News
Akshith and Abigale present their NSF funded projects at the NSF S&CC PI Meeting!
Mar. 12, 2024—Akshiths poster discusses the AR Project and Abigale’s poster discusses the driving simulator and ongoing deployment across the country. You can find Abigale’s poster here: Abigale’s Poster
RASL Director, Dr. Nilanjan Sarkar, receives prestigious NSF CIVIC Stage 2 Award
Sep. 25, 2023—RASL’s very own Dr. Sarkar, in collaboration with Dr. Keivan Stassun from the Frist Center for Autism and Innovation and Mary Baker-Ericzen from San Diego State University, has received the CIVIC Innovation Challenge Award of $1 Million from the National Science Foundation. The award will go towards exploring an integrated AI and behavioral science-based driving...
PhD Defense of Alexandra Watkins
Jun. 26, 2023—Alexandra successfully defended her PhD Dissertation! Congratulations Dr. Watkins!
Miroslava presents on four NSF funded projects at the Regional Innovation Showcase!
May. 1, 2023—Her poster presented four ongoing projects in the Robotics and Autonomous Systems Lab (RASL) that aim to address societal challenges with use-inspired technologies. See the poster here!
Successful Deployment of SARConnect in Ohio!
Mar. 23, 2023—Ritam and Nibraas visited our collaborators at The Ohio State University last month to successfully deploy SARConnect at two nursing homes in the Columbus area! Learn more about the SARConnect project here!
Miroslava and Abigale Present RASL Work at CSUN 2023 in Anaheim
Mar. 17, 2023—Presentation Link: https://vanderbilt.box.com/v/CSUNPresentation2023
PhD Defense of Ashwaq Amat
Feb. 24, 2023—Ashwaq successfully defended her PhD Dissertation! Congratulations Dr. Amat!
RASL Director Nilanjan Sarkar receives nearly $2.7 million in NSF and NIH funding to explore how augmented reality can ease loneliness in older adults
Sep. 13, 2022—“The lack of social connections in older adults can lead to serious health consequences, including cardiovascular disease, cognitive decline, depression, and suicide,” said Sarkar, an expert in human-machine interaction. “Three-dimensional interactive technologies offer real promise when it comes to enhancing a person’s perception that their friends and loved ones are physically present.” The new research...
RASL’s Socially Assistive Robotics Project which Compares the Benefits of Animatronics Compared with Humanoids was Highlighted in Fortune
Aug. 24, 2022—“Isolation during the pandemic highlighted how harmful loneliness can be. This sped up development of tech solutions, says Nilanjan Sarkar, an engineering professor at Vanderbilt University. One area of rapid advancement has been artificial intelligence for companion robots. Today’s A.I.-enhanced robots have improved stereo vision to sense the shape and location of objects, and they...
NSF Funding Received to Study Precursors of Problem Behaviors in Children with Autism
Aug. 24, 2022—The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a Smart and Connected Health Grant* to VKC researchers Nilanjan Sarkar, Ph.D., (Principal Investigator), Amy Weitlauf, Ph.D., (Co-PI, TRIAD associate director of Research) and John Staubitz, M.Ed., BCBA (TRIAD associate director of Behavior Analysis) to develop and study the use of wearable technology to identify precursors of challenging behaviors in individuals with disabilities,...
RASL PhD students Akshith Ullal and Alexandra Watkins have won the “Best student paper award” at the 2021 IEEE Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality (AIVR) conference
Nov. 23, 2021—RASL PhD students Akshith Ullal and Alexandra Watkins have won the “Best student paper award” for their paper titled “A Dynamically Weighted Multi-Objective Optimization Approach to Positional Interactions in Remote-Local Augmented/Mixed Reality” at the 2021 IEEE Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality (AIVR) conference held at Taichung, Taiwan. Their paper was also selected as one of the...
Vanderbilt’s research towards neurodiversity in the workplace-including work at RASL- featured in 60 Minutes on CBS
Oct. 12, 2020—Vanderbilt’s efforts towards the development of systems to facilitate the recruitment of talent on the Autism Spectrum was featured in the 60 Minutes episode that aired on 4th October on CBS News. Anderson Cooper led the reporting on the story. Check out the full episode on CBS’s website or see the neurodiversity segment on YouTube. Among the research...
Vanderbilt leads $5 million project to revolutionize neurodiverse employment through AI
Sep. 10, 2020—The National Science Foundation has awarded a highly competitive $5 million grant to Vanderbilt University that greatly expands a School of Engineering-led project for creating novel AI technology and tools and platforms that train and support individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder in the workplace. The significant federal investment follows a successful $1 million, nine-month pilot...
Vanderbilt, Ohio State receive $3.1M NIH grant to develop social robots to encourage activity among older adults
Sep. 4, 2020—Researchers from Vanderbilt University and The Ohio State University are teaming up to develop next-generation robotic technology that can help older adults living with forms of dementia through a grant from the National Institute on Aging at the National Institutes of Health. The five-year grant, totaling $3.13 million, will support research and development of robotic...