RESUME

Preethi Srinivas Bhat
2922 Western Ave, Apt 421, Seattle, WA 98121
preethi.s.bhat@gmail.com

EDUCATION
Carnegie Mellon University, School of Computer Science, The Robotics Institute, Pittsburgh, PA.
Master of Science in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence, August 2004 - May 2006.

Kumaraguru College of Technology, Department of Computer Science, Coimbatore, India.
Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Science, August 2000 - May 2004.

WORK EXPERIENCE
Software Design Engineer (Oct 2006 – present), Expedia Inc, Seattle, WA.
I am working as a software design engineer for the Expedia North America team.

Intern (June 2006 – Sept 2006), Intel Research, Pittsburgh, PA.
I researched the application of local rule-based approach to the motion planning aspect of the research project, Claytronics. Claytronics aims to create dynamically deformable objects modeled using large numbers of homogeneous modules called catoms. As the object deforms, these catoms must dynamically rearrange. Local rule-based techniques are used to reconfigure any arbitrary shape to a target shape.
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~claytronics

Research Assistant (Aug 2004 – May 2006), Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA.
I researched the motion planning aspect of the research project, Claytronics. Claytronics aims to create dynamically deformable objects modeled using large numbers of homogeneous modules called catoms. As the object deforms, these catoms must dynamically rearrange. I explored good heuristics to be applied to this problem and addressing issues related to scalability of the system. Claytronics won the technical innovation award for visionary hardware concept at AAAI, Pittsburgh, 2005.
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~claytronics

Intern (Summer 2003), Computer Graphics Lab, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA.
I designed and implemented a user interface to automatically extract animated human motion along with constraints on the motion specified by an animator. The animator used the software Maya to generate human motion. I implemented a plug-in that facilitated the animator to easily impose constraints on the pose of the human model and to specify parts of the human model that were in contact with itself or the environment over a flexible range of key-frames. The plug-in could then extract the underlying animated human motion along with all the specified constraints. The plug-in was implemented using C++ and MEL script.

Intern (Summer 2002), Hydro Prokav Pumps (Pvt) Ltd, Coimbatore, India
I designed, developed and implemented a Process Planning and Control software for Hydro Prokav Pumps (Pvt) Ltd, Coimbatore. This software schedules the production process of the company by keeping track of the companies' orders and scheduling them according to user-specific choices. Additionally it maintained the client list of the company. This was implemented using Oracle as the back-end and Visual Basic as the front-end.

PUBLICATIONS
Preethi Bhat, James Kuffner, Seth Goldstein, and Siddhartha Srinivasa, “Hierarchical motion planning for self-reconfigurable modular robots”, In IEEE/RSJ Int. Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS'06), 2006.

COURSES
Graduate Courses : Machine Learning; Planning, Execution and Learning; Advanced Artificial Intelligence; Computer Vision; Mathematics Fundamentals for Robotics; Kinematics, Dynamic Systems and Control
Undergraduate Courses : Artificial Intelligence; Software Engineering; Robotics; Computer Graphics; Data structure and Algorithms; Discrete Structures; Numerical Methods; Operating Systems

SKILLS
Computer Languages: Highly proficient in C and C++. Prior experience in Python, Java, Windows programming, MEL scripting, Oracle, SQL, HTML, XML and Visual Basic.
Computer Platforms: Windows and Linux.
Mathematical and Graphics Packages: MATLAB, Maya and Adobe AfterEffects.
Computer tools: Visual studio .NET, Doxygen, CVS, Perforce and Emacs.
Spoken Languages: English, Hindi, Tamil, Tulu, Malayalam and Kannada.

HONOURS AND AWARDS
  • Winner of the Google 2005 Anita Borg Scholarship.
    This scholarship aims at encouraging women to excel in computing and technology and become active role models and leaders. Scholarships are awarded based on the strength of candidates' academic background and demonstrated leadership. This scholarship was awarded to 10 women from a group of graduate and undergraduate student finalists.
    (http://www.google.com/anitaborg/)

  • Gold Medalist, Department of Computer Science, Kumaraguru College of Technology, 2000 - 2004.
    This award is given to the student with the highest grade over the four years of undergraduate study. The class size for the batch of 2004 was 66.

  • Winner of the Best Outgoing Student, Department of Computer Science, Kumaraguru College of Technology, 2000 - 2004.
    This award is given to the most well-rounded individual weighted by academic performance, participation in extra-curricular activities, and involvement in college activities over the four years of undergraduate studies.

  • Won intra-collegiate pencil sketching competitions, Kumaraguru College of Technology, 2004.

  • ACTIVITIES AND INTERESTS
  • Participated in two Women@SCS outreach roadshow for high-school audience. This is a presentation by a group of women undergraduate and graduate students in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon aimed at increasing the visibility of young women in computer science and to encourage more women to explore this field.
  • Presented my Masters research at the poster session of AAAI, Pittsburgh 2005.
  • Presented my Masters research at the Intel Research Lab Open House, Pittsburgh, 2005.
  • Member of the Women@SCS organization at Carnegie Mellon University.
  • Master of Ceremonies for VIRTUOSO, a national technical seminar in computer science, Kumaraguru College of Technology, 2004.
  • Member of the college debate club, Kumaraguru College of Technology, 2000 - 2004.

  • REFERENCES
    Available on request