Ribbon cut for new Kavraki robotics lab

Igor the Robot (center) and his helper, Engineering Dean Edwin “Ned” Thomas (right), cut the ribbon to the new robotics laboratory of Lydia Kavraki (left) in Duncan Hall. The members of Kavraki’s lab include senior research scientist Mark Moll, three postdoctoral students, eight graduate students and several undergraduates. The lab will serve as a collaborative hub for work among researchers in robotics, computer vision, automated reasoning, machine learning and artificial intelligence at Rice and at other universities and companies. “Our research aspires to develop robots that are safe, predicable, easy-to-command and useful to humans,” said Kavraki, the Noah Harding Professor of Computer Science. “With this new laboratory, we will come even closer to accomplishing those goals.” (Photo courtesy the George R. Brown School of Engineering)