Past Events

Robotics 8970 Colloquium: Professor Brad Holschuh (Fall 2021)

Soft Robotics using Shape Memory Materials for Wearable Technology Applications

In this talk, Dr. Brad Holschuh will discuss recent advancements, opportunities, and challenges associated with wearable soft robotic systems. In particular, we will focus on the use of shape-memory materials as soft robotic actuators for on-body robotic applications, and discuss actuator strategies, garment integration architectures, and potential use cases, featuring ongoing work in the Wearable Technology Laboratory (WTL).

Brad Holschuh headshot

About Professor Brad Holschuh
Dr. Brad Holschuh is an Associate Professor in the Department of Design, Housing and Apparel (DHA) in the College of Design at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Holschuh Co-Directs the UMN Wearable Technology Laboratory (WTL), is Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) of the Human Factors and Ergonomics (HFE) graduate program, and is an affiliate faculty in the MnDRIVE Initiative and the Minnesota Robotics Institute (MnRI). His work focuses on the use of soft-robotic technologies for wearable robotics applications.

Robotics 8970 Colloquium: Hyun Soo Park (Fall 2021)

Neural Human Geometry: Reconstructing Humans from a Single Image

This will be a prerecorded talk, available on the colloquium canvas page. Students are encouraged to watch the pre-recorded talk during this time. Dr. Park will be available for a Q&A session, starting at 3:20PM CDT.

You can view Dr. Park's original MnRI Seminar video here and watch the recorded Q&A session here.

Natural Language Processing Seminar Series: Mina Lee

Mina Lee is a Ph.D. student at Stanford University.

The Minnesota Natural Language Processing (NLP) Seminar is a venue for faculty, postdocs, students, and anyone else interested in theoretical, computational, and human-centric aspects of natural language processing to exchange ideas and foster collaboration.

Contact Dongyeap Kang (dongyeap@umn.edu) for any questions or inquiries.

Robotics 8970 Colloquium: Nick Fragale (Fall 2021)

Rover Robotics and ROS 2

Nicholas Fragale is the founder and CEO of Rover Robotics, which was founded in 2018 and based out of Wayzata, Minnesota. The company sells rugged, modular, ROS-enable ground robots.  Nick graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2014 and went on to get his Master's in Robotics from Cornell University. He is now a member of the ROS 2 technical steering committee which is redefining what you can do with open source code.

You can learn more on Rover Robotics' website.

Robotics 8970 Colloquium: Dr. Joshua Stopek (Fall 2021)

Histotripsy, a novel non-invasive platform and therapy

Histotripsy uses very high amplitude and short pulses (microseconds) of focused ultrasound to induce and control acoustic cavitation in the form of a histotripsy “bubble cloud”. The negative pressure, which can exceed -25MPa in the focal zone, allows the rapid formation and collapse of nano and microbubbles (within the bubble cloud), derived from endogenous gases naturally present in the targeted tissue. As the bubbles within the cloud form and collapse in microseconds, creating mechanical forces strong enough to destroy tissue at cellular and sub-cellular levels, and without the need for ionizing or thermal energy. An image-guided robotic platform is used to deliver the therapy. HistoSonics is currently focused on developing the broad platform capability to non-invasively treat tumors across the body, initially focused on significant unmet needs in abdominal and liver tumors.

The company is also researching and developing immuno-oncology enabling therapies, which may further benefit from the tissue lysate/effect created by histotripsy treatments, potentially offering promise to turn cold tumors hot and systemic responses to local therapy.

About Dr. Joshua Stopek
Dr. Stopek has more than 20 years of R&D leadership experience, including a strong background in developing image-guided technologies, new therapy platforms and combination devices to market. He currently is Vice President of R&D for HistoSonics. He formerly led R&D in various business areas at Medtronic, Covidien and US Surgical. Prior to that, he was the co-founder and VP of a startup medical device company, VMSI, working on new minimally invasive and tissue regeneration therapies. Dr. Stopek has over 200+ issued and pending patents. He received his BS, MS and PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Florida, where he also completed a fellowship in Neurosurgery and Neuroscience.

Natural Language Processing Seminar Series: Yohan Jo

Johan Jo is an applied scientist at Amazon, working with Alexa AI.

The Minnesota Natural Language Processing (NLP) Seminar is a venue for faculty, postdocs, students, and anyone else interested in theoretical, computational, and human-centric aspects of natural language processing to exchange ideas and foster collaboration.

Contact Dongyeap Kang (dongyeap@umn.edu) for any questions or inquiries.

Robotics 8970 Colloquium: Nikolaos Papanikolopoulos (Fall 2021)

Topic: Course Information and MnRI Updates

The Robotics Colloquium will be held in Shepherd 164 for a small in-person group. It will also be recorded live on Zoom, for other attendees.

MS in Robotics Orientation

On Thursday, June 24th, 2021 at 9:00a.m. CST, the M.S. in Robotics program will host a new student orientation for those planning on attending in Fall 2021.

If you are a student and plan on attending, please fill out the pre-orientation survey.

Master's in Robotics Round-table AMA (Ask Me Anything)

Before the event: Complete the Survey

The Minnesota Robotics Institute (MnRI) will be having a round-table 'AMA' (Ask Me Anything) regarding MnRI and the Master's in Robotics program. MnRI administration will be available to answer any and all questions; joining are Director Nikolaos Papanikolopoulos, Head Administrator Char Psihos, Graduate Program Advisor Travis Henderson, and more!

We invite anyone interested in learning more about the program to attend via Zoom — especially those who are planning to attend or interested in applying for the Fall 2021 Semester (applications are due by Saturday, May 15th, 2021).

Although it is an open admission, we ask that participants complete a short survey so that we may better assess their needs.

 

MnRI Seminar: Mental Health and Well Being

Meredith Martyr from the UMN Office for Student Affairs will be covering guidance on:

  • Learn how to create a culture of awareness of ourselves and others in the mental health space? What are the words that we can use to foster a healthy environment where people feel safe, valued, and supported? Words (as we know) matter, even if it is just an "off the cuff comment."
  • Learn how to become advocates for mental health and champions of practices that will bring about awareness and compassion.
  • Learn about resources for students, staff, and faculty to be supportive for others OR to use themselves. Also, learn about how to receive the information that someone is in need of support or how to ask for it. What language is used on both ends?