Vivian Chu facts for kids

Vivian Chu, born around 1987, is an American expert in robotics. She is also an entrepreneur. She focuses on how humans and robots can work together. Vivian is the Chief Technology Officer at Diligent Robotics. She helped start this company in 2017. They create smart robots that can move around on their own. These robots are designed to interact well with people.

Early Life and Learning

Vivian Chu was born in San Jose, California. She grew up with her parents and grandparents. Her parents were both software engineers. This means they designed and built computer programs.

She earned her first degree in electrical engineering and computer science. This was from the University of California, Berkeley in 2009. While at Berkeley, she worked as a research assistant. She helped with projects on special flywheels. After graduating, she worked at IBM Almaden Research. This lab creates new technologies. Her work there focused on how computers understand human language. It also involved combining information smartly.

In 2011, Chu went to the University of Pennsylvania for her master's degree. There, she worked with Katherine Kuchenbecker. She studied haptic technology. This technology lets robots "feel" things. She taught robots to understand how humans describe feelings. For example, a human might say a carpet is "fuzzy." Chu's work helped robots sense the carpet. Then, they could connect that feeling to the word "fuzzy."

Vivian and her team trained PR2 robots. These robots had special touch sensors. They touched objects and learned human words for those feelings. The robots learned these connections. Later, they could describe new objects they had not touched before. This research won an award in 2013. It was for the best paper in cognitive robotics.

After her master's in 2013, Chu interned at Honda Research Institute. She then continued her studies at Georgia Tech. She worked on her PhD in Robotics. Her research focused on making robots smarter. She wanted them to understand how their actions affect things. She also wanted them to adapt to their surroundings.

Chu was inspired by how children learn. She thought robots could learn in a similar way. She gave robots basic thinking tools. This allowed them to "play" with objects. They could then learn the right ways to interact. Her work helped robots learn about affordances. This means what an object can be used for. She found that robots learn best by combining self-exploration with human guidance. Chu and her mentor filed a patent for this technology in 2017. She completed her PhD that same year.

Career and Robot Research

In 2015, Chu interned at Google[x]. After that, she started working with Andrea Thomaz. Their goal was to create a company. They wanted to build smart robots. These robots would help people with tasks at work and home. In 2017, they co-founded Diligent Robotics.

After finishing her PhD in 2018, Vivian became the Chief Technology Officer. She leads a team of robot experts. They build robots that can move and handle objects on their own. These robots are also socially smart. They can learn with human help. This is based on Vivian's discoveries from her studies.

Diligent Robotics' Robots

Diligent Robotics' first robot helper was Poli. Poli was a robot with one arm. It could get supply kits ready for nurses. This allowed nurses to spend more time with patients. Poli was tested at Seton Medical Center in Austin, Texas.

The company's next healthcare robot is Moxi. Moxi is an improved version of Poli. It looks more human-like. Moxi has a face that can show social cues. It also has a head and torso.

Diligent Robotics has raised a lot of money. In 2020, they raised $10 million. In 2022, they raised over $30 million. This brings their total funding to nearly $50 million. The company has won many awards. These include being named one of Time's 100 Best Inventions in 2019. They were also a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer in 2021.

Awards and Recognitions

• 2013 Best paper in cognitive robotics IEEE International Conference on Robotics
• 2014 Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship
• 2016 Paper on Human-Guided Robot Self-Exploration nominated for Best Technical Advance in Human-Robot Interaction
• 2019 MIT Technology Review 35 Innovators Under 35
• 2021 Fast Company Queer 50
• 2022 Fast Company Queer 50
• 2022 Fortune Magazine 40 under 40