John F Morrow IV, PhD
Email: john.f.morrow.4th@gmail.com
LinkedIn: link
ORCID: link
John got his PhD in Robotics from Oregon State University in 2022, co-advised by Cindy Grimm and Ravi Balasubramanian. His PhD work focused on characterizing robot hand systems in a way where compare them to each other (hands are complicated and have so many variables!) Prior to his work there was no way to characterize a hand until it can move, meaning it has to be fully built. John demonstrated his method of characterizing robot hands by using a human study to characterize dummy models of hands to get a sense of a hand’s potential performance, well before previous methods could characterize designs. You can see his dissertation here: link
John also has a Masters in Robotics Engineering from OSU, advised by Yigit Menguc. He built a prototype 3d printer that could print silicone structures without support material. His undergrad was at Worcester Polytechnic Institute – there he made fingers with integrated liquid metal sensors and embedded hard fingertips for tabletop grasping, advised by Dmitry Berenson.
John’s next steps after PhD were to a Postdoc at Amazon Robotics, where he continued to characterize robot hands and utilize human studies. John also developed an interest, and got experience in, using haptic control devices to control manipulator robots for policy demonstrations. John also got good at making rigorous itemsets.
An up to date resume can be found here: link
If you’re interested in what he’s like outside of work, his current hobbies include: Birding, Table Tennis, Harmonica, Singing, 3D printing, Hobbyist Flashlights, Backpacks, Teaching robotics, my two boys
The source for this minimal tutorial is on github.