Karthik Mahadevan

Karthik Mahadevan

PhD student

University of Toronto

About

I am a PhD student in Computer Science at the University of Toronto, where I am supervised by Dr. Tovi Grossman and Dr. Anthony Tang. I am passionate about how we can design systems and techniques to support natural and intuitive human-robot interaction. Prior to joining the University of Toronto, I received my MSc in Computer Science at the University of Calgary where I studied how we can design autonomous vehicle-pedestrian interaction. I also hold a BSc in Electrical Engineering from the University of Alberta.

Interests

  • Human-Robot Interaction
  • Human-Computer Interaction

Education

  • PhD in Computer Science, 2023

    University of Toronto

  • MSc in Computer Science, 2019

    University of Calgary

  • BSc in Electrical Engineering, 2016

    University of Alberta

Posts

3 papers accepted to CHI 2023!

3 papers accepted including one first author paper on querying spatial design recordings, a project I worked on during an internship at Autodesk Research. More details to follow.

Awarded Google PhD Fellowship in HCI

I am thrilled to announce that I have been named a Google PhD Fellowship in HCI to support my thesis work on human-robot collaboration.

Paper accepted to UIST 2022!

Initial details below.

Best Paper Honorable Mention Award at CHI 2021

Ecstatic to announce that our CHI 2021 paper has received a Best Paper Honorable Mention Award. Congrats to all the co-authors!

Paper accepted to CHI 2021!

The first paper of my dissertation work has been accepted to CHI 2021, with co-authors Maurício Sousa, Anthony Tang and Tovi Grossman. Preprint and video below.

Publications

Mimic: In-Situ Recording and Re-Use of Demonstrations to Support Robot Teleoperation

Mimic: In-Situ Recording and Re-Use of Demonstrations to Support Robot Teleoperation

A novel system that enables teleoperators to demonstrate and save robot trajectories as templates and later re-use them to execute the same action in new situations.

“Grip-that-there”: An Investigation of Explicit and Implicit Task Allocation Techniques for Human-Robot Collaboration

“Grip-that-there”: An Investigation of Explicit and Implicit Task Allocation Techniques for Human-Robot Collaboration

Mapping a design space of explicit and implicit task allocation techniques for use in ad-hoc human-robot collaboration.

Autonomous Vehicle-Cyclist Interaction: Peril and Promise

Autonomous Vehicle-Cyclist Interaction: Peril and Promise

Studying the future interaction of autonomous vehicles and cyclists through a novel simulator.

AV-Pedestrian Interaction Design Using a Pedestrian Mixed Traffic Simulator

AV-Pedestrian Interaction Design Using a Pedestrian Mixed Traffic Simulator

Examining AV-pedestrian interaction through a novel simulator and in particular studying how pedestrians can interact with a mix of manually-driven, semi-autonomous, and autonomous vehicles.

Communicating Awareness and Intent in Autonomous Vehicle-Pedestrian Interaction

Communicating Awareness and Intent in Autonomous Vehicle-Pedestrian Interaction

Studying how we can design interfaces to support autonomous vehicle-pedestrian interaction.