This award supports U.S. Ph.D. student travel to a doctoral consortium held at ICRA 2014 in Hong Kong, China, from May 31 to June 7, 2014. The goal of the doctoral consortium is to highlight the research work of US Ph.D. students. This gives an opportunity for the students to interact with senior faculty and get feedback on their work. Participants and recipients of this travel support will be selected by the 2014 ICRA organizing committee based on their thesis work. Participating in a conference is a critical component of graduate student development. This award aims to have a diverse representation of participants in terms of gender, ethnic background, academic institution, and geographic location.
Robotics is a fundamental and very active research area of great national importance. The national importance aspect of the field of Robotics is evidenced by the establishment of the National Robotics Initiative (NRI) in 2012 as part of President Barack Obama’s Advanced Manufacturing Partnership Initiative. The goal of the NRI is to accelerate the development and use of robots in the United States that work beside, or cooperatively with, people, and enable new economic growth. The IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) is the premier annual conference in Robotics sponsored by the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (IEEE-RAS). It is held each year either in North America, Europe, or Asia by rotation, and is attended regularly by members of the international community including academicians, industry workers, entrepreneurs, and funding agency leaders. Intellectual Merit: Graduate student participants were able to exchange information based on their individual research areas. The participants were able to make contacts with others that improved their research activities. Some of the participants also obtained employment opportunities at various research facilities, national labs, and industry. Broader Impacts: The broader impact of the program includes the involvement of US Ph.D. graduate students in a technical conference run by a major professional society (IEEE). In addition to technical exposure, this experience provided the opportunity to interact with a broad range of researchers and educators involved in this field. A number of oral and poster presentations by 33 US PhD graduate student participants were delivered. Furthermore, student attendees attended invited symposiums, workshops, and tutorials organized by the conference where academic and industry leaders and experts examined (through a workshop) the future of robotics and robotics education in the world. Outcomes Summary Overall, 33 US PhD graduate students participated and presented their exciting research activities at the 2014 IEEE ICRA conference in Hong Kong. These students got the opportunity to form new research bonds with others in the Robotics (education and applied) community world-wide.
