Student Talks
Regression-based Multi-view Face Synthesis
Abstract: Synthesizing photorealistic human faces from novel viewpoints using only a single frontal image remains a challenging problem in computer vision. Large viewpoint changes introduce geometric distortions, self-occlusions, and missing visual information, making identity preservation and high-frequency detail reconstruction particularly difficult. While recent generative approaches such as diffusion models and 3D-aware neural representations produce visually [...]
RI PhD Thesis Defense – Ananya Rao
Who: Ananya Rao Date: Friday, April 3rd Time: 10 AM ET Location: NSH 3305 Zoom Link Meeting ID: 949 1271 6317 Passcode: 809985 Title: Spectral-Based Coordination of Heterogeneous Multi-Agent Teams for Information Gathering Abstract: Extreme environments, such as those encountered in planetary exploration or disaster response, present complex, time-sensitive tasks with significant uncertainty. In such settings, heterogeneous [...]
RI Ph.D. Thesis Defense – Mrinal Verghese
Date: 7th April 2026 Time: 10:00 a.m. (ET) Location: NSH 3305 Zoom: Link Type: Ph.D. Thesis Defense Who: Mrinal Verghese Title: Strategies for Robot Learning from Human Data Abstract: Robot learning is fundamentally data-constrained. Internet-scale human data is a promising source of additional data about human environments, tasks, and common skills. This data comes in diverse representations, such as human videos [...]
RI PhD Defense – Neehar Peri
Date: April 7th, 2026 Time: 3:30 PM (ET) Location: NSH 3305 Zoom Link Type: Ph.D. Thesis Defense Who: Neehar Peri Title: Towards Scalable Open-World 3D Perception Abstract: State estimation is a fundamental component of embodied perception. For safe navigation, we argue that robots (and autonomous vehicles (AVs) specifically) must detect, track, and forecast all object categories, not just those [...]
RI PhD Thesis Defense – Abigail Breitfeld
Date: April 10th, 2026 Time: 09:00 AM (ET) Location: NSH 4305 Zoom Link Type: Ph.D. Thesis Defense Who: Abigail Breitfeld Abstract: Dynamic Multi-Objective Path Planning for Exploration Abstract: Robotic explorers play a crucial role in acquiring data from areas that are difficult or impossible for humans to reach. Whether for planetary exploration, search and rescue missions, agriculture, or [...]
Learning Dynamic Rope Manipulation with Task-Level Iterative Learning Control
Abstract: Dynamic manipulation of deformable objects is challenging for humans and robots because they have infinite degrees of freedom and exhibit underactuated dynamics. This thesis introduces a Task-Level Iterative Learning Control method for dynamic manipulation of deformable objects and demonstrates this method on a non-planar rope manipulation task called the flying knot. Using a single human [...]
RI PhD Thesis Proposal – Gaurav Parmar
Who: Gaurav Parmar Date: 13 April 2026 Time: 9:00 a.m. (ET) Location: NSH 3305 Zoom Link: Link Type: Ph.D. Thesis Proposal Title: Efficient and Controllable Diffusion Models Abstract: Generative models have made rapid advancements in recent years, and text-conditioned diffusion models have become the standard paradigm for image and video synthesis. However, controlling the output purely through text is not the ideal medium for many [...]
RI PhD Thesis Defense – Tairan He
Who: Tairan He Date: Monday, April 13, 2026 Time: 12:30 PM ET Room: GHC 8102 Zoom link Title: Scalable Sim-to-Real Learning for General-Purpose Humanoid Skills Abstract: Humanoid robots are compelling because they share the physical interface of the human world, including stairs, doors, tools, shelves, and workspaces designed around human embodiment. However, this same embodiment also makes [...]
RI PhD Thesis Proposal – Xinyu (Rachel) Li
Date: April 13, 2026 Time: 03:15 PM (ET) Location: GHC 6121 Zoom Link Type: Ph.D. Thesis Proposal Who: Xinyu (Rachel) Li Title: Towards Accessible AI Agents Abstract: Empowered by large language models (LLMs), AI agents have shown strong potential across tasks such as general-purpose assistance, software coding, and scientific research. However, their practical utility in applications [...]
RI PhD Thesis Proposal – Nikhil Keetha
Date: April 14, 2026 Time: 9:30 AM (ET) Location: NSH 3305 Zoom Link Type: RI Ph.D. Thesis Proposal Who: Nikhil Keetha Title: Scaling Representation Learning for Spatial Intelligence via Active Implicit Memory Autonomous systems and embodied agents that operate in the physical world require spatial intelligence: the ability to perceive, understand, and reason about the geometric and [...]