PEOPLE Karl Iagnemma, Principal Research Scientist Principal Investigator, Robotic Mobility Group Department of Mechanical Engineering 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Room 35-237a Cambridge, MA 02139 USA Office phone: 617 452 3262 Fax: 617 258 5802 Karl's Bio Karl's CV Karl's Fiction Jianwei Gong, Visiting Professor Jianwei Gong is a visiting scholar in the Robotic Mobility Group, working on robot vehicle navigation theory and algorithms in forest and other offroad environments. He received a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from National University of Defense Technology in China, and completed his Ph.D. degree in Mechatronics Engineering at Beijing Institute of Technology in 2002. As an associtate professor at Beijing Institute of Technology, his research interests mainly focus on mobile robots / autonomous vehicles especially in path planning, environment perception and sensor fusion, also in driver assistant system technology. Chris Brooks, Postdoctoral Associate Chris is a postdoctoral associate in the Robotic Mobility Group, involved in terrain sensing and vehicle terrain interaction for unmanned ground vehicles. He received a B.S. degree with honor in Engineering and Applied Science from Caltech in 2002, and an M.S. degree from MIT in 2004. In 2009, he completed his Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering at MIT, with his thesis addressing self-supervised learning of terrain properties for planetary rovers. Chris's research interests include mobile robot control, exteroceptive and proprioceptive terrain sensing, and the application of improved sensing to advance autonomous robot mobility. Carmine Senatore, Postdoctoral Associate Carmine is a postdoctoral associate in the Robotic Mobility Group, working on tire-terrain interaction problems and vehicle dynamics analysis. He received a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Politecnico di Milano in 2004, and completed his Ph.D. degree in Engineering Mechanics at Virginia Tech, with his thesis addressing the mobility, handling and tractive efficiency of wheeled off-road vehicles. Carmine's research interests include vehicle dynamics, off-road vehicle mobility, dynamical systems theory, vibrations and control. Carmine's resume Carmine's website Sisir Karumanchi, Postdoctoral Associate Sisir is a postdoctoral associate in the Robotic Mobility Group, working on semi-autonomous control and off-road mobility assessment. He received a Bachelors degree in Mechatronic Engineering from the University of Sydney in 2005, and completed his Ph.D. with the Australian Centre for Field Robotics at the University of Sydney in 2010. His Ph.D. thesis involved the application of machine learning techniques to assess off-road mobility with proprioceptive feedback. Broadly speaking, his research focus is in closing the loop from perception to action for autonomous or semi-autonomous systems. His specific research interests include Off-road perception, Proprioception, Optimal Control, Vehicle-terrain interaction, Soft hazard negotiation and Bayesian non-parametric inference. Sisir's website Shanbao Cheng, Postdoctoral Associate Shanbao is a postdoctoral associate in the Robotic Mobility Group, working on the design and implementation of snake like robots with variable stiffness joints for minimally invasive surgery. Before coming to MIT, Shanbao did his postdoc in Mechanical Engineering at Rochester Institute of Technology, NY from 2008 to 2011, involving in the development of magnetically levitated axial flow blood pumps and their animal trials at Utah Artificial Heart Institute. He received his B.S. and M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Sichuan University, China in 2001 and 2004 respectively. He obtained his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore in 2008, with his thesis addressing parameter estimation of magnetic bearings, self-sensing magnetic bearings with their applications to artificial heart pumps. Shanbao's research interests are magnetic bearings, artificial heart pumps and minimally invasive surgical robots with extension to broader fields of mechanical design, mechatronics and control. Steven Peters, Postdoctoral Associate Steve received his B.S. from UC Davis in 2004 and an M.S. from MIT in 2006, both in Mechanical Engineering. His research interests include improving energy and transportation technology. He's a member of the MIT Energy Club and co-founder of the MIT Energy Map. His current research is related to planning and control techniques for mobile robots operating at high speed on sloped and rough terrain. He's looking forward to enrolling in a training class for extreme driving to further his research. Steve's Website Sterling Anderson, PhD Student Sterling is a Doctoral Candidate and National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellow. During his Master's work (MIT '09), he designed a planning and control framework for active hazard avoidance and stability control in passenger vehicles. His current research extends this framework's capabilities to military and industrial applications. In addition to his research, Sterling is involved in the business strategy of various technical startups. He has worked as an organizer and team director with MIT's VentureShips and has served on the executive board of MIT's Science and Engineering Business Club as managing co-director of technology and entrepreneurship. Sterling's resume Sterling's website Nadia Cheng, PhD Student Nadia Cheng received her Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from University of California, San Diego, and her Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering from MIT.  She is a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellow.  Nadia is currently doing research in mechanism design and developing tunable-stiffness composites for SQUISHbot, a slug-inspired robot. Nick Wiltsie, MS Student Nick received his Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from MIT in 2010. His research focuses on using the adhesive properties of field-activated fluids to allow robotic locomotion on vertical and overhanging surfaces. Nick's website Bhargav Gajjar, Research Affiliate Bhargav Gajjar is a Research Affiliate with the Robotic Mobility Group investigating energy efficient, bio-inspired, multi-mode robotic mobility, including flying, perching, swimming, walking, running, and crawling. Previously Bhargav worked on an intelligent prosthesis with the MIT Media Lab, a gravity gradient stabilized nano satellite with the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and both an automated robotic manipulator for life support applications and an insect-inspired space rover with the NASA KSC Space Life Sciences Lab. He is also the president of Vishwa Robotics. Phil Salesses, Research Affiliate Phil Salesses is a Research Affiliate with the Robotic Mobility Group investigating robotic localization in GPS denied environments. He is also a Research Affiliate in MIT Media Lab's Smart Cities group, working on the CityCar electric automobile team. Phil is employed full-time as a researcher by the Army Corps of Engineers's, Engineering Research and Development Center and graduated from James Madison University in 2009 with a B.S. in Geographic Science. ALUMNI Fengchi Sun, Visiting Scholar, 2011 Shengyan Zhou, Visiting PhD Student, 2010 Matt McDaniel, MS Student, 2010 Takayuki Nishihata, Visiting Engineer, 2010 Gaurav Kewlani, MS Student, 2010 Genya Ishigami, Postdoc, 2010 Martin Udengaard, MS Student, 2008