NEWS

Congratulations to 2016 summer intern alumni for getting enrolled in prestigious post-graduate program this fall! We received their stories…

SCIPR Project Alumni

Lu Sun

Master of Educational Technology and Applied Learning Science, Carnegie Mellon University

From Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications

“My research experience in Articulab was amazing! The research atmosphere is great here and this lab trained me a lot on my research journey. I learned to generate interesting research questions and try novel methods to test them. My project is using data analysis results to design and implement novel interface for virtual agent. During this time, my analysis ability and design thinking improved. Furthermore, the Articulab members are really nice here! My mentors always gave me helpful guidance and encouraged me to explore. I also had chance to collaborate with excellent students from all over the world and learned from each other. The combination and collaboration help this lab be more successful in research. I also should mentioned that here is the place where you could absorb the wisdom of excellent researchers. The HCI seminar and reading group every Friday are all good opportunities to learn more knowledge from different areas.”

 

Michelle Deng

Master of Educational Technology and Applied Learning Science, Carnegie Mellon University

From Carnegie Mellon University

“My research experience at the Articulable was very rewarding and I definitely learned a lot, since it was my first formal research experience at school. My problem-solving and debugging skills improved immensely, which I know will benefit me in the real world. In addition, everyone working at the Articulab is very friendly and knowledgeable—they are all open to helping out anyone who may need it. I made some great friends and invaluable mentors. ”

 

Shrey Shahand

Master of Engineering in Computer Science, Cornell University

From Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani

“My overall research experience was very exciting and interesting. I got to see, perform and be part of some extraordinary research which I haven’t seen at my home institution in India. Learning new methods of work and increasing my efficiency are two most important things I have taken back from my internship. My project was in machine learning and development of an online tool. I learnt a lot of new things related to my main field of interest. Apart from that I learnt managing and collaborative skills for huge projects. In the past semester at BITS, I tried to continue a few habits and methods I used at CMU for my semester long project and the results were very good. All I would like to say to new interns is just make the most of it when you’re there. Justine and the team are very helpful and frank people. Apart from the high quality research work, the culture and atmosphere in the Articulab is just amazing! The people thrive to give their best and help each other a lot. I think this is what helps the lab to prosper as a team and not as an individual achievement. For my research interest of machine learning, I learnt about a lot of new techniques like Time Series analysis, statistical measures like Krippendorff’s Alpha, Cronbach Alpha, etc. I have used them to get better results in my projects at BITS Pilani.”

 

SARA Project Alumni

Ting Yan

Master in Digital Arts and Computer Science, Dartmouth College

From Beihang University

“Last summer at ArticuLab was a fantastic experience to me. I did my work in SARA’s dialogue manager and did some research in dialogue state tracking. I got to know a lot of talented researchers, including our leader Yoichi (kind and handsome), Professor Justine Cassell, my senior and junior colleagues, and other lab members. The working environment was comfortable and I had plenty of opportunities to acquire the most advanced knowledge in Computer Science. I will continue my academic career at Dartmouth College. Thank you ArticuLab.”

 

 

Ying Shen

Master in Intelligent Information Systems, Carnegie Mellon University

From Fudan University

“In the summer of 2016, I met someone special, Sara, a Socially-Aware Robot Assistant. I spent an amazing summer with her at ArticuLab, trying to make Sara more human-like with all the smart and talented people of the SARA team. The internship at ArticuLab gave me the opportunity to exploit my potential and get involved with something great. And I was excited to make an actual contribution to the birth of a fully autonomous Sara and see my efforts pay off.”

 

 

Zhao Meng

Master in Computer Science, ETH Zurich

From Peking University

“Getting involved in the SARA project was really an exciting thing. For the first time I got to know the mechanisms behind a talking bot. By participating in the SARA project, I was given the opportunity to closely observe each component of a talking bot. I can even make SARA cleverer by modifying some of the modules. I still remember the exciting moment when SARA said hello after we equipped SARA with more skills. Besides, Yoichi was really a good mentor: he worked with us closely in the conference room and often stayed together with the interns until 10:00 pm or later. It was truly a good time to be a SARA intern in Articulab.”