ICRA 2023 IDEA Awardees

ICRA 2023 IDEA Awardee poster

 

Polina Oliinyk started her BSc in computer science at Kharkiv National University of Radio Electronics, Ukraine. However, her studies were interrupted by the invasion of Ukraine. For the same reason, she moved to the UK to live with a host family. She has recently completed my first year of BSc in Computer Science at Cardiff University (CU), in Wales, UK. At CU, she is part of the Cardiff University Computational Robotics (CUCR) research team, which is part of the Human-Centred Computing (HCC) research unit. Within the team, she has been collaborating on different projects that are focused on social robot navigation in crowded indoor environments and robot telepresence. Her main research interest is Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), particularly the applications of robots to support vulnerable groups of people.

Arisema Mihretu is a MS student in Information Technology at Carnegie Mellon University Africa, Rwanda. She is an awardee of the Mastercard Foundation Scholarship for her studies. Arisema has a keen interest in cognitive systems, and she is currently part of a research team working on developing a model of associative memory for a cognitive robot. Outside of her academic pursuits, she believes in playing one’s part in giving back to the community. During her stay in Rwanda, Arisema has participated in community outreach programs including teaching Python programming and providing training on mindfulness practices to high school students. Arisema received the Lakshmi Subramanian CMU-Africa Student Excellence Award from Carnegie Mellon University Africa in May 2023.

Pamely Zantou is an MS student in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University Africa, Rwanda, specializing in robotics and machine learning. He received the CIT Dean's Scholarship from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) to pursue his graduate studies. Additionally, Pamely was awarded an excellence scholarship from the Government of Benin during his undergraduate studies, where he completed a bachelor's degree in software engineering. He is a robotics software engineer whose research interests center around social robotics, specifically in culturally-sensitive human-robot interaction for Africa. He serves as the president of the IoT Club and was a founding member of CMU's Research Club. He is committed to using his passion for robotics and machine learning to create positive change and empower communities, particularly in Africa. Pamely received the Jeremiah N. Mpagazehe Rising Researcher Award from Carnegie Mellon University Africa in May 2023.

Dulexy Solano is a biomedical engineering student at Yachay Tech University, Ecuador. She is an active member of IEEE Young Professional Ecuador and a scholarship holder of the POWER program of the U.S. Embassy, soft skills for Women in STEM. She has received scholarships for academic excellence 2020-2022. She was the chair of the First Ecuadorian Congress of Young Researchers CEJI22. She was also the chair of IEEE EMBS 2021 Yachay Tech, and, with her team, won the exemplary EMB Chapter 2021 award. She is the Vice-Chair of the IEEE Student Branch Yachay Tech and a member of the SAC Team Ecuador in 2020. She is the National Ambassador in IEEE SBRM Region 9 Latin America and the Caribbean 2020. Dulexy is a member of WiE since 2020. She co-founded social and science outreach programs such as Wambrakuna and ConCiencia WY, a student network to empower girls and women in science. She has worked in the development of prostheses and orthosis with GekoFund Ibarra-Ecuador.

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