About Me

I am a senior majoring in Electrical & Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University with experience and interests in assistive robotics, AI/ML, human-robot interaction, robotics motion planning, and coding (C/C#/C++, Python, ROS, Java, Node.JS, React.JS).

In recent years I have had the opportunity to conduct reseaerch at various robotics labs at the CMU Robotics Institute and the US Naval Research Laboratory. These experiences have allowed me to learn more about the fields of human-robot interaction and motion planning. They have also taught me how to become a more independent researcher.

I have built strong leadership and advocacy skills during my years on my high school's student government, as well as serving as president of the student body. At CMU, I have served as a Senator on the Undergraduate Student Senate for the past three years. I am the current Senate Chair and previous Chair of the Business Affairs Committee. In addition to this I have served on numerous external advocacy committees including the University Student Affairs Council, Parking and Transportation Advisory Committee, and the Hourly Student Working Group.

Contact Details

Prithu Pareek
(240) 565-9094
prithupareek@cmu.edu

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Education

Carngie Mellon University

Bachelor of Science• May 2023

Major in Electrical & Computer Engineering

Sidwell Friends School

High School Diploma• June 2019

Skills

Programming Languages: Java, HTML/CSS/JS, Python, C#, C++, NodeJS
Frameworks/Libraries: ReactJS, SQL, OpenCV, Tensorflow
Laboratory: PCR, Birefringence Analysis, Western Blot
Software: MS Office, Git, Logic Pro, Adobe Photoshop/Illustrator, Fusion 360, Final Cut Pro, Altium Designer, Gazebo, ROS

Work

Motion Planning Intern

Aurora Innovation• May 2022 - August 2022

• Conceptualized and introduced new logic which enables the autonomous vehicle to perform lane changes into upcoming splitting lanes in situations where the optimal route is blocked by construction
• Modified several portions of the strategy planning architecture to enable better performance for lane selection tasks in complex construction scenarios

Research Intern

United States Naval Research Laboratory• May 2021 - present

• Discovered a breakthrough solution for bimanual manipulation in dual-armed robots with use cases in strategic operations on land, underwater, and in space
• Created a simulator for the DRC HUBO robot using ROS in Gazebo and RViz with MoveIt integration for controls
• Implemented a novel, PRM-based, MoveIt and OMPL integrated, dynamic motion planner enabling the HUBO robot to asynchronously plan and execute motions on its two robot arms and around moving obstacles

Undergraduate Research Assistant

Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute• May 2020 - present

• Simulated humans and human motion in Gazebo to test a robot guide for the visually impaired in public spaces
• Designed and implemented a full AI based conversational pipeline in ROS - from speech recognition to synthesis - to enable the robot to communicate verbally with people and keep track of the context of the conversation
• Co-authored a poster published at the ACM Conference on Computer and Accessibility (SIGACCESS) that compared the quality/safety of different planner trajectories for a guide robot approaching a user with a visual impairment

Research Intern

Harvard Medical / Boston Children's Hospital • July - August 2018

• Initiated a study of a novel animal model of TPM3 Congenital Myopathies, at the lab of Dr. Lou Kunkel
• Conducted genotyping of mutated fish and birefringence analysis to find the phenotypic response to the genetic mutation and determine if the model is a good representation of the human condition

Research Intern

Harvard Medical / Boston Children's Hospital • June - August 2017

• Worked in the lab of Dr. Lou Kunkel to study treatments for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy in animal models
• Carried out trials of serotonin modulators on zebrafish animal models resulting in the conclusion that they were not effective methods of treatment

Web and Graphic Design Intern

Pixtory - Bangalore, India • July - December 2016

• Built a responsive website and web app while experiencing a startup environment
• Contacted and onboarded college professors as new contributors to the app

Intern

InMobi - Bangalore, India • July 2015

• Built adaptors gathering data from APIs as part of the Miip app development team
• Learnt the steps needed to take an app from idea to execution

Publications

Limprayoon, J. “Fern,” Pareek, P., Tan, X. Z., & Steinfeld, A. (2021). Robot Trajectories When Approaching a User with a Visual Impairment. The 23rd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility, 1–4. https://doi.org/10.1145/3441852.3476538

Spinazzola, J. M., Lambert, M. R., Gibbs, D. E., Conner, J. R., Krikorian, G. L., Pareek, P., Rago, C., & Kunkel, L. M. (2020). Effect of serotonin modulation on dystrophin-deficient zebrafish. Biology Open, bio.053363. https://doi.org/10.1242/bio.053363