People

Holly Yanco

Holly Yanco is a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and the Director of the New England Robotics Validation and Experimentation (NERVE) Center. She was named Distinguished University Professor at the university in 2015. Her research interests include human-robot interaction, multi-touch computing, interface design, robot autonomy, fostering trust of autonomous systems, evaluation methods for human-robot interaction, and the use of robots in K-12 education to broaden participation in computer science. Yanco's research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, including a CAREER Award, the Army Research Office, DARPA, NIST, and Google. Yanco was the General Chair of the 2012 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction and is now the co-chair of the conference's steering committee. She served on the Executive Council of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) from 2006-2009 and was the Symposium Chair for AAAI from 2002-2005. She is a senior member of AAAI. Yanco has a PhD and MS in Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a BA in Computer Science and Philosophy from Wellesley College.

Current Staff Members

  • Jordan Allspaw, HRI Lab Manager

  • Janelle Clark, Post-doctoral Associate

  • Kathryn Dennison, Administrative Assistant

  • Brendan Donoghue, Mechatronics Technician

  • Brian Flynn, Robotics Engineer

  • Peter Gavriel, Robotics Technician

  • Joe Meli, Network Administrator

  • Adam Norton, NERVE Center Associate Director

  • Karina Roundtree, Post-doctoral Associate

Current Graduate Students

  • Gregory LeMasurier, PhD student

  • Amin Majdi, MS student

Current Undergraduate Students

  • Domenic Carrillo, 2020 –

  • Daniel Hemphill, 2018 –

  • Patrick Hoey, 2019 –

  • Charles Kenny, 2020 –

  • Emily LaBelle, 2020 –

  • Sam Laderoute, 2020 –

  • Jenna Parrillo, 2019 –

  • Tom Pianka, 2020 –

  • Rohan Shankar, 2019 –

  • Alexander (Sasha) Wilkinson, 2018 –

  • Kevin Yassini, 2019 –

Staff members with drones during a field test event in Fall 2021

Members of the HRI Lab with collaborators from BYU and CMU during a visit to Amazon Robotics in Summer 2019

HRI Lab Alumni

Post-doctoral Associates

  • Momotaz Begum, Post-doctoral associate 2014-2016, University of New Hampshire

  • Kit Stubbs, Post-doctoral associate 2008-2009, early start-up

PhD

  • Dan Brooks, PhD 2017, Toyota Research Institute

  • Munjal Desai, PhD 2012, Google

  • Zhao Han, PhD 2021, Colorado School of Mines

  • Dan Hestand, PhD 2011, United Technologies Research Center

  • Mark Micire, PhD 2010, Woodside Energy Perth Australia

  • Abraham Shultz, PhD 2019, SSCI

  • Kate Tsui, PhD 2014, Toyota Research Institute

MS

  • Mike Baker, MS 2006, BAE Systems

  • Erin (Rapacki) Bishop, MS 2009, consultant

  • Robert Casey, MS 2006, ClearMotion

  • Andrew Chanler, MS 2007, EMC

  • Karl Harshe

  • Carlos Ibarra-Lopez, MS 2016, Google

  • Brenden Keyes, MS 2007, ClearMotion

  • James Kuczynski, MS 2019, Lincoln Labs

  • Eric McCann, MS 2013, MITRE

  • Mikhail Medvedev, MS 2014, IBM

  • Phil Thoren, MS 2007, BAE Systems

Undergraduate Students (years worked in lab noted)

  • Siddharth Agrawal, India Institute of Technology - Delhi, 2017

  • Toby Ajayi, 2020 – 2021

  • Victoria Albanese, 2015 - 2018

  • Jordan Allspaw, Middlesex Community College then UML, 2011 – 2016

  • Amanda (Courtemanche) Anganes, 2006 – 2010

  • Jeremy Badessa, 2006

  • Matt Bailey, 2006 – 2007

  • Aron Barabas, 2004

  • Gal Bejerano, 2017 – 2020

  • Michael Coates, 2012

  • Shannon Conneilly, Middlesex Community College, 2019 – 2020

  • Dalton Curtin, Middlesex Community College then UML, 2015 - 2018

  • Vi Dang, Middlesex Community College, 2018

  • Adam DeFelice, 2013

  • John DeNyse, Middlesex Community College, 2019 – 2020

  • Marbella Duran, Universidad Metropolitana Cupey - Puerto Rico, 2004

  • Kelsey Flynn, 2012

  • Christopher Gibbs, 2015 - 2018

  • Michael Gonzales, 2019 – 2021

  • Jamal Grant, 2012

  • Jennifer Green, Middlesex Community College, 2016

  • Jonathan Hasenzahl, Worcester Community College, 2012 – 2013

  • Lilia Heinold, 2017 – 2019

  • Steven Holevas, 2018

  • Alexander Infantino, 2015 - 2018

  • Phil Katz, Swarthmore College, 2005

  • Huma Khokhar, 2017 – 2018

  • Jonathan Knittel, 2014

  • Philip Kovac, 2006 – 2010

  • Nick Lemiesz, Wentworth Community of Technology, 2016 - 2018

  • Daniel Lotti, Middlesex Community College, 2020

  • Katherine Lucas, Middlesex Community College, 2016

  • Ray Lucas, Middlesex Community College, 2017

  • Michael Lunderville, 2012

  • Daniel Lynch

  • Eric Marcoux, 2013 – 2016

  • Ryan McDermott, 2017

  • Amelia McHugh, Middlesex Community College, 2012

  • Sean McSheehy, Middlesex Community College then UML, 2010 – 2012

  • Alex Meier, 2017

  • Anastasia Monich, Middlesex Community College, 2019

  • Rachel Mulcrone, Mills College, 2004

  • Christopher Munroe, Middlesex Community College then UML, 2015 – 2017

  • Tom Murphy, 2006

  • Eddie Novinyo, Middlesex Community College, 2016

  • Marshall O’Leary, 2017 – 2018

  • Kevin Orsula, 2020

  • John Ouellette, 2012

  • Ishita Panda, 2017 – 2018

  • Mia Parviainen, 2005 – 2006

  • Yash Patel, 2020

  • Yash Patel, 2019 – 2020

  • Cory Reyes, 2014

  • Jonathan Roche, 2016 - 2018

  • Joshua Rodriguez, 2016 - 2017

  • Brandon Route, 2014

  • Alejandro Salido, 2013

  • Vittoria Santoro, 2020

  • Aakriti Sharan, 2014

  • Sanskriti Sharma, 2019

  • Dan Shedd, Middlesex Community College, 2009

  • Mark Sherman, 2006

  • Alexander Skinner, 2019 – 2020

  • Joshua Stone, Middlesex Community College, 2017

  • Jacob Suarez, 2014

  • Elizabeth Sullivan, 2019

  • Sompop Suskawat, Worcester Community College, 2012

  • Noah Torname, 2020 – 2021

  • Samuel Toups, 2017

  • Josue Trinidad, Middlesex Community College, 2013

  • Mike Yannuzzi, 2017 – 2018

  • Brian Young, 2020

  • Tamara Zbitnaja, Middlesex Community College, 2014