{"318351":{"#nid":"318351","#data":{"type":"event","title":"IRIM Robotics Seminar\u2013Justin Werfel","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EHarvard\u2019s Justin Werfel presents \u201cCollective Construction by Termites and Other Robots\u201d as part of the IRIM Robotics Seminar Series. The event will be held in the Marcus Nanotechnology Building from 12-1 p.m. and is open to the public.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAbstract\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETermites build huge, complex structures through the collective actions of millions of independent agents. These natural systems inspire the research area of collective construction, whose goal is to develop autonomous multi-robot systems that build large-scale structures according to user specifications. I will discuss the design and realization of such a system in which climbing robots flexibly build structures using specialized building blocks. Robots act independently under decentralized control, using local information, onboard sensing, and implicit coordination through manipulation of a shared environment. A user can specify a target structure using a high-level representation, and robots follow simple rules that guarantee the correct completion of that structure. I will also briefly discuss ongoing experimental studies of African termites, aimed at better understanding their individual behaviors and how these give rise to the structures they produce.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EBio\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EJustin Werfel is a research scientist at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University. His research\u0026nbsp;includes work on swarm robotics, evolutionary theory, DNA self-assembly, social insect behavior, and other topics in complex systems and self-organization.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWerfel received an A.B. in physics from Princeton and a S.M. (EECS) from MIT.\u0026nbsp;He completed his Ph.D. in computer science at MIT in 2006, developing algorithms to allow swarms of simple robots to autonomously build user-specified structures. His postdoctoral research at Harvard included further exploration of collective construction, work on the evolution of cooperative and altruistic behaviors at the New England Complex Systems Institute, and cancer modeling at Harvard Medical School\/Children\u2019s Hospital Boston.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EHarvard\u2019s Justin Werfel presents \u201cCollective Construction by Termites and Other Robots\u201d as part of the IRIM Robotics Seminar Series. The event will be held in the Marcus Nanotechnology Building from 12-1 p.m. and is open to the public.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"This event is part of the IRIM Robotics Seminar Series."}],"uid":"27255","created_gmt":"2014-08-22 13:24:09","changed_gmt":"2017-04-13 21:21:58","author":"Josie Giles","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","field_event_time":{"event_time_start":"2014-10-29T13:00:00-04:00","event_time_end":"2014-10-29T14:00:00-04:00","event_time_end_last":"2014-10-29T14:00:00-04:00","gmt_time_start":"2014-10-29 17:00:00","gmt_time_end":"2014-10-29 18:00:00","gmt_time_end_last":"2014-10-29 18:00:00","rrule":null,"timezone":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"322931":{"id":"322931","type":"image","title":"Justin Werfel","body":null,"created":"1449245025","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 16:03:45","changed":"1475894908","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:48:28","alt":"Justin Werfel","file":{"fid":"200155","name":"justin-werfel.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/justin-werfel_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/justin-werfel_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":94538,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/justin-werfel_0.jpg?itok=nS4mhIi3"}}},"media_ids":["322931"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/people.seas.harvard.edu\/~jkwerfel\/","title":"Justin Werfel"},{"url":"http:\/\/robotics.gatech.edu\/","title":"Center for Robotics \u0026 Intelligent Machines"}],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"50876","name":"School of Interactive Computing"},{"id":"142761","name":"IRIM"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"1808","name":"graduate students"},{"id":"81491","name":"Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines (IRIM)"},{"id":"667","name":"robotics"},{"id":"167194","name":"seminar series"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[{"id":"1795","name":"Seminar\/Lecture\/Colloquium"}],"invited_audience":[{"id":"78751","name":"Undergraduate students"},{"id":"78761","name":"Faculty\/Staff"},{"id":"78771","name":"Public"},{"id":"174045","name":"Graduate students"}],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EJosie Giles\u003Cbr \/\u003EIRIM Marketing Communications Mgr.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:josie@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Ejosie@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}