Kootbally, Zeid
Maryland Robotics Center
Background:
Zeid Kootbally received his Ph.D. in computer science in 2008 from the University of Burgundy, France, for a dissertation on "Moving Object Predictions in Dynamic Environments for Autonomous Ground Vehicles". He is currently a Senior Research Associate with the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Southern California, LA, USA. His research interests are in automated robotic systems. He is specifically interested in knowledge representation and task planning for agile industrial robotics. Prior to his current research efforts, Zeid worked on modeling a level of situation awareness for autonomous ground vehicles to they are able to plan a path while avoiding any collision with static and moving objects on the road. Zeid also helped in the evaluation and conception of test methods to measure the technical performance of devices used in the ASSIST (Advanced Soldier Sensor Information System and Technology) program, a DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) advanced technology research and development project. Zeid contributed to the evaluation of the performance of technologies used for the TRANSTAC (The Spoken Language Communication and Translation System for Tactical Use) program. TRANSTAC is a DARPA advanced technology and research program whose goal is to demonstrate capabilities to rapidly develop two-way speech-to-speech translation systems enabling English and foreign language speakers to communicate with one another in real-world tactical situations where an interpreter is unavailable.
Education:
Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Burgundy (France) 2005-2008
Masters of Computer Science from the University of Burgundy (France) 2002-2004
Honors and Awards:
2022: MAGE's Outstanding Teaching Award for the Academic Year 2021-22
2022: NIST Distinguished Associate Award for "Developping an innovative simulation-based robot agility competition that has spurred breakthrough solutions to industry's robotic challenges"
2017: Emerald-Literati award "2017 Highly Commended Award" for the paper "Industrial robot capability models for agile manufacturing" that was published to the Industrial Robot in 2016.
2013: Distinguished Associate Award For developing innovative methods for security, testing, and evaluation of hardware and software to securely deploy off-the-shelf smartphones and applications in military field operations.
2012: Distinguished Associate Award For developing innovative techniques to measure the performance of automated speech translation systems leading to confident U.S. military fielding.