Faculty
Aaron Steinfeld
Aaron’s specialty is human-robot interaction and advanced transportation. He is interested in how to enable timely and appropriate interaction when interfaces are restricted through design, tasks, the environment, time pressures, and/or user abilities. He utilizes training and experience in robotics, intelligent transportation, rehabilitation, human factors and ergonomics, human-computer interaction, universal design, and research methods.
www.cs.cmu.edu/~astein
Staff
Liz Carter
Liz is currently a project scientist at the Robotics Institute examining people’s interactions with social robots. Previously, she performed research with interactive avatars for children, assessing new computer animation methods, and neuroimaging for autism. She received her Ph.D. from the CMU Psychology Department and her B.A. from Yale University.
www.lizcarter.net
Suresh Kumaar Jayaraman
Suresh is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Robotics Institute. He is broadly interested in developing trustworthy robots for human-robot collaboration through effective communication. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.
jskumaar.github.io
Anthony Tomasic
Anthony works closely with the TBD Lab as an external consultant. For 15 years he was a Senior Systems Scientist at CMU. He was co-Founder and Director of the Carnegie Mellon Master of Computational Data Science degree program (MCDS). Anthony also co-founded the Master of Science in Product Management. This degree program focuses on transitioning software engineers to product management roles. Currently Anthony is CEO of Fort Alto Inc, an Internet of Things low-code application platform company. He received his Ph.D. from Princeton and his MBA from Carnegie Mellon.
www.linkedin.com/in/anthonytomasic
Advised Graduate Students
Abena Boadi-Agyemang
Abena is a PhD student in the Robotics Institute. She is broadly interested in the design of accessible interfaces to support people with disabilities. Her current work focuses on the design and evaluation of robotic interfaces to help people with visual impairments navigate complex indoor spaces.
abena.myportfolio.com/about
Rayna Hata
Rayna is a PhD student in the Robotics Institute. She is broadly interested in human robot interactions in the area of accessibility and care for those with disabilities. Her current research area includes assistive devices for those with blindness or low vision.
rhata@andrew.cmu.edu
Peya Mowar
Peya is an MS student at the Robotics Institute. She is interested in building and evaluating human-centered AI systems for enabling technological access to people with disabilities. Her current work focuses on designing accessible web interfaces through generative AI models.
peyajm29.github.io
Huy Quyen Ngo
Huy Quyen (Huy) is a PhD student in the Robotics Institute. He is broadly interested in robotic manipulation and learning in the human-robot interaction domain. He is currently working on robot proficiency self-assessment, specifically the design of motion behaviors in robots that communicate non-verbal cues related to task performance.
ngohuyquyen.github.io
Kate Shih
Kate is a PhD student at the Robotics Institute. Her current research focuses on the application of verifiably safe control to human-robot interaction. More generally, she’s interested in developing technologies that help people maintain and improve their independence and quality of life.
kshih@andrew.cmu.edu
Other Students
Nikki Kode
Thesis Alumni (Reverse Chronological)
Allan Wang (PhD): Miraikan
Cathy Jiao (MS): PhD student at CMU Language Technologies Institute
Samantha Reig (PhD): University of Massachusetts Lowell
Lynn Kirabo (PhD): Harvey Mudd College
Mary Theresa Hatfalvi (MS): Honeywell
Xiang Zhi Tan (PhD): Northeastern University
Sarthak Ahuja (MS): Amazon
Qian Yang (PhD): Cornell University
Abhijat Biswas (MS): PhD student at CMU Robotics Institute
Ceci Morales (MS): PhD student at CMU Robotics Institute
Sarah Tan (MS): Rotolily
Marynel Vázquez (MS, PhD): Yale University
Ishani Chatterjee (MS): Postdoc at Oregon State University
Chandrayee Basu (MS): Postdoc at Stanford University
Poornima Kaniarasu (MS): Aurora
Postdoc and Staff Alumni
Student Alumni
Obehioye Adubor
Archana Ajith
Sara Amick
Yufei An
Kevin Araujo
Sarah Barbour
Devon Barry
Rachael Bennett
Rahul Bhat
Alex Billings
Zhong Yu Bing
Dewey Black
Leslie Bloomfield
Michelle Bova
Christian Bruggeman
David Bunker
Suyeon Cha
Madeline Chan
Claire Chen
Joe Connolly
Yasser Corzo
Steven Cunden
Shaan Dave
Sophia Deng
Ximin “Teddy” Ding
Omer Elhiraika
Mercedes Farrell
Liyao Fu
Sofia Gadea Omelchenko
William Goodale
Meghal Gosalia
Niloy Gupta
Eric Hochendoner
Chen Hong
Xiao (Ivy) He
Hanzhang “Echo” Hu
Ran Huan
Miriam Israelowitz
Somakala Jagannathan
Krati Jain
Rufeng “Steven” Ji
Yang Jin
Gordon Johnston
Diane Keene
Saumya Kharbanda
Ildoo Kim
Stephanie Kimssy
Piyush Kumar
Jian Li
Jirachaya (Fern) Limprayoon
Yanyu Lin
Yinjia Liu
Xinyi Lu
Tewei Luo
Stephanie M Mahalchick
Erika Mason
Raj Mehta
Anusha Nagabandi
Amal Nanavati
Terence Nip
Prithu Pareek
Jonathan Park
Yuxin (Abbey) Pei
Dmitri Portnoy
Taylor Raack
Varsha Rajendra
Adithi Rao
Shree Rao
Michael Richter
Daniel Ringwalt
Jeong Min Seo
Vivek Shankar
Yizhou Shao
Gustavo Silvera
Sonya Simkin
Andrew Smith
Changdo Song
Rhomni St. John
Jennifer Suh
Bili Sun
Yiqing Sun
Rosalie Traficante
Allison Tran
Lynn Urbina
Lauren Von Dehsen
Antian Wang
Clara Wang
Jialiang Wang
Aparna Warrier
Le Wei
Yiyun Wei
Agnes Won
Meng-Hsin Wu
Yongzuan Wu
Yue Xing
Yifan Xing
Chenhao Yang
Xiyang Zhang
Tyrone Zhang
Visitors
Sikai Chen: Visiting scholar (2019-2022) while at Purdue University
Alvaro Castro-Gonzales: Faculty visitor (2017) from Universidad Carlos III Madrid
Motoki Shino: Faculty visitor (2010-2011) from University of Tokyo
Others
During video calls with lab members, you may be lucky enough to see a live studio audience.