Jeff Kahn, Jr.
Graduate Student
Engineering – MEM
IEEE/RSJ Intelligent Robots and Systems
Conference, Vilamoura, Portugal, 2012
On October 4, 2012, I travelled to
Vilamoura, Portugal to present my work at
the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on
Intelligent Robots and Systems. This
prestigious conference was in its 25th year
of operation and featured thousands of
presenters giving hundreds of talks and
dozens of day long workshops.
This was my first conference as a graduate student at Drexel so I had several large goals in
attending. I wanted to 1) setup connections with other researchers, 2) draw international
attention to the research of my lab through my presentation, 3) develop my work for journal
publication, and 4) find new avenues for my research. I was successful in achieving all of these
objectives, and had a great time with the international robotics community.
My research involves building robotic models to learn about how fish sense during swimming.
Since it is a very niche project, I hoped to develop connections with other researchers to
broaden the scope and impacts of my work. Through attending over 75 paper presentations, I
was able to meet with researchers from all over the world and make connections for my
research. I met a number of researchers looking at how tactile sensors can build a picture of a
robot's environment, and am now connected with scholars from KTH in Sweden, TU Delft in the
Netherlands, University of Sheffield in the UK,
and Georgia Tech in the US, among many
others. I am building correspondence with
these individuals in the hopes that we can work
together for future projects.
One half of the high-capacity conference room I
presented in at the Hotel Tivoli, Vilamoura,
Portugal. I gave a 15 minute presentation of an
accepted conference paper.
At the conference, I was able to present my
work in a very large presentation room, hosting
several hundred researchers interested in
sensing and bio-inspired robotics. I received
excellent feedback for my work and questions
that helped me revise and better define my
goals. I also had the opportunity to fill in for the
chair of the session and run the program for a
short series in bio-inspired robotics. These
experiences built my confidence and visibility
as an international robotics researcher. I felt I
had done a good job when several people came
up after my talk and wanted to hear about my
lab and the robotics program at Drexel.
A tactile sensation robotic skin developed by
researchers from TUM, Germany.
From attending the conference I have begun
strong connections and friendships with
scientists interested in similar problems, and this
has been an invigorating feeling that improves
my work. I now feel I have a small panel of
experts that I can call on to bring specific insight
into my problems and day-to-day challenges,
and this makes a large difference in my
perspective and confidence.
This conference gave me a huge step forward in
my professional development and I sincerely
thank the Office of International Programs at Drexel for making it possible.
Myself (RIGHT) and robotic sensation researchers
from KTH, Sweden.