Erin Botti

Publication name: Erin Hedlund-Botti

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Hi, I recently graduated with my PhD in Robotics, advised by Matthew Gombolay, in the CORE Robotics Lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology. My main research areas are human-robot interaction and machine learning with a focus on learning from demonstration and personalization. My thesis research investigates how to improve learning from demonstration for real-world scenarios (e.g., when robots fail or when human demonstrators are suboptimal). I’m interested in designing robot algorithms that are effective in real-world applications. Specifically, I want to develop algorithms that are easy for everyday users to interact with, teach, and personalize for applications such as in-home robots or out-patient care.

This year, I was awarded the P.E.O. Scholar Award, a merit-based award for women with potential for having a positive impact on society. Previously, I received the NSF Accessibility, Rehabilitation, and Movement Science (ARMS) fellowship to study healthcare robotics for the first two years of my PhD. Before starting my PhD, I graduated from Bucknell University in 2017 with a BS in Computer Engineering and worked at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab. In my free time, I enjoy ceramics, hiking with my two dogs, and fantasy books.

news

Jul 16, 2024 Presented our paper Developing Design Guidelines for Older Adults with Robot Learning from Demonstration at RSS 2024.
Apr 17, 2024 I defended my PhD Thesis: Improving Learning from Demonstration in Real-World Scenarios!
Mar 11, 2024 Presented our workshop paper Towards Learning Interpretable Features from Interventions at the Lifelong Learning and Personalization in Long-Term Human-Robot Interaction (LEAP-HRI) workshop at HRI 2024.
Oct 11, 2023 Presented at the Robo-shop workshop for TED Women 2023.
Jul 11, 2023 Our paper Investigating the Impact of Experience on a User’s Ability to Perform Hierarchical Abstraction was nominated for Best Student Paper at RSS 2023.
Jun 15, 2023 Received the PEO Scholar Award! Georgia Tech press release here.

selected publications

  1. RSS ’24
    Developing Design Guidelines for Older Adults with Robot Learning from Demonstration
    Erin Hedlund-Botti, Lakshmi Seelam, Chuxuan Yang, and 3 more authors
    In Robotics: Science and Systems, 2024
  2. HRI Pioneers ’23
    Investigating Learning from Demonstration in Imperfect and Real World Scenarios
    Erin Hedlund-Botti, and Matthew Gombolay
    In Companion of the 2023 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, Stockholm, Sweden, Mar 2023
  3. CoRL ’22
    Reciprocal MIND MELD: Improving Learning From Demonstration via Personalized, Reciprocal Teaching
    Mariah Schrum, Erin Hedlund-Botti, and Matthew Gombolay
    In Proceedings of The 6th Conference on Robot Learning, Dec 2022
  4. HRI ’22
    MIND MELD: Personalized Meta-Learning for Robot-Centric Imitation Learning
    Mariah Schrum*, Erin Hedlund-Botti*, Nina Moorman, and 1 more author
    In 2022 17th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), Mar 2022
    *co-first authors. Best Technical Paper Award
  5. HRI ’22
    MIND MELD: Personalized Meta-Learning for Robot-Centric Imitation Learning
    Mariah Schrum, Erin Hedlund-Botti, Nina Moorman, and 1 more author
    In 2022 17th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), Mar 2022
  6. HRI ’21
    The Effects of a Robot’s Performance on Human Teachers for Learning from Demonstration Tasks
    Erin Hedlund, Michael Johnson, and Matthew Gombolay
    In Proceedings of the 2021 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, Boulder, CO, USA, Mar 2021
  7. HRI ’23
    Impacts of Robot Learning on User Attitude and Behavior
    Nina Moorman, Erin Hedlund-Botti, Mariah Schrum, and 2 more authors
    In Proceedings of the 2023 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, Stockholm, Sweden, Mar 2023