Tesca Fitzgerald
I am an Assistant Professor in Yale’s Computer Science department.
My research is centered around interactive robot learning. As robots become more commonplace in human environments, they will need to adapt to novel task variations that they have not been trained to address. I develop algorithms that allow a robot to structure and interpret its interactions with a human teacher in order to adapt its task knowledge to novel situations. By enabling a robot to ask for help in addressing unfamiliar problems, my work contributes toward a future of adaptive, collaborative robots.
Before joining Yale, I was a postdoc at CMU with Henny Admoni, Reid Simmons, and Aaron Steinfeld. I completed my PhD at Georgia Tech in 2020, advised by Ashok Goel and Andrea Thomaz. My dissertation research focused on using human interaction to enable a robot to transfer task models to new environments.
Recent News
Oct. 2022: Thank you WPI for hosting me as an invited speaker!
Sept. 2022: Our article on INQUIRE: INteractive Querying for User-aware Informative REasoning has been accepted to CoRL’22.
Sept. 2022: Thank you Cornell for hosting me as an invited speaker!
May 2022: I’ve accepted a tenure-track faculty position at Yale!
Apr. 2022: Our article on Abstraction in Data-Sparse Task Transfer has been accepted for full presentation at IJCAI’22.
Apr. 2022: New article in THRI: Metrics for Robot Proficiency Self-Assessment and Communication of Proficiency in Human-Robot Teams
Nov. 2021: Our article on Modeling and Learning Constraints for Creative Tool Use has just been published in Frontiers in Robotics and AI.
June 2021: Our article on Abstraction in Data-Sparse Task Transfer has just been published in Artificial Intelligence Journal.
Apr. 2021: Our survey paper on Understanding the Relationship between Interactions and Outcomes in Human-in-the-Loop Machine Learning has just been accepted to IJCAI 2021.
Apr. 2021: Presented at the Talking Robotics virtual seminar.
Sept. 2020: I am excited to be on the HRI 2021 organizing committee as the workshops/tutorials co-chair.
May 2020: I’ve successfully defended my dissertation!
June 2019: I’ve accepted a postdoc position at Carnegie Mellon University! I am excited to be joining Dr. Henny Admoni, Dr. Reid Simmons, and Dr. Aaron Steinfeld in 2020.
Jan. 2019: Our journal paper on Human-Guided Object Mapping for Task Transfer was invited for presentation at HRI 2019.
Jan. 2019: Our conference paper on Human-guided Trajectory Adaptation for Tool Transfer was accepted to AAMAS 2019.
July 2018: Our journal paper on Human-Guided Object Mapping for Task Transfer was accepted to the ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction.
Apr. 2018: Selected as a funded participant in the RSS Pioneers workshop.
Oct. 2017: Selected as a 2017 GVU Foley Scholar.
Sept. 2017: Co-organized the Workshop on Synergies Between Learning and Interaction at IROS'17 in Vancouver, BC.
Aug. 2017: Selected as a funded participant for the 2017 Rising Stars in EECS Workshop, a highly competitive workshop for women pursuing academic careers.
July 2017: Selected as a finalist for the 2017 GVU Foley Scholars award.
Apr. 2017: My position paper on Human-Robot Co-Creativity: Task Transfer on a Spectrum of Similarity was accepted to the International Conference on Computational Creativity.
Apr. 2017: My work was highlighted in Georgia Tech's feature article, Women of Robotics.
Mar. 2017: Selected as a 2017-18 recipient of the IBM PhD Fellowship Award.