Meet the team

M. Bernardine Dias

 M. Bernardine Dias
Associate Research Professor, Robotics Institute,
Carnegie Mellon University
Founder and Director, TechBridgeWorld
Co-Founder and Co-Director, rCommerce Lab
Email: mbdias 'AT' ri.cmu.edu
   
Ermine Teves Ermine A. Teves
Staff, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University
Project Manager, TechBridgeWorld
Email: eteves 'AT' cs.cmu.edu
   
Byung-Cheol Min Byung-Cheol Min
Postdoctoral Fellow, Robotics Institute,
Carnegie Mellon University
Email: bmin 'AT' cs.cmu.edu
   
Satish Ravishankar Satish Ravishankar
Student, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University
Email: sravisha 'AT' andrew.cmu.edu
   
Satish Ravishankar Suryansh Saxena
Research Intern, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University
   
Nicholas Hainsey Nicholas Hainsey
IT Lab Fellow, Heinz College, Carnegie Mellon University
   
Omar Mustardo Omar Mustardo
IT Lab Fellow, Heinz College, Carnegie Mellon University

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Research labs

TechBridgeWorld LogoThe TechBridgeWorld research group, based in the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, innovates and field tests technology solutions to meet sustainable development needs around the world. Working closely with local partners who understand the needs of specific communities, TechBridgeWorld contributes its technical expertise to help realize the community’s vision of development by inventing new tools, customizing existing technology, and inspiring the community’s future technologists.

rCommerce LogoThe rCommerce lab advances the state of the art in autonomous team coordination and planning. rCommerce specializes in effective planning and coordination techniques for robots acting in dynamic environments with imperfect information.

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Past team members

Sarah Belousov Sarah Belousov
Project Manager		 Amol Jain Amol Jain
Research Intern
       
Debjani Biswas Debjani Biswas
Student		 Balajee Kannan Balajee Kannan
Project Scientist
       
Yonina Cooper Yonina Cooper
Associate Teaching Professor		 Anna Kasunic Anna Kasunic
Research Intern
       
Paul Davis Paul Davis
Student		 Nisarq Kothari Nisarg Kothari
Student
       
M. Freddie Dias M. Freddie Dias
Research Engineer		 Sam Li Sam Li
Research Intern
       
Kelechi Edozie-Anyadiegwu Kelechi Edozie-Anyadiegwu
Media Intern

Lorena Lopez Lorena Lopez
Video Intern
       
Hannah Flaherty Hannah Flaherty
Research Intern		 Syed Ali Hashim Moosavi Syed Ali Hashim Moosavi
Student
       
Hend Geddawy Hend Gedawy
Research Assistant		 Daniel Muller Daniel Muller
Student
       
Gary Giger Gary Giger
Research Programmer/Analyst		 Linlin Pan Linlin Pan
Student
       
Evan Glasgow Evan Glasgow
Research Intern		 Shailja Relwani Shailja Relwani
Student
       
Chet Gnegy Chet Gnegy
Research Intern		 Vansi Vallabhaneni Vansi Vallabhaneni
Student
       
Justin Greet Justin Greet
Student		 Zhiyu Wang Zhiyu Wang
Student
       
Soyeon Hwang Soyeon Hwang
Summer Researcher		 Soyeon Hwang M. Beatrice Dias
Postdoctoral Fellow
       
Lucy Pei
Student		 Alekhya Jonnalagedda Alekhya Jonnalagedda
Student
       
Ming Wu Ming Wu
Student		    

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Collaborators

NavPal is a project of the TechBridgeWorld research group in the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. The project began as a collaboration with the rCommerce lab in the Robotics Institute. NavPal is funded in part by Carnegie Mellon University's Traffic21 Initiative and Technologies for Safe and Efficient Transportation, The National USDOT University Transportation Center for Safety (T-SET UTC) which is sponsored by the US Department of Transportation. NavPal is also funded in part by a grant from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR grant number 90RE5011-01-00). NIDILRR is a Center within the Administration for Community Living (ACL), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). We are also grateful to our past sponsors Google Inc. and the Berkman Faculty Development Fund.

The following institutions and organizations have made our NavPal research possible:

BVRS
WPSBC
WPSD

NavPal also collaborated with the Intelligent Software Agents Lab at Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute. This lab envisions a world in which autonomous, intelligent software programs, known as software agents, undertake many of the operations performed by human users of the World Wide Web, as well as a multitude of other tasks.

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Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the Spring '13 15-239 Software Development for Social Good course students for their research contributions to our project. Through their coursework, they developed a map generator for the NavPal suite of tools. The research outcomes will contribute to longer-term work undertaken by the TechBridgeWorld and rCommerce teams.

We thank the following people for their time and their support for our project:

  • Erika Argobast
  • Maxime Bury
  • Stan Caldwell
  • Courtney Ehrlichman
  • Haakon Faste
  • David Kosbie
  • Barb Goodman
  • Spero Pipakis
  • Todd Reeves
  • Rick Stafford
  • Aaron Steinfeld
  • Doug Vail
  • NavPal research participants

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