by Taylor Bryant
This summer, Honors College senior Osayame Gaius-Obaseki had a once in a lifetime opportunity to work on a robotic system through the SURE Robotics program at Georgia Institute of Technology. SURE Robotics is an immersive, 10-week summer robotics research experience designed to attract students into graduate school in the fields of engineering and science.
Osayame successfully built a system that allowed a robot to create a trajectory for its arm based on the physics and mechanics principles. The goal was to help researchers simulate the grasping of objects in a 3D simulated environment.
“I was able to solve the problem, despite the fact that we encountered difficulties,” said Osayame, a computer science major. “It was intellectually challenging and allowed me to be around the top researchers in my discipline, as well as the rising class of scientists.”
One such rising scientist was Jon Scholz, Osayame’s mentor throughout the program who is currently completing his dissertation. Osayame also credits his faculty advisor, Dr. Charles Isbell, Georgia Tech’s senior associate dean and professor for the School of Interactive Computing, for guidance during his time in the SURE Program.
“This was a great opportunity to do some amazing research,” he stated. “It actually provided insight on what I want to do daily, while affording me an opportunity to interact with African Americans who are well accomplished in the field.”
Osayame, also a nationally awarded UWG debater, even self-taught the prerequisites for his research, i.e. linear algebra and physics, using practices learned at UWG. “Having the opportunity to do various research projects through debate and the computer science department at UWG allowed me to easily get up to speed once I started the program.”
His educational pursuits continue. Osayame received a grant at UWG for the first ever research analysis on Twitter at UWG, which will be finalized in May 2015.
“I’m still undecided between going to work for a technology company post graduation, or pursuing graduate studies,” he concluded. “My ultimate goal is to become an entrepreneur.”
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