People of ACM - Chad Jenkins

September 17, 2024

How did you become a roboticist?

I started my career obsessed with computer graphics. I wanted to make video games - that was a big deal. My pathway into CS actually came from my parents giving me an Atari 2600 on Christmas day, 1981, which was mind-blowing. For the first time, I could interact with the images on the television—playing Space Invaders was like, "How is this working? This is magical!" My journey has been all about understanding the science behind this magic.

Since then, we have seen amazing capabilities grow from those simple graphics (my routine email is bigger than an Atari game in the 80s) to immersive virtual worlds. In many ways, robotics is much like 3D graphics but with physics that we can’t ignore.

Although I loved computing, I was not a great high school student, and I did not think I was smart enough to be a computer scientist. But I took the Intro to CS course (in Pascal!), anyway, when I got to college. I felt the same magic and have not looked back since.

My evolution into a roboticist happened in the late 1990s when I met Jessica Hodgins at Georgia Tech, who had previously worked with Boston Dynamics founder Mark Raibert. I originally went to Georgia Tech to learn all I could about 3D graphics. Jessica and other great mentors like Nancy Pollard inspired me with their groundbreaking research into physics-based animation. Their work, using ideas from control and simulation of robots to create humanoid characters for games and movies, put me on the path to robotics.

As a doctoral student, I had the great privilege of working with Maja Matarić on imitation learning for humanoid robots, such as the NASA Robonaut at Johnson Space Center. More importantly, Maja helped me grow as a scholar and a person, serving as my template for equity and excellence in mentorship. It has been amazing to see our field realize ideas—such as humanoid robots, machine learning, and robot operating systems—that were just visions and postulations we would discuss back then.

 I also have to give a huge shout out to the Black computing pioneers whose shoulders I stand upon, including Valerie Taylor (leader of CMD-IT), Bryant York, Roscoe Giles, Timothy Pinkston, Skip Ellis, William Massey, David Blackwell, as well as Richard Tapia. There are not many Black people of my generation in computing. As such, I am deeply grateful for these pioneers for both their mentorship and tireless dedication to unlocking the potential of talented people across our society.

What are a few examples of the most important advances in robotics since you began your career?

For one, we now have robots that can see and understand the form and function of objects in our environment. Robot perception is vastly improved with a big assist from machine learning and computer vision. Then there is the incredible pace of advancement in robot hardware. Humanoid robots are becoming a reality. It is almost like a Moore's law-style increase in the capability of robot hardware. Robot operating systems (ROS) are a third advance that is accelerating progress by enabling the development of robot apps. I am very proud of my group’s contributions to ROS (including rosbridge) and other robot OS suites that provide the plug-and-play interoperability across the larger robot ecosystem. They provide the infrastructure—the foundation—to enable us to build the programs robots need to do useful tasks. These are just a few of the examples, catalyzed by considerable federal funding, driving the boom of robotics in our society.

What is an emerging area in robotics that will have a significant impact on society in the near future, and how does your work fit?

The area of robotics that shows the most potential for growth and impact on our society is humanoid robotics. We are starting to see a large number of humanoid robots from companies like Agility Robotics, Boston Dynamics, Figure AI and Apptronik. The robots that people have often dreamed about have the potential to become a reality in the very near future.

Multiple companies and research groups are building mobile manipulators that can serve as a platform to study artificial intelligence in reality—“Physical AI” or “Embodied AI.” Physical AI has to work with the real world to provide real responses and real benefits. The rise of humanoid platforms, along with advances in AI and autonomous reasoning, enables this convergence. My research group is actively exploring solutions including taskable planning and control for bipedal humanoids and mobile manipulators, which would enable robots to automate the physical world similar to how digital computers have automated the processing of information. We are also exploring methods for Bayesian inference as guardrails on deep learning systems—which can unexplainably behave like a semi-dependable best friend, who periodically leaves you asking, "Wait, what exactly are you doing?"

Humanoid robots are going to vastly transform our society and how we work. One thing that I am hoping robotics will do is help us provide better care for our aging and disabled populations. Robotics offers new avenues for improving the quality of life by endowing people with greater agency, independence, and dignity while reducing the costs. The enhanced productivity needed for caretaking could be within reach through advances in robotics science and technology.

You recently passed the baton to James Young and Iolanda Leite as the next EiCs of ACM THRI after helping to bring the journal into ACM. How does ACM THRI play a unique role in the community and what impressed you most during your seven years running the journal?

The thing that impressed me most about ACM THRI is the sense of community that came together around the journal. Authors had confidence that we would treat their papers fairly -- as open-minded reviewers and provide constructive feedback in a timely manner. Empathy was our key ingredient, as we understood as editors and reviewers that we are also authors. So we aim to provide the quality of feedback to others that we would expect to get for our own work. In this current time, where we often treat publications more like commodities than scholarship, it is important that we get back to the intellectual exchange that encourages the exploration of ideas and the growth of scholarly curiosity.

I had the good fortune to work with Selma Sabanović, Gita Delsing, and our entire editorial team. We were able to realize our primary goals for the journal. ACM THRI has become a venue that cultivates high-impact ideas that shape our growing field, provides sustainable and thoughtful peer review, and supports an inclusive scholarly environment that welcomes new intellectual thought that is raw but potentially transformative.

Most of all, ACM THRI owes a massive debt of gratitude to the support and guidance of the HRI Conference, ACM Publications, and the ACM organization as a whole, who have been great stewards of the computing ecosystem and its growth over the last 75 years. Words cannot express how thrilled I am to serve on the ACM Council now!

As the founding Chair of the Michigan Robotics Undergraduate Program (and new Robotics Major), how do you envision robotics education at the undergraduate level developing in the coming years? What should universities keep in mind as they consider launching an undergraduate Robotics Major?

With the rise of modern AI and robotics, we are entering a completely new area of not just computing, but academics overall. The set of current academic disciplines will need to grow to prepare students for the transformations AI and automation are poised to create for our world. The opportunity to lead the creation of the Michigan Robotics Major was the opportunity of a lifetime. It was a thrilling but immense challenge to form a new forward-thinking program that gives students what they need to get a job now, and also a foundation to adapt in the future. It is very similar to the emergence of computer science programs back in the 1970s and 1980s—except that robotics and AI have the benefit of learning from the positive and negative effects of computing’s transformative impact on our society and academic structures.

More specifically, team building is the biggest piece of advice I can give anyone thinking of starting a new undergraduate major! It takes teamwork to make the dream work.

Who is your favorite music group?

Khruangbin! I have seen them in concert 7 times!