skip to content

Department of Computer Science and Technology

Professor Daniela Rus

Save the date of Wednesday 12 May, when Professor Daniela Rus - Director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at MIT - will be giving this year's Wheeler Lecture. Her talk is entitled 'Reimagining Robots'.

Prof Rus is the Andrew (1956) and Erna Viterbi Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, and Deputy Dean of Research in the Schwarzman College of Computing at MIT.

Her research interests are in robotics and artificial intelligence. The key focus of her research is to develop the science and engineering of autonomy. 

She will be giving her talk via Zoom, beginning at 3:30 pm (BST) on 12 May. Please register in advance to attend this event. 

Here is the abstract for her talk:

"The digitisation of practically everything coupled with advances in machine learning, the automation of knowledge work, and advanced robotics promises a future with democratised use of machines and wide-spread use of AI, robots and customization. While the last 60 years have defined the field of industrial robots, and empowered hard bodied robots to execute complex assembly tasks in constrained industrial settings, the next 60 years could be ushering in our time with pervasive robots that come in a diversity of forms and materials, helping people with physical and cognitive tasks. However, the pervasive use of machines remains a hard problem.

"How can we accelerate the creation of machines customized to specific tasks? Where are the gaps that we need to address in order to advance the bodies and brains of machines? How can we develop scalable and trustworthy reasoning engines? In this talk I will discuss recent developments in machine learning and robotics, focusing on about how computation can play a role in:

  1. developing Neural Circuit Policies, an efficient approach to more interpretable machine learning engines,
  2. making machines more capable of reasoning in the world,
  3. making custom robots, and
  4. making more intuitive interfaces between robots and people."

Annual Wheeler Lectures
The annual Wheeler Lectures are held in memory of Professor David Wheeler, one of the pioneers of Computer Science. He worked on the original EDSAC computer and wrote the first computer program ever to be stored in a computer’s working memory. He pioneered the use of sub-routines and is particularly remembered for his work on data compression. 

 

 


Published by Rachel Gardner on Tuesday 13th April 2021