Holly Yanco
Holly Yanco is an Associate Professor in the Computer Science Department at UMass Lowell, where she heads the Robotics Lab. Her research interests include human-robot interaction, sliding scale autonomy, sensor fusion and presentation, interface design, and situation awareness in the domains of assistive technology and urban search and rescue. She received a Career Award from NSF in 2006. Yanco was the PI of the NSF funded Pyro Project, which was awarded the NEEDS Premiere Award for Courseware in 2005. She has a PhD and MS from MIT and a BA from Wellesley College, all in Computer Science. Yanco is a member of the Executive Council of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI). She has received teaching awards from MIT and UMass Lowell.
Munjal Desai
Munjal Desai is a doctoral student and a graduate research assistant at UMass Lowell. His research interests are in the field of human-robot interaction, specifically studying the interaction between autonomy, trust, and situation awareness along with designing intuitive interfaces that enhance user performance.
Munjal received his BE Computer Engineering from Mumbai University in 2004 and his MS in Computer Science from UMass Lowell in 2007.
Current research: Multi University Research Initiative: SUBTLE
Dan Hestand
Dan Hestand is an nth (where n>8) year doctoral candidate in robotics at UMass Lowell working on developing an service-oriented architectural approach for robotic software. His goal is to complete his degree before both of his daughters graduate from college in 2 years.
Dan is a principal software architect with Foliage Software Systems, conducting architecture reviews and designing software architectures for a variety of clients. He received a B.S. in physics from David Lipscomb University in 1983 with mathematics and computer science co-majors, worked for 2 years on an M.S. in theoretical physics at the University of Tennessee Space Institute, received a B.S. in meteorology from Penn State, and an M.S. in computer science from UMass Lowell in 1999. He has worked as a physics researcher designing experiments to validate remote thermometry of rocket plumes, created procedures for forecasting solar and ionospheric events, done research in atmospheric radiative transfer, and written quite a lot of software for hire beginning in 1976. In his “spare” time, he plays bass for a blues-rock group called HeadUnit.
Current research: Multi University Research Initiative: SUBTLE
Mark Micire
Mark Micire is a doctoral student and graduate research assistant at the UMass Lowell. He is certified in multiple aspects of search and rescue, including hazardous material response, confined space rescue, and is a nationally certified fire fighter. He is active in the search and rescue community as a special operation volunteer for Hillsborough County Fire Rescue and technical search specialist for Florida Regional Task Force Three. Mark was a technical search operator during the World Trade Center Disaster, and most recently was a technical search leader for Florida Task Force Three during the Hurricane Katrina response in Biloxi, Mississippi.
Current research: Alternative Human-Robot Interface Technologies
Kate Tsui
Kate is a second year doctoral student at UMass Lowell in the Department of Computer Science. She is specializing in robotics with emphasis in human-robot interaction and assisitive technology. Kate is a graduate research assistant developing visual control of a robotic arm for cognitively impaired wheelchair users.
Kate was the teaching assistant for 91.301 Organization of Programming Languages (2006-2007) and guest lectures for this class. She works in community outreach programs to encourage regional students to explore STEM majors and also serves as the coordinator for the Women in Computer Science group. Kate graduated from UMass Lowell's Computer Science program with her BS in 2004.
Current research: Visual Control Interface for Manus ARM
Dan Brooks
Dan is a first year master's student at UMass Lowell. He graduated from West Virginia University in 2009 with two degrees, one in Computer Engineering and another in Computer Science. He has interned with the Emerging Technologies group at the Coast Guards Operations Systems Center, as well as spent the last two summers working for the Intelligent Robotics Group at NASA's Ames Research Center. Dan enjoys and spends his money on rock climbing, white water kayaking, mountain biking, backpacking, mountaineering, caving, scuba diving, sky diving, skiing, and running.
Amanda Courtmanche
Amanda Courtemanche is an undergraduate research assistant in the UML Robotics lab, working with the Circle Twelve DiamondTouch. Currently she works for Circle Twelve from within the lab, developing multi-user demos and applications which showcase the hardware's features. As part of the lab, she is also involved in a project funded by Microsoft which aims to use touch-screen technology to control systems of several semi-autonomous robots.
In the past she created a usable Java toolkit for the DiamondTouch, which should be available on the Research page soon.
In 2006, Amanda was one of the initial pilot members of the Artbotics program, and she mentored for the after-school program during her first semester before joining the lab. She is in her third year working towards a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science.
Current research: Alternative Human-Robot Interface Technologies
Phil Kovac
Philip Kovac is currently an undergraduate computer science student at UMass Lowell. He became involved with the Robotics Lab during the Summer of Opportunities in Sciences program in the summer of 2006. He returned to working for the lab a year later after a stint in Information Technology, doing Python, C++, and Java development. Currently he is helping Munjal Desai in the SUBTLE multi-university research initiative, developing the interim graphical frontend and aiding in the development of the robotics platform backend.
When he isn't at the lab, Philip chooses to spend his leisure time playing tabletop roleplaying games.
Current research: Multi University Research Initiative: SUBTLE
Eric McCann
Eric graduated Middlesex Community College with an associate degree in Computer Science, receiving a 4.0 GPA in his CS courses. This fall, he is a Junior at UML. Prior to the summer research opportunity he was hooked-up with through a professor from middlesex (Thanks Professor Bleichman!), he had no experience working with robots, but he's kind of a big deal, so he's continuing his work with Microsoft's robotics development system this fall and beyond. In his free time, Eric enjoys long walks on the beach, and procrastination.
Adam Norton
Adam Norton works as the graphic designer for the Robotics Lab and is an undergraduate in the Art department at UMass Lowell. His current focus is the usage of the human body in Art and data visualization. He is also an instructor and core member of Artbotics, in which he was a student during the pilot program.
Past Lab Members
- Kareem Abu-Zahra, UMass Lowell
- Jeremy Badessa
- Matt Bailey
- Mike Baker, BAE
- Brenden Keyes, MITRE
- Aron Barabas
- Robert Casey, Segway
- Andrew Chanler, EMC
- Marbella Duran
- Rachel Mulcrone
- Kristen Stubbs, iRobot
- Phil Thoren, BAE
- Duane Younkin
