Machine Intelligence and Human-Robot Interaction Laboratory
Queen's University, Kingston ON Canada
Naval was a 2024 Mitacs Globalink Intern from Indian Institute of Technology BHU, Varanasi in India. At MItHRIL, he worked on the Safewalk Robotics project, which aims to enable robots to participate and encourage active transportation. In his free time, he enjoys playing badminton.
Liudmyla is a Mitacs Globalink Intern from the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute in Kyiv, Ukraine. During the summer of 2024, she worked on the the ARchitecture project which aims to use augmented reality on common mobile devices to allow people to visualize the proposed infrastructure in real-time and on location to improve public engagement for urban infrastructure development.
In her free time, Liudmyla loves to:
– sing in a choir
– learn new languages (currently Japanese)
– help people via volunteering
Prachit Gupta is an undergraduate Mitacs Globalink Intern who worked at MItHRIL during the Summer of 2024. He hails from IIT Bombay and worked on a new project titled ‘Safewalk Robotics’. His project was developing basic algorithms ( i.e walking alongside person, route planning, obstacle avoidance) and implementing these on turtlebot4 in both hardware and simulation.
He has had several achievements, including:
To balance his technical interests, Prachit love escaping the chaos of city life by taking nature walks, going for morning runs, or relaxing by a beautiful lake. He is also enthusiastic about racket sports, particularly badminton, which he has been playing for the past few years. Additionally, he has been teaching himself cardistry and amateur magic tricks, enjoying the thrill of amazement they provide. Always eager to learn, he look forward to meeting new people and sharing their ideas and experiences.
Prachit recently accepted an offer for Graduate Studies at Carnegie Mellon University (2025).
Davidson Strong is a mechatronics and robotics engineering student at Queen’s University. He was an undergraduate researcher working at MItHRIL for the Summer of 2024. Alongside Roy El-Helou, his work supported the development of robotic character behaviours for non-anthropomorphic robots. Davidson is an avid gymgoer who loves to hike and camp and is especially fond of canoe trip camping. One of his favourite hobbies is playing video games.
Awards:
Will Steedman is a Mechatronics and Robotics Engineering student at Queen’s University and was an undergraduate researcher at MItHRIL during the Summer of 2024. While at MItHRIL, he worked with PhD researcher Eric Godden on integrating robotic manipulators and haptic feedback into virtual reality experiences.
Over the years, Will has proven to be an accomplished student, having been granted several awards, including an NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award (2024), Queen’s Principal’s Scholarship (2022), Thom Family Award (2022), and AP Scholar Award with Distinction (2022). Additionally, he’s been placed on the Smith Engineering Dean’s List each year of his undergraduate studies.
Outside of the lab, he has been playing competitive hockey and loves indie-rock music (Arcade Fire, Tokyo Police Club, The Strokes, etc.). Additionally, he used to play in competitive video game tournaments and is a fan of consuming (but usually not preparing) great-tasting food.
As of 2025, Will has a QUIP placement at Honda.
Daniel Dubinko was an undergraduate summer research assistant in 2023. He is currently on internship with MDA Space.
Romina Mireskandari was a MEng student within MItHRIL, working alongside Demetrios Orton-Hazis on an academic research project in collaboration with the Sensorimotor Exploration Lab at Queen’s, designing the control system of a 6-DoF robotic arm to replicate handwriting trajectories. This project supported research in the School of Kinesiology and Health Studies on how people learn unfamiliar text.
Romina has since graduated (2023) and is currently a Global Product Manager at SYNTAX.
Demetrios Orton-Hatzis was a Master of Engineering student in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Queen’s University, completing his degree in 2023. His research interests included robotics control and machine learning applications. During his time in the lab, he worked on an academic research project in collaboration with the Sensorimotor Exploration Lab at Queen’s, designing the control system of a 6-DoF robotic arm to replicate handwriting trajectories. This project supported research in the School of Kinesiology and Health Studies on how people learn unfamiliar text. Prior to his studies at Queen’s, he completed a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering at Concordia University in Montréal, Québec.
Setareh was a MASc graduate research assistant at MItHRIL whose research interests broadly span Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR/VR). While at MItHRIL, see worked on visualizing architectural projects in real-time using AR on mobile devices. This project aimed to improve public engagement for urban infrastructure developments. Her work was supported by the Ontario Association of Architects.
She previously completed my B.A.Sc degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering in 2021 at the University of Tehran. In February 2025, she successfully defended her thesis entitled “Advancing Augmented Reality: Localization Algorithm Analysis and Pre-Positioning Virtual Objects”. Her dissertation can be found within the digital archives of Queen’s University here.
Tayo Oduyemi was an undergraduate computer engineering student at Queen’s University. He conducted an ELEC 497 research project with MItHRIL concerning the detection of handover intent in human-robot interactions. He is interested in human-robot interactions and machine learning/deep learning. Currently, he is a data scientist at Proctor and Gamble and has been recently awarded an 1834 Fellowship awarded to high-potential Black youth every year to support their development in civic leaderships roles.