Ruta Desai

The Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University

****, ****** **., **********, **-15217 +1-412-***-**** abpf4o@r.postjobfree.com

*, ******* *******, ****-********, Ahmedabad-15, India +91-79-267***** abpf4o@r.postjobfree.com

Research Interest

Human Centred Systems (Assistive Technologies), Human Motion (Understanding and Modelling), Bio-inspired Robots,

Planning and Perception.

Education

Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA August 2011-December 2012

QPA: 3.93/4.0

Masters of Science (MS) in Robotics

Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology (NIT) Surat, India July 2007-May 2011

CGPA:9.26/10.00

Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech) in Electronics Engineering

Experience

October 2011- Present

Graduate Research Assistant

The Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, USA Prof. Hartmut Geyer and Prof. Chris Atkeson

Developed robust control structure for foot placement and automat ed balance recovery for artificial

segmented legs based on neuromuscular control in humans.

May 2010-Jul 2010

Research Intern

Technische Universitat Ilmenau, Germany Prof. Horst Michael Gross

Implemented various approaches for correction of camera poses for effective working of 3D structure

reconstruction using Extended Kalman Filter and Random Sample Consensus.

December 2009-January 2010

Research Intern

Indian Institute of Science (IISc.), Bangalore, India Prof. Debasish Ghose

Implemented temporal efficiency in a multimodal function optimization algorithm called Glow-worm Swarm

Optimization (GSO) developed earlier in lab and tested it o n a set of three robots called Kinbots via a source

localization experiment in unknown environment.

May 2009-June 2009

Research Intern

Indian Institute of Science (IISc.), Bangalore, India Prof. Debasish Ghose

Reconstructed a set of three robots called Kinbots for experimentation of GSO and other swarm algorithms.

June 2008-July 2008

Socio-Tech Intern

Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad, India Prof. Anil K. Gupta

Designed and developed a web portal which allowed artists to put up videos and photos of their art to support

and popularize fast disappearing folk art in India. The work involved scouting of artists, interacting with them

to know their problems and then a site development on Drupal. (http://sristi.org/cultural/)

Projects

Spring 2012

Inverse Dynamics on Motion Capture Data

Implemented inverse dynamics to estimate torques at different joints in humans during walking and running.

Fall 2011

Quadratic Programming based Push Recovery in Humanoids

Implemented Model Predictive Control based trajectory optimization for centre of mass trajectory using

Quadratic Programming for maintaining balance.

Fall 2011

Visual Hull based 3D Reconstruction for Virtual World

Implemented an image based method to construct the 3 -D shape of object using set of cameras and

extended it to virtual reality by implementing a simplified physics engine simulating simple collision s.

July 2010-May 2011

Intelligent Gaming Interface for Selective Stimulation of Brain for Dyslex ic Children

Developed bio feedback based gaming interface that used EEG signals from brain of the child to decide type

and level of the game based on the response of child s brain. Signal Processing and Neural Network were

explored for the same.

The project was done under Prof. Anand Darji & Prof. Suprava Patnaik as a part of B.Tech thesis at NIT Surat.

July 2008-March 2009

GramHaat : An E-commerce Interface for Village Producers

Developed an E-commerce site as a transparent interface between the farmers and consumers along with a

mobile based application with SMS Server using Visual C#.

The project was done for Microsoft Imagine cup 2009 and qualified to National round in the Design for

Development and Rural Development categories.

July 2008-March 2009

Mini BAJA, SAE Collegiate Design Contest

Implemented electrical wiring of an all terrain vehicle, including the automatic start up and circuits for battery

charging lights, horn and safety switch for engine kill in emergency, as a part of college team.

September 2009-January 2010

ANTZ : Grid followers for India s first Swarm Robotics Contest

Developed two grid follower robots which emulated communicating ants to search for (symbolic sugar) cubes

in the grid.

We were among the top 7 teams to compete in the national finals of the contest at IIT Bombay.

Scholarships and Awards

2012-2013

Siebel Scholar, Class of 2013

2012

Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship

2011-2012

Bharat Petroleum Corporation Scholarship for Higher studies

2011-2012

K.C.Mahindra Overseas Loan Scholarship

2011

American Alumni Association Scholarship

2010

German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) Working Internships in Science and Engineering (WISE)

Scholarship

2010-2011

Indian National Association of Engineers (INAE) Fellowship

2006-2010

Dhirubhai Ambani Foundation (DAF) Undergraduate Scholarship

2004-2006

National Merit Scholarship

POSITIONS OF RESPONSIBILITY

2012

Volunteer, Women @ SCS, Carnegie Mellon

2010 - 2011

Co Coordinator of Social Service Club, NIT Surat

2008 - 2009

Secretary of Association of Computing Machinery (ACM), NIT Surat Student chapter

Managed local group activity and initiated student projects on Beagle Boar d and Swarm Robotics.

2008 - 2009

Microsoft Student Partner, NIT Surat

Delivered many sessions on Microsoft technologies including a workshop on C, C++ & Visual C++.

2008 - 2009

Corporal, National Cadet Corps (NCC)

2009

Volunteer, JoyFest

Coordinated a collection drive of old clothes, shoes and toys in hostels of college and surrounding city areas

for distribution in slums.

Organized interaction among handicapped children and college students involving games, drawing and book

reading.

2007 2008

Class Representative, Student s Council of College

Technical Skills

Languages: C, C++, OpenCV, Embedded Microcontroller programming, Python (Basics).

Platforms: Matlab, Simulink, MPLAB, Maple, MultiSim, Keil, SPICE, LaTeX, Microsoft Visual Studio, Eclipse.

Extracurricular Activities

Participated in national hiking expeditions in Himalayas through Youth Hostel Association of India (YHAI) and

World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

Undertaken training for Indian Classical dance called Bharatnatyam for six years.

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