Archive 30.09.2022

Zhi Zheng's robot is skilled at Tai Chi, and her research team hopes it will soon lead a class of older adults at a local community center. Her robot is more than a cute companion. It can help improve cognitive function and provide insights about how people interact with robots in various settings.

The new educational program will focus on robot safety awareness in addition to a rich data experience geared towards closing the skills gap in advanced manufacturing.

In late summer, just as the leaves were starting to crisp and curl in the heat, Devin Carroll walked out of his apartment, looked on the ground, and picked up a couple of sticks that he thought might work for his robot. About half an inch thick and the length of an adult hand, he stripped the three sticks of their bark and lashed them with string to StickBot, a modular robot composed of circuitry, actuators, a microcontroller, and a motor driver.

Walking without crutches – this is something that people with certain neuromuscular disorders dream of. With the exoskeleton "Autonomyo”, this dream can now be made a reality.

There’ve been quite a few events recently focusing on Women in Robotics, Women in Manufacturing, Women in 3D Printing, in Engineering, and in Tech Leadership. One of the largest tradeshows in the US IMTS 2022 kicked off with a Women Make Manufacturing Move Reception, with Allison Grealis, President of Women in Manufacturing, Andra Keay, President of Women in Robotics and Kristin Mulherin, President of Women in 3D Printing, ahead of a program packed with curated technical content and leadership sessions. (see the resource list below)

On Tuesday, I also moderated the A3 Webinar “Robots and Beyond Roundtable: How Women in Robotics and Automation are Changing Manufacturing” with Joanne Moretti, CRO of Fictiv, Jackie Ram, VP of Operations, IAM Robotics, Jessica Moran, SVP and General Manager, Berkshire Grey, and Mikell Taylor, Principal Technical Program Manager, Amazon Robotics.

And on Thursday Sept. 15 I moderated a panel on “Reaching New Heights: Women in Tech Leadership” with Meaghan Ziemba, Owner, Z-Ink Solutions and Host, Mavens of Manufacturing Podcast, Nicole Wolter, President & CEO, HM Manufacturing, Laura Elan, Senior Director of Cybersecurity, MxD. We discussed so many great resources during our panel precall, that we really wanted to put together a list that could be shared more widely after the events were over.

Resources for Women in Tech Leadership:

Suggestions from Nicole Wolter;

• Sporting experience is a great pathway into leadership for women who often miss out on formal leadership training or experiences.
• Find mentors and champions (male or female) with an eye towards helping you develop your career pathway and deal with your next challenges.
• Build on your strengths, while we can always improve we should embrace your strength.
• The Goal is a great book about running a company. (now also available as a Business Graphic Novel)
• Crucial Conversations, Tools for Talking When Stakes are High by Joseph Grenny, Kerry Patterson and Ron McMillan

From Meaghan Ziemba;

• the Mavens of Manufacturing Podcast, celebrating women from the shop floor to the C-suite.
• Steel Toes and Stilettoes by Shannon Karels and Kathy Miller, a true story of women manufacturing leaders and lean transformation success
• Turn the Ship Around, a True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders, by L. David Marquet, and Stephen R. Covey
• Leaders Eat Last, Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t, by Simon Sinek
• Start with Why, How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action, by Simon Sinek
• Business Made Simple: 60 Days to Master Leadership, Sales, Marketing, Execution Management, Personal Productivity and More, by Donald Miller
• Twelve and a Half: Leveraging the Emotional ingredients Necessary for Business Success by Gary Vanyerchuk

From Laura Elan;

• Presence by Amy Cuddy, bringing your biggest boldest self
• Ted Talk:  Amy Cuddy, “Your body language may shape who you are”
• Leadership Development: Center for Creative Leadership
• Equality vs Equity image

From Andra Keay;

• From Battle of the Sexes to Balance of the Sexes, Hilary Wicht at TEDx Sonoma
• Hilary Wicht, Hollywood vocal coach on Voice, Power and Presence
• This Better Work, a female founders wild ride through the (hypermasculine) tech startup world, by Lynsie Campbell
• Data Shows Women Make Better Leaders, who cares? by Avivah Wittenberg-Cox
• Being Glue, by Tanya Reilly – don’t do glue work (or leadership/management) until it is on your performance metrics!
• Women in Robotics Org

A deep dive into the mathematics and the intuition of diffusion models. Learn how the diffusion process is formulated, how we can guide the diffusion, the main principle behind stable diffusion, and their connections to score-based models.

A two-legged robot just made history.

Add analog and air-driven to the list of control system options for soft robots.

Cassie clocked the historic time of 24.73 seconds at OSU’s Whyte Track and Field Center, starting from a standing position and returning to that position after the sprint, with no falls.

A new study highlights specific dog behaviors that dog owners perceive as important for bonding with their pets. Katie Riddoch of the University of Glasgow, Scotland, and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on September 28.

One reason that it's so difficult to deliver large protein drugs orally is that these drugs can't pass through the mucus barrier that lines the digestive tract. This means that insulin and most other "biologic drugs"—drugs consisting of proteins or nucleic acids—have to be injected or administered in a hospital.

When self-propelling objects interact with each other, interesting phenomena can occur. Birds align with each other when they flock together. People at a concert spontaneously create vortices when they nudge and bump into each other. Fire ants work together to create rafts that float on the water's surface.

The sensors provide real-time 3D perception data for localization, mapping, object classification and object tracking. Velodyne’s power-efficient sensors support Stan robots in a wide range of challenging environmental conditions.

Detecting signs of disease before bones start to break

Detecting signs of disease before bones start to break