Howdy, I am known to many as the RobotGrrl. I started building robots when I was 13, with a Lego Mindstorms kit. Since then, my passion and energy for this exciting and challenging art form has been growing. Through numerous science fair projects and hobby projects, this website is all about documenting what I am doing, aiming to share the learning process and the acquired knowledge with others.

One of the areas that I am most interested in is sociable robotics. How can a robot interact with a human better, such that it seems like there is no barrier between the two? Alternatively, how can we pronounce this communication barrier more, in order to show that the robot is a sepperate species, and comes from a different culture? The depth of sociable robotics is immense, which makes it mesmerizing with its endless list of questions.

I have started research on sociable robotics by building an artificial society platform, whereby the robots can become socialized. There is very little human-related biases inputted into the algorithms because we want to see what sort of behaviours will emerge and how it will show evidence of a “robo-culture”. Having a robo-culture embedded into a robot will become extremely important. Currently, robots do not come from a culture, they do not have traditions or stories that have been passed through generation to generation. When a robot will be able to have a discussion with you, and detail some of its history, a bond will be formed between the robot and human, since the human will be able to relate more with the robot. If you wish to read more about my research, click here.

If you would like to discuss more robotics with me, feel free to drop me an email or comment on the blog posts! Remember, those who can see the invisible, can do the impossible!

Contact

Outreach & Activities

Spring 2010

• Created interactive Twitter display for the Martin Luther King Jr. Day Dinner hosted by Clarkson University
• Lead Website Mentor for the FIRST Robotics Competition Team 229
• President of the Clarkson University Autonomous Robotics Club

Fall 2009

• Leader of the first annual Girl Scout Robotics activity hosted at Clarkson University
• Programming Mentor for FIRST Lego League and FIRST Tech Challenge teams
• President of the Clarkson University Autonomous Robotics Club

Summer 2009

• Clarkson University Honors Program Summer Research (Social Robotics)
• Assistant for FLL robotic workshop at Clarkson University for teachers in St. Lawrence County
• Assistant for robotics summer camp (Grades 4-7)
• Assistant for Horizons I and II robotics activity

Spring 2009

• Electrical and Programming Mentor, FIRST Robotics Competition Team 229

Summer 2008

• Attended Stanford University Education Program for Gifted Youth (EPGY) Artificial Intelligence Program

Presentations

• *This was a very small presentation, but I might as well mention it anyway- Ethical Dilemmas of the 3 Laws of Robotics (Freshman Clarkson University Honors Program Class)
• Socializing a Social Robot with an Artificial Society (Poster presentation for Clarkson University’s SURE Conference in Summer 2009)
• Social Robots (PechaKucha Montreal presentation, May 2009)

Honours & Awards

2010

• Winner of Pi Mu Epsilon Sophomore award for Computer Science, presented at Clarkson University’s Recognition Day

2009

• MANOI, personal humanoid robot, shown on Discovery Channel
• Guest on the internet TV show: Fat Man and Circuit Girl
• Accepted into Honors Program at Clarkson University, Potsdam NY
• The Clarkson School 4.0/4.0 GPA Award

2008

• Top 10 Dvice MAKE Cylon Competition
• Silver Medal Finalist Bell Montreal Regional Science & Technology Fair

2007

• Gold Medal Finalist Bell Montreal Regional Science & Technology Fair
• McGill University – School of Computer Science (Robotics) Award
• Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal Award

Features on Websites:

• MAKE – Hockey playing robot looks meaner than Gretsky [link] (Nov 2008)
• DVICE – Styrobots: Stanford student bankrolls her tuition with adorable robots [link] (June 2008)
• uCHobby – RobotGrrl Styrobots Arrive! [link] (June 2008)
• Robots.net – Help Send RobotGrrl to Stanford [link] (June 2008)
• RoboJenny – Interview with RobotGrrl [link] (June 2008)
• MAKE – MAKE Flickr pool weekly roundup [link] (June 2008)
• Robots.net – Random Robot Roundup [link] (June 2008)
• Nucleus Learning – RobotGrrl [link] (June 2008)
• uCHobby – RobotGrrl needs our help! [link] (May 2008)
• MAKE – Build a BristleBot to clean up your apartment [link] (March 2008)