Professor Thomas Howard Awarded the NASA Early Career Faculty Award
On Friday, September 13, 2019, NASA announced that Thomas Howard as one of the recipients of the Early Career Award.
From the Announcement _
Through the agency’s Space Technology Research Grants program, NASA selected nine university-led research proposals to study early-stage technologies. The grants allow untenured, assistant professors early in their careers to lend their expertise and help identify and mature capabilities of interest to NASA.
"New space technologies aren’t developed in a bubble – we engage the best and brightest across all sectors, including academia,” said Prasun Desai, deputy associate administrator of NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate in Washington. “These outstanding early career faculty help drive innovation and we look forward to their insights on solutions for very challenging aspects of space exploration.”
Tom’s proposal targeted a specific topic, Human-Robot Teams for Space Exploration.
Thomas Howard, University of Rochester in New York
Explainable and Verifiable Models for Human-Robot Teaming
Howard aims to improve communication between humans and robots. He will develop and test new algorithms and models that let robots understand and use language in context of relevant space situations such as habitat construction, surface exploration and sample collection.
Full announcement available at: