CSE PhD student, Md. Sadman Sakib, was selected by a university-level faculty committee to receive the Dissertation Completion Fellowship from the Office of Graduate Studies at the University of South Florida for the summer semester of 2024. The competitive fellowship is for full-time PhD students focusing exclusively on their dissertation; this year, ten such fellowships were awarded across the university.
Sadman joined the CSE PhD program in the Fall of 2019 under the guidance of Dr. Yu Sun at the Robot Perception and Action Lab (RPAL). He decided to pursue his PhD as early as his undergraduate years. “I was deeply intrigued by the prospect of conducting original research, having the chance to uncover new insights, and the opportunity to contribute to the advancement of knowledge in my field.” said Sadman.
“My thesis work focuses on developing advanced task planning algorithms, allowing robots to easily handle different real-world situations. This would equip robots with the ability to autonomously devise and execute tasks effectively based on natural language instructions. We have found that creating multiple plans using LLM and merging them into a combined graph yields more accurate and optimal results. Further, including a knowledge graph, particularly the Functional Object Oriented Network (FOON), improves the overall performance.” said Sadman.
“Receiving this fellowship has been an incredible honor and a significant milestone in my academic journey. It not only validates the importance and potential impact of my research but also provides invaluable support and resources as I work towards completing my dissertation,” said Sadman. “I am truly grateful for this opportunity and excited to continue my research with renewed commitment and focus.”