About Dr. Killpack
Marc Killpack completed his Ph.D. in Robotics from the Georgia Institute of Technology and joined BYU as an Assistant Professor in December of 2013. His areas of expertise include soft robotics, human-robot interaction, controls, mechanics and perception for robotics and other automated systems. His current research interests relate to improving modeling and control for robot manipulation in unstructured and difficult environments. This includes applications related to search and rescue, disaster response and human robot interaction. He also has over a decade of experience advising the BYU Mars Rover team that builds field-ready mobile manipulator for the university rover competition. While at Georgia Tech in the Healthcare Robotics Lab (HRL), Marc worked on projects including sensing and control for mobile robot bases, automating learning from robot grasping, manipulation around and interacting with human subjects, and control of a robot arm in cluttered and unmodeled environments. Prior to joining HRL, he completed Masters degrees in Mechanical Engineering from both Georgia Tech and AM Paris Tech (formerly ENSAM) in Metz, France. In 2007, Marc graduated with a Bachelor's of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Brigham Young University.
Technical and Conference Presentations - "The butler did it"
Aside from a thesis defense, most academic presentations (such as at academic conferences) last around 15 minutes. In that time, you have to convince your audience that your work is important, your results valid, and that you paper and other future work are worth citing. Dr. Killpack will present ideas on how to make presentations clear, concise, and to the point. It is especially important that attendees know which 2 to 3 major points you want them to take away from the talk so that you do not leave them guessing until the end. This seminar will teach you to tell them early and often that it was "the butler who did it." Please bring some ideas about current papers or presentations that you are working on as we will be discussing them together.