Rachid Alami

Vijay Kumar was born in Patna, India in 1962. Dr. Kumar received his Bachelor of Technology degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and his Ph.D. from The Ohio State University in 1987.

In this interview, Choset recounts his career in robotics and his contributions to the field. He describes his early interest in motion which led him to study robotics, and his early collaborations with Ruzena Bajcsy and Joel Burdick which helped guide his career. He speaks about his research at Carnegie Mellon, especially his work on medical robots, his contribution to the development of the snake robot, and his various industrial and student collaborations, and the practical applications that arose from it. Additionally, he reflects on the evolution of the field of medical robotics, and provides advice to young people interested in the field.

In this interview, Illah Nourbakhsh discusses his work in robotics, focusing on artificial intelligence and planning, and the challenges and future of the field. Describing his involvement in projects, such as the Book Store Project and the automated highway system project, he outlines the state of robotics at Stanford, the start of his company (Blue Pumpkin Software), and his arrival and work at Carnegie Mellon. Additionally he discusses his work on educational projects, such as the Dinosaur Hall, and at NASA, and comments on the potential for robotics in education and space exploration.

In this interview, Parker discusses her early life and how she became interested in robotics and artificial intelligence. She also discusses the various projects she has worked on, her main work creating robots that can work with people, where the robot can infer what to do without human command. She also talks about the barriers young women face going into IT fields and what they can do to get into the field and succeed.

In this interview, Bobrow discusses his career in robotics from college to UCI. He reflects on his work in manipulation, rehabilitation robotics, and design optimization and muses the success, failures, and future challenges of the field of robotics. Additionally, he provides advice for young people interested in the field.