CAIRO Lab Information

Conference Name	Typical Deadline	Typically Held
(IJCAI) International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence	Mid January	Late August
(RSS) Robotics: Science and Systems	Late January	Mid July
(IROS) International Conference on Intelligent Robotics and Systems	Early March	Early October
(CoRL) Conference on Robot Learning	Late July	Mid November
(AAAI) AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence	Early September	February
(ICRA) International Conference on Robotics and Automation	Mid September	Late May
(HRI) ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction	Early October	Mid March
(AAMAS) International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems	Early October	May

CAIRO Lab Developer Tools / Getting Started Guide

Base OS: Ubuntu or Pop OS 22.04 (native preferred, Windows Subsystem for Linux possible)
Pop OS is essentially Ubuntu with a bunch of convenient add-ons preinstalled.
Middleware: ROS Noetic (Tutorials)
We don't always use ROS, but it's good to be proficient in a pub/sub messaging middleware.
IDE: Visual Studio Code (Getting started guide)
You're free to use whichever IDE makes you productive, but VS Code is great!
Robotics Simulator (easier, but less performant 'real world' replacement): Webots Simulator
More stable than Gazebo, more Python-friendly. Lots of documentation.
Robotics Simulator (motion planning): Mujoco
Great for motion planning, realistic physics. Lots of documentation.
Robotics Simulator (kitchen sink): Isaac Sim
NVIDIA's robotics simulation engine
Collaboration: Microsoft Teams, join the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory Team.
This is our primary communication hub. Make sure to join the CAIRO Lab channels.
Source Control: GitHub (Git/Github Tutorial)
Github Organization: CAIRO Robotics
We host most of our repos as private until they're ready for public consumption.
Languages: Python 3.8+ | Shell Scripting Tutorial
Deep Learning Framework: Pytorch preferred.

CAIRO Lab PhD Reference Timeline

Year 1

Take Advanced Robotics, Algorithmic Foundations of HRI, HRI
Get a lab PC and set up your development environment!
Get proficient with Python, ROS, HTML/CSS, Git.
Learn how to use a robotics simulation environment (Unity preferred)
Apply for PhD fellowships (NSF GRFP, NSTGRO, Draper, etc.)
Befriend and socialize with your fellow CAIRO (and IRL) lab members. Your mutual support is an invaluable resource!
Find a research problem area that is interesting to you
Perform a literature review in that area
Iteratively formulate and begin a first project with your advisor
Politely acknowledge your imposter syndrome and the mountain ahead, but realize that you belong here and that you'll be a world-leading expert at the end of all this as long as you stick it out.
Advisor Check-in: Are you excited by your work/what you're learning?

Year 2

Establish a web presence for yourself, link to it from CAIRO Lab
Start completing conference/journal reviews with advisor's help
Complete an in-depth literature review in your area of interest, authoring a survey/review article if a recent one does not already exist.
Write and submit a workshop paper on your project to a relevant venue with your advisor's help
Recognize that it's unbelievably unlikely that you're working on a problem someone has solved before, despite someone else using all the same words you're using for your work in their paper title.
Complete your first project and submit the results to a leading conference.
Create a tentative 3-year outline of potential research projects and required infrastructure. This will change dramatically over time, but can still help serve as a rough north star.
Begin applying to Doctoral Consortia at conferences relevant to your chosen area.
Finish coursework!
Advisor Check-in: Are you excited about your research area?

Year 3

You are now a full-time researcher, congratulations!
Schedule and Complete Area Exam (Quals)
Complete your second research project and submit the results to a leading conference.
Write up a compelling and intuitive blog post detailing your accepted work (BAIR blog style)
Attend a major research conference in your field
Begin work on your third project: scoping, designing, and planning.
Advisor Check-in: Research trajectory looking productive?

Year 4

Schedule and Complete Thesis Proposal
Complete your third research project and submit the results to a leading conference.
Identify potential postdoc mentors if looking to stay in academia
Organize a workshop at a conference in your area of interest.
Advisor Check-in: Career goals and networking on track?

Year 5+

Establish contact with prospective postdoc mentor / job leads
Complete research projects as necessary, tie up loose ends
Start giving guest lectures and/or invited talks!
Write and defend PhD dissertation!
Rough Guidelines:
3+ First-author Conference Publications (2+ accepted, 0+ submitted)
1+ Journal Articles (0+ accepted, 1 submitted)
Point of Comparison (Brad at time of thesis defense):
6 First-author Conference Publications (5 accepted, 1 submitted)
5 Other Conference Publications (4 accepted, 1 submitted)
2 Doctoral Consortia (HRI, AAAI)
0 Journal Articles
...
But 0 Publications Submitted Aug 2009 - Sep 2012!
Point of Comparison (Prof. Roncone at time of thesis defense):
3 First-author Conference Publications (2 accept, 1 submit, 1 in prep)
1 Other Conference Publication (1 accept, 1 in prep)
1 Journal Article (0 accept, 1 submit)