Emma Pinegar
I’m a second year PhD student studying Mechanical Engineering at the University of Utah. I earned my BS in Computer Science also from the University of Utah in Fall 2021.
Experience
I am currently a teaching assistant for graduate level AI, and have previously TA’d the Introduction to Robotics course at the University of Utah. I am advised by Professors Alan Kuntz and Jake Abbott working on a new kind of steerable needle. I am primarily focusing on robotics applications that help treat medical conditions or improve the quality of life of disabled persons. As an undergraduate I worked with Dr. Tucker Hermans researching 3D reconstruction methods that could be applied to several computer vision tasks.
Projects
I have worked on several projects recently, the most notable being:
- Screw-tip magnetically steerable needles
- An electrostatic actuator for a tendon robot
- A magnetically actuated cannula which resulted in a HAMLYN Symposium publication
- 3D object reconstruction in scenes with multiple objects
- Android app with remote music controls, texting, dialing, toggling do not disturb, etc. using an Arduino with gesture recognition
- Industrial inspection of Coca Cola bottles using the image processing toolbox in Matlab
- Baxter pick-and-place using contrained 6 DOF inverse kinematics
Publications
- Screw-tip Soft Magnetically Steerable Needles: TMRB 2023
- Magnetically Actuated Cannulas Can Assist In Their Own Insertion: HAMLYN 2022
Presentations
- Computing Research Day Poster Presentation March 2023
- Artificial Intelligence Course Lecture March 2023
- Undergraduate Research Symposium November 2021
Coursework
- Motion Planning
- Neural Engineering
- Robot Millisystems
- Micromachining
- Aritificial Intelligence
- Robot Control
- Intro to Robotics
- Image Processing
- Electrical Engineering
- Artificial Intelligence
- Scientific Computing
- Human/Computer Interaction
- Computer Networking
- Data Structures & Algorithms
- Computer Systems
Awards & Honors
- Computing Research Association Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Honorable Mention 2022
- UROP Scholar Fall 2021
- Inclusion@RSS Fellow 2021
- NSF REU Summer 2021
- Senior Capstone Project Honorable Mention Spring 2021
- Dean’s List