MiV Seminar: Vickie Webster-Wood, Carnegie-Mellon University - "Understanding and implementing biological intelligence through bioinspired and biohybrid robotics"
- Sponsor
- Mind in Vitro
- Contact
- Gregory Pluta
- gpluta@illinois.edu
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- 27
Abstract: Artificial Intelligence (AI) advances of recent years have taken the world by storm. AI has permeated not only advanced technologies such as autonomous vehicles and robotics but also daily commercial life. While the capabilities in this space are outstanding, the application of current AI approaches remains primarily in highly engineered environments. Furthermore, modern AI requires a tremendous amount of data, energy, and water resources, which places a significant burden on aging infrastructure. In contrast to in silico intelligence, biological systems exhibit much more energy-efficient, complex, and adaptable computing. Animals can learn in as little as a single experience, and biological brains require only 10s of Watts. How do biological control systems achieve the robustness, multifunctionality, adaptability, and energy efficiency found in nature, and how can these capabilities be brought to robotics? In this talk, I will share how we are using bioinspired and biohybrid robotics in an interactive research cycle with neuroscience and biomechanics to understand and even implement biological intelligence in engineered systems.
Bio: Vickie Webster-Wood received her B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Case Western Reserve University in 2012, 2013, and 2017. She is currently an Associate Professor and Dean’s Early Career Fellow in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, with courtesy appointments in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, the McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine, and the Robotics Institute. She is the director of the C.M.U. Biohybrid and Organic Robotics Group and has a long-term research goal to develop completely organic, biodegradable, autonomous robots. She received the NSF CAREER Award in 2021, leads the SSymBioTIC MURI on Integrated Biohybrid Actuators, and is a co-Principal Investigator of the NSF C3NS NeuroNex Network, along with holding numerous other grants and awards, including being named to the MIT Technology Review 35 Innovators under 35 in 2023 and as a member of the Grainger Foundation NAE US Frontiers of Engineering class of 2024.