People
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Students
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2021-2022

Photo of Ryan King-Shepard

I developed a passion for robotics at a young age. A military kid with a B.S. in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from MIT, I draw particular interest in the sub-fields of artificial intelligence, human-machine interaction, and soft robotics. I’ve spent the past 5 years working at Aurora Flight Sciences where I developed flight controllers, designed embedded systems, and implemented autonomous algorithms all focused on supporting, managing, and executing various flight missions. My professional expertise includes working with agile teams who program in Python, C++, MATLAB/Similink, and HTML. By far the coolest part of my old job was flying with systems I’ve built. Outside of the lab, I’m your average video games nerd working on his stand-up comedy and rocking a few games of archery dodge-ball.

Currently, I want to leverage my experience to pivot into a different field of robotics, focusing on robotics that assist in mobility and education. My goal at Northwestern is to engage in research efforts focused on augmentation robotics and machine learning to develop intelligent prosthesis.