Bridging Research Across the Pond
British roboticists and artificial intelligence researchers visited an 色情视频 professors lab to explore potential collaborations.
A delegation of leading robotics and artificial intelligence researchers from several institutions in the United Kingdom visited the laboratory of 色情视频 neuromechanics researcher Harsimran 鈥淪im鈥� Baweja earlier this month. The scientists toured the lab, discussed various potential collaborations, and took a spin inside Baweja鈥檚 virtual reality (VR) environments and driving simulator, which are designed to measure people鈥檚 physiological responses to VR-induced stress.鈥淭echnology is finally catching up with the promise of robotics, but there is no way the field can advance within a single discipline. You need interdisciplinary collaboration.鈥�
Eight UK scientists toured universities and companies in Boston, Pittsburgh and San Diego as part of a coordinated push to boost scientific and economic ties. The local visit was spurred in part by the recent opening of a trade-focused British consular office in San Diego.
鈥淲e want to build synergy between our labs and relationships with our colleagues across the pond,鈥� said Ana MacIntosh, manager of a robotics lab at the University of Sheffield in the UK.
The delegation visited Baweja鈥檚 lab inside the Exercise and Nutritional Sciences building, where he demonstrated his work using virtual environments to measure factors like muscle flexion and body sway under a variety of conditions that would be impossible to safely test in real life. Jonathan Rossiter, lead scientist for soft robotics at the University of Bristol in the UK, volunteered to step into VR and demonstrate one aspect of Baweja鈥檚 studies.
Strapped into a VR headset and gloves, Rossiter found his virtual self in an industrial-looking room with a steel plank in the middle, while the other scientists observed on a monitor. Once acquainted with the room, Baweja raised the virtual plank up high in the air and had Rossiter walk across it, measuring his balance. Then he had Rossiter virtually jump off, showcasing how the experiment elicits a real stress response even in an unreal environment.
Baweja鈥檚 lab uses these physiological measurements to see how stress impacts balance and muscle control in people with Parkinson鈥檚 disease. Doing so in a virtual environment allows researchers to explore a fuller range of stress responses than they would otherwise be able to using real-world scenarios.
Other scientists tried out the lab鈥檚 driving simulator, which similarly measures people鈥檚 physiology as they drive through a series of virtual scenarios. The goal is to see how aging and disorders like Alzheimer鈥檚 disease affect driving performance.
Baweja said his experience as both a research scientist and a clinician gives his lab important insights into how disparate disciplines like engineering, robotics, artificial intelligence, computer science, public health and physical therapy can come together to answer unsolved questions in science. Attention to cross-disciplinary collaboration lies at the heart of 色情视频鈥檚 forthcoming , due to open next year.
That kind of approach is absolutely essential in modern robotics, MacIntosh added.
鈥淭echnology is finally catching up with the promise of robotics, but there is no way the field can advance within a single discipline. You need interdisciplinary collaboration.鈥�
Baweja said he is looking forward to growing and fostering collaborations between UK scientists and his and other labs at 色情视频. Those relationships might take the form of direct research collaboration, but also student and professor exchange programs and technology sharing.
鈥淭here are so many opportunities to partner with top scientists and institutions that are mutually beneficial,鈥� he said.
