Despite pandemic, MIT undergrads develop next-generation intelligence tools

Despite the ongoing pandemic, undergraduates at Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed what's being called "next-generation intelligence tools."

The undergrads in Cambridge-based MIT's Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) have been exploring applications in robotics, health care, language understanding and nuclear engineering, the university told MIT News. UROP's research continued even after MIT shut its doors in March in an effort to help slow the spread of COVID-19.

Much of MIT's campus life moved online, including UROP research. Students in the program checked in with advisors on a regular basis and many succeeded in completing the program, MIT News reported. 

One undergraduate, MIT senior Alon Kosowsky-Sachs, carried on his experiments at home after carrying home his Shero Bolt robots home in his backpack.  

"I've been so impressed by their resilience and dedication," Katherine Gallagher, one of MIT's three artificial intelligence engineers at the university's Quest for Intelligence program, told MIT News. "There was that initial week of craziness and then they were right back to work.”

Four projects remotely carried out this spring include Kosowsky-Sachs' efforts to train his baseball-sized Sphero Bolt robots to move around in a handmade area. 

Working with MIT's Electrical Engineering and Computer Science assistant professor Pulkit Agrawal, Kosowsky-Sachs's goal to teach the robots to match sights with sounds was achieved. 

"I want them to see something through their camera, and hear something from their microphone, and know that these two things happen together,” Kosowsky-Sachs told MIT News. "As humans, we combine a lot of sensory information to get added insight about the world. If we hear a thunder clap, we don’t need to see lightning to know that a storm has arrived. Our hypothesis is that robots with a better model of the world will be able to accomplish more difficult tasks."