A
C
Location: Atlanta, GA, USA
Phone: +1 404 804 1955
E-mail: akansel.cosgun@gmail.com
E
DUCATION
Ph.D. Robotics , Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA (expected) Oct 2015
Thesis: Interactive Mobile Robot Navigation in Human Environments
Minor: Technology Management and Commercialization
Advisor: Henrik I. Christensen (IEEE Fellow)
M.S. Computer Science , Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA May 2013
Specialization: Artificial Intelligence
B.S. Electrical and Electronics Engineering , Bilkent University, Turkey
E MPLOYMENT
June 2009
Georgia Institute of Technology , Atlanta, GA
Graduate Research Assistant, Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines (IRIM) 2009-Now
Toyota Infotechnology Center , Mountain View, CA, USA
Research Intern , Intelligent Computing Group
Microsoft , Redmond, WA, USA
Summer 2012, Fall 2013
Research Intern, Communication and Collaboration Systems
P ROJECTS
Summer 2011
TI:GER (Technological Innovation: Generating Economic Results) Program, 2012-2014
• Led 2 MBA and 2 law students for commercializing a robot product for moving inventory on factory floors
• Conducted IP search, market research, industry analysis and developed a business plan
Robotic Destination Entry (ThyssenKrupp), 2014-2015
• Developing a robot that wanders in a lobby to acquire user input for elevator destination
Visual Tracking of Industrial Parts (Peugeot), 2014
• Improved performance of an existing algorithm, for 2D tracking of objects using edge and point features
Robot Companion for Blind Aid (Toyota), 2012-2013
• Designed a haptic belt that guides a blind person to a specific indoor location with vibration patterns
• Developed a socially-aware and safe navigation algorithm for a mobile robot
Human-Robot Collaboration on Shop Floor (BMW), 2012-2013
• Worked on pointing gesture detection, showed Kinect skeleton tracking have an average error of 5cm
High-Performance Control of Robot Arms (Boeing), 2011-2012
• Explored replacing controllers of industrial robots with a kHz controller that communicates via EtherCAT
Tele-presence Robots (Microsoft), 2011
• Increased safety and usability of a Tele-presence robot by adding autonomous person following capability
Domestic Robots for the Elderly (South Korea-US Collaboration), 2009-2011
• Developed leg tracking and face recognition applications, helped design specifications of a service robot
• Part of Georgia Tech competition team, Robocup@Home 2009 service robot competition in Singapore
P ATENTS
• Anticipatory Robot Navigation. U.S. 14/485,526 (Pending)
• Person Detection and Pose Estimation System. U.S. 14,012/192 (Pending)
• A Tactile Belt System For Providing Navigation Guidance. U.S. 14,012/170 (Pending)

• Vibration Modality Switching System for Providing Navigation Guidance. U.S. 14,012/283 (Pending)
S OFTWARE S KILLS
Languages : MATLAB, C, C++, C#, Objective C, Java, Python, PIC, 8086 assembly
Operating Systems : Windows, Linux, Robot Operating System (ROS), iOS, Real-Time OS, Microsoft
Robotics Developer Studio (MRDS)
Packages : LabView, Simulink, PSpice, Ansoft HFSS, LaTeX
Web : HTML, CSS, Django
A WARD & A CHIEVEMENTS
• Graduate Student Council Travel Award, 2015
• TI:GER Fellowship, College of Management, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA, 2012-2013
• 8 High Honor Semesters (over 3.5 GPA), Bilkent University, Turkey, 2005-2009
• Full tuition waiver and monthly stipend, Bilkent University, Turkey, 2005-2009
• “80 Golden Students” award, Is Bank, Turkey, 2004
• 2 nd
overall out of 1.7 million students, National University Entrance Exam, Turkey, 2004
R
EFEREED
C
ONFERENCE
P
UBLICATIONS
• Cosgun, A.
, Sisbot, E.A. , and Christensen, H. I. "Guidance for Human Navigation using a Vibro-Tactile Belt
Interface and Robot-like Motion Planning" In International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA),
2014
• Cosgun, A.
, Sisbot, E.A. , and Christensen, H. I. "Evaluation of Rotational and Directional Vibration Patterns on a Tactile Belt for Guiding Visually Impaired People" in Haptics Symposium (HAPTICS), 2014
• Cosgun, A.
, Florencio, D., and Christensen, H. I. "Autonomous Person Following for Telepresence Robots"
In IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2013
• Cosgun, A.
, Hermans, T., Emeli, V., and Stilman, M. "Push Planning for Object Placement on Cluttered Table
Surfaces" In IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2011
R
EFEREED
W
ORKSHOP
P
UBLICATIONS
• Cosgun, A.
, Ben Amor, H. B. and Christensen, H. I. “Towards Stacking Objects with a Mobile Manipulator” In
Robotic Hands, Grasping and Manipulation Workshop at ICRA, 2015
• Cosgun, A.
, Maliki, A., Demir, A., and Christensen, H. I. "Human-centric Assistive Remote Control for Colocated Mobile Robots" In Late Breaking Reports at Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), 2015
• Cosgun, A.
, Trevor, A. J. B. and Christensen, H. I. "Did you Mean this Object?: Detecting Ambiguity in
Pointing Gesture Targets" In Towards a Framework for Joint Action Workshop at Human-Robot Interaction
(HRI), 2015
• Cosgun, A.
, Lipkin, H., and Christensen, H. I. "Price-based Optimization of Serial Robot Manipulators Under
Payload and Workspace Constraints" In Task-based Optimal Design of Robots Workshop in ICRA, 2014
• Cosgun, A.
, Bunger, M., and Christensen, H. I. "Accuracy Analysis of Skeleton Trackers for Safety in HRI" In
Workshop on Safety and Comfort of Humanoid Coworker and Assistant (HUMANOIDS), 2013
• Trevor, A. J. B., Rogers, J. G., Cosgun, A.
, and Christensen, H. I. "Interactive Object Modeling and Labeling for Service Robots" In Videos at Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), 2013
• Trevor, A. J. B., Cosgun, A.
, Kumar, J., and Christensen, H. I. "Interactive Map Labeling for Service Robots"
In Workshop on Active Semantic Perception in IROS, 2012
R EVIEW FOR C ONFERENCES
• HRI: 2015, IROS: 2014,2012, ICRA: 2014, RO-MAN: 2012, HAPTICS: 2014, HUMANOIDS: 2013
E XTRA -C IRRICULAR
• Member, Phd2Consulting Organization
• 2 games on Apple App Store (~130k downloads)
• Founder of turkceyayin.com, a news translating website (1k/day views while active)