| Director | PhD Students | MS Students | HumAnS Family |
Dr. Chung Hyuk Park (Earned his Ph.D degree in 2012)
I received my B.S. in Electrical Engineering and M.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Seoul National University, located in Seoul, Korea. I came to Georgia Institute of Technology to pursue a doctoral degree, and to immerse myself in the topics of Control Systems, Robotics and Artificial Intelligence. During the MS period, I had joined the Robotics and Intelligent Systems Lab and focused my studies in the areas of Haptics and mobile robotics. Then, I worked for LG Electronics Co. participating in several projects of embedded systems and ASIC, through which I could gain field knowledge and wide sight into the electronics industry. During my free times, I enjoy playing badminton and tennis, and also love traveling around and taking photos of beautiful sceneries. I spent my early childhood in Athens, Georgia, and interestingly, came back to study at Georgia Tech, Atlanta, Georgia. My current research interests lies in Human Robot Interaction, approaching from viewpoints of Haptics and Vision, and hope to contribute to the future of Robotics research.
Dr. Lonnie Parker (website) (Earned his Ph.D degree in 2012)
Originally from Pittsburgh, PA, Lonnie Parker received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering at the Rochester Institute of Technology in 2006, in Rochester, NY. His thesis work was based on the modeling of a ground penetrating radar (GPR) system using a customized MATLAB-based GUI. His varied work assignments in industry include product development at Bosch Security Systems in Munich, Germany, GPR research at the Air Force Research Laboratory in Rome, NY and product marketing at Texas Instruments in Sherman, TX. His interest in robotics was engendered by a summer research program in 2006 at the Georgia Institute of Technology where he is currently pursuing his doctoral degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering. His PhD research involves the development of a multi-agent robotic surveying system used for increasing information gain of variable terrain. This increase in collected data aids earth scientists conducting field experiments under harsh conditions. Lonnie is a dedicated Christian and student of the Bible. He also enjoys playing guitar and staying physically active, playing tennis, basketball and golf whenever time permits.
Dr. Douglas Antwonne Brooks (Earned his Ph.D degree in 2012)
Douglas Brooks was raised in Pittsboro, North Carolina. He graduated Magna Cum Laude with his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from North Carolina State University on December 14, 2005. He has two years of industry work experience that include both Square D Company and Texas Instruments where he worked with power electronics and ASIC respectively. As a participant of SURE (Summer Undergraduate Research for Engineers) at Georgia Tech, Douglas gained valuable research experience in the area of semiconductor lighting. Douglas has received numerous honors and awards, which include the following: GEM Fellowship, Georgia Tech FOCUS Scholar, and Academic Excellence Award at NC State University. Recently, Douglas was deemed as one of the 100 Most Influential Black Alumni at NC State University and was pictured in the Black Alumni Society (50th Commemorative Anniversary Edition) magazine. Douglas’s research investigates a navigation control methodology for a wheel-legged robot based on active vision. Douglas’s MS Thesis research investigates a navigation control methodology for a wheel-legged robot based on active vision. His PhD research investigates the use of a socially intelligent robot to assess child-robot interaction. In his spare time, he enjoys playing basketball, singing, and dancing (salsa).
Dr. Stephen Williams (Earned his Ph.D degree in 2011)
I received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from The University of Texas; Arlington, a satellite campus near Dallas. I found that the field of controls and robotics was a perfect melding of the two degrees, and tailored my undergraduate course work to emphasize this. To help fund my education, I worked part time at Chaparral Steel, the third largest structural steel manufacturer in North America, and continued my employment full-time after graduation. My duties consisted primarily of PLC programming, data acquisition, and database design. After three years in the manufacturing industry, I wanted to be involved with something more cutting-edge. I am currently working on projects relating to robotics and machine vision in the pursuit of my doctorate in Electrical Engineering at Georgia Tech.
Dr. Sekou Remy (website) (Earned his Ph.D degree in 2009)
Sekou Remy received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology (2002), B. S. in Computer Science from Morehouse College (2002), and his M.S. in Electrical Engineering also from Georgia Institute of Technology (2004). In the early phases of graduate school Mr. Remy began the transition from an emphasis on telecommunications to an emphasis on robotics, addressing a deep-seated interest in the so called ‘intelligent agent’. As a former competitive swimmer, and the grandson of a fisherman and reef pioneer, Mr. Remy enjoys aquatics and has a love for sailing and other minimally invasive water sports. Both teaching and vision development in youth are passions of this son of Trinidad and Tobago who is currently pursuing a doctorate in Electrical Engineering.
Dr. Brian Smith
I grew up in south Georgia, where I attended high school Flint River Academy and graduated Valedictorian in 1996. I graduated from Georgia Tech in 2004 in Computer Engineering with High Honors. Currently, I am a PhD student in Electrical and Computer Engineering. During my time at Georgia Tech, I have led many groups in robotics projects, as well as performing teaching assistantships in computer science, digital design, and computer architecture courses. I also wrote a paper with Dr. Sung-Kyu Lim on QCA channel routing, which was accepted and presented at the GLSVLSI Conference in 2005. However, applied robotics has always been my area of greatest interest. I look forward to contributing to robotics research for space robotics applications.
Dr. Antidio Viguria
Antidio Viguria was born is Spain where he received his Telecommunication Engineering degree (1999-2004) at the University of Seville being the third best record of his class. Afterwards, he became a Ph.D student at the Department of Ingenier a de Sistemas y Automtica and worked as a researcher in the Robotics, Control and Vision research group directed by Anibal Ollero Baturone. During that time, he was involved in various robotics projects and started studying about multi-robot problems. In July 2006, he obtained the Advanced Studies Diploma (DEA) at University of Seville for his work on distributed task allocation among robots. Nowadays, he is a Masters student at Georgia Institute of Technology (School of Electrical and Computer Engineering) funded by a Fulbright scholarship. He continues working in the multi-robot field in the HumAns Lab.
Matt Joseph Livianu
I was born in Montreal, Canada, to Romanian parents and migrated to California with my family at the age of 7. I was multi-lingual from an early age, speaking Romanian at home, English with friends, and French at school. By the time I finished high school, I picked up some Spanish as well and had the opportunity to put Spanish skills to the test during one very memorable trip to Chile in my second year of college at Harvey Mudd. In addition to traveling to foreign lands, I spent a considerable amount of time at Harvey Mudd College learning AI and designing, building, and programming various mobile robots that found fire, followed walls, and navigated using GPS. For non-technical fun, I competed with the Claremont Colleges Ballroom Dance Company for four years and won the Collegiate Formation Team Championships in 2002. I graduated from Harvey Mudd College in 2004 with a B.S. in Computer Science. With a newfound affinity for air I could see, I decided to remain in smoggy southern California, where I performed signal integrity analysis for space hardware at Raytheon Company SAS. Currently, I am Masters student at Georgia Tech, where I am studying systems and controls and computer engineering. My research is focused on intelligent controls for autonomous mobile robotics, both from a theoretical and electronics design standpoint. I still have an avid love for travel and ballroom dance, but also try to find time for flight lessons and backpacking.
Volkan Oktem
Project: An Interactive Human-Robot Interface for use in Space Mission
Byron Edward Johns
Thesis: Design and Control of a New Reconfigurable Robotic Mobility Platform
Visit Byrobot page for more details