Matthew A. Zucker
7737 Forbes Ave. Ext. · Pittsburgh, PA 15221
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~mzucker/ · mzucker@cs.cmu.edu

Education

Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute, Pittsburgh, PA

2005-present

Ph.D. student. Researching motion planning algorithms for highly autonomous mobile platforms.

Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY

1998-2002

B.A. in Cognitive Science with honors, focus on AI. Minors in Mathematics and Computer Science. 3.8 GPA.

University of Sussex, Brighton, England

2000-2001

Junior year abroad from Vassar College. Coursework/research at School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences.

Publications

Multipartite RRTs for Rapid Replanning in Dynamic Environments (submitted for publication)

M. Zucker, J. Kuffner and M. Branicky. Submitted to IEEE Conf. on Robotics and Automation, 2007

Approximating State-Space Obstacles for Non-Holonomic Motion Planning

M. Zucker. Tech. report 06-27, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, May, 2006.

Fast Seafloor Topography Extraction and Visualization from Sparse AUV Altimeter Data

M. Zucker. Proceedings of the Oceans 2005 Europe Conference, June, 2005.

Evolution of cooperative controllers for multi-agent systems

M. Zucker. Undergraduate Thesis, Dept. of Cognitive Science, Vassar College, May 2002.

Work Experience

Senior Software Engineer, Bluefin Robotics, Cambridge, MA

2004-2005

Software Engineer

2002-2004

Software Intern

Summers 2000, 2001

Full-time software developer at Bluefin Robotics, an MIT spin-off company designing and manufacturing autonomous underwater vehicles. Accomplishments included:

Created a graphical Dive Planner - nautical chart-based interface for planning AUV operations.
Designed and implemented SOMA, a publish-subscribe protocol and API for peer-to-peer communications between software components.
Re-engineered legacy code into unified software framework and led effort to port from QNX to Linux.

Software Consultant, Vassar Student Association, Poughkeepsie, NY

Spring 2002

Developed a secure, campus-wide online voting system for use in student body elections.

Cognitive Science 211 Class Intern, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY

Fall 2001

Assisted professor and tutored students in Cognitive Science department class focusing on robotics, behavior-based AI, and biological perception and action systems.

Freelance Illustrator, SRI International, Arlington, VA

Summer 2001

Created digital illustrations for use in educational math software.

Honors, Awards, and Activities

Member Phi Beta Kappa and Psi Chi (inducted May 2002)

2002 the5k.org Winner

Placed #7 in Concept and Originality category out of 366 entries in the 5k contest. See http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~mzucker/stickman/.

At Vassar College:

1999-2000 - Design/Production Editor for The Miscellany News, Vassar College newspaper
2001-2002 - Vassar Student Association Elections Co-Chair - organized student elections

Hobbies: Drawing, computer art, cooking, reading, biking, ultimate frisbee, and rowing.

Graphic Design / Art

Selected works can be found online at http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~mzucker/art.html.

References are available upon request.