NYC Fall

Research

  • Congratulations to Assistant Professor Chen Feng, who recently received 3 National Science Foundation (NSF) Awards, all based at CUSP:
    • Future of Work at the Human-Technology Frontier Program: Improving the Future of Retail and Warehouse Workers with Upper Limb Disabilities via Perceptive and Adaptive Soft Wearable Robots
      • Project Amount/Duration: $900K/4-yrs
      • PI: Chen Feng, Co-PIs: Ludovic Righetti, Vikram Kapila.
      • This project focuses on modeling, perception, and control of soft wearable robots to provide physical assistance and skill training for older workers and workers with physical disabilities in jobs involving picking, placing, and assembly tasks. If successful, the project will enhance their employment, inclusion, and integration in work that is relevant to retail, warehouse, and manufacturing. This is a collaborative project with CCNY and Rutgers University.
    • National Robotics Initiative 2.0 Program: DeepSoRo: High-dimensional Proprioceptive and Tactile Sensing and Modeling for Soft Grippers
      • Project Amount/Duration: $400K/3-yrs
      • PI: Chen Feng
      • This project focuses on the fundamental research on fast, high-dimensional, and scalable sensing and modeling methods for soft grippers. The research will create soft grippers with significantly improved ability to handle objects in complicated environments. The active soft grippers arising from this project will find applications in fields such as food industries, agriculture, assisted living for senior citizens or people with disabilities, increasing productivity, and improving the quality of human life.
    • Future of Manufacturing Program: ARM4MOD: AI-powered and Robot-assisted Manufacturing for Modular Construction
      • Project Amount/Duration: $500K/2-yrs
      • PI: Semiha Ergan, Co-PI: Chen Feng
      • This project is a unique attempt in studying modular construction within the context of Future Manufacturing (FM). It exploits opportunities at the intersection of AI/robotics/building information modeling and manufacturing, with the potential to increase the scalability of modular construction. While the evaluations of technologies will focus on the modular construction, the proposed technologies will improve the competitiveness of manufacturing industries, particularly heavy manufacturing industries that share similar challenges such as agricultural, mining, and shipbuilding.
  • Professor Debra Laefer has been named a founding member of the Open Geospatial Consortium’s Technical working group “Model for Underground Data Definition and Integration” (MUDDI), which is working towards the integration of subsurface data.
  • Professor Debra Laefer has been named to the advisory board for the Location Power’s workshop, Nov 9-13, 2020, which is organized by the Open Geospatial Consortium.
  • Professor Debra Laefer is giving an invited talk on “Preservation through Advanced Remote Sensing Capabilities” on September 17th at 6:30 pm at Columbia University as part of their Historic Preservation Lecture Series.
  • Professor Debra Laefer is giving an invited talk “Buried Trolley Lines, Abandoned Foundations, and Forgotten Streams – NYC’s Subsurface Data Integration Imperative” on September 24, 2020, 11:00 am as part of the 44th Annual Geo-Institute Seminar.
  • Research Assistant Professor Graham Dove and Director of CUSP Juan Pablo Bello are collaborating with the Center for the Study of Asian American Health in the School of Medicine on a new project funded by AARP Livable Communities Challenge. SHUSH (Sound Health in UnderServed Neighborhoods) is a community focused project that aims to record and map the unique sounds of New York City’s Chinatown, and to raise awareness about the impact of noise pollution on the lives of the district’s residents, particularly those more senior in age.
  • A new book by Professor Julia Lane, “Democratizing Our Data: A Manifesto,” explains why public data is vital to public health and democracy in general, and encourages America to create a new framework for democratizing data. The book will be available beginning September 1, 2020 and is published by MIT Press.

Publications

Press

People

  • A warm welcome to the newest members of the CUSP community!
    • Danny Y. Huang, Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering.
    • John R. Pamplin II, Smart Cities Postdoctoral Associate & Assistant Professor/Faculty Fellow
    • Eric Corbett, Smart Cities Postdoctoral Associate & Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellow
  • Welcome to the Class of 2021! Our newest cohort of graduate students began their studies at CUSP this week. The Class of 2021 represents 13 countries from around the world.