PEDRO A. PEÑA
ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE
Learning and Living
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY, UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI
Researching methods that enable robots to predict human pose trajectories and designing a human-robot interface utilizing Spatial Reality
Dissertation: Trajectory Planning for Humanoid Robots and Inverse Trajectory Planning for Service Robots: A Bridge Between Robots and Humans
Research Focus: Human-Robot Interaction
August 2015 - Present
MASTER OF SCIENCE, UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI
Master’s Thesis: An Omnidirectional Kick Engine for a NAO Humanoid Robot
Research Focus: Motion Planning, Human-Aware Robotics
August 2015 - May 2019
PAST EXPERIENCE
What I’ve Done
October 2021 - Present
STAFF SOFTWARE ENGINEER - GAMING AI, ADVANCED MICRO DEVICES
Generative AI R&D for 3D Graphics Applications
September 2020 - October 2021
SENIOR AUTONOMY & AI RESEARCH ENGINEER, LOCKHEED MARTIN SPACE SYSTEMS
Working at the Advanced Technology Center at Palo Alto, California
May 2020 - August 2020
SOFTWARE ENGINEER INTERN, OPEN ROBOTICS
Refactored ROS 2 RCLCPP's executor to work with callback groups directly instead of nodes, allowing callback groups from the same node to be handled by different executors if desired.
May 2018 - August 2020
ROBOTICS SOFTWARE ENGINEER, TOYOTA RESEARCH INSTITUTE
Working on the T-TR1 project for the Tokyo Olympics 2020. T-TR1: https://www.tri.global/news/toyota-introduces-tris-t-tr1-a-virtual-mobility-2019-7-22
May 2016 - August 2016
SOFTWARE ENGINEER INTERN, N.A.S.A. LANGLEY RESEARCH CENTER
Software Support for Visualization Display of CALIPSO Satellite Observations
June 2014 - May 2015
SOFTWARE ENGINEER, TINYBOP
Using the Unity Game Engine to develop educational apps for children. Mostly scripting in C#. Released two games while I was interning at Tinybop. The first game produced by the team, Homes, won Parent's Choice Awards (Mobile Apps Gold) and the second game released, Simple Machines, won App Store Editor's Choice Award.