Making robots helpful

Exploring robotics

Adrian liked the idea of building things to improve people’s lives and decided to study engineering at the University of Cambridge. However, he wasn’t sure which branch of  engineering to specialise in and applied for the ELS programme to gain exposure to the different sectors, as well as for the training and professional development opportunities.

Adrian spent his ELS funding on going to Robotics Science and Systems (RSS), which is one of the top robotics conferences in the world. “Attending RSS was a rare opportunity for me as an undergraduate to learn more about the state-of-the-art in other areas of robotics, and also participate in discussions with some of the leading roboticists from around the world,” he says. 

Making robots helpful

After graduating, Adrian joined Google as a software engineer working on the machine intelligence team. For a year, he applied machine learning to personalisation and recommendation products, before joining the robotics team, which has evolved into the Everyday Robot Project at X (formerly Google X). “My team is working to make robots as helpful to people in the physical world as computers are now in the virtual world. I have been working on developing algorithms and infrastructure for deep reinforcement learning, so that we can create robots that can learn and do multiple tasks, rather than being painstakingly coded to do specific tasks,” he explains.

Harnessing networks

Adrian credits the ELS programme with helping him break into the robotics industry but it is the contacts that he has made that have proved beneficial in the long term. “Being a part of the programme has greatly expanded my professional network, and a few of the awardees from my cohort have become very close friends of mine,” he says. 

Words of encouragement

He encourages students from underrepresented groups to apply. “The lack of diversity in engineering is a very real problem that hurts everyone, and I hope that the ELS programme can be a force for change in promoting equity in the industry.”