Ezra's Round Table / Systems Seminar: Nils Napp (Cornell ECE)

Description

Abstraction Barriers for Embodied Algorithms

Designing robotic systems to reliably modify their environment typically requires expert engineers and several design iterations. This talk will cover abstraction barriers that can be used to make the process of building such systems easier and the results more predictable. By focusing on approximate mathematical representations that model the process dynamics, these representations can be used both to design high-level algorithms and physical robotic systems to solve complex construction tasks. This talk will present ongoing work for two types of abstraction barriers, which can represent different construction processes, and show how they can be used to design robotic systems to execute novel construction tasks.

Bio:
Nils Napp is an Assistant Professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Cornell University. Before joining Cornell in 2020 he was an Assistant Professor in the computer science and engineering department at the University at Buffalo. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Washington and did a postdoc at Harvard’s Wyss Institute. His research focuses on algorithms at the intersection of collaborative behavior and physical embodiment. Many of the fundamental research questions in the theory of emergent swarm behavior abstract away physics as much as possible for mathematical convenience. Yet some of the most interesting things in nature happen when minute physical interactions result in complex and robust behavior. He is the recipient of the NSF CAREER award.