Rabble of Robots

I get this question often.

I have been working at Dolby for nearly six years as a Project Manager, and going from that to a Ph.D. in Robotics is rather nonlinear. This post will hopefully shed a bit of light on how I got here and where I’m going next.

To answer some of your questions, I put together an FAQ!

What sparked this? Why now?

It started with a simple thought experiment. A friend asked what I would do if I were to go back to school. Once he had humored my initial snarky responses of “astronaut” and “chocolate taster”, I responded “I don’t know. Other than robotics, I never found that thing that I was super passionate about.” To which he replied, “ok… well what about that thing you just said you were passionate about?”

As silly as the conversation was, it got me thinking. And then I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I spent my nights, weekends, free time, and occasional lunch hour looking into the field. Everything I read sent me into hours-long wormholes of google searches, research papers, and articles. I read abstracts with my morning coffee and laid in bed at night reading advice books for prospective and current grad students. I sought out any publication or distribution list that included the latest and greatest in robotics and spoke with every researcher whose time I could borrow. I found myself debating the implications of true artificial intelligence with anyone who would engage – how do we test that something is conscious? How will that affect our perception of our own consciousness? How will our laws have to adapt to a new form of intelligence?

As I thought more about it, I realized this is a passion I have been carrying with me for a long time. The first time I played with a robot was when I was 12 years old at a science camp at Stanford. I almost squealed when I first got it to move, and could have spent hours in that dingy basement computer lab getting it to solve mazes. That same excitement is what pushed me to create a motion-controlled robot for my senior project in college. It is a passion that has been burning quietly in the background for a long time, and I had never even considered that it was something I could seriously pursue.

I later joked with my friend that I was mad at him; he made me realize that I had an unwavering passion that was not going to go away, and it would have been nice if I had gotten a say in the matter. But that’s not quite how passion works. Passion is an immovable stubborn force that drives us forward toward a sometimes impossible goal. That’s how this feels – it feels like I’m joining the circus. It’s all completely surreal.

Why robotics?

Robotics is a fascinating intersection of a variety of fields that can benefit and affect all facets of society. The advancement of robotics requires interdisciplinary study; in order to move technology and society together, it is requires cooperation between scientists, philosophers, law makers, technologists, and engineers. It requires scientific and engineering thought with a flair of creativity. These systems also need to be designed with both the big picture and minute details in mind, and an understanding how each affects the other. Problems of this nature have always fascinated me.

Going forward, robotics is going to shape our future more than any other technology over the next 20-40 years. Artificial intelligence and automation are going to redefine how we work, interact with technology, and even understand consciousness. We are on the cusp of a major transformation in society, and I want to be at the forefront of not only pushing the boundaries, but asking the questions of how and why.

What do you want research?

My interest is specifically in Human-Robot Interaction – how humans are going to interact with robots, how robots can be designed to help humans, and how we are going to integrate robots into society. There are two pieces to this that I want to pursue: the development of technology and the overall impact on society.

Technology: I am fascinated with multi-agent systems and the communication and decision-making systems involved. A multi-agent system is where multiple individuals, including humans, robots, and other contributors, coordinate together as a system to accomplish a set of tasks. The system must be designed as a whole, with each individual piece taken into account. Each piece much also be designed as a part of the larger system. I would love to dig in to the underlying algorithms that inform the decisions being made at the individual and system levels. These systems present very interesting applications of chaos and game theory; it requires that one thinks through how each agent will make decisions, and how the small individual decisions can drastically impact the outcome.

I am fascinated by the research being conducted in the field of human-robotic teaming and interaction, especially around disaster relief and unstructured environments. Part of my interest in the program at Oregon State is the research being done in this field is designed for disaster relief scenarios. It is incredibly important to me that the research is grounded in realistic and positive applications.

Society: As I mentioned, robotics is going to transform our society. The conversations around the implications of these new technologies are just beginning. Policy makers, human rights activists, academics, and corporations have just started discussing this transformation – How are we going to ensure these new technologies account for the deeper societal implications? How can we reshape society to fully embrace the rapidly developing technologies?

Why Oregon State?

Oregon State has an extraordinary program. Their mission is to develop the technology to benefit society, “considering their impact on people and the potential for robots to shape the future”. The program focuses not only on advancements in technology that can benefit individuals, but how these new technologies will affect our world. They attract researchers with vastly diverse backgrounds and fields of study. Their research spans machine learning, vision, sensors, devices, swarms, and artificial intelligence.

In addition to the broad research being done, the program is also working with lawmakers and other researchers to tackle the complex questions surrounding the deployment of these technologies. At its core, the program is bounded by an obligation to serve society as a whole. They are focused on exploring “public policy and ethical questions surrounding the deployment of robotics and intelligent systems”.

That’s it. That’s my big lofty life goal. Make robots and make sure they don’t take over the world.

If you have any more questions or comments, feel free to leave them below!