference on Robotics and Automation, Nagoya, Japan.

A. Pentland, T. Darrell, M. Turk, and W. Huang, A Simple, Real-Time Range Camera, Proceedings of the 1989 IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, San Diego, CA.

Skills

I have had extensive experience with UNIX workstations and some programming experience on Macs and on PCs running Windows. I program in C/C++, LISP, Mathematica, MATLAB, and Postscript, and have had experiences with many other languages. I often design documents and do strange things using LaTeX, FrameMaker, and Illustrator.

I have designed and built both electrical (mostly digital) and mechanical (mostly aluminum) hardware. I am adept with a soldering iron, an oscilloscope, and a logic analyzer, as well as a milling machine and a lathe.

Department & University Service

CMU Robotics Student Organization RoboBanker
January 1995 - January 1996

CMU Vice President Student Advisory Committe member
Fall 1994 - Spring 1995

CMU Graduate Student Organization representative
Spring & Fall 1993

Community Service

Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh
Fall 1997 - present

Work with Child Life specialists in unit for teenagers.

Pittsburgh New Works Festival
Fall 1994

Led effort to build a "parking chair robot" for a benefit/fund-raising auction for the Pittsburgh New Works Festival, a nonprofit theater organization.

East End Cooperative Ministry
Fall 1991 - Spring 1992

Tutored an elementary school student in history and math and a high school student in algebra.

Personal Information

Have practiced martial arts for over 15 years. Currently studying Tai Chi; have previously studied Aikido, Karate, and Judo. Hold a black belt (sho-dan) in the Washin-ryu style of Karate and a brown belt (san-kyu) in Aikido.

Have been learning to play Go; currently about 7 kyu. Other interests include volleyball, music, juggling, cooking, and photography.

Citizenship: USA