Hi! My name is Shashank Swaminathan (he/him) and I’m a third-year graduate student in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (MIT-WHOI) Joint Program. I’m based in the AeroAstro department at MIT and the Applied Ocean Science and Engineering (AOSE) department at WHOI. My research is advised by Prof. Brian Williams at MIT, and I’m affiliated with the Model-based Embedded Robotic Systems (MERS) group within the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligent Laboratory (CSAIL).
My primary research interest is studying how autonomous robot teams can support humans in intuitive and reliable ways for various exploration and sensing tasks. I’m particularly interested in the applications of human-robot teaming for scientific exploration (both underwater and in space), and for disaster response and search-and-rescue. My current focus is an extension of my master’s thesis work on robustly distributing all aspects of environment exploration and learning under unreliable communication networks.
My work focuses on:
<aside> My research vision is to use autonomy to assist and enable safe and effective monitoring and response to today’s climate challenges.
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Prior to joining the MIT-WHOI Joint Program, I graduated from Olin College of Engineering in 2022 with a B.S. in electrical engineering.