Dmitry Berenson, a PhD candidate in the Robotics Institute, is the winner of a prestigious Intel PhD Fellowship, one of just 26 winners nationwide in the highly competitive program. The one-year award from the Intel Corp. includes tuition and a stipend, as well as a travel grant and an Intel mentor.

Berenson, who is co-advised by James Kuffner and Siddhartha Srinivasa, is focused on creating robots that can intelligently interact with their surroundings. Compounding this challenge is the daunting task of "teaching" robots to understand object/environment interactions. Berenson was awarded the Intel fellowship based upon his thesis, "Manipulation Planning for Personal Robotics." Srinivasa, a research scientist at Intel Labs Pittsburgh as well as an adjunct faculty in the Robotics Institute, will be his Intel mentor.

Born in Ukraine, Berenson grew up in Columbia, Md., and earned a bachelor's degree in electrical and computer engineering at Cornell University.

Xiaochun Yu, a PhD student in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, was Carnegie Mellon's other winner this year.

For more information, check the Research@Intel blog.