Athreyi Badithela Earns Honorable Mention for CRA Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award
Department of Computer Science & Engineering (CS&E) undergraduate student Athreyi Badithela earned an honorable mention for the 2023-24 Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award (URA) from the Computing Research Association (CRA). Badithela, along with Ryan Koo, Jasmine DeGuzman, and Alice Qian Zhang, is one of four CS&E undergraduates to earn this recognition.
Badithela is researching how to help robots better understand everyday tasks such as cooking and cleaning. Their work can be used for people who struggle with everyday tasks and could benefit from a robot assistant.
“I work specifically on the segmentation and classification of objects that are commonly found in real life,” said Badithela. “Some of the real-world impacts that motivated my research were the recycling robots or other robots that can be used in home environments to perform tasks for those who need extra help. If you can't cook or clean, the goal is to one day have a robot that could understand the different objects that are in your home environment.”
Before Badithela was inspired to get involved after taking CSCI-3901, with Professor Shana Watters and Professor Miria Gini, and looking over other professors' projects to explore the different types of research that were happening at the University of Minnesota. They also received an undergraduate research scholarship upon admittance to the U of M.
“That's when I started to think about doing my own research,” said Badithela. “Now I spend 10 to 15 hours of my week doing research. There’s a feeling of satisfaction when you're working on a problem that's not necessarily solved and you're able to produce an alternate solution to existing frameworks. That’s what keeps me motivated in my work.”
As one of the four who earned an honorable mention, this is a great achievement not only for Badithela, but also for CS&E and the University of Minnesota, and will hopefully inspire other undergraduates to pursue research.
“I would say that the U of M has wonderful opportunities for people who want to get into research, international and domestic alike,” said Badithela. “If someone wants to get into research I would encourage them to take the leap of faith.”
Badithela credits her advisor, assistant professor Karthik Desingh, and the Robotics: Perception and Manipulation Lab, as well as teaching professor Shana Watters for the success of her research. Learn more about the CRA URA and other winners.