Research Mentoring

Research Assistantship

Research in bipedal robotics is a complex and time-consuming endeavor. Having gotten my first workshop paper accepted, I recognized that while I could eventually complete the work that I wanted to finish in the project before I felt comfortable submitting to a journal on my own, the process would be much faster (and less stressful) if I brought in a Masters student to help me code, perform experiments, and be another sounding board to bounce ideas off of. Thus, I took on my first Masters student in the Fall 2022 semester. Not only did she provide much-needed technical assistance, but she also helped me become a more confident researcher by letting me practice and become more comfortable explaining complex research concepts.

Biped Bootcamp

During my transition from mechanical engineering to robotics, I went through my advisor’s “Biped Bootcamp”, a fast-paced, rigorous, one-on-one informal course that teaches the fundamentals of bipedal robotics. As an avid note-taker, I documented the lessons I learned in an LaTeX document, supplementing the informal lessons I learned from my advisor with additional insight that I gained from speaking with senior lab members, taking courses, and reading research articles and textbooks. This resulted in a 100-page self-teaching technical document that walked the reader through how to simulate and animate a three-link walker in Matlab. The document broke down core bipedal robotics principles including equations of motion, kinematics and dynamics, input-output feedback linearization, optimization, and more.

Recognizing the teaching potential behind the document I created, my advisor and I decided that it was time for me to mentor undergraduate students. I took on my first five students (freshmen and sophmores) in the Winter 2022 semester, teaching and mentoring them in the foundational knowledge of bipedal locomotion using the 100-page “Biped Bootcamp” technical document that I wrote. After finishing going through the document, some of the students went on to create an interactive/self-teaching version of the code from the document using Matlab grader. Others hoped to implement the lessons that they learned during the bootcamp on their own personal robotic projects. I continued to mentoring students in later semesters, introducing them to a more research-focused way of learning as I taught them how to simulate and control the five-link walker using Matlab and Simulink. One student went on to teach the original Biped Bootcamp document in the Fall 2022 semester to three additional students of her own using Matlab Grader to make the learning experience more interactive. She is continuing to take on additional students in the Winter 2023 semester.

Qualitative Research Design

While still in the mechanical engineering program at Michigan, I worked with an undergraduate student in the Fall 2019 semester on a qualitative research project that investigated “design fixation” among college students and practitioners. Together we coded interviews, wrote analytical memos, and constructed individual design timelines to understand thought processes behind certain design decisions.

Meet the students below!