Speaker

Kim Baraka is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Socially Intelligent Machines Lab at the University of Texas at Austin. He holds a dual Ph.D. in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon University and Instituto Superior Técnico (Portugal), an M.S. in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon, and a Bachelor in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the American University of Beirut. His research interests lie at the intersection of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Human-Robot Interaction. He is broadly interested in developing computational methods for transferring information and knowledge between humans and robots, to help one day achieve a mutual and beneficial human-robot relationship. In parallel from his scientific work, he is a professionally trained contemporary dancer, performing, teaching, and creating artistic work. Kim will be joining the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam as an assistant professor starting April 2021.

Speaker Links: Website - GoogleScholar - ResearchGate - Linkedin - Twitter

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Abstract

In this talk, I will present a broad overview of my past, current and planned future research, identifying a common thread in the research themes I have worked on during my graduate and postdoctoral work. In the first part of the talk, focusing on robots teaching humans, I will discuss algorithmic solutions that enable socially assistive robots to teach both children and therapists in a personalized way. In the second part of the talk, focusing on humans teaching robots, I will discuss some preliminary efforts towards developing ways in which robots can learn tasks from human teachers in richer and more natural ways.

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Papers covered during the talk

The talk will be a broad overview of my past, current and future research. A full list of publications can be found at kimbaraka.com/publications.

Videos

• CoBot expressive lights
• Robot with ‘autism-like’ behaviors
• Contact improvisation with Baxter