Andrew Chen’s father took him to Ohio University’s annual Physics & Astronomy Open House when he was a child. “I remember being captivated by telescopes that zoomed in to show details of the sun and moon,” he recalls. “While I enjoyed chemistry experiments with liquid nitrogen, engineering with turtle bots and hovercraft, and physics with grape microwave plasma, at the time, I lacked the context to appreciate these experiences fully.” Having enjoyed his mathematics classes in middle and high school, he was inspired by his interest in computers’ inner workings to build several computers as a high school student and pursue a computer science degree in college.
Now, in his last semester as an undergraduate at Case Western Reserve University, Chen has been awarded an Ohio Space Grant Consortium Fellowship to support his master’s thesis research next year in Dr. Alexis E. Block’s SaPHaRI (Social and Physical Human-Robot Interaction) Lab, which is part of the Human Fusions Institute. Entitled RoboSOAR (Robotic System for Optimized Adaptive inteRaction), his research aims to develop an AI-driven robotic system capable of gesture-based movements that modify its behavior based on human feedback. He is creating a generalizable framework for various tasks and robotic platforms. “I am excited and looking forward to using the recent methods that I learned through the papers to create something that I never thought I would create before,” said Chen, who has studied the recent state-of-the-art models.
Chen was initially hesitant to apply for the fellowship as he only learned about the opportunity a few days before the deadline. After realizing “there would be no downside to applying, [he] and Dr. Block started creating drafts for the fellowship proposal. By writing this application, [they] were able to figure out the scope of [his] thesis and research additional applications that [this] idea could be applied to.” He also appreciates that the fellowship covers his tuition for the 2025-26 academic year.
As he prepares to graduate with his B.S. in electrical and computer engineering, Chen is most thankful for “meaningful experiences from conversations with [his] friends, classmates, and professors” at CWRU, which have given him different perspectives on his work. Joining the SaPHaRI lab in August 2024 led to a new interest in human-robot interaction, and he is now following robotics tech news regularly. “I’m always curious about the latest research breakthroughs and new ideas emerging. When I was younger, I would watch videos of robots and machines, but I never fathomed doing it myself.” He found the lab through the CWRU website and is thankful to have met many researchers through the SaPHaRI lab and HFI.
“I am incredibly proud of Andrew for being awarded this prestigious fellowship to support his master’s thesis research,” said Dr. Block. “This recognition is well-deserved and reflects his creativity, dedication, and technical skills. I’m excited to continue working with him on this important work!”
