Organizers

Maru is an Assistant Professor in the Rich Miner School of Computer and Information Sciences at UMass Lowell. Her research interests aim to develop robotic systems that work alongside humans, collaborating in tasks performed in home environments; these systems explore different levels of robot autonomy and multiple ways for human interaction in less structured environments, with an emphasis on inclusive design to assist people with disabilities or older adults aging in place.

Raj is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Hunter College of the City University of New York. His research interests are in human-robot interaction, explainable artificial intelligence, robot navigation, and cognitive modeling. He has co-organized several Queer in AI events at AAAI and AAMAS as well as a workshop on Inclusive HRI.

Roberto  is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of Texas at Austin. His research combines robotics, machine learning and computer vision with the goal of creating more capable and general robots. His dream would be to bring this robots to homes to help us with our everyday tasks. He has been active on organizing workshops and events, including some as chair of the IEEE Technical Committee in Mobile Manipulation.

Max Parks is currently a research assistant completing a M.S. in Computer Science and Information Systems at UM-Flint. Their research focuses most recently on human factors in human-robot team performance. Specifically, they are studying the relationship between fatigue and risk-taking within the context of human-robot teams. In addition to their research in robotics, Dr. Parks has a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of California, Davis. They teach philosophy at Mott Community College and specialize in the Philosophy of Mind, with an AOC of Epistemology, Metaphysics, and Logic.

Ruchira is an Applied AI Researcher at rStream, where she develops AI systems for on-site waste detection and sorting. Her interests span robotics perception, especially vision and audio, and the social implications of robotics.  She has previously worked on audio anti-spoofing at Samsung, controlled data generation at EPFL and social impacts of robotic automation in households at UT Austin. Ruchira enjoys organising workshops for Queer in AI and Queer in Robotics.

Andrea is a PhD Candidate in the Robotics Department at the University of Michigan. Her work in the Manipulation and Machine Intelligence Lab focuses on using feedback from contact-rich interactions to estimate in-hand object poses. In addition to her work with Queer in Robotics, Andrea is a co-founder of Gender Diversity in Robotics at the University of Michigan and a 3-time Robotics Outreach Ambassador at the University of Michigan.

Nathan is a Ph.D. Candidate in Computer Science at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Their main line of research focuses on how robots can adapt behaviors to different end-users with a focus on applications for assisting users with limited mobility. They have helped organize workshops with Queer in AI at FACCT, as well as other outreach efforts and socials. Apart from their research, Nathan enjoys figure skating, sewing, and practicing queer forms of dance.

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