PhD Research Intern, AI for Robotic Manipulation

Chef is looking for PhD interns to help us develop cutting-edge, AI-based manipulation methods for our fleet of robots. You will work with a research mentor to conduct research on novel, learning-based approaches to robotic manipulation of food, and evaluate results on real robotic systems used for food production in a manufacturing environment. This is an exciting opportunity to apply the latest AI research to a real-life practical application, and leave a lasting impact on Chef and the food production industry.

Responsibilities and Example Projects

• Develop DL-based computer vision, motion planning, and/or manipulation algorithms that work across thousands of different foods with varying physical properties (stickiness, density, viscosity, etc.)
• Develop algorithms to learn ingredient properties from past data or on-the-fly and intelligently adapt manipulation parameters
• Incorporate new sensor data (e.g. force control, additional cameras) into learning algorithms
• Contribute to software infrastructure for training, deploying, and evaluating ML models

Requirements

• Currently enrolled in a relevant PhD program focused on embodied AI or robotics
• Experience with at least one of the following areas: imitation learning/learning from demonstration, reinforcement learning, multimodal learning
• Ability to independently drive and execute on a well-scoped but open-ended research project
• Experience with common deep learning frameworks like Tensorflow or Pytorch
• Excellent programming skills
• Excellent mathematical and statistical foundation in ML concepts