CSE student Annika Singh awarded Mary Gates Scholarship to advance safe human-robot interaction in A&A lab.

Undergraduate student Annika Singh has been selected as a recipient of the prestigious Mary Gates Research Scholarship. This competitive award will provide funding for two quarters to support Singh's cutting-edge research in the Control and Trustworthy Robotics Lab (CTRL) under assistant professor Karen Leung.

Annika Singh

Singh, a computer science and engineering student, is conducting innovative work to enhance the safety and fluency of human-robot interactions. Her research focuses on developing quantitative metrics to evaluate the legibility, or predictability, of robot motion using first-person sensing data collected from a human perspective.

"As robots become increasingly integrated into our daily lives, ensuring they can navigate and operate safely around people is critical," Singh explained. "My goal is to leverage novel sensing technologies to evaluate how much a robot’s motion, although nuanced, can influence the fluency and trustworthiness of human-robot interactions."

"Annika's work is at the forefront of an important emerging area in robotics," said Professor Leung. "Her innovative use of cutting-edge sensing technologies has the potential to significantly advance our understanding of legible robot motion and its role in safe human-robot interactions."