Heitman attends international robotics conference

A junior from LSMSA recently attended an international robotics conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, as part of his ongoing research for an independent study project.

William Heitman’s independent study project at LSMSA involves the design and construction of a robot to act as a platform for research into human-robot interaction, machine learning, computer vision and other emerging fields.

He is collaborating on his research with Dr. Jafar Al Sharab and Curtis Desselles, both of the Department of Engineering Technology at Northwestern State University. Dr. Robert Dalling, a physics instructor at LSMSA, serves as Heitman’s faculty sponsor.

Computer vision, which enables robots to simulate human sight and is a key part of Heitman’s research, was the topic of this year’s International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, or IROS, held Sept. 24-28 in Vancouver.

Now in its 30th year, IROS annually gathers academics and university students from around the world to discuss the latest robotics research. Though still in high school, Heitman, who has been involved in robotics since early childhood, was able to participate. This is Heitman’s second international robotics gathering. In 2015, he attended the FIRST Robotics World Championship in St. Louis, Mo.

This year’s IROS conference attracted nearly 3,000 participants.

Heitman, of Baton Rouge, hopes to present a paper at next year’s conference in Madrid, Spain. In the meantime, in addition to his independent study research, Heitman serves as a mentor for fourth and fifth grade robotics students at NSU Elementary Lab. After graduating from LSMSA in 2019, Heitman hopes to continue studying robotics at the university level.

The LSMSA Foundation has helped fund Heitman’s project.