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Acshi H

- Research Program Mentor

Industry expert at Yale University

Expertise

Programming, Robotics, Electronics

Bio

I am currently a third-year PhD student in robotics at the University of Michigan, doing research in planning and localization. How should a robot decide to act in the world to complete a goal? How can a robot know precisely where it is in the world? I first became interested in robotics as a middle school student reading Isaac Asimov novels and short stories about robots that either functioned -- or malfunctioned! -- in unexpected ways and how the characters had to figure out the logic behind the robots' actions in order to survive or solve the mystery or get on with their lives. Since then, I have followed up on this interest through robotics projects with Science Olympiad and FIRST Robotics through high school and then in college with the Yale Undergraduate Aerospace Association and Intelligent Vehicles clubs. As a PhD student I continue to work on projects of interest to me including a simulated skylight for a friend with seasonal affective disorder and a project to build an quad-rotor "drone" from scratch, minimizing use of pre-made parts.

Project ideas

Project ideas are meant to help inspire student thinking about their own project. Students are in the driver seat of their research and are free to use any or none of the ideas shared by their mentors.

Ground Robot:

In this project, you will learn about the fundamental components that robots need: motors, electronics, software, communication, and the various alternatives and trade-offs necessary to make in good engineering design. You will start by making a specification for what the robot will be able to accomplish, and this will be used to inform part choices. The final robot will be able to race through a track on the floor made with electrical tape. No previous experience is needed in robotics or programming, but could allow us to get further.

Pocket Piano:

In this project, you will learn the fundamentals of electronic circuit and printed circuit board (PCB) design: resistors, capacitors, inductors, transistors, integrated circuits, and embedded programming. You will learn about digital representation of sound, digital-to-analog conversion, and how to design, order, populate, and test a printed circuit board. The final product will be capable of playing a variety of notes depending on the buttons you touch. Some previous experience with the basics of electronics and programming would be helpful.

High-performance Programming:

In this project you will learn the modern programming language Rust, which is designed for writing the fastest programs possible while also guaranteeing that many bugs are impossible. You will learn about the fundamental role of search algorithms in artificial intelligence and will implement a fast Sudoku solver. Rust is best learned as a second programming language after a language such as Python that is better suited to first-time programmers.

Coding skills

Rust, C, and Python primarily, and many more as needed

Languages I know

Conversational Mandarin

Teaching experience

Over summer 2019, I designed a new Programming for Robotics course for the University of Michigan's Robotics Program. The primary goal for this course was to help equalize programming capabilities for incoming robotics masters students, especially those with degrees in mechanical engineering or similar majors that have only limited exposure to programming in languages such as MATLAB. I wanted my students to gain a fundamental understanding of how computers work with memory, to write programs from scratch to meet requirements, and to learn how to organize and debug complex systems. I designed successive homework assignments in C building up a robotics simulation environment. Teaching this class fall semester 2019, I received both overwhelmingly positive feedback from my students as well as critical feedback I am incorporating to improve the course.

Credentials

Work experience

Center for Open Science (2016 - 2016)
Development Intern
goBlue Labs (2013 - 2013)
Software Development Intern
Hope College (2012 - 2012)
Research Experience for Undergraduates: Creating an Environment to Experiment with Security Threats

Education

Yale University
BS Bachelor of Science (2017)
Computer Science and Engineering Sciences (Mechanical)

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