CV
Education
- Ph.D. in Robotics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 2025
- M.S. in Robotics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 2024
- B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Florida International University, 2020 (Summa Cum Laude)
Work Experience
- June 2020 – March 2025: Graduate Student Researcher (Fellowship-Funded)
- University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
- Manipulation and Mechanisms Intelligence Laboratory MMINT
- Supervisor: Nima Fazeli
- June 2021 – August 2021: Intern
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee
- Manufacturing Division
- Advisor: Peter Wang
- Sep 2019 – Jul 2020: Undergraduate Researcher
- Florida International University, Florida
- Applied Research Center
- Advisor: Anthony Abrahao
- May 2019 – Aug 2019: Undergraduate Researcher, Summer Research Internship
- University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
- POETS Research Center
- Advisor: James Allison
Publications
Samanta Rodriguez*, Yiming Dou*, Miquel Oller, Andrew Owens, Nima Fazeli
9th Conference on Robotic Learning (CoRL), 2025
Samanta Rodriguez*, Yiming Dou*, William van den Bogert, Miquel Oller, Kevin So, Andrew Owens, Nima Fazeli
International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2025
Samanta Rodriguez*, Yiming Do*u, Miquel Oller, Andrew Owens, Nima Fazeli
Preprint, 2024
Reviewing
- Primary Reviewer: ICRA (2024, 2025), CoRL (2025), RA-L (2025)
Mentoring
- Chitrangada Devulapalli (2025) – Master’s student in Robotics, University of Michigan
- Kevin So (2023) – Master’s student in Robotics, University of Michigan
- Dereck Fermin Oliveras (2022) – Master’s student in Robotics, University of Michigan
Leadership & Service
- Officer, Robotics Graduate Student Council (RGSC) — 2022–2024
- Member, DEI/RCE Committee, Robotics Department — 2022–2024
Awards & Scholarships
- NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (GRFP) — 2021–2026
- GEM Fellowship — 2021–2026
- Rackham Presidential Graduate Fellowship, University of Michigan — 2022
- Outstanding Graduate Student in Mechanical Engineering, FIU — 2020
- Winner, International Atomic Energy Agency Challenge — 2020
- NSF SURP Fellowship, POETS Research Center — 2019
Skills
Hardware: KUKA LBR iiwa Med R820, DIGIT, GelSlim, GelSight, TRI Soft Bubble, Intel RealSense, ATI F/T sensor
Programming: Python, MATLAB
Languages: Spanish (native), English (fluent)