David Degner

Boston Photographer and Photojournalist

Robots learn to use their hands

Self-Supervised Correspondence in Visuomotor Policy Learning

A video of the latest research by Peter Florence, Lucas Manuelli, Russ Tedrake of MIT’s CSAIL lab. It was republished by MIT.

Having robots learn dexterous tasks requiring real-time hand-eye coordination is hard. Many tasks that we would consider simple, like hanging up a baseball cap on a rack, would be very challenging for most robot software. What’s more, for a robot to learn each new task, it typically takes significant amounts of engineering time to program the robot. Pete Florence and Lucas Manuelli in the Robot Locomotion Group took a step closer to that goal with their work. Their paper will be presented at International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) in May in Paris.

Link to the paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/1909.06933

New H-1B Visa Rules Are Unaffordable

Tech Startups Say New H-1B Visas Rules Are Unaffordable

FRAMINGHAM, MASSACHUSETTS – OCTOBER 29: An empty desk in the Bridge12 lab on October 29, 2020 in Framingham, Massachusetts. Bridge12 Technologies with Jagadishwar Sirigiri develops terahertz (THz) technology for magnetic resonance. (Photo by David Degner/Wall Street Journal)

Published in the Wall Street Journal

New rules from the Trump administration restricting skilled foreign workers are unnerving U.S. startup hubs, as founders and investors say the limitations will hamstring their ability to recruit top-tier talent to grow their businesses.

Ethan Bossange, Process Engineer, and Maurcie Black, CEO, put on safety equipment when entering their lab on October 29, 2020 in Lowell, Massachusetts. Advanced Silicon Group is a medical technology startup developing sensors in the M2D2 incubator. (Photo by David Degner/Wall Street Journal)
Andres Canales, Senior Lab Engineer, holds a prototype sensor reader at Advanced Silicon Group a medical technology startup developing sensors in the M2D2 incubator.
Jagadishwar Sirigiri received approval for three H-1B applicants to join his Massachusetts-based company just weeks before the new wage rules took effect.
Renuka Rajkumar, who has an H-1B visa, works for Bridge12 Technologies in Framingham, Mass.

How Rhode Island Reopened Schools

Physical Education class has been reorganized around no-contact sports. Some students play tossing rings while others play a modified version of dodge ball called gaga ball in the background.

How Rhode Island Reopened Schools During a Pandemic

For the New York Times

At LaPerche Elementary School Principal Julie Dorsey takes a student’s temperature as students arrive on October 08, 2020 in Smithfield, Rhode Island. All students must fill out a form about possible Covid-19 symptoms and have their temperature taken at the start of the day.

Students desks are spaced out instead of the normal groupings and sometimes there are empty desks from students who had a high temperature and are waiting for a negative test result.

Students desks are spaced out instead of the normal groupings and sometimes there are empty desks from students who had a high temperature and are waiting for a negative test result.

A reading class is held at the quiet end of the schoolyard with a portable speaker while students sit separated on beach towels.